LeBron James To Co-Produce ‘Dreamland: The Rise and Fall of Black Wall Street’ Doc About The Tulsa Massacre

It would be safe to say that many Americans had never even heard of the Tulsa Massacre prior to this year, when it featured prominently in an episode of HBO’s Watchmen — and it was almost the politically charged site of a rally for Donald Trump this past June. LeBron James and his SpringHill Company seek to educate us all on the dark moment in our nation’s history with a new documentary he is co-producing along with CNN Films.

DREAMLAND: The Rise and Fall of Black Wall Street, is in production now and, according to the press release, “[honors] a prosperous, booming Black community, one of many, that was brought to an end because of hate.”

In May, 1921, a young Black man in Tulsa, Dick Rowland, was accused of behaving inappropriately toward a white woman, Sarah Page. As a result, he was set to be lynched, leading to an outcry from local Black citizens, dozens of whom went to the courthouse to protect Rowland. They were met by a larger group of white residents who fired shots at the Black protesters, leading to a firefight and riot that ultimately destroyed an entire Black neighborhood in the city, leaving over 10,000 Black Tulsans homeless.

This area of Tulsa, called the Greenwood district, was a prosperous area known as Black Wall Street, hence the doc’s title. The film is directed by Salima Koroma and will, in part, use a Tulsa-based crew. There is very little archival news content and footage surrounding the events of the century-old event, but producers have unearthed “elements such as letters and diary entries” and will use “footage of a near-century search for physical evidence” of the massacre in the film.

DREAMLAND is expected to be completed in early 2021, and HBO Max has acquired the streaming rights. The 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre is in May and June of 2021.