Before the Session

Facilitator: In advance of the session

• Review today’s scripture text and the session activities to help better facilitate the discussion.
• Have the Bible Background Video ready to view.
• Encourage your group to listen to the FaithElement podcast ahead of the next session (Share the link via email or social media).

Context

Start by reminding your group: At the end of May into the first days of June, many Americans learned for the first time about Black Wall Street and the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. One hundred years ago, the African-American Greenwood neighborhood was a thriving business district. But in one night, it was torched to the ground by a white mob and, in some reports this included airplanes dropping bombs, after an incident in a store elevator between a black young man and a white woman. Businesses, homes and churches were burned to the ground, and no one is sure how many black people were killed because bodies were reportedly dumped in mass graves or the Arkansas River.