TRUMP TO VISIT TULSA ON “JUNETEENTH”

…An old photo taken after the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

One more item to add to the demonstrations for social injustice for the death of George Floyd

It was 99 years ago in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that there was a race massacre.  That is the place that President Trump is going to re-start his election campaign on Juneteenth .  If you are not aware, Juneteenth is the day that a festival is held annually on the nineteenth of June by many African Americans.  This is especially done in most of our southern states, to commemorate the black’s emancipation from slavery on that day in 1865.

All this is happening, as Americans' today demonstrate over racial injustice, and it’s happening after many days of protests.  Last week also marks the 99th anniversary of one of the worst acts of racial violence this country has ever seen.  And it happened in 1921, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

As expected, the White House Press Secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, has defended President Trump's decision to restart his election campaign rallies next week in Tulsa, Okla., on Juneteenth, calling the holiday marking the emancipation of slaves very "meaningful" for the president....? 

This year was the 99th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, that also comes amid nationwide demonstrations sparked by the death of George Floyd.  Who could forget the video of the 46-year-old unarmed black man who died last week at the hands of white police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

While Floyd's name along with his repeated plea, "I can't breathe," have been used by thousands of protesters, the victims' names of the Tulsa race massacre have been rarely spoken as the incident went unmentioned for decades in classrooms across the state of Oklahoma.

Here's how the massacre, also known as the Tulsa Race Riot, unfolded.

In the 1920s, the Greenwood District in Tulsa was referred to as the, "Black Wall Street".  This local community boasted more than 300 black-owned businesses, including two theaters, doctors, pharmacists and even a pilot who owned his own private airplane.

The success of this black community, however, caused some white people in Tulsa to become envious and angry.  This is according to Mechelle Brown, the Director of Programs at the Greenwood Cultural Center.

The local whites back then had commented, "'How dare these negroes have a grand piano in their house, and I don't have a piano in my house'," Brown told this to CNN and the media back in 2016.

The problem in 1921 all started with an elevator encounter.

It reached its tipping point after an incident between a 17-year-old white girl named Sarah Page and a 19-year-old black man named Dick Rowland.

Page worked as an elevator operator and Rowland would use the elevator almost every day.

"This particular day after the elevator doors closed and Sarah Page and Dick Rowland were alone in the elevator a few moments, and there was a scream," Director Brown said.

After the elevator doors opened, Roland ran out , but was later arrested.  Page had initially claimed that she was assaulted by Rowland.

Other historic accounts say Rowland had tripped leaving the elevator, he grabbed Page's arm, where she screamed and an onlooker reported that to the local police.

While Page never pressed charges against Rowland, the authorities did press charges, and by the end of the day the rumor had grown that Ms. Page had been raped by Rowland.

On that day, a group of black and white men confronted each other at the courthouse where Roland was being held. After shots were fired, all hell broke loose and white armed mobs formed and they stormed Greenwood the next morning.

Outnumbered African Americans that had retreated to the Greenwood District were attacked by the mob.  Early that morning, the white mob started to loot and burn the businesses in Greenwood.

In a span of just 24 hours, 35 square blocks were burned down and over 1,200 homes were destroyed.  Initial reports of deaths began at 36, but local historians now believe as many as 300 people died.

The photo above shows the aftermath of the white mobs that attacked black residents and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa.

At the end of the violence, Black Wall Street had obviously been destroyed.  Additional photos showed dead African American residents lying in the streets.

By the way, this disastrous scene was recreated in the first episode of an HBO series called “Watchman”.

Of course, for years this fact was totally absent from the Oklahoma history books.

In the decades following the 1921 massacre, it was largely unacknowledged.

"Oklahoma schools did not talk about it. In fact, newspapers didn't even print any information about the Tulsa Race Riot, " US Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma told this to a CNN affiliate in 2018. "It was completely ignored.  It was one of those horrible events that every local white person wanted to sweep under the rug and forget."

An African-American man with a camera even took photos of the skeletons of the iron bed frames which rose above the ashes of a burned-out block of Greenwood, after the Tulsa Race Riot.

Oklahoma leaders announced just this last February that the state would move forward with embedding the story of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre into the curriculum of all Oklahoma schools.

The city of Tulsa continues to investigate what happened to the victims' bodies and they have been digging up local areas, looking for the mass graves that were used for Negros at that time.

Unfortunately, many of the same issues of racial injustice stand today in Tulsa.

And our less than knowledgeable US president is going to visit Tulsa this month.  For some reason, he has chosen to use the anniversary of the black's emancipation from slavery for his election campaign.  Only Donald Trump would have the lack of sensitivity to make such a move.

But it doesn’t stop there.  It was just reported that Trump is having anybody that attends his coming events, sign a waiver that they won’t hold the government responsible if they come down with Covid-19 after attending his events.

That’s the latest  news about President Trump..

Copyright G. Ater 2020