Outrage as Republican says 1921 Tulsa massacre not motivated by race

A sculpture recognizing the Tulsa race massacre at the John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park. As many as 300 Black people are believed to have been killed. Photograph: John Locher/AP

The state official in charge of Oklahoma’s schools is facing calls for impeachment, after he said teachers should tell students that the Tulsa race massacre was not racially motivated.

In a public forum on Thursday, Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s state superintendent of public instruction, said teachers could cover the 1921 massacre, in which white Tulsans murdered an estimated 300 Black people, but teachers should not “say that the skin color determined it”.