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The Tulsa Massacre Was Just the Tip of the Iceberg (1473 hits)


The Tulsa Massacre Was Just the Tip of The Iceberg
Junious Ricardo Stanton

“For the first time anyone could remember, black men took out weapons and fired back. Whites returned fire in volley after volley.”- Description of one of several race riots in Philadelphia from the book Tasting Freedom Octavius Catto and the Battle for Equality in Civil War America by Daniel R. Biddle and Murray Dubin page113.

As we pause to remember and reflect on the centennial anniversary of the May 31, 1921 riot and massacre that occurred in the Greenwood section of Tulsa Oklahoma, we have to put that vicious terroristic event into proper historical perspective. The white rioting looting, plunder and murder that occurred on May 31, 1921 was not the only attack of its kind that happened in America; in fact it was characteristic of the racial animus that permeated this society for centuries!

The planned and coordinated Tulsa Oklahoma act of genocide is part of the suppressed history of violence perpetrated on people of African decent in this country, whether it was on individuals (see the book Without Sanctuary Lynching Photography in America), families, neighborhoods and communities. This is the history US history books ignore and eschew teaching and discussing; it’s what opponents of “critical race theory” want to keep secret and unknown.

But truth crushed to earth shall rise again and that brutal history will become known. The truth is, within five years the Blacks who remained and returned in Tulsa had rebuilt Greenwood bigger and more prosperous than it was at the time of the massacre.

The April 2021 edition of Smithsonian magazine www.smithsonianmag.com has several articles on the Tulsa Massacre and in 2019; BET News did an article on not just Tulsa but a handful of other communities that experienced devastating racial and politically motivated violence. https://www.bet.com/news/national/2019/12/... That article only mentioned: Colfax Louisiana 1873, Wilmington North Carolina 1898, Atlanta Georgia 1906, Elaine Arkansas 1919, Rosewood Florida 1923, but there is so much more.

As enlightening as this information is, it omits places like Philadelphia that experienced annual race riots from 1829 to 1844, or white mob violence in East St Louis Illinois and Houston Texas in 1917 or numerous white instigated urban riots in 1919 part of a wide ranging pattern of racial violence and attacks by whites against Blacks following WWI.

“‘The Red Summer’ of 1919 marked the culmination of steadily growing tensions surrounding the great migration of African Americans from the rural South to the cities of the North that took place during World War I. When the war ended in late 1918, thousands of servicemen returned home from fighting in Europe to find that their jobs in factories, warehouses and mills had been filled by newly arrived Southern Black people or immigrants. Amid financial insecurity, racial and ethnic prejudices ran rampant. Meanwhile, African-American veterans who had risked their lives fighting for the causes of freedom and democracy found themselves denied basic rights such as adequate housing and equality under the law, leading them to become increasingly militant…In this fraught atmosphere, the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan organization revived its violent activities in the South, including 64 lynchings in 1918 and 83 in 1919. In the summer of 1919, race riots would break out in Washington, D.C.; Knoxville, Tennessee; Longview, Texas; Phillips County, Arkansas; Omaha, Nebraska and–most dramatically–Chicago. The city’s African American population had increased from 44,000 in 1909 to more than 100,000 as of 1919. Competition for jobs in the city’s stockyards was particularly intense, pitting African Americans against whites (both native-born and immigrants). Tensions ran highest on the city’s South Side, where the great majority of Black residents lived, many of them in old, dilapidated housing and without adequate services.” https://www.history.com/topics/black-histo...

We are woefully ignorant of not only our own history as Black people but also the foul history of this country when it comes to its treatment of indigenous peoples and people of color. We do not have time to get caught up in the whining of Negroes and whites fearful of the truth. The truth will make us free, free to do the necessary work to rid ourselves of the fear and hostility deeply rooted in this nation’s history, free to personally and collectively transform ourselves into better human beings who can create a better world; but until we know the truth we are inextricably doomed to repeat that sordid history generation after generation.
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Posted By: Junious Stanton
Monday, May 31st 2021 at 10:47AM
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Junious, when and how should this type of history be taught in K-12, do you think?

Monday, May 31st 2021 at 3:10PM
Steve Williams
It should be included in the true history about this country, which for the most part is not taught. It should be included in books like Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States or Roxanne's Dunbar-Ortiz's An Indigenous People's History of the United States. What we are taught in school is pure indoctrination/propaganda from the ruling class' perspective to make sure we continue to serve as their zombified cannon fodder and cheap labor. In a society based on deceit the truth is a rare commodity so it is up to us to teach and share the truth however and wherever we can.
Monday, May 31st 2021 at 3:29PM
Junious Stanton
Over the years I've heard about the Tulsa Massacre many times but I still haven't heard anything that makes sense of the incident that sparked it. What really happened in the elevator?

