understand that. that s a lot of land for a small geographical area. it s a lot of land to own. the most important part of the story of black people here in oklahoma is the black land ownership. as a descendant of a creek freedman, i believe land is power, land is wealth, land is really the core of black entrepreneurship. you had two types of blacks in oklahoma. you had those freedmen. then you had state blacks. state blacks came to oklahoma looking for the promise land. there was a movement called boosterism.
Last modified on Mon 31 May 2021 03.01 EDT
Earlier this month, the three known survivors of the 1921 Tulsa massacre testified in Congress about the world they lost when a white mob burned their thriving community to the ground. âThe neighborhood I fell asleep in that night was rich â not just in terms of wealth, but in culture, community and heritage,â said Viola Fletcher, who was visiting the US capital for the first time in her 107 years. âWithin a few hours, all of that was gone.â
After being willfully suppressed from the national memory for close to a century, in many ways the history of the massacre is now more visible than ever â in media, popular culture and even the US Capitol. But this history, and the question of who has the right to tell it, remain contested. That is true even in Tulsa itself, where Black Tulsans say official centennial commemorations have obscured its lingering effects on their community and failed to meaningfully involve d