100 years of Tulsa Massacre

 

Introduction:

“We do ourselves no favors by pretending none of this ever happened ..We should know the good, the bad, everything. That’s what great nations do: They come to terms with their dark sides”.

President Joe Biden recently recognized one of the worst incidents of racial hate in the country’s history, the only sitting American Head to do this.

Tulsa Massacre (May-June 1921) is one of the violent killings of the African – American by the hands of the whites, the killings which shocked the nation and the world.

Not only the well-to-do African Americans were killed mercilessly but also there was extensive damage done to their property.

Background :

Tulsa is a place which was founded by the descendants of slaves and was known as the habitat of the African American who suffered from the harsh Jim Crow Laws in pre-civil rights America. Later on, it was popularly known as the “Black Wall Street “ of the US.

However it seemed that when the community of color ,which suffered the decade long oppression, rose to the higher economic strata , caused a lot of displeasure and resulted in violent mass killings.

What was even shocking was that even after facing such lethal action they could not muster the courage to speak as they feared the reprisal and covered up the massacre. It was only in 2000, it was described in the Oklahoma Public School Curriculum.

Some Historians have argued that Tulsa City officials were not only instrumental in covering up the crimes but also shifted the focus from massacre to riots, putting the blame on the black community.

Later on, the 2001 report was submitted by the Tulsa Race Riot Commission which made it clear that things had been covered up.

Way Forward:

What comes ahead is that recognition is a first step and action should be streamlined to address the root causes of the disparity.

We often have heard of the movements like BLM where we saw a wide range of support provided by the noted people of the society, however, a lot is still to be done and one should focus more on reducing the discrimination through an effective policy measure, and a bottom-up approach will surely help in reducing such incidents.

This is one of the many episodes which has been put in lights, yet there are many more such cases that people are not talking about. It’s high time to consider humanity above all the discriminations.

(Credits: theintrovertseditorial.in )