Burning Tulsa: The Legacy of Black Dispossession

The term “race riot” does not adequately describe the events of May 31 – June 1, 1921 in Greenwood, a black neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The historical record documents a sustained and murderous assault on black lives and property.

 

“I want you to think about wealth in this country. Who has it? Who doesn’t? A study by the Pew Research Center found that, on average, whites have 20 times the wealth of blacks. Why is that? When there’s a question that puzzles you, you must investigate.”

“It’s a nontraditional curriculum for a language arts teacher, but I aim to teach students to connect the dots about big ideas that matter in their lives — and I use both history and literature to explore injustice.”

“Forgetting about what happened and burying it without dealing with it is why we still have problems today.”

 

Community Village‘s insight:

 

Did you learn about this in high school, or college?

See on www.huffingtonpost.com

Walker’s “Appeal”

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“Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in particular, and very expressly, to those of the United States of America”(1829) by David Walker, a free Black American, was a forceful condemnation of slavery and racism. In America it was a guiding light for Blacks. It radicalized Whites. It was banned in the South.”

 

 

Community Village‘s insight:

 

I grew up going to majority White churches.

 

I never heard a mumbling word about racism or oppression.

 

@getgln

See on abagond.wordpress.com

“It was kind of like slavery”

 

“Backbreaking labor, vicious beatings, unmarked graves, childhoods lost—five men return to the scene of their nightmares.

 

Dozier was unforgiving whatever your skin color. But the white kids were given vocational work while the blacks did grunt labor. (The school profited from both.) “It was brutal work,” Huntly says. “We were out there in the cold cutting cane and planting peas and pulling corn. I was admitted to the third grade when I was there, and I spent two years and about four months there, and the day I left I was still in the third grade. So that’s the kind of education I got.”

 

 

Community Village‘s insight:

 

Archaeologists have found 55 burials – 24 more than previously documented.

See on www.motherjones.com

The Destruction of Black Wall Street

 

“Greenwood, Oklahoma, a suburb of Tulsa, was the type of community that African Americans are still, today, attempting to reclaim and rebuild.  It was modern, majestic, sophisticated and unapologetically…”

 

Linda Christenson writes the following:

 

“The term “race riot” does not adequately describe the events of May 31—June 1, 1921 in Greenwood… In fact, the term itself implies that both blacks and whites might be equally to blame for the lawlessness and violence. The historical record documents a sustained and murderous assault on black lives and property. This assault was met by a brave but unsuccessful armed defense of their community by some black World War I veterans and others.

 

During the night and day of the riot, deputized whites killed more than 300 African Americans. They looted and burned to the ground 40 square blocks of 1,265 African American homes, including hospitals, schools, and churches, and destroyed 150 businesses. White deputies and members of the National Guard arrested and detained 6,000 black Tulsans who were released only upon being vouched for by a white employer or other white citizen. Nine thousand African Americans were left homeless and lived in tents well into the winter of 1921.
Read more at EBONY http://www.ebony.com/black-history/the-destruction-of-black-wall-street-405#ixzz2ttGF3GVa
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See on www.ebony.com

Last Night on Jeopardy No One Wanted to Answer Qs About Black History

Happy Black History Month, everyone, courtesy of last night’s all-white College Jeopardy panel! In the second round of play, the contestants sailed through five of the categories–including “International Cinema Showcase,” “Weather Verbs,” and “Kiwi Fauna”–but avoided the sixth like the, ahem, black plague. That category was “African-American History.”

See on jezebel.com

White American racism against Blacks: 1600s

 

By the 1610s the plantation system in Virginia was in place – before Blacks arrived in numbers. Whites grew tobacco and other crops using forced gang labour.

 

Working conditions:

  • pay: little to nothing
  • housing: separate, substandard
  • food: poor.
  • punishment: whippings, maiming
  • term of service: generally four to seven years.

 

…”
See on abagond.wordpress.com

Marlon Brando’s Eulogy: Black Panther Bobby Hutton Funeral, 1968

 

“Marlon Brando’s eulogy at the funeral of 17-year-old Black Panther member Bobby Hutton in San Francisco in 1968.

Brando’s participation in the Black American civil rights movement actually began well before King’s death. In the early 1960s, he contributed thousands of dollars to both the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (S.C.L.C.) and to a scholarship fund established for the children of slain Mississippi N.A.A.C.P. leader Medgar Evers.”
See on www.youtube.com

Harriet Tubman: A Great Liberator and A Great Woman

Harriet Tubman: A Great Liberator and A Great Woman Harriet Tubman quotes, a glimpse of her story: I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductor…

See on failuretolisten.com

Harvest of Empire – YouTube

 

“Harvest of Empire is a gripping documentary that reveals the political and social roots that have driven millions to migrate from Latin America to the United States”

 
See on www.youtube.com

Investigations Force Feds to Revisit Murders of Civil Rights Era – COLORLINES

There were many more killings than those of activists. A Louisiana black businessman’s murder is the latest case reporters have reopened.

See on colorlines.com