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Zinn Education Project
May 31, 1921. Tulsa, Oklahoma: In 1921, Greenwood (a community in Tulsa) was one of the most prosperous African-American communities in the U.S. Serving over 8,000 residents, Greenwood’s commercial district was known nationally as the ‘Negro Wall Street’. The community boasted two newspapers, over a dozen churches, and hundreds of African-American-owned businesses. On the evening of May 31, 1921, Greenwood was ravaged by a white mob. By the conclusion of the riot at midday, June 1, virtually every building in a 42-square-block area of the community--homes, schools, churches, and businesses--was burned to the ground and thousands were left homeless. Over 1,200 homes were destroyed. Every church, school, and business in Greenwood was set on fire. Approximately 8,000 African-Americans were left homeless and penniless.
Students need to learn the hidden history of the 1921 Tulsa race riot (massacre) and how this links to racial wealth inequality today. Read "Burning Tulsa: The Legacy of Black Dispossession" by Linda Christensen of Rethinking Schools and see her classroom lesson: » Burned Out of Homes and History: Unearthing the Silenced Voices of the Tulsa Race Riot Zinn Education Project
I am surprised and somewhat shamed that I have never heard of this. I took a couple of American History courses. None made mention of this. As a teen in the 60s and Journalism student in the 70s, I read every counter-culture, anti-government, radical rag available in North America. I embraced hippie-dom, was leery of The Man, supported the civil rights and feminist movements, agonized over Vietnam, indulged in illegal products and if I had a God, it was the good Doctor Hunter S. Thompson.
Yet I don't recall any media mention of that story.
I haven't clinked the link yet. Perhaps my wonderment will find an explanation there.
(4)In the wake of the White mob destruction of the Greenwood District, a State-convened grand jury officially placed responsibility for the violence on the African-American community, exonerating Whites of all responsibility. Neither the State nor the city undertook any investigations or prosecutions, and documents relating to the riot vanished from State archives. Ultimately, no convictions were obtained for the incidents of murder, arson, or larceny connected with the riot.
I'm too naive. Of course, this is the only way it could have stayed hidden.
If you read more about the Tulsa race riot, you will find that incendiary bombs were dropped from airplanes flying overhead.......the first bombing from air in the United States.
If you read more about the Tulsa race riot, you will find that incendiary bombs were dropped from airplanes flying overhead.......the first bombing from air in the United States.
We Americans seem to have a lot of skeletons hidden in our closets.
But it is best we get them out and exam them carefully so we do not repeat our past errors.
If you read more about the Tulsa race riot, you will find that incendiary bombs were dropped from airplanes flying overhead.......the first bombing from air in the United States.
That whole Tulsa story is very painful, as are the atrocities against Native Americans. I have to do my part to repair what I can. It is good to be aware of the specifics, so that I can do my part to try to prevent anything like it again. It is also painful to know what happened.
About 25 years ago I saw the movie "The Emerald Forest". It touched me like no movie ever had before. I felt that I was that kid who was brought up by the Indians. The most dramatic part was where the kid's dad blew up the dam he was partly responsible for creating, and which caused so much disaster for the peaceful Indians. The father decided to blow up his career and his pet project, for the love of his son and the people his son had grown up with.
If you read more about the Tulsa race riot, you will find that incendiary bombs were dropped from airplanes flying overhead.......the first bombing from air in the United States.
Not only had I never heard of the Tulsa race riot..... I thought the Philly police dropping explosives on the MOVE headquarters was considered the first aerial bombing.
Thanks for posting that, Goodpasture. I had no idea that had happened. I also asked a few (well-educated, Boomer) friends if they'd heard of it. None had.
Not only had I never heard of the Tulsa race riot..... I thought the Philly police dropping explosives on the MOVE headquarters was considered the first aerial bombing.
Thanks for posting that, Goodpasture. I had no idea that had happened. I also asked a few (well-educated, Boomer) friends if they'd heard of it. None had.
Well, I am a boomer (born 5 days after the Japanese surrendered) and I am well educated (at least in mathematics), but I never learned much history in college.
However, I knew about the Tulsa riots. I probably learned it from a TV show.
It has been 175 years since the Trail of Tears for the Cherokee.
Quote:
And as the Cherokee walked farther from his mountains, he began to die. His soul did not die, nor did it weaken. It was the very young and the very old and the sick. At first the soldiers let them stop to bury their dead; but then, more died—by the hundreds—by the thousands. More than a third of them were to die on the Trail. The soldiers said they could only bury their dead every three days; for the soldiers wished to hurry and be finished with the Cherokee. The soldiers said the wagons would carry the dead, but the Cherokee would not put his dead in the wagons. He carried them. Walking. The little boy carried his dead baby sister, and slept by her at night on the ground. He lifted her in his arms in the morning, and carried her. The husband carried his dead wife. The son carried his dead mother, his father. The mother carried her dead baby. They carried them in their arms. And walked. And they did not turn their heads to look at the soldiers, nor to look at the people who lined the sides of the Trail to watch them pass. Some of the people cried. But the Cherokee did not cry. Not on the outside, for the Cherokee would not let them see his soul; as he would not ride in the wagons. And so they called it the Trail of Tears. Not because the Cherokee cried; for he did not. They called it the Trail of Tears for it sounds romantic and speaks of the sorrow of those who stood by the Trail. A death march is not romantic. You cannot write poetry about the death-stiffened baby in his mother’s arms, staring at the jolting sky with eyes that will not close, while his mother walks. You cannot sing songs of the father laying down the burden of his wife’s corpse, to lie by it through the night and to rise and carry it again in the morning—and tell his oldest son to carry the body of his youngest. And do not look … nor speak … nor cry … nor remember the mountains. It would not be a beautiful song. And so they call it the Trail of Tears.
Carter, Forrest (2011-08-25). The Education of Little Tree (Kindle Locations 769-778). University of New Mexico Press. Kindle Edition.
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