05/28/2021
This part of the Lynching Memorial commemorates some of those who were murdered in the Tulsa Race Massacre Black Wall Street in the Greenwood District. Notice how many of the names are listed as UNKNOWN. Hundreds of lives were senselessly taken by a racist mob 100 years ago. This history MUST be told and never forgotten AND there MUST be REPARATIONS a for the descendants.
This weekend marks 100 years since the race massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It’s been called "the single worst incident of racial violence in American history.” The attack, carried out on the ground and from the skies, killed and wounded thousands of Black residents and destroyed more than 35 square blocks of the district, known as "Black Wall Street.”
According to historians, Black people, many former slaves, or just one generation removed, founded and developed Black Wall Street, the Greenwood district in Tulsa. Built on what had formerly been Indian Territory, the community grew and flourished and was regarded as the wealthiest Black community in the nation, until May 31, 1921.
It all began on the morning of May 30, 1921, after a young Black man named Dick Rowland, who worked shining shoes, rode the elevator of Tulsa's Drexel building to use one of the few available segregated public restrooms downtown. The female elevator operator screamed, Rowland fled the elevator and rumors quickly spread of an alleged sexual assault. The Black man was arrested, leading to an armed confrontation between a White crowd and Black men defending Rowland from being lynched. Things became heated, shots fired and the outnumbered Black residents retreated to the Greenwood district. The White group followed and violence exploded.
Throughout that night and into June 1, much of Greenwood was burned to the ground as members of the mob went from house to house and store to store, looting and then torching buildings. Fleeing residents were sometimes shot down in the streets. Many survivors report low-flying planes, some raining down bullets or inflammables.
