The hard truth – The Tulsa Race riot- Never forget!

14th June 2011   ·   0 Comments

By Min. J. Kojo Livingston
The Louisiana Weekly Contributing Columnist

Last week marked the 90th anniversary of a tragic and heinous moment in U.S. history: the Tulsa Race Riot or Massacre. On May 31 of that year (1921) 11,000 Black residents of the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, were bombed while preparing to celebrate Memorial Day.

What makes the Tulsa Riot so heinous is that the community known as “Black Wall Street” or “Little Afrika” had done exactly what whites had been saying they wanted Black people to do for decades…keep to themselves. They had developed and supported their own stores and businesses mostly because they could not frequent those owned by whites.

Even those who worked for whites had to bring their earnings back to the Black community. The result — they built their own economy, thereby producing hundreds of businesses and many millionaires. Stories are still told about the fine clothes and expensive furnishings that were enjoyed by these Black descendants of slaves and indigenous Afrikans (Black tribes in this hemisphere that pre-date Columbus).

Black doctors, lawyers, dentists and other professionals abounded along with seamstresses and other skilled trades. All were supported by their own community.

National figures such as Booker T. Washington and Marcus Garvey had high praise for Black Wall Street as an example of what Black people could do for themselves everywhere. However everyone was not happy, especially whites on the other side of town who had a lower standard of living.

A false report of a white woman being raped by a Black man was used to justify an arrest of a man which stirred up a lynch mob. The mob was fought back at first by a small group of Black men with guns. Then a larger mob consisting of the Ku Klux Klan, police and other officials attacked the community with rifles and even bombs that were dropped from a plane. Entire Black families were chased from their homes and shot in the streets. Men, women and children died, most of them shot in the back while fleeing.

The plunder and destruction of the community was both pre-meditated and orchestrated. First, the white women reportedly looted the homes of jewelry and fine clothing. then the men came and took furniture and other items before burning the homes to the ground. Over 300 Black people died. Little Afrika was never rebuilt and this horrible event was hidden from the pages of history books until Black historians began writing about it in the late 1980’s. Since then there has been a commission to study the riot and even talk of paying reparations to descendants of victims, some who still live today.

The lessons here are many.

The first lesson is that when we build our own communities we prosper. Ninety years ago we did what some believe we cannot do today…build a strong, decent community. We did it then and we can do it again.

Second, we should be clear that most white racists are never satisfied with mere separation. Anything we do successfully for ourselves is likely to come under attack. Our great leaders, our successful families and institutions all stand as a living offense to those who hate us. The attacks may be legal, verbal, artistic or physical in form but the intent is the same, to keep us down and discourage us from getting up. This means we must be prepared to protect whatever we build. We alone are responsible for making the proper spiritual, legal, physical, fiscal or other preparations for the survival of whatever we do. It’s a mistake to rely on others. It is at best un-intelligent to rely on the government.

Finally, the Black Wall Street Riot was kept a secret for over 60 years. There are probably other atrocities that we still don’t know about today. White conservative/racists will tell you that these stories don’t need to be known or told. Right now they are trying and succeeding at getting half (the “bad” half) of U.S. history deleted from schoolbooks. You can’t learn from history that you don’t know about.

If we don’t tell our story no one else will…
…And that’s the Hard Truth!

(Information for this column came from the Marcus Garvey Institute and other sources).

This article originally published in the June 13, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.