You can't erase history

Refusing to Erase the Tragedies of U.S. History Terrance M. McKinley This week, we marked the 100th anniversary of one of the most horrific moments in American history: On May 31, 1921, white mobs burned to the ground the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Okla., an area commonly known as Black Wall Street. White neighbors killed Black residents in what became known as the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. That story — and many other accounts of Black success and self-determination confronted by malice, terrorism, and destruction — are hidden in the corners of history’s closet by a dominant culture that prefers silence over truth-telling. The events that sparked violence on that day: A young man, Dick Rowland, was accused of assaulting a white woman, Sarah Page, in an elevator. Mobs of white Tulsa residents pursued and attacked residents of Greenwood, killing hundreds, impacting thousands, burning down homes and businesses, and destroying the entire district in what has been described as the “single worst incident of racial violence in American history.” Page later wrote a letter exonerating Rowland. What happened on that day 100 years ago is one tragedy; another is the way that we in the United States have covered up this history. Our nation lives with the enduring legacy, the continued racialized and systematized violence against people of color — a result of its failure to repair and recompense the descendants of the massacre. We are in a state of emergency. READ THE FULL ARTICLE Forward Share

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