This is a documentary about the destruction of the Greenwood Neighborhood known as Black Wall Street in Tulsa on the 100 year anniversary of that event. Also the legacy of that event. An event that then like now started on a day that we remember those who died fighting for this country and the values that this country stand for. For most of the 100 years since the massacre this history wasn't known and was forgotten. It happened and for how painful it is is part of US history as much as D-Day and the victims of that massacre our part of our history as much as the war dead we remember today.
This was just a blatant example when people talk about generational wealth, communities being torn down and that is something that grand kids are pying for now and have been since. Westbrook also produced a documentary. Sad that I never learned this in school.
Yeah. I saw something about it where even the people in Oklahoma didn't learn about it in school. Sad stuff.
I watched a different one on the History Channel last night called Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre that Westbrook helped produce. It was a good documentary. I'll have to check that one out too. I honestly am disgusted that this wasn't in history books, especially in Oklahoma. I think they said it wasn't until 2019 that they started putting it in Oklahoma textbooks. It disgusts me how whitewashed our history books in school are in this country. All the stuff we never learned about, and the stuff we did that was so disturbingly painted in a different light. 40 square blocks destroyed with police encouragement in Tulsa! That was domestic terrorism like we've never witnessed in this country, and it wasn't even mentioned in our history books? Wow! That makes me angry, sad, and disgusted. I have so much more to learn. I feel robbed of so much of the truth from my own country. I will never understand the evil of racism. People of all religions, who could go to church in the morning then go lynch a slave in the afternoon, and be called fine southern gentlemen.
I learned this in school and this particular event isn't the only massacre of notoriety. I think Rosewood in Florida was very notable and of the undocumented ones persisted collectively and remain buried and lost in time.
Interesting how some people have gone through it and many havent. was it just your teature particualrly emphasizing it, do you remember it being in text books? I went through all the history requirementst up till college and didn't hear about this until the internet unfortunately too recently. I remember seeing a rile up from the texas government some feeling they made muslims look too..ok... and then other battles different associations have put in and taken out for texas education
I sure never learned that in high school in Texas. Lots of the dirty past has been covered up with the white version. Oh yeah, there are plenty of untold stories, bad and heroic.
The NYT has made a virtual model of Black Wall Street with a lot of info about what had been there. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/05/24/us/tulsa-race-massacre.html
Waiting for the typicals to come in and ask why we are opening old wounds and discussing history for no reason then just to hate white people.
The lack of history education on treatment of the black community after slavery through the eras of Black Codes and Jim Crow is why so many modern people respond to cries from the black community today with "slavery was over over a hundred years ago. Get over it." As if slavery was the last injustice done to the Black community in the United States.
the history channel one was produced by westbrook - cnn one by lebron. both worth watching, but i liked the history channel one better personally. did a better job of focusing on the overall history of greenwood imo. cnn one did show a lot of newspaper articles from the day that were pretty disturbing to read. it also focused more on current times and the legacy of the massacre. i had heard of the tulsa race riot, but was not really aware of the scope of it till HBO's watchmen came out. the cnn showed a quick graphic that gave the number of lynchings per state. i didnt catch the time-frame for the #'s (was it a year, 10 years?). but texas had over 300 and neighboring states like louisianna and arkansas had like 10. oklahoma had over 100. i read a couple texas history books recently that talked about an incident that i bet most houstonians never heard. during WWI the military had troops camped at memorial park. black troops were constantly getting harassed by houston cops and they rioted and killed a bunch of people after one of their fellow soldiers was beaten by a cop. i grew up in houston and only heard of this a couple years ago. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/ne...ory-of-Camp-Logan-11944840.php#photo-13862887 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston_riot_of_1917
It's crazy. Because, normally, I'm against the whole notion of not recognizing color. I think cultures and experiences should be recognized and celebrated. It's a way to combat racism. But when it comes to history, I'm the opposite. I don't think Black History should only be taught in February and only talk about a few incidents and few black historical figures. I feel like that makes it easy to segment the experience and treatment from the power structures in this country. I think history is history, it's not one group in this nation's history alone, it is the whole nation's history. EVERYBODY regardless of race is better off learning about these incidents, accomplishments, and contributions integrated into more than just one month of a brief mentions during regular Social Studies lessons. I feel like initially it will be shocking because people will be surprised they hadn't heard of this before. Over time it will be less shock and more part of the common historical knowledge of which a larger part of society is familiar. It won't erase racism. It might help provide a greater understanding and prevent some racism which would be a plus. No matter what, we should all be upset that somebody decided to omit these parts of history from our classes. Most of us have been cheated and deprived of knowledge for far too long.
I agree. If more people who were sheltered from truth had their eyes opened to it, it might help them have more sympathy and acceptance than simple screaming out to get over it and move on. It has always taken Civil Rights activists to bring attention to injustice.
Something related about why it's important to know this type of history. Growing up I knew very little about the history of Asian Americans in the US. My parents as first generation immigrants didn't know much about that history either. In school I learned that there were Chinese who built the Transcontinental Railroad and that Japanese Americans had been interred during WWII but not much else. What happened to the Chinese who built the railroads and to my parents' generations of Chinese was mostly a mystery. There was no mention of Indian Americans or other Asians besides Chinese and Japanese. As such it was easy to believe that Asian American experience was largely ahistorical. That my parent's and my generations were truly a model minority that could succeed without any awareness of the struggles that allowed us to even be a model minority in the first place. Learning about the Exclusion Acts, the denial of civil rights to Asians, the lynchings of Chinese, the destruction of Denver's Chinatown, how truly bad Japanese interment was and many many more things that aren't widely taught opened my eyes to what being Asian in this country really is. It showed me that the opportunities for success that my family had didn't just come out of nowhere but where earned by centuries of struggle and hardship. By people like Wong Ark Kim who fought so that I could be an American citizen, by Madame Chiang who convinced the US to help the Chinese in WWII that led to the lifting of the Exclusion Acts, to the 442nd Nisei Regiment that fought for this country even while their families were held in camps by the US government. A lot of this history was painful to know but knowing it made me feel more of an American and more tied to this country. Knowing that people like me weren't just interlopers who were just here to take advantage of education and economic opportunities getting by because we kept quiet and didn't get involved. Instead was part of people that had earned our place in this country and had a right to this country as much as someone's who's ancestors came off the Mayflower.
Well that's commendable and shouldn't be against anybody to not acquire particular historical knowledge. It almost seems like a bemused response. Not knowing the correct away to tie your shoes until your 20s parody?
