100 years after Tulsa Race Massacre, the damage remains
This article is provided courtesy of the Associated Press.
A burned blook in the Greenwood District is seen after the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in Tulsa, Ok. (Tulsa Historical Society and Museum)
May 25, 2021
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Not her body. She had left this Earth 18 years ago, at age 100. But on this day, three generations of her family brought Ernestine’s keepsakes back to this place which meant so much to her. A place that was, like their matriarch, a survivor of a long-ago atrocity.
Albums containing black-and-white photos of the grocery business that has employed generations of Gibbses. VHS cassette tapes of Ernestine reflecting on her life. Ernestine’s high school and college diplomas, displayed in not-so-well-aged leather covers.
The Tulsa Race Massacre is just one of the starkest examples of how Black wealth has been sapped, again and again, by racism and racist violence forcing generation after generation to start from scratch while shouldering the burdens of being Black in America.
Okla. Delegation Highlights Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial In Congressional Resolution
A resolution was introduced Tuesday in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate to honor the centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Rep. Kevin Hern (OK-01) introduced the resolution in the House and Sen. James Lankford introduced in the Senate.
The resolution, backed by all Oklahoma’s congressional delegates, honors the vibrant history of Black Wall Street and recognizes the tragic destruction of the Greenwood district as the worst race massacre in the history of the nation.
The resolution calls for the Tulsa Race Massacre to be taught in schools across the country.
Oklahoman
A day-long event as part of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commemoration will focus on economic empowerment and closing the wealth gap between Black and other Americans.
Taking place June 1 at Tulsa s Cox Convention Center and online for those who can t make it in person, Economic Empowerment Day was designed to create a collective focal point for the national conversation on the racial wealth gap and inequality in access to capital.
The event will include interactive sessions to drive change and catalyze the national dialogue for economic justice.
“Hosting an economic empowerment conference of this caliber with a critical focus on closing the Black wealth gap is transformational,” said Phil Armstrong, project director of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission. “This discussion is essential to reviving the legacy of Black Wall Street and will help set the course for Black entrepreneurs to establish a legacy of wealth for themselves and ge