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"Falling Awake," a 2018 work by Richard Finkelstein. Credit... Richard Finkelstein/Robert Mann Gallery

Mr. Hanks is an actor and filmmaker whose projects include historical works like "Band of Brothers," "The Pacific" and "John Adams" and documentaries about America from the 1960s to the 2000s.

I consider myself a lay historian who talks way too much at dinner parties, leading with questions like, "Do you know that the Erie Canal is the reason Manhattan became the economic center of America?" Some of the work I do is making historically based entertainment. Did you know our second president once defended in court British soldiers who fired on and killed colonial Bostonians - and got most of them off?

By my recollection, four years of my education included studying American history. Fifth and eighth grades, two semesters in high school, three quarters at a community college. Since then, I've read history for pleasure and watched documentary films as a first option. Many of those works and those textbooks were about white people and white history. The few Black figures - Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - were those who accomplished much in spite of slavery, segregation and institutional injustices in American society.

But for all my study, I never read a page of any school history book about how, in 1921, a mob of white people burned down a place called Black Wall Street, killed as many as 300 of its Black citizens and displaced thousands of Black Americans who lived in Tulsa, Okla.

My experience was common: History was mostly written by white people about white people like me, while the history of Black people - including the horrors of Tulsa - was too often left out. Until relatively recently, the entertainment industry, which helps shape what is history and what is forgotten, did the same. That includes projects of mine. I knew about the attack on Fort Sumter, Custer's last stand and Pearl Harbor but did not know of the Tulsa massacre until last year, thanks to an article in The New York Times.

Instead, in my history classes, I learned that Britain's Stamp Act helped lead to the Boston Tea Party, that "we" were a free people because the Declaration of Independence said "all men are created equal." That the Whiskey Rebellion started over a tax on whiskey. That the Articles of Confederation and the Alien and Sedition Acts were cockeyed. Rightfully, Sacco and Vanzetti, Teddy Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party and the Wright Brothers had their time in my classes. Our textbooks told of the Louisiana Purchase; the Johnstown, Pa., flood; the great San Francisco earthquake; and George Washington Carver's development of hundreds of products from the common goober.

But Tulsa was never more than a city on the prairie. The Oklahoma Land Rush got some paragraphs in one of those school years, but the 1921 burning out of the Black population that lived there was never mentioned. Nor, I have learned since, was anti-Black violence on large and small scales, especially between the end of Reconstruction and the victories of the civil rights movement; there was nothing on the Slocum massacre of Black residents in Texas by an all-white mob in 1910 or the Red Summer of white supremacist terrorism in 1919. Many students like me were told that the lynching of Black Americans was tragic but not that these public murders were commonplace and often lauded by local papers and law enforcement.

For a white kid living in the white neighborhoods of Oakland, Calif., my city in the 1960s and '70s looked integrated and diverse but often felt tense and polarized, as was evident on many an AC Transit bus. The division between white America and Black America seemed to be as solid as any international boundary even in one of the most integrated cities in the nation. Bret Harte Junior High and Skyline High School had Asian, Latino and Black students, but those schools were mostly white. This did not seem to be the case in the other public high schools in town.

We had lessons on the Emancipation Proclamation, the Ku Klux Klan, Rosa Parks's daring heroism and her common decency and even the death of Crispus Attucks in the Boston Massacre. Parts of American cities had been aflame at points since the Watts riots in 1965, and Oakland was the home of the Black Panthers and the Vietnam War-era draftee induction center, so history was playing out before our very eyes, in our hometown. The issues were myriad, the solutions theoretical, the lessons few, the headlines continuous.

The truth about Tulsa, and the repeated violence by some white Americans against Black Americans, was systematically ignored, perhaps because it was regarded as too honest, too painful a lesson for our young white ears. So, our predominantly white schools didn't teach it, our mass appeal works of historical fiction didn't enlighten us, and my chosen industry didn't take on the subject in films and shows until recently. It seems white educators and school administrators (if they even knew of the Tulsa massacre, for some surely did not) omitted the volatile subject for the sake of the status quo, placing white feelings over Black experience - literally Black lives in this case.

How different would perspectives be had we all been taught about Tulsa in 1921, even as early as the fifth grade? Today, I find the omission tragic, an opportunity missed, a teachable moment squandered. When people hear about systemic racism in America, just the use of those words draws the ire of those white people who insist that since July 4, 1776, we have all been free, we were all created equally, that any American can become president and catch a cab in Midtown Manhattan no matter the color of our skin, that, yes, American progress toward justice for all can be slow but remains relentless. Tell that to the century-old survivors of Tulsa and their offspring. And teach the truth to the white descendants of those in the mob that destroyed Black Wall Street.

Today, I think historically based fiction entertainment must portray the burden of racism in our nation for the sake of the art form's claims to verisimilitude and authenticity. Until recently, the Tulsa Race Massacre was not seen in movies and TV shows. Thanks to several projects currently streaming, like "Watchmen" and "Lovecraft Country," this is no longer the case. Like other historical documents that map our cultural DNA, they will reflect who we really are and help determine what is our full history, what we must remember.

