Proposal for Tulsa Funding Board

Proposal for Tulsa Funding Board

For several decades, blacks arrived in Tulsa fleeing the horrors of the southern states. One hundred years ago, black seminoles arrived (fugitive slaves who allied themselves and married the natives), expelled at gunpoint from their lands in Florida. Together they forged a new community of 15,000 inhabitants north of the city, called the Greenwood district or the "Little Africa".

Most residents of that black community daily crossed the railroad tracks separating Greenwood from the white city of South Tulsa, where they went to worse jobs or domestic work. The strict segregation of that time forced the Negroes of "Little Africa" ​​to create their own commercial district on Greenwood Avenue. Proponents of black capitalism called it "Black Wall Street" (referring to New York's famous financial center).There were cinemas, jewelry stores, a newspaper, three markets, several restaurants and a bus company owned by black owners. There were 15 black doctors, three law firms and several black churches.

However, the Tulsa Tribune and the white racists of South Tulsa called the community "Niggertown."

On May 31, 1921, a white mob killed as many as 300 people, most of them black, after a black man was accused of assaulting a white elevator operator. Over two days, white mobs set fire to homes, businesses and churches in Greenwood, a thriving African-American business district known at the time as the Black Wall Street of America. When the smoke cleared, the area lay in ruins. Many blacks left and never returned

Suffer & Horror

It is not usual for attacks like those in this case to be finally punished, not only as perpetuations, but specifically because of their xenophobic and racist nature.

“When it occurred and the reason it was so devastating to me was that I had never been made aware of discrimination and hatred,” says Olivia Hooker survivor of the Tulsa Race Riot.

24 hours after the attack, when the smoke dissipated the result was tragic, about 1.5 million in damages, about 300 people killed and thousands of families homeless, with nowhere to go or help to turn to.

Retribution?

American politics has been merely racist, slavery, indigenous genocide, systematic and institutional racial segregation. American racism is palpable in all walks of life, attacks on blacks and Latinos, Muslims and Jews, groups of white supremacy as ku klux klan persist and grow in the United States.

The US government considers the loss irremediable, but also analyzes the situation, to return the money that was invested in the Black wall street does not seem affordable at the moment. The crisis experienced in Tulsa may seem like a major conflict if it were to dissipate internationally. But wherever they are, human rights, housing, food, security, situations like this can re-emerge, and timely action must be taken before re-incurring human and financial losses.