During a class discussion, the subject of 911 (September 11th) and the first attack on American soil. I then spoke up and reminded them of the Black Wallstreet. Not many of them had every heard about the burning and killing of a Black community. The first attack (s) on American soil went like this.
The Tulsa race riot of 1921 was a dark time in the history of Oklahoma. It all began with a simple misunderstanding, but had catastrophic consequences. Homes and businesses were destroyed, many African Americans and whites were killed, and Tulsa had lost its soul. In the beginning, Oklahoma was just a young state, and Tulsa was just a young town, trying to find its place in the world. The discovery of Oil quickly turned Tulsa into one of the most prosperous towns in America.
As the town prospered, so did its citizens, which included African Americans. It is an irony in that through racial segregation Greenwood Avenue became as successful as it was. It was necessary that African American businesses existed because they catered to the African American dollars that were being earned. The white businesses did not serve African Americans because of racial segregation.
The area was such a success that populations of other African Americans from around the country saw it as a beacon of hope. The new residents had a hard work ethic and helped build up North Tulsa into was it was, the Mecca for African Americans in the Southwest.
Riot Beginnings with all this prosperity and wealth many African Americans were happy but many whites saw this as a threat. They saw African Americans who prospered as a threat to their power to the way things use to be (African Americans being slaves, or children of them). Some African Americans had better homes and better jobs than some whites. Many in the White community could not stand for it. Hatred and resentment grew and it was adding fuel to the fire that was waiting to be sparked by a match. That match would eventually be lit when Dick Rowland a shoeshine boy, bumped into a white girl named Sarah Page. It was a trivial misunderstanding. Rowland accidentally steps on Miss Page’s shoe and she yelled. She then claimed that she was assaulted by Mr. Rowland.
The police picked up Rowland and placed him in jail. It was a known fact that many of the members of the Police department were members of the Ku Klux Klan and many in the African American community knew Rowland’s fate if he were left in the hands of these so called police officers. The African American citizens had to protect him from a lynching and the white citizens that wanted to lynch him.
A crowd of African Americans came to the steps of the police station were Rowland was jailed. They thought they would offer assistance in protecting Rowland from a gathering white mob. The police declined this offer and the African Americans left. As they were leaving the scene to return home, they ran into other concerned African Americans and with that crowd they headed back to the station because those African Americans had heard rumors that the white mob was growing.
They once again offered their assistance to the police and was again turned down. A white officer tried to disarm the crowd and came upon one African American man who refused to give up his gun and a struggled ensued. Gunfire broke out and once the smoke had settled two African Americans were dead along with ten white men. This was the match that was lit the fire. Violence was in the air that evening as fire and smoke lit up the night sky. That was the first terroristic act on American soil.
18th Century British Literature Ideology 