Quote:
Originally Posted by Caltovegas
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It is a good question I have thought about as well. Let me focus on three types of the 8 presented as they are the most economically interesting.
(1) Tulsa
(2) Washington DC
(3) Chicago/St.Louis
In reverse order. Post WW1 and post ww2 were very similar in that black migration to feed the war industries and fill openings in private companies left bare by white men going overseas resulted in a racial tinderbox when the white soldiers returned. But post-WW1 was far more intense perhaps as it was the manifestation of White fears going back to the Civil War, a war in which most Northern Whites were against outright abolition.
The problem was made worse after WW1 because the country suffered a very bad post-war recession. World War II would have had the same fate, but the boom in suburb construction, the rebuilding of Europe and Asia, and the upcoming Cold War
countered the restructuring of war industries.
Say Blacks would have been able to keep manufacturing jobs, it would have been huge. They would have been able to move into more middle class and upper middle class housing. Better education and safety for their kids. Better networking. More ability to withstand the crash of Wall Street. In a better position to take advantage of the post Depression boom heading into World War II. These things would have integrated them further into the national fabric and nationalism following World War II. I am not sure if it would have advanced the Civil Rights movement in the South, but it would have offered far more resources to help poor Southern Blacks escape to better jobs.
Conclusion: it would have been huge, especially since Chicago and St.Louis was played out all over the US. And a similar thing against Blacks happened throughout the US after World War II. But I would also conclude that to think that anti-Black sentiments would have magically disappeared in 1917-1923 is perhaps the most far fetched of the three.
(2) Washington DC. The is a bummer since this was about keeping Blacks in their place in our nation's capital. I single this out since with a healthy and diversified black Washington DC, policymakers would have seen first hand day after day the foolishness of racial apartheid. Conclusion: By dismantling economic and political apparati and destroying hope, the reverberations transmitted throughout the country.
(3) Tulsa. This once is sad. Without Tulsa, we would likely have seen a large number of blacks in the oil industry, engineers, billionaire owners. Until the recent internet/tech boom, it was the last best chance for Black America to break through the glass ceilings in industries that were not inherently black-oriented (black media, black hair products, gospel) or black entertainment (sports, music), both of which have served to isolate blacks from the rest of the human experience and made the most successful of these display items or tokens and in many cases clowns for which to perpetuate stereotypes. Black oil services companies would have meant black engineers, programmers, geophysicists, accountants, and financiers. And the sheer profits would have diversified across the economy. Tulsa was a shining example of black independence and success.
Conclusion: Destroying Tulsa not only visited hell on those poor souls, but destroyed the ability to envision success and integration into the greater world on par with people of all walks of life, colors and creeds. It left Black America has the ultimate Las Vegas clients: gambling all to be one of the celebrities to make it out of their misery all in one go. Today, we look around schools to see a fraction of a fraction of black mathematicians, physicists, material scientists, financial engineers, programmers, etc. We see an inordinate number of athletes and musicians and concentrations of Blacks in government-oriented jobs (education, administration). And we see a large number of jobs only meant for Blacks (Black Studies programs, diversity programs, etc.).
I would imagine that there were many Tulsas going back to 1865, most perhaps nipped closer to the bud. But it is Tulsa that sticks in the mind. The only hope is that there will be Tulsas of the future, booms in which Black America can grab jobs across the spectrum to help develop their communities in a healthy and economically diverse manner.
S.
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