In the 1920s, there was a Strong Black Community here in tulsa called greenwood. These people were the core of black entrepreneurship. People call it The Black Wall Street. Greenwood was like putting harlem, Bourbon Street, and Chocolate City all in one place. But White Tulsans talked about greenwood as Little Africa or [bleep] land. Tulsa was a powder keg, needing only something to set the community alight. Between 100 and 300 people, most of them black, were killed. Today we call it a massacre. They were hastily trying to get rid of the bodies by dumping them in mass graves around the city. We have tulsans of an undetermined number who were murdered. It should not have taken 99 years. Anybody who thinks that this crime scene is not going to speak doesnt have the ears to hear. The ancestors are awake and the earth is shaking. I came to tulsa when i was in the sixth grade. So thats been, whew, i dont know how many years. My mother is from oklahoma. There was a Strong Black Community in
again, more jim crow laws, more prejudice and more restrictions on their freedom that they fought for. after world war i, there are a number of incidences of black soldiers in uniform being lynched by white mobs. it s pretty stunning and remarkable. the idea is, we re going to show you what your place is. we don t care whether you ve fought for the country. when you re here, you play by our rules. the tulsa tribune published a series of inflammatory articles that really fomented hostility in the white community against the black community. tulsa was a powder keg or a tinderbox needing only something
so the next morning, tuesday, may 31st, the tulsa police decide we re going to pick up dick rowland. so they go to where he lives with his mother in greenwood, arrest him, take him to the courthouse and like as with other prisoners, put him up in the fourth-floor jail. the first edition of the tulsa tribune hits the streets around 3:00, 3:30. within 30 minutes there s lynch talks on the streets of tulsa. lynch talk soon turns into a lynch mob. meanwhile, black people are trying to figure out what s going on, what to do, how to organize. there was a feeling amongst black vets that if trouble comes my way, i ain t dodging it. in tulsa, there had not been an african-american lynched, and there were black men and women
Media are cultural artifacts — they reflect what is important to a society and what that society values for a particular period of time. It is useful in helping us
massacres in history. now this documentary takes a look at a revealing look at what happened on that tragic day. the tulsa tribune published a series of inflammatory articles. that really fomented against the black community. tulsa was a tinderbox, needing only something to set the community alight. be sure to tune in. it premiere on monday. you won t find paved roads or resorts on the georgia s coast largest barrier island,