Antiracist Accountability: Tulsa and Black Wall Street

 Hi team,

For this month's Antiracist Accountability post, we're going to get historical.

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the race massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma that destroyed Tulsa's Black Wall Street.

As a result of the Tulsa race massacre:

• Almost 300 Black people died
• Somewhere between 8,000 - 10,000 Black people were left homeless
• 35 blocks of the previously prosperous majority Black Greenwood District were destroyed
• Adjusted for today's currency, approximately $50 - 100 million in property was lost
• Years of Black entrepreneurship and resilience were wiped out
• For decades, the history of this event was intentionally erased

(Sources for these statistics are listed below.)

Learning about this event is critical for all Americans to better understand our history and the forces that continue to shape our nation today.  Here are some resources for learning more about the Tulsa race massacre and Black Wall Street:

• The Tulsa Historical Society and Museum has an extensive archive of photographs, audio files of interviews of people with firsthand accounts of the massacre, and documents about the massacre, including rare contemporary articles, many of which were later removed from public libraries in an effort to suppress memory of the massacre.
• The New York Times created an interactive resource that allows you to explore the people and businesses that comprised Tulsa's Black Wall Street.
• NPR's Code Switch returned to Greenwood to assess the current state of the neighborhood on the hundredth anniversary of the massacre that you can read or listen to as a podcast here.
• KOSU, Focus: Black Oklahoma, the History Channel, and WNYC Studios are collaborating to produce a six-part podcast series called "Blindspot: Tulsa Burning", which you can learn more about here.
• USA Today's "5 Things" podcast interviewed Professor Trevon Morgan, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Economics at Ohio State University, about the massacre and the ongoing case for reparations to repair the harm done by the massacre.
• For more learning and reading, NPR's Code Switch put together a list of recommended books and articles.

Given that today is also Memorial Day, the centennial anniversary of the race massacre at Tulsa's Black Wall Street offers an important rejoinder to the patriotism and reverence that typically accompanies this day.  Memorial Day is often framed as a day to reflect on those who fought and died to make America possible and uphold rights all Americans enjoy.  Despite intentional attempts to erase its memory, the Tulsa race massacre is a reminder of the even longer fight, largely by white Americans, to maintain America's sinister tradition of racist oppression.  At its best, perhaps, Memorial Day is about the fight for what America could one day be, while the anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre and the memory of what was lost on Black Wall Street reminds us of what we have always been.  For a nation eternally at war with itself, with its higher and as yet unrealized ideals battling its founding practices of slavery and genocide, it's hard to imagine a more poignant coincidence of dates.

Maybe one day we can finally become a nation that fully manifests our ideals.  Let's hope, one day, the right side of this battle wins.

{Heart}