A Century After the 1921 Massacre, Black Tulsans Struggle For a Political Voice
How 100 years ago Black Americans went from rags to riches at the hands of white mobs
One hundred years ago, the unthinkable happened to Black residents who were self contained in their town and due to jealousy of whites all was destroyed within a day, burned and bombed to the ground.
The picture above speaks of this atrocity, Black men are marched down Main Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma followed by armed guard during the Tulsa Race Massacre on June 1, 1921.
In the 1920s, during the Harlem Renaissance when African Americans were migrating from the South, Tulsa had a Black community of close to 10,000 people on the north side of the Frisco railroad tracks as the city flourished due to booming oilfields. Even though, Blacks held menials subservient jobs as hotel porters, car mechanics, laborers and domestic workers. The Greenwood district aka Black Wall Street, the wealthiest Black community in the United States, despite of this disparity, became wealthy and self contained with their own stores, restaurants, businessmen, doctors, lawyers, pilots and Black-owned businesses that fulfilled every need of the Greenwood district.
The demise of Black Wall Street started on May 31, 1921 when Black residents, some armed, rushed to the sheriff’s office to prevent the whites from lynching a Black prisoner who had been accused of an innocent unsubstantiated mishap with a white girl. A carload of Black resident, some armed rushed to protect the youth, gunfire broke out that very same day and all led to the whites storming the Greenwood district shooting and drooping bombs on the Greenwood via airplanes. The whites destroyed 35 square blocks and killed an estimated hundreds of people and they were thrown in massive graves. Currently, there are excavations to start getting a count of the deceased from the massacre.
With all the Blacks’ prosperity and wealth from that time, today a hundred years later, the city is currently ran by whites and the Blacks account for 16% of Tulsa’s population of 4,000,000 with a median income of $25,979, half the income of the white households in Tulsa County. Blacks had little say in the city’s government until 1990 when a black person was elected to the council and after a ward system was introduced.
Now in 2020, a 34 year old black man arrived in Tulsa through the Teach for America program won the Democratic nomination for Tulsa’s congressional seat and a 30 year old black community organizer finished second in the city’s mayoral race. The Tulsa black community is slowing evolving out of poverty and gaining some political clout.
Young black voters have become active after the Tulsa law enforcement officers shot and killed two unarmed Black men, Eric Harris, 44, during an arrest and Terence Crutcher, who had his hands raised, in 2015. Officer Betty Shelby, one of the white officers, claimed she thought he was reaching for a weapon.
Due to much long overdue outcry and recognition, Tulsa’s Black community is experiencing an influx of foundation and nonprofit funding for improving the school system and combatting much visible poverty dating back to the total loss of income from the massacre, red lining and insurance coverage denied for rebuilding. Also, Black community organizations have multiplied and a Democrat from Tulsa, State Rep. Monroe Nichols, is encouraging the community to take a political stand with their voting power to improve their lowest voting turnout in the nation in 2020.
The Tulsa Massacre had been swept under the rug and lacked documentation but of late the world has been informed of this atrocity that the whites tried diligently to hide forever but the sleeping giant has been awakened and demands to be reckoned with.
Today, the White Oklahoma’s conservative leadership admits the reality of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre from being in denial years past. With the day of reckoning, the state and local officials now support the observance of the anniversary of this tragic event via a new multimedia museum being a step toward reckoning with Black Wall Street, aka the successful and rich Black Americans in Tulsa who were doctors, lawyers, attorneys, business owners, schools, etc. There currently exist “The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission” where Republican U.S. Sen. James Lankford is a member and Oklahoma’s Governor Kevin Stitt was a member but was removed due to his signing of a bill, prohibiting the teaching of racial theory in public schools.
While the Democrats have the support of some the city and state officials, the Oklahoma Republicans’ are supporting this national GOP effort passing anti-voting rights bills against Blacks, Brown and young voters. Sen Lankford was on board challenging the black voters’ voting rights until after the insurrectionist stormed the U.S. Capitol as he apologized to Black Tulsans.
Ironically, the GOP-dominated Legislature cracked down on protesters in support of the Black Lives Matter Movement instituting a new law making blocking a street a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail while giving legal immunity in some cases to some motorist who run into demonstrators on the road. For example, if a motorist is surrounded by rioters, threatening that person, Gov. Sitt claims that person has a right to protect their family. He stated, “If rioters are surrounding someone’s car, threatening that person, they have a right to protect their family.” His words were met with criticism notably from Dr. King Jr.’s daughter when he signed the bill.
Oklahoma seem to be straddling the fence, playing both sides, (white and black or democrats and republicans), with a political agenda. Oklahoma has the most restrictive voting laws in the nation even more than Texas: only 3 1/2 days of early in-person voting, and notarized mailed-in absentee ballots. Where would the people get the money to pay for a notary and what if the notary refused to notarized their ballots? There appears to be a further anti-voting agenda here.
In spite of fork tongued political allies, Black people in Oklahoma are joining forces with higher educated white voters as they band together becoming instrumental in electing Democrats. Tulsa and Oklahoma City are now increasingly Democratic, with seven African American legislators, even though the Republican leadership keeps them on the margins. Seventy-two of the 81 bills introduced by Black legislators in 2021, didn’t get a nod or no where near a hearing, only two made it to the governor’s desk.
Providing political lip service for votes does and cannot remove the poverty that has stricken this once rich enclave that was stolen at the hands of similar factions who had an agenda unfavorable for the community. Hypocrisy must be called out at every corner and votes need to be placed where they count no matter how restrictive the voting rules are.
In conclusion, the three survivors of the massacre all over 100 years old went to Washington to share their stories living through the 1921 Tulsa Massacre before Congress for reparation for the town and its descendants. Recently, there was a 100 year commemoration of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre, followed with a parade and most notable was a non profit organization that gave each of the living descendent, over a hundred years old, of the 1921 Tulsa massacre who currently lives in poverty, $100,000 each. Yes, BlackLivesMatter and reparation needs to be paid and not continued talk about. Talk is cheap!
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