American History Tellers | Tulsa Race Massacre

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Episode 1: The Promised Land
Between 1838 and 1890, thousands of African Americans moved to Oklahoma, brought there as Cherokee slaves or drawn there by the promise of free land. Black pioneers established towns where African Americans could govern themselves and thrive in community together, and in time, Oklahoma became known as “The Promised Land” of freedom, dignity, and economic self-sufficiency. Out of this movement, the wealthiest African American community in the nation was born. By 1921, the Tulsa neighborhood of Greenwood had become such a hotspot of entrepreneurship that it became famous as “Negro Wall Street.”
But the Greenwood community lived uneasily in the racist, corrupt, lawless oil boomtown of Tulsa. On a hot May day in 1921, a young shoeshine boy would step into an elevator with a teenage white girl and accidentally spark the worst incident of racial violence in America -- a massacre that would be kept secret for decades.
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[@billnye9552]

This place sounded amazing. I'm white, but I really wish I could have seen this place. I bet it must have been beautiful. Its so sad that I am now only hearing about this. I'm not American but this, this town is what America should have become. Hopefully because of this movement we are living in, we finally remove the plauge that racism is.

[@Methadone4Life]

I agree totally. It must have been beautiful...horrifying story.

[@alicassidy8913]

I'm white as well and have never heard of this... Completely sad and disgusting

[@fonqstarr3636]

@@alicassidy8913 i live there . the city put a freeway thru it , a college campus and a baseball field .

[@lovesyah4618]

Racism won't end until the Creator ends it. Facts

[@k.m2123]

I absolutely agree!

[@YoYo-gt5iq]

Skip ad at 18:56 and 33:58

[@fonqstarr3636]

fell on the exact same day 100yrs ago

[@Walkercolt1]

There never was and isn't now a "Drexel(l) Bldg." in the City of Tulsa. The incident took place in the Brown-Dunkin Bldg. which is still there. It was a Department Store Chain based in Arkansas in the 1920's. I gave-up listening at 30 minutes as there was hardly any facts and myths about aeroplanes machine gunning and bombing in Tulsa in 1921. That would have been something to see, since the US. Army and Navy didn't have aeroplanes that could drop bombs or carry machineguns in 1921 much less private planes!!! You can't just carry a 65 pound machinegun plus 45 pounds of ammunition up into just ANY aeroplane and fire it! You will rip the aeroplane's frame apart IF the aeroplane could LIFT the extra WEIGHT of the gun and ammo into the air, which isn't likely in 1921.

[@fonqstarr3636]

this is the most truth ive heard about the black natives land . nobody talks about where the money came from . Oil

[@jamespatrick6509]

I was curious to know what triggered this Tulsa riot after hearing about it four days and days. The press never told the whole truth of the story and left parts out, so I went to Wikpedia a page that I found always writes the truth and this is how the white people rioted back in those days. "The massacre began during the Memorial Day weekend after 19-year-old Dick Rowland, a Black shoeshiner, was accused of assaulting Sarah Page, the 17-year-old White elevator operator of the nearby Drexel Building. He was taken into custody. After the arrest, rumors spread through the city that Rowland was to be lynched. Upon hearing reports that a mob of hundreds of White men had gathered around the jail where Rowland was being kept, a group of 75 Black men, some of whom were armed, arrived at the jail in order to ensure that Rowland would not be lynched. The sheriff persuaded the group to leave the jail, assuring them that he had the situation under control. A shot was fired, and then, according to the reports of the sheriff, "all hell broke loose." At the end of the firefight, 12 people were killed: 10 White and 2 Black. As news of these deaths spread throughout the city, mob violence exploded.[2] White rioters rampaged through the Black neighborhood that night and the next morning, killing men and burning and looting stores and homes. Around noon on June 1, the Oklahoma National Guard imposed martial law, effectively ending the massacre." I would venture to say that viewing the BLM protests in 2020 back in 1921 we had a case of White Lives Matter.

[@holynickskates]

This why we don't let babies use the internets. 12 people were killed at the jail.... are we watching the same video or nah?

[@edpiv2233]

There are always two sides of every story. Sadly, during those times black were frequently abused. This is an event to remember but no excuse for BLM riots. Black overcame so much during those times and the historical barriers are not there the modern world.

[@jamespatrick6509]

@@holynickskates Yall, it was a case of Black Supremacy I suspect!

[@sianpearson9927]

@@jamespatrick6509 You talk bollocks.

[@pigmeattwo]

Read James Patrick's post below, about the courthouse massacre that likely led to the destruction of Greenwood.