and i love what it could be. but tulsa has a truth problem. hiding the truth and people who will not challenge what is perceived to be true. what s keeping tulsa from being a great shining city on the hill is dealing with the legacy of the so-called tulsa race riot of 1921. white tulsans murdered black folks and were hastily trying to get rid of the bodies. by dumping them in mass graves around the city. many awful things were done to get rid of the bodies. in the late 1990s, senator maxine horner and my father,
the vast majority of people who lived in greenwood were not wealthy. but they had regular jobs in the white community and they had a regular paycheck in the white community. you ve got a lot of well to do white tulsans who will hire servants, cooks, domestic workers. they would collect their paycheck at the end of the week, and they would spend it back in greenwood. you know, in tulsa like in other southern cities, african-americans can t go into a department store and try on clothes. but they had been shopping in their own neighborhoods. so what happens is the merchants in greenwood have this captive population. and the money just flows and flows and flows.
black tulsans, white tulsans. it is all about perspective. white tulsans talked about greenwood as little africa. or niggelland. all of these four things were to be found in niggertown. booze, dope, bad niggers and guns. white tulsans could control what justice looks like, could control the narrative, could control whatever they want. the only reason black wall street existed was because of necessity. these people were not able to participate in the regular economy run by the dominant culture because of the segregation.
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 niggerland. 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