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If you truly want to keep up with the day to day activities of the Greenwood District " follow it in The Oklahoma Eagle " Tulsa African-American Newspaper.
RECONCILIATION — Ed Dwight, the nation’s first African-American astronaut and internationally known sculptor, unveils two monuments for a proposed museum relative to the 1921 Race War. One depicts familiar scenes from riot photographs illustrating the harshness, humiliation and hope demonstrated during the catastrophe. The other is what Dwight envisions as The Tower of Reconciliation. It links local and historical figures that moved blacks and whites toward some racial conciliation. (Courtesy of Tulsa World)
Transcribed By
E. L. Goodwin II
No. Twenty–Eight
The first apology for the 1921 race war by a public official was offered by State Representative Don Ross in 1996 ceremonies commemorating the Tulsa holocaust. Ross had first heard of the event from William David Williams, a typing and shorthand instructor at the all-black Booker Taliaferro Washington High School where the prominent legislator had been a student.
Williams had been a student. Williams was the son of John and Loula Williams, prominent Black Wall Street entrepreneurs.
The energetic and enthusiastic Ross said he apologized for the riot, the racism it had created and the hardships it precipitated on the African-American Community. More than 50 black and white survivors were among the 2,500 citizens attending the event. The historic services were held at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, one of the leading churches destroyed during the race war.
George Monroe had shared with Ross his experiences as a youngster during those dark days. Monroe and his sister, Lottie Monroe Carter, hid under a bed as white men entered their home and set it afire. His father, Osborne Monroe, also lost a business during the burning and was seen riding a bicycle by this writer during his later years, where he lived nearby in the neighborhood, at 327 E. Haskell Street.
His son, George, a talented drummer, first black Coca Cola route salesman, deputy sheriff, business entrepreneur and owner of the prominent “Pink House Club” joined assemblage in a “March Against Hate” from the Mt. Zion Church to the nearby Cultural Center where The black Wall Street Memorial was dedicated. Osborne Monroe’s name was inscribed on the granite cenotaph of losses in the destruction.
Former NAACP Director Benjamin Hooks delivered the keynote address. He said the riot and its “awful memory” was beckoning from time for reconciliation and that Tulsa would have to work hard to bring closure and become at peace with itself.
The persistent legislator, Ross, who once was employed by the Wonder Bread Company, said as a youngster hailing from Vinita, Oklahoma, most of the adults in his neighborhood were survivors, and he may have talked to as many as 400 of them.
The state representative, now retired, said historian John Hope Franklin, also a Tulsa native, may have framed his perspective. Franklin’s father, B.C. Franklin, was one of the real riot heroes. Recognizing that he was part of the last generations to have direct contact with the victims, Ross noted that if he didn’t tell the story, it could become lost to history. “I guess I was just waiting for the opportunity”, Ross said.
“To escape white violence, many of Tulsa’s African-Americans had been chased from everywhere”, Ross concluded. “Their bravery was an obligation of pride. In black history, Greenwood’s last stand is as symbolic as the Alamo is to American history. They may have overpowered and imprisoned in concentration camps, but they never surrendered their hearts, minds and tenacious resilience.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Convention Hall, McNulty Park, Fair Grounds, and Servants Quarters were all safe havens for riot survivors. McNulty Baseball Park was located where the Warehouse Market was and Home Depot is, at 11th and Elgin streets. It was there for approximately twelve years and his not familiar to most Tulsans, as was Sam Avey’s Coliseum or the old city jail house at 4th and Elgin streets.
In 1997, the Oklahoma legislature passed legislation sponsored by Representative Ross and Senator Maxine Horner creating the Oklahoma Commission to study the 19231 Race Riot and to make recommendations including reparations for victims. The two lawmakers secured $5 million for a museum and memorial and $2 million in scholarships.
The legislature did not accept the commission’s recommendation regarding reparations and the issue is now before the federal court. It is time for action, reconciliation, and rejuvenation.
