“To me, that basically means that they want people to forget about it and not understand it and not be educated on it,” Westbrook says, adding that “we don’t learn much” in U.S. schools about Black history.

“When I see some of that, it not just saddens me, but it puts me in a position where I feel like I have to be able to help make other people understand why this is,” Westbrook tells PEOPLE.

“It’s important that we understand and see what was here, what was our history and understand why people are trying to forget about this particular time in history, and why nobody’s talking about it, and why nobody understands it,” the nine-time NBA all-star continues.

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“At the time, Tulsa was the best place in the nation for African Americans,” civil rights attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons says in the film.

To this day, Tulsa has not paid reparations to the survivors or their families, despite a 2001 commission report recommending the city should.

On Wednesday, three living survivors testified in front of Congress to ask that reparations be paid after the booming Black business community was literally burned to the ground.

“I still see Black men being shot, Black bodies lying in the street,” Viola Fletcher, the massacre’s oldest living survivor, told lawmakers. “I still smell smoke and see fire. I still see Black businesses being burned. I still hear airplanes flying overhead. I hear the screams.”

“I have lived through the massacre every day,” Fletcher, 107, said.

Marco Naprin, a local descendant featured in one scene during the documentary, looking on as crews excavate the mass grave in search for bodies, says in the film: “There might not ever be no closure, but the awareness is there.”

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The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

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© Tulsa Massacre

Westbrook tells PEOPLE he’s been working with Emmy Award-winning director Stanley Nelson on the project “for a couple of years,” with the goal of releasing it on the 100th anniversary this weekend.

“I wanted to create a film that is factual and educational, and that’s inspiring,” Westbrook says. “And that’s something that I stand for and that’s something that I want to be able to show the world.”

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“It’s my job,” Westbrook explains.

The NBA star says he’s “learned a lot with this project alone” in simply understanding the sacrifices the Black community has made in U.S. history and to this day.

“With this film, I hope to just inspire and educate people about what happened,” Westbrook says. “And at the same time, to see how we can help change our present and our future.”