Tom Hanks is pushing Americans to learn about the country’s racist history

Tinseltown's leading man Tom Hanks is encouraging America to revisit its dark past, as he penned a detailed column for the New York Times to bring to light the country's longstanding issue of racism.

The megastar used the NYT piece to push Americans into learning more about the problematic history of the country including the 1921 Tulsa race massacre—which he argued many were not educated about. The incident involved a white mob setting the Black neighbourhood of Greenwood, known as Black Wall Street, on fire.

"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," wrote Hanks.

"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,” he went on to say.

"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," he continued.

"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,” he added.