St. Monica Catholic Church Greenwood Ave. Greenwood District St. Monica Catholic Church was built in 1930 just off of Greenwood Ave in Tulsa Oklahoma to serve the African-American community.I remember my Mother and Father putting together enought money for me to attend Catholic School for one year ( my Kindergarden year ) of school , I was even " In The TOM TOM WEDDING " bring back FOND MEMORIES of THE BLACK WALL STREETS OF ANERICA.
Midget Wedding where all of the Kindergarden classes choose a make believe Bride and Groom , best man , maids of honors , Preacher etc. and conduct a mock wedding attended by all of the parents and school administration.Pictures are taken and it's quite a big event in our's young little lifes.I probably lost you LOL...I called the fairy tail character Tom Thumb...Tom Tom my bad...FOMC..LOL
Midget Wedding where all of the Kindergarden classes choose a make believe Bride and Groom , best man , maids of honors , Preacher etc. and conduct a mock wedding attended by all of the parents and school administration.Pictures are taken and it's quite a big event in our's young little lifes.I probably lost you LOL...I called the fairy tail character Tom Thumb...Tom Tom my bad...FOMC..LOL
No wonder I couldn't find any info on "Tom Tom Wedding". Thanks!
I thought it might be a Native-American tradition with drums.
I knew it was too long ago to be Tom Tom brand GPS.
I'm going to take some time off from the lap top this Christmas Holiday and spend the time with family. Happy Holidays Evertbody..even you easties from the N.E.
and I wonder if his vision for what he wanted for the Indian Territory had something to do with the installation of segregation in Oklahoma and the feelings towards the people of the Greenwood District, which led to what happened?
The All-Black towns of Oklahoma represent a unique chapter in American history. Nowhere else, neither in the Deep South nor in the Far West, did so many African American men and women come together to create, occupy, and govern their own communities. From 1865 to 1920 African Americans created more than fifty identifiable towns and settlements, some of short duration and some still existing at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
All-Black towns grew in Indian Territory after the Civil War when the former slaves of the Five Civilized Tribes settled together for mutual protection and economic security. When the United States government forced American Indians to accept individual land allotments, most Indian "freedmen" chose land next to other African Americans. They created cohesive, prosperous farming communities that could support businesses, schools, and churches, eventually forming towns. Entrepreneurs in these communities started every imaginable kind of business, including newspapers, and advertised throughout the South for settlers. Many African Americans migrated to Oklahoma, considering it a kind of "promise land."
J.A. Norman wrote, "Oklahoma has already thrown down the gauntlet of statehood by holding this summer a convention to form a constitution for Oklahoma and Indian Territories as one state. We, as Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, and Osage Indians, together with the whites and blacks in our midst, have the same right to call a constitutional convention, to adopt a constitution for the Indian Territory's new state, called "Sequoyah," and submit it to the next congress to ratify as it is already duly bound to do so by sacred and solemn treaties. American citizens, the loyal patriotic matter is now us to you."
Quote:
The Principal Chiefs stated on October 1, "Indian Territory has reached to period of transition from tribal government to that of statehood. The policy of the United States expressed in treaties and upheld by the United States government has always consistently maintained the position that out of the country owned and occupied by the nations of the Indian Territory at the right time a state or states should be formed by its people. This time was fixed by the agreements closing the tribal governments March 4, 1906. Through this transition our present government shall not be annihilated but transformed into material for a nobly builded state. This shall we have life, not death." It was signed, "the Principal Chiefs of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminole and Creek Nations.
The Sequoyah Constitution was published on October 14, 1905 with an election on November 7. 65,352 votes were cast, and 56,279 were for the ratification of the constitution. Only 9,073 were against.
Quote:
In 1907, Indian and Oklahoma territores were merged into one state whose name is a Choctaw word for 'home of the red man,' - Oklahoma.
The history of African-Americans in Oklahoma is a story unlike any to be found in the United states. African-Americans initially came to this region on the "Trail of Tears," as Indian slaves. Later, they came as cowboys, settlers, gunfighters, and farmers. By statehood in 1907, they outnumbered both Indians and first and second generation Europeans. They created more all-black towns in Oklahoma than in the rest of the country put together, produced some of the country's greatest jazz musicians, and led some of the nation's greatest civil rights battles.
