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The Incineration of Black Wall Street Remembered [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-05-31  

On April 11, 2023, federal, state, and local governmental agencies introduced 250 measures to outlaw the teaching of Critical Race Theory. Anti-CRT measures have been introduced in every state but Delaware. This is why the Tulsa Massacre is so important to remember. In 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma was plagued by white vigilantism and the lynching of black men. On the morning of May 31, 1921 a 19-year old black shoeshine boy walked onto an elevator operated by a young white woman named Sara Page. The shoeshine boy-Dick Rowland stepped on the young woman’s foot by accident, she screamed and the next day in the Tulsa Tribune newspaper reported the shoeshine boy tried to rape her. This sparked outrage among the white community and soon a lynch mob had gathered outside the city jail to remove Dick Rowland to hang him. Their efforts were unsuccessful and so they began to set a fire every black owned business in Tulsa.

Over 600 black businesses were completely destroyed by the white angry mob. 21 churches, 30 grocery stores, 21 restaurants, 1 hospital, 1, bank, 1 post office, 2 movie theaters,4 law offices, 4 hotels, and six airplanes and 4 hotels. The incineration of Black Wall Street went on for two whole days. 800 black people were injured with no hospital to go to and no police to protect them.

Imagine waking up one morning and the church you went to was leveled to dirt and ash. Many of the black entrepreneurs left Tulsa after the massacre. The black people who decided to stay in Tulsa were forced to spend the winter of 1921 and 1922 in tenets.

Today, survivors --109-year old Lessie Randall and 110-year old Viola Fletcher await a decision for the Oklahoma Supreme Court on their reparations case.

Today we remember Black Wall Street all over again.

Charles Micheaux

Atlanta*

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