The Tulsa Race Riot in 1921

Friday, I attended "Before They Die! a documentary chronicling the Tulsa Race Riot, and benefiting its survivors." The highlight of my experience was hearing Bishop Otis Clark speak. He was born February 13, 1904, four years before Oklahoma became a state. At the time it was Indian Territory. Bishop Otis is history and I am thankful for him because he never gave up on his freedom and encouraging the other survivors through the tragic Tulsa Race Riot.  He was not able to attend Friday’s event due to the weather in Dallas. He was driving from Dallas to Atlanta from a recent vacation on a cruise. He’s traveled to Africa twice on mission trips, when he was 103 and 104 years old and when he was 107 he went to the West Indies. Because he was not able to attend he was phoned in. His conversation was inspiring and motivating. He talked about having faith and not letting the devil stop us from succeeding and believing. Over and over he said, “Tell the devil to go back to hell where he belongs. The world is God’s and the devil does not belong here.” It’s always inspiring to meet someone that has experienced a tragic event like Bishop Otis and still have their faith. Many people give up when times are tough, but Bishop Otis and the other survivors kept their faith and continue to fight for victory.

Happy Birthday Bishop Clark

The Tulsa Race Riot is not a well known riot in America and part of the reason is because Oklahoma denies the event. I cannot believe I’ve never heard of the Tulsa Race Riot until Friday. I was talking with one of my classmates after the event and we were surprised that our African Diaspora in the World class didn’t mention the Tulsa Race Riot. I never knew about the Black Wall Street which was the location of the riot and a well development community that the Blacks owned. I know Black people have owned homes, stores, and barbershops, but I did not know anything about Blacks owning a town. Greenwood was a prosperous neighborhood for Blacks. The black community owned the schools, barber shops, hospitals, movie theaters, and built and own their homes in the neighborhood. There were roughly 10, 000 residents and Greenwood was one of the most successful communities in the world.   Dr. Olivia Clark, a survivor, who was 93 years old when the video was created said, “she went Downtown maybe once because there was no need to go there. The Greenwood community had everything the Black community needed.”

On June 1^st 1921, that was the worse day for the residents of the Greenwood neighborhood. The Ku Klux Klans, also known as the KKKs, came into the Greenwood community and destroyed everything the Blacks owned.  One day, random men were killed because a white woman falsely accused a Black man of assaulting her. Since the White community was not able to find the Black man, they started killing any Black man they came in contact with. The Black community was forced to leave Greenwood and once the riot was over some blacks returned to their community to find their property destroyed.  Throughout the video, there were many speakers; survivors, lawyers, congress men and women, other elected officials, and one person I found to be important was Clyde Eddy. Mr. Eddy was an eleven year old White boy during the race riot and he witnessed majority of the violent crimes. He said, “I watched the Whites hurt many Black people.” He discussed how the KKKs buried alive and dead bodies in the Oklahoma cemetery and that was new information to the historians of Oklahoma and the survivors.  Mr. Eddy was a useful and supportive person of the survivors from the riot.

Recently, the survivors of the Tulsa Race Riot have worked together with lawyers and Congress men and women to receive justice. The survivors went to trial about eight times and lost each trial. The survivors received Brass Medals from the Black Caucus, but no words or justice for the White community. I cannot believe America is still experiencing racism like this. How can Oklahoma continue to deny what happened?

Survivors of The Tulsa Race Riot in 2008