One of the great omissions in history books was the role African-American soldiers played in the Civil War. Blacks first fought alongside whites during the Battle of Honey Springs, an engagement fought on July 17, 1863 on a small battlefield outside present-day Muskogee.
Black troops held the Union's center line in that battle, breaking the Confederate's center and giving the Union a critical win that secured both the Arkansas River and the Texas Road (the region's major transportation routes). This ensured the Union a solid foothold in Indian Territory -- one it never relinquished.
A year after the Civil War ended in 1865, Congress passed a bill providing provisions for black troops, what became the 9th and 10th cavalry. The 10th went on to be headquartered at Fort Gibson; the 9th was stationed at Fort Sill. Black soldiers built Oklahoma forts, fought bandits, cattle thieves, and Mexican revolutionaries (including Pancho Villa), and policed borders during the land runs. They also played a critical role in the Indian Wars of the late 1800s, earning the respect of Native Americans who gave them the name "Buffalo Soldiers."
After the Civil War, Freedmen and new African-American settlers in Oklahoma could vote, study, and move about with relative freedom. Pamphlets distributed throughout the South urged African-Americans to join land runs in Indian Territory, to create black businesses, black cities, and perhaps even the first black state. Pamphlets promising a black paradise in Oklahoma lured tens of thousands of former slaves from the South. Eventually 27 black towns grew to encompass 10 percent of Indian Territory's population.
Today many of Oklahoma's original black towns and districts are gone, but those that remain still host rodeos, Juneteenth celebrations, and community reunions.
THE post-Civil War South was a brutal and oppressive place for African-Americans. In a mass exodus, many left the region, compelled northward by floridly worded advertisements for new all-black settlements. One promoter described the town of Langston, Okla., as ''Fertile as ever was moistened by nature's falling tears or kissed by heaven's sunshine.''The advertisements worked. After the Civil War, there were some 50 all-black towns founded in the Oklahoma Territories (Oklahoma became a state in 1907). The initial settlers were Indian freedmen slaves who had been freed by their Indian masters -- but later freed slaves from the Deep South joined them in a quest to prove that blacks could not only govern themselves but also prosper economically if given the chance.
And they did. Many of the towns were quite successful, but they were eventually undone by factors including the Depression, Jim Crow laws, intimidation by whites and urbanization. Today, 13 of those original towns still exist in Oklahoma, and they all still have all-black or overwhelmingly black populations.
I included the thing about Sequoyah because there was a real struggle to keep the Oklahoma part separate from the NDN's the freedmen, and the whites of that area. The riots in Tulsa were predominately because of the racial tensions reflected in the Jim Crow laws. Even the victims of the Tulsa riots had roots running deep in Oklahoma and a lot of the people that evacuated went to towns like Boley and Rentiesville and Red Bird and Tullahassee.
Last edited by Goodpasture; 02-19-2012 at 05:20 PM..
and I wonder if his vision for what he wanted for the Indian Territory had something to do with the installation of segregation in Oklahoma and the feelings towards the people of the Greenwood District, which led to what happened?
Yes North Tulsa ...AKA...Greenwood District was known throughout the whole Nation as the...Colored or Negro ....Wall Street....later changed to the ...Black Wall Street. African-American developed Tulsa first Bus System and Air Port for (TULSA LITTLE AFRICA ) which was North Tulsa and the Greenwood District.The Whites that rioted in the Tulsa Race Riot first Stripped All Of The Well To Do African-American of Their Wealth before they Burned Down (The Greenwood District) and made every effort to stop the redevelopement of the (Greenwood District) for the next 30 or 40 years.
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Thanks!
provisions for black troops, what became the 9th and 10th cavalry. The 10th went on to be headquartered at Fort Gibson; the 9th was stationed at Fort Sill. Black soldiers built Oklahoma forts, fought bandits, cattle thieves, and Mexican revolutionaries (including Pancho Villa), and policed borders during the land runs. They also played a critical role in the Indian Wars of the late 1800s, earning the respect of Native Americans who gave them the name "Buffalo Soldiers." 