Monday, May 31st 2021 at 4:34PM
Steve Williams
No one really knows. They do know the elevator malfunctioned and they think it was caught between floors, the boy climbed out but the girl screamed. They said he attacked her. The girl refused to press charges but the mob was looking for any excuse to lynch another Black man. When the word spread around town 60 or so Black men went to the courthouse to prevent the lynching. There was a confrontation, shots were fired and all hell broke loose. The whites used that to justify looting, burning, plunder and murder. The mayor was a member of the KKK and the police and sheriff deputized mob members who went on a killing spree while the white newspapers and telegraph promoted the riot and called for others to come to Tulsa. The National Guard didn't get there until two days and the damage was done by the time they arrived. After that town of Tulsa covered up the crimes and suppressed the history.
Monday, May 31st 2021 at 4:47PM
Junious Stanton
I like this topic because I want to know more about our great past and the blessing is, we still have Eye Witnesses to the FACTS of this great loss, that vicious terroristic event into proper historical perspective and should be taught in our public school as early as the second year in High School.

As I read on, I remember this was not the first time, something like what happened here in The United States of America.

COLFAX, LOUISIANA, MASSACRE (1873) WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA, MASSACRE (1898)

ATLANTA MASSACRE (1906) ELAINE, ARKANSAS, MASSACRE (1919)

ROSEWOOD, FLORIDA, MASSACRE (1923)

If you really take a closer look, you may find BIG MONEY in the background and just take a guess who is making all of the MONEY from all of this?

Monday, May 31st 2021 at 9:27PM
Dea. Ron Gray Sr.
The real tragedy is that the consciousness ,the values and immorality that produced these horrific events is still alive and well in this country. Until this mentality is replaced with empathy and humane values things will not change on deeper more meaningful levels.
Tuesday, June 1st 2021 at 12:11AM
Junious Stanton
Ron, what will be the effect of teaching this history to young people 16 years of age? I think teaching critical race theory is dangerous. It creates a permanent viscious cycle. Everyone will just keep hating everyone else. There's plenty of opportunity to learn about the Tulsa Massacre in college for those who are so inclined. Most of America would rather move forward.

Tuesday, June 1st 2021 at 10:01AM
Steve Williams
And let's just whitewash the whole Tulsa Oklahoma Massacre like it never happened, is that right Steve? Do you know how long since this Tulsa Oklahoma Massacre took place? Now you want to put this behind you, when we are still talking the same things about freedom and Equal Rights to this very day. Never Stop until this mission is complete.
Tuesday, June 1st 2021 at 11:40AM
Dea. Ron Gray Sr.
Ron, the murder that was committed 100 years ago today hasn't changed from one year ago today. But you definitely have ramped up the race war from June 1, 2020 to June 1, 2021.

Tuesday, June 1st 2021 at 2:22PM
Steve Williams
One could say that last summer black mobs murdered white business owners. Should we say that Ron?

Tuesday, June 1st 2021 at 2:25PM
Steve Williams
A Rogue group of black men never Indiscriminately went down the streets shooting White men, women and children in the head and burning 🔥 down the White neighborhoods based on LIES and that is what’s fueling these White Hate heathens Groups today.




Tuesday, June 1st 2021 at 3:27PM
Dea. Ron Gray Sr.
None of "these White Hate heathens Groups today" are doing anything remotely like the Tulsa Massacre. That's why you have to try so hard to bring the hundred year past into the present. Biden's speech today in Tulsa was revolting, didn't you see Ron?

Tuesday, June 1st 2021 at 6:27PM
Steve Williams
Those are the same hedonistic type attitude that attack the US Capitol building on January 6th. I bet you thought you never see that happen in your lifetime neither, now did you?

Those Attitudes are here, well and alive.


Tuesday, June 1st 2021 at 6:57PM
Dea. Ron Gray Sr.
Ron, the January 6 riot happened because the 2020 election was fraudulent. Biden could not possibly have won without weaponizing COVID-19, in collusion with CHINA. From that underlying fraud corollary frauds like mail-in voting etc. were deployed. You will never be forgiven for your multitudinous lies and deceits.


Tuesday, June 1st 2021 at 7:48PM
Steve Williams
Are you serious? More people today on both side of the political divide, are waking up to the fact that Trump has been lying to them from day one and they don’t like it. Republicans, Ronald Reagan Republicans are running for the hills from the republican party because they don’t believe what they republican party has turned into following Trump’s BIG LIE Which you have shown you no proof of, to the date.

Steve, have you seen any proof of the stolen 2020 election yet?




Tuesday, June 1st 2021 at 8:26PM
Dea. Ron Gray Sr.
Was the China Virus weaponized? Of course it was Ron. It was released by President Xi as a weapon and it was happily picked up and used as a weapon against American Democracy by Biden. Shame on you Ron, SHAME! You actually think we forget how until the pandemic Biden and all the Democrats were convinced they had zero chance in 2020. James Clyburn that devious One, saw the opportunity first and seized on it


Tuesday, June 1st 2021 at 9:49PM
Steve Williams
That weaponized weapon was also kept silenced for months by TRUMP, when TRUMP knew about the dangers of this mass killing Virus for months but yet TRUMP still fueled the flames that killed BLACK people mostly.

Why do you support these actions, Steve?





Tuesday, June 1st 2021 at 11:09PM
Dea. Ron Gray Sr.
You know that's a load of crap Ron. By your reasoning Trump is responsible for India too. No Ron, you know Biden's current occupancy is a complete fluke.

Wednesday, June 2nd 2021 at 12:10AM
Steve Williams
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