Should our schools now teach the truth about Tulsa? Yes, and they should also stop the battle to whitewash curriculums to avoid discomfort for students. America's history is messy but knowing that makes us a wiser and stronger people. 1921 is the truth, a portal to our shared, paradoxical history. An American Black Wall Street was not allowed to exist, was burned to ashes; more than 20 years later, World War II was won despite institutionalized racial segregation; more than 20 years after that, the Apollo missions put 12 men on the moon while others were struggling to vote, and the publishing of the Pentagon Papers showed the extent of our elected officials' willingness to systemically lie to us. Each of these lessons chronicles our quest to live up to the promise of our land, to tell truths that, in America, are meant to be held as self-evident.

Tom Hanks is an actor and filmmaker whose projects include historical works like "Band of Brothers," "The Pacific" and "John Adams" and documentaries about America from the 1960s to the 2000s.
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Opinion | Tom Hanks: You Should Learn the Truth About the Tulsa Race Massacre

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Mr. Hanks is an actor and filmmaker whose projects include historical works like "Band of Brothers," "The Pacific" and "John Adams" and documentaries about America from the 1960s to the 2000s. I consider myself a lay historian who talks way too much at dinner parties, leading with questions like, "Do you know that the Erie Canal is the reason Manhattan became the economic center of America?"

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Learning for an Intercultural Perspective

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Learning for an Intercultural Perspective

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Present three specific links to stories you have been reading, listening to, and watching in the past weeks.

1. Be prepared to tell us briefly what each story, podcast, TedTalk, etc. was about.

2. Highlight one episode only and share in detail how it spoke to you and why it resonated with you?

3. How might you be more empathetic, less judgemental, and a better listener, because of your greater understanding.

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How craving attention makes you less creative | Joseph Gordon-Levitt

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September 2, 2015

Recent research has revealed that people perform better at work and in life if we practice strategic renewal. If you're rundown you're more susceptible to getting sick and miss days from work.

You need to get more sleep during the week, scheduling daytime workouts, eat healthy foods, and enjoy rest and relaxation away from the office with your team members whenever possible.

These simple changes in behavior are guaranteed to improve your attitude about work your performance at work-and maybe even your beach volleyball skills.

Humans aren't designed to run on high level without having a period of rest and relaxation. You need a time for renewal. It allows you to relax and rejuvenate your mind and body.

That's why Cydcor's R&R Cancun 2015 is such an important event. It celebrates your accomplishments and reminds us all that we need to take a moment to stop and smell the frangipani.

Here are some of the specific benefits of rest and relaxation whether you're on the beach or in your own backyard:

Restores your energy: You need to recharge you batteries in order perform at peak effectiveness throughout the day. Rest and relaxation is part of your work cycle and taking advantage of it whenever possible will improve your productivity.

Repairs your body: Our bodies repair themselves from daily wear and tear when we rest. Rest and relaxation reduces stress and improves overall health. You'll be able to easily work a full day.

Improves your focus: An active mind gets tired just like an active body. Including time to quiet your thoughts and letting your mind rest is part of the healing process. You'll improve your ability to concentrate and problem solve at work.

Improves your mood: Relaxation makes you feel happier. When you choose to think about things that make you feel good, you'll discover that you actually feel more positive about the challenges you face at work. You'll begin to see obstacles as opportunities.

Increases your creativity: Too much stress and activity often disconnect you from your creative potential. Rest and relaxation will allow you to regenerate as an individual and as a team. Your ability to create and innovate as a team member and as a cohesive group will be improved when you return to work.

Keep up with the latest posts from R&R 2015 by following Cydcor on Instagram! https://instagram.com/cydcor/

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Recent research has revealed that people perform better at work and in life if we practice strategic renewal. If you're rundown you're more susceptible to getting sick and miss days from work. You need to get more sleep during the week, scheduling daytime workouts, eat healthy foods, and enjoy rest

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Depict and describe how you find rest and relaxation in the midst of a busy life.

1. Show a movie title for one of your favorite movies. Tell us about it briefly and why you like to watch it.

2. Include a music video for one of your favorite songs and genres. Tell us how it has encouraged you in your life.

3. Include a picture of how you love to unwind. What does it look like? (People, nature, TV, games, etc.)

4. Include a link here to a video clip, article, etc. that talks about the human need to recharge, regroup, relax, rest and in general take care of yourself.

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1. Where do I come from? Where was I born? Where have I lived my entire life?

2. What are my roots ethnically, racially, nationally? What are the languages in my life?

3. What do I know about my family's history?

4. How has my family shaped my personality, my direction in life, and my pursuits?

5. What does it mean to me to be American?

6. Include at least two photos or images of anything meaningful to you to illustrate your background.

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1. Choose any five of your I AM statements from your journal .

2. Write a statement (half page in your journal) to describe what this role you play in life means to you.

3. Your presentation will only have the I AM statements and you will talk about each of them. (You can include bullet points to remind you of what you want to say.)

4. When you share with the class, be prepared to tell us why this role is important to you? How you see yourself in this role, and what your goals and aspirations are, etc.

5. Pictures of yourself and/or any other images that depict your roles in life should be added for each I AM statement.

6. Think about using your word and your language ability in an impeccable way. Find a language quote to include and describe what this means to you.

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This is your final presentational assessment for the first quarter

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This is your final presentational assessment for the first quarter

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1. At the end of the first quarter, you will be presenting your autobiography based on the guidelines on this Padlet.

2. Choose a presentational format (i.e. Google Slides, Prezi, Padlet, District website, a poster or craft, any creative format).

3. Be sure to give full and elaborate details, visual depictions, and media resources for each column to the right