The Griot’s Role

Before there were textbooks, before plaques and museums, there were griots.

Griots were the keepers of memory. The ones who carried history in their chest and passed it mouth to ear, step to step. They didn’t just tell what happened. They told why it mattered. They made sure stories didn’t disappear just because buildings did.

Greenwood Griot Tours exists in that tradition.

We believe Greenwood is not just a place you read about. It is a place you listen to. A place you walk through. A place that still has something to teach anyone willing to slow down and hear it.

Meet the Greenwood Griot: Kodé Ransom

Kode Ransom is a modern-day griot, historian, and storyteller rooted in Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District.

Born and raised in North Tulsa, Kode did not come to Greenwood as a visitor. He came as a son of the soil. His relationship with this district is personal, layered, and lived. Greenwood is not a chapter he discovered. It is a legacy he grew up inside of.

From an early age, Kode learned that history is not neutral. It shapes how people see themselves, how they move through the world, and what they believe is possible. After losing his father to police violence, Kode began asking deeper questions about power, systems, and survival. Those questions led him to history. Not the polished version, but the one that explains patterns.

That search turned him into what he is today: a storyteller who connects past to present, memory to meaning, and history to action.

Why These Tours Exist

Greenwood Griot Tours were not created to entertain tragedy.

They were created to restore context.

Too often, Greenwood is reduced to a single moment in 1921. A headline. A massacre. A tragedy frozen in time. But Greenwood was a living, breathing community long before the violence, and it has been shaped by forces long after the smoke cleared.

These tours exist to tell the full story:

• How Greenwood was built

• Why it was targeted

• How it was rebuilt

• How it was erased again through policy

• And what its legacy still challenges us to do today

We believe walking the land matters. Standing where people lived, worked, laughed, and resisted matters. History lands differently when your feet are on the pavement and your eyes are on the horizon.

How We Tell the Story

This is not a lecture.
This is not a script read from a clipboard.
This is not history at a distance.

Greenwood Griot Tours are guided conversations.

Kode blends historical research, community memory, and griot-style storytelling to create space for learning and reflection. Guests are encouraged to ask questions, sit with discomfort, and connect the dots between Greenwood and the world they live in now.

The tour moves at the speed of understanding, not the clock.

Who These Tours Are For

These tours are for:

• Visitors who want more than surface-level history

• Locals who want to see their city with new eyes

• Students who need context, not just dates

• Teams and organizations exploring culture, leadership, and legacy

• Anyone who believes history should tell the truth and teach something useful

You do not need prior knowledge. Just curiosity and respect.

Our Purpose

We do these tours because forgetting is dangerous.

When stories are lost, patterns repeat.
When context is removed, harm looks accidental.
When memory fades, responsibility disappears.

Greenwood Griot Tours exist to keep memory alive, not as nostalgia, but as instruction. We believe history is a tool. One that can help communities build better, lead wiser, and recognize warning signs before they repeat themselves.

This is why we walk.
This is why we tell.
This is why we remember.

Greenwood is not finished speaking.

If you’re willing to listen,
the streets will tell you the rest.