From:
slider@anashram.com
Brenda Alford stood at the spot where her grandfather’s business was
burned to the ground.
Why is Trump's comeback rally in Tulsa: the site of a massacre?
It was 99 years ago, on 31 May 1921, when a horde of white people in the
city of Tulsa, Oklahoma raided the prospering black neighbourhood of
Greenwood, firing indiscriminately on hundreds of black civilians and
torching the businesses, homes, hotels, churches and cinemas in what was
then known as “Black Wall Street”. It was an episode of white supremacist terror that has haunted this city ever since.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/19/tulsa-oklahoma-white-supremacist-massacre-trump-rally
“I do not feel anger,” Alford said, her feet inches from a black plaque, embedded in the concrete to mark the place where her grandfather’s shoe
store “Nails Brothers Shoes” once stood. Now there is just an empty lot that sits in front of a highway. “Because of the positivity they [my grandparents] instilled in us growing up… they had every reason to be
angry, to raise us to be negative people. But they didn’t.”
Alford had not known about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre until later in
life, after both her grandparents had passed away. But she heard fragments
of their memories; from her grandmother describing how she hid under a
church “for some reason”, to other elders pointing to a local cemetery as the place “they” dumped the bodies. But descriptions of the massacre
itself were never forthcoming.
Most of those black bodies, up to 300 people murdered in one of the most horrific single acts of racist violence in American history, have never
been found. Alford now chairs the local committee overseeing the search
for them. But as the coronavirus pandemic struck the United States in
early March, meticulously negotiated plans to excavate at a local cemetery
were put on indefinite hold.
Alford’s family did return and attempted to rebuild. But looking at Tulsa now, beyond Greenwood’s black plaques in the concrete, its brightly
coloured murals and ornate memorial parks, the economic legacy of the
massacre and decades of disenfranchisement in the aftermath is an
inescapable reality.
Tulsa is a hyper segregated city, where Greenwood now marks the borderline between the poorer northern section, that is mostly black, and the most prosperous southern sections, which are mostly white. 34% of black people
here live in poverty, compared with 13% of white people, according to
Human Rights Watch. African Americans are more than twice as likely to be arrested than white people.
‘Don’t come on this weekend and interrupt one of the most sacred holidays for black people in this state’
The city continues to endure the pandemic, as Covid-19 cases in Oklahoma
begin to surge once more. But while the search for these victims of the massacre is postponed by the virus, it has not prevented Donald Trump from visiting Tulsa.
The Trump campaign is scheduled to hold its first rally since the
coronavirus pandemic struck on Saturday, a day after the nation marks “Juneteenth” to commemorate the emancipation of slaves in Texas (slavery was not abolished nationwide until the 13th amendment was passed later in
the year). And the rally comes as the country continues to grapple with a renewed call for police reform in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, and just a few weeks after the 99th anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre.
The decision to hold a rally here has outraged many in the African
American community. It has seen some of those associated with bipartisan efforts to enshrine the history and lessons of the Tulsa massacre into
popular consciousness, speaking out in frustration.
“I think his actions speak for themselves,” said Oklahoma state senator Kevin Matthews, chair of the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission and
one of only two African American senators in the state. “If it were an accident then you could correct that. If you didn’t intend it, then don’t come on this weekend and interrupt one of the most sacred holidays for
black people in this state … it’s purposeful when you plan for people and not with them.”
“If you are an elected official for everyone, and if you respect us – then listen to us,” he said.
No black American was ever compensated for their losses. No white American
was ever charged
The massacre of 1921 occurred at the height of Jim Crow racial segregation
in the deep south and midwestern United States. It was sparked by clashes between a white lynch mob that formed outside Tulsa’s county jail
demanding custody of a 19-year-old African American named Dick Rowland – falsely accused of sexually assaulting a young white woman – and a small group of armed black people who came to defend him. It quickly descended
into nearly 24 hours of bloody chaos, where a thriving community of around 10,000 black people saw their lives and livelihoods destroyed by
conscripted whites acting on behalf of the state.
No black American was ever compensated for their losses. No white American
was ever charged over the incident. It was referred to as a “race riot” rather than a massacre until last decade.
“To have to lose everything the way they did,” said Brenda Alford, “and not to receive any restitution for it, was a situation that was horrible.
They lost their economic base and it was never replaced.”
State-based brutality against black residents continues to this day, with
many noting the parallels between past and present.
In May 2015, an unarmed 44-year-old African American man named Eric Harris
was shot and killed by a white reserve sheriff’s deputy, Robert Bates.
Bates, who was 73, was an untrained volunteer allowed to participate in an undercover sting and claimed he accidentally shot Harris after firing his personal revolver instead of a taser.
Body camera footage captured Harris’s last moments. As he writhed in pain
and complained he was losing his breath, another officer involved in the
arrest said: “Fuck your breath.”
Bates served less than two years in prison for manslaughter.
On a scorching afternoon this week Andre Harris, Eric’s brother, described watching the video 1,000 times in an effort to connect himself with his brother’s last seconds alive. His profound grief also connected him to history, and he pointed out that just as in 1921 when the sheriff’s office conscripted members of a lynch mob to wreak havoc in Greenwood, it was a volunteer white officer that killed his brother.
“Such disrespect for human life,” he said with reference to both events.
A year later, in the same city, 40-year-old Terrence Crutcher would become
the next unarmed black man to die at the hands of police in Tulsa. The
white officer who opened fire was acquitted at trial.
Andre Harris has planned a road trip to Los Angeles this weekend to avoid Donald Trump’s trip to his city. “I’m getting out to the nearest ocean and
I’m going to pray,” he said. “I’m tired of feeling that negative energy.”
On the 99th anniversary of the massacre, an act of violence’
At the BOK center in downtown Tulsa, around 70 Donald Trump supporters
have been camped out since the beginning of the week in a bid to secure a
spot at the rally. Some wore hats and pins depicting the confederate
battle flag, a symbol of America’s slave owning past. Concrete blocks have been erected at major intersections. On Thursday night, Tulsa’s mayor announced a night time curfew in the city as concerns around unrest
continue to mount. City public health officials have urged the campaign to postpone, citing fears of the uncontrollable spread of virus among
attendees.
Trump’s strategic communications director Marc Lotter, who strolled among supporters earlier in the week, flanked by two private security guards,
argued that the rally was “a great example of democracy”. He declined to answer if the president would accept moral responsibility should any rally
goer contract the virus.
### - lol i gots it wrong about trumpy warning against protesters raining
in HIS parade?
coz in truth he's deliberately holding his rally there in order to rain on THEIR parade re the massacre!?
this is all in very bad taste really no? a quite deliberate slap in the
faces of the BLM movement, and lol couldn't really be any MORE offensive
than if they'd held a kkk meeting right where mr floyd was murdered??
am hoping that the african americans can hold their temper and just stay
away, not because they're scared but because they have more sense? they
can be content, for example, that the whole world is currently avidly
watching and that all this will perforce go into the history books as a
very damning indictment of crimes against humanity...
otoh, maybe this will be the straw that finally + REALLY breaks the camels
back forever? like maybe half a million or more angry blacks turning up
from all over and completely fuckin' wrecking his rally AND tulsa and
burning that shit to the ground! (could happen!)
and if trumpy orders the troops to go in and start shooting 'em, those
troops might just refuse to go? that army chief the other day for example, basically apologising for that photo-op session outside the WH, saying he regrets being there? (iow: he wouldn't do that again!)
in which case the army could just turn him down and refuse to go in... and
then what???
i honestly hope it doesn't come to this, but will stock up on popcorn &
cola just in case heh ;)
this could be the one!
let's see...
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)