The Tulsa Race Massacre
Before I delve into what life was like for Black people in post-Civil War America, I’m going to write about the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. Tulsa, Oklahoma is currently in the news because President Trump has scheduled his first mid-pandemic campaign rally there. Scheduled for this Friday, June 19. Emancipation Day. I understand the outrage. This important day in American history should not be maligned by holding a campaign rally. (The President has since rescheduled his rally for the next day, June 20.)
What I couldn’t understand is why people were so upset about the rally’s being held in Tulsa. So, I did some research. I’m ashamed to say that I had never heard of the Tulsa Race Massacre that started in May 31, 1921 and ended a grueling eighteen hours later. There is so much I don’t know about the atrocities that Black people have had to endure, and I’ve started to question the American history I learned in school.
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Instead of telling you about the massacre, I’d like you to go to this link which will take you to the site of the Oklahoma Historical Society. Scott Ellsworth has written an article that describes the reporting of false information that ignited mass carnage, in a much more thorough way than I ever could. The article is not long. It will anger you. It will sadden you. After you’ve read it, stop back here so I can share some of the observations I made after I read it.
https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=TU013
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I was horrified after reading about the massacre. the first thing that struck was in the first paragraph: There is no record of how many people died no idea how many people died in the bloodbath. Tulsa estimates that it’s between 50-300. Really? That’s an awfully big gap. They couldn’t be more specific? Why is that? Did they not know the population of Greenwood before the massacre? How about after the destruction? Did they count Black people in the city’s then 100,000 population? I bet they know how many White people died in the massacre – if there were any. Perhaps it was fifty, the lower number in the death estimate. The fifty they’re sure about…
I also asked myself, and still wonder, why White people back then had so much hate for Black people. Were their livelihood threatened in some way? Couldn’t everyone just live their lives?
It impressed me that the 75-or-so Black men, most of them American WWI veterans, just prior to the attacks on their lives, the lives of their families, their homes and businesses, were calm, cool, and reasonable. They offered to assist the police, not once, but twice, hoping to protect an imprisoned Black man wrongfully accused of attempting to rape a White woman. Protect him from a White mob determined to lynch the prisoner. I would have been anything but calm and cool! It probably wasn’t just their military training that restrained their pique. They had probably grown accustomed to the volatility, hate, and horrific behavior of their White aggressors.
And talk about “fake news!” I cannot fathom why a newspaper would print such untruths as they did in the Tulsa Tribune about Dick Rowland, the Black prisoner. Did anyone ever interview the woman who operated the elevator? Did they ever try? Even decades later?
I was outraged to read how about the sheriff deputized and armed would-be lynch-men and giving them the go-ahead to “get a nigger.” The facts are appalling, so awful they make me want to cry. And I’m reading about the massacre a hundred years later. Think of the Black men, women and children who lived it.
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So, here we are in 2020 and we’re wondering just how many unjustified police shootings of Black people there have been that we don’t know about. How many senseless killings and beatings of Black men have there been before most Americans were armed with phones able to record police brutality? And if this is happening in law enforcement, by the very people who have sworn to protect us, how many Black people have been murdered in America over the last four hundred years by evil men without badges?
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I don’t understand. Why is it that in our country, our courts are able to invoke harsher sentences to those individuals who are convicted of “hate crimes” – crimes in which the victims are part of a particular social group — yet hate groups are still allowed to exist? Oh, people will cite “freedom of thought, freedom of religion, freedom of speech,” blah, blah, blah. Sorry. I’m not buying that. More important than one’s freedom of speech is someone’s else’s freedom. Freedom to live. I can’t think of one Black person (or one White person, for that matter), who would feel free walking down a street lined with hooded Klan’s men or armed skinheads.
All white supremacy groups including the neo-Nazis, skin heads and Ku Klux Klan (I’m sure there are others, I just don’t know about them), should be outlawed. Membership in such hate-mongering groups should be illegal. Why have we done nothing to rid this country of such hateful groups? Especially since they threaten the well-being of other citizens? Even if they’re not brandishing firearms or killing people, they invoke fear. That’s their goal. These hate organizations threaten both the peace of our nation, and the personal peace of each one of us. No one should live in fear. Black or White.
I understand that there’s a bill in Congress right now proposing that all white supremist groups be identified as domestic terrorist groups. I couldn’t agree more. Let’s see how far that gets through Congress… I’m not hopeful. Remember, we can still buy semiautomatic assault weapons.
I too have just learned of the Tulsa massacre. Never in a history class in high school or college. The whole thing is just sickening. Thank you for your words of wisdom on this issue. I always enjoy your blogs.
I also feel all white supremacy groups should be busted up. I also feel black lives matter should be illegal. Read about them. It is not just blacks that are on their agenda. There is a lot of violence that comes from that group. Like Martin Luther King said, there is only one race. If you see someone that is a different race, give them a hug or say something nice to them. I just sold a very nice black man from the inner city of Columbus (a car). We hugged and he wanted to share a pic of us on his Facebook. All it takes is communicating the right way. ONLY ONE RACE.
I put off reading your comment today, Jeff, because your comments tend to upset me. I was afraid that what you had to say would anger and sadden me and ruin my day.
First of all, I amended your comment. I don’t think you meant to say that you sold a very nice black man. You sold him a car. Right? My second thought was, you shouldn’t be hugging anyone who is not your housemate while COVID is still active and growing in Ohio.
I disagree with you with respect to Black Lives Matter. I understand that there are both a movement and an organization named Black Lives Matter but I have not heard about any violence from either of them. To be fair, I will do some research on the subject. I believe, if there has been violence related to any of the demonstrations, it’s because of a limited number of criminals — both black and white — who have used the demonstration as their subterfuge to committing crime. The movement and organization are not to blame. Further, the organization Black Lives Matter is not a hate group. It’s an organization to promote equality opportunity and justice for black people — and there’s nothing wrong with that. In what I have read so far, the organization is trying to stop the violence perpetrated on them. But, like I said, I will do some research.
I agree with you and MLK re one race — the human race. But it’s just not that simple, Jeff. Even in your own comment, right after you write that there’s only one race, you state, “if you see someone that is a different race…”
Finally, stop hugging people until we wipe out COVID!
Black lives matter is currently throwing rocks and bricks off of an overpass in Columbus. No they are not violent. If you watch your channel, they will not show it.
Those people may be black and most assuredly, they are criminals, but just because a person is black doesn’t mean he or she is acting on behalf of Black Lives Matter — the movement or the organization. They’re just bad actors. The organization does not support violence or vandalism. If the people throwing bricks off the overpass are also waving flags that say BLM, they are tarnishing the name and reputation of a legitimate movement and organization. Don’t suppress the frustration of black people who are demonstrating for equality, after 400 years of oppression just because some criminals are throwing rocks.