Loading the player.
When our reporters met the Rev. Robert Turner in September, he was deep in the fight for reparations for the victims of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. Every Wednesday for two years, he’d marched from City Hall to the Historic Vernon African Methodist Episcopal Church, the church where he serves as pastor. He’d preach to anyone who would listen about the need to repair the harm done to the Black community – in Tulsa and across the country.
Now, as Tulsa commemorates the massacre’s centennial, we reconnect with Mr. Turner. He shares his frustrations over what he views as efforts to stall progress toward racial justice. He also talks about where he does see change, and what he hopes Tulsa can show the rest of the country.
How Tulsa is unburying – and confronting – a history of racism
Read full article
May 27, 2021, 3:51 AM·29 min read
On May 31 and June 1, 1921, a white mob – enraged by a rumor that a young Black man had assaulted a white woman – attacked the Black community of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The mob set fire to the district, looted businesses, killed Black residents, and displaced thousands.
It was one of the most devastating incidents of racist violence in U.S. history. And it stayed mostly unmentioned for decades.
Today, 100 years after what is now known as the Tulsa race massacre, the city is finally reckoning with its past. But the process is raising difficult questions. Some residents say such a horrific event needs to be brought forward and understood. Others, however, ask why the memory needs to be relived at all. Why commemorate it? Can’t the city just move on?
Loading the player.
On May 31 and June 1, 1921, a white mob – enraged by a rumor that a young Black man had assaulted a white woman – attacked the Black community of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The mob set fire to the district, looted businesses, killed Black residents, and displaced thousands.
It was one of the most devastating incidents of racist violence in U.S. history. And it stayed mostly unmentioned for decades.
Today, 100 years after what is now known as the Tulsa race massacre, the city is finally reckoning with its past. But the process is raising difficult questions. Some residents say such a horrific event needs to be brought forward and understood. Others, however, ask why the memory needs to be relived at all. Why commemorate it? Can’t the city just move on?