Chris Polansky / KWGS News
TULSA, Okla. (AP) Hundreds gathered Monday for an interfaith service dedicating a prayer wall outside historic Vernon African Methodist Episcopal Church in Tulsa’s Greenwood neighborhood on the centennial of the first day of one of the deadliest racist massacres in the nation.
National civil rights leaders, including the Revs. Jesse Jackson and William Barber, joined multiple local faith leaders offering prayers and remarks outside the church that was under construction and largely destroyed when a white mob descended on the prosperous Black neighborhood in 1921, burning, killing, looting and leveling a 35-square-block area. Estimates of the death toll range from dozens to 300.
One hundred years ago, violent white mobs launched a horrific siege on the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Okla., a predominantly Black business and residential district that came to be known as âBlack Wall Streetâ for its cultural and economic prowess in the 1910s.
Captured Negros on Way to Convention Hall - During Tulsa Race Riot, June 1st, 1921. Place: Greenwood District, Tulsa, Oklahoma | (Photo credit: DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University)
Following unfounded accusations that a Black man, Dick Rowland, had assaulted a white woman, Sarah Page, white Tulsans retaliated by taking up arms and attacking the Greenwood District. From May 31 to Jun. 1, 1921, they destroyed 35 city blocks, burned homes, looted, demolished businesses, schools, churches and a hospital and murdered and maimed hundreds of Black residents. Some scholars estimate 300 people were killed and 800 people were wounded. Tulsa resident Buck Colbert Franklin wrote of aerial attacks in his eyewitnes
Tulsa massacre 100 years later: Hundreds gather at historic church s prayer wall
By Peter Smith
Tulsa massacre 100 years later
A somber ceremony took place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Monday to mark the centennial of one of the darkest days in U.S. history: the beginning of the Tulsa race massacre.
TULSA, Okla. (AP) - Hundreds gathered Monday for an interfaith service dedicating a prayer wall outside historic Vernon African Methodist Episcopal Church in Tulsa s Greenwood neighborhood on the centennial of the first day of one of the deadliest racist massacres in the nation.
National civil rights leaders, including the Revs. Jesse Jackson and William Barber, joined multiple local faith leaders offering prayers and remarks outside the church that was under construction and largely destroyed when a white mob descended on the prosperous Black neighborhood in 1921, burning, killing, looting and leveling a 35-square-block area. Estimates of the death toll range from dozens to 300.
Biden remarks to follow tour, meeting
Following his tour and meeting with survivors, Biden is scheduled to give remarks at 3:15 p.m.
Per the White House, he is scheduled to depart Tulsa at 4:50 p.m.
Biden issues proclamation for massacre to be a day of remembrance
A day before his scheduled visit to Tulsa, Biden issued a proclamation stating the must reckon with and acknowledge the role that it has played in stripping wealth and opportunity from Black communities.
Here s the president s proclamation in full:
One hundred years ago, a violent white supremacist mob raided, firebombed, and destroyed approximately 35 square blocks of the thriving Black neighborhood of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Families and children were murdered in cold blood. Homes, businesses, and churches were burned. In all, as many as 300 Black Americans were killed, and nearly 10,000 were left destitute and homeless. Today, on this solemn centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre, I call on the American
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