Because "Black history" is America's history

And because so few of us know very much of it.

National Guard troops patrolling the streets armed. Thousands of black people held in a convention center. Hundreds of black dead, with bodies piled like wood. ...
That was not New Orleans, that was Tulsa, Oklahoma, in June 1921.

On May 30, 1921, a young black man named Dick Rowland stumbled into a white woman,while entering an elevator. He was accused of assault and arrested the next day. Newly rich from oil ,Tulsa was a Ku Klux Klan town. Rowland was sentenced to be hanged. The Tulsa Tribune called for a “Negro lynching tonight.”

The white mob was surprised when they were met by several dozen armed black men, dressed in their World War I uniforms. This led to a racist three day destruction of the black neighborhood of Greenwood. The Red Cross reported 300 mostly dead black people.

Greenwood, called “Little Africa,” was a relatively wealthy community. White mobs, many deputized, destroyed every house, store, church or school. The mob met resistance from an armed black population. Governor Robertson declared martial law. The National Guard arrived with machine gun mounted trucks and airplanes hovering over Greenwood. It was the first time an American city was bombed from the air, by the US government.

Over 6,000 black people were rounded up and held in the convention center and fairgrounds for as long as eight days. The homeless were shuttled into a tent city, where typhoid and malnutrition took over. Blacks were allowed out of the convention center with a tag with an employers name. Thousands fled the city.

Attempts to turn Greenwood into an industrial zone were unsuccessful. For several years, it was deprived of paved streets, running water, and garbage collection.

See: The Tulsa Reparations Coalition


Links: Tulsa race riot

Greenwood, Tulsa, Oklahoma (section "The Black Wall Street")