Today we examine another terror attack on the Black community by white supremacist terrorists. This time on May 21, 1921, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The Greenwood District in Tulsa was nicknamed "Black Wall Street." It was a hub of business and prosperity in the United States. Black businesses, lives, and homes thrived. Once again, the flimsy excuse of an attack on a white woman spurred a large white mob to descend on Greenwood and within a 24 hour time period, they killed over 300 people, sent another 800 to the hospital, burned over 1200 homes, 60 businesses and schools, and razed the entire neighborhood to the ground. Not only were there angry mobs with guns, but private citizens with airplanes dropped incendiary bombs on the neighborhood as well. The National Guard finally had to break it up.
The displaced Black community members received no help or reparations from the government. 6000 inhabitants would end up being sent to internment camps to house them. And something that should shock nobody, none of the white terrorists were ever prosecuted for their crimes, and insurance companies denied claims to help Black residents rebuild their lives.
This is actually one of the terror events in US history that there is quite a bit known about. For so many others, we erased it from history by not documenting it. The way we need to start looking at these events, though, is not saying "they" did this, but "we" did this. Our ancestors, not some random group of disconnected people. We terrorized them. This is how it needs to be taught.
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