A Long-Lost Manuscript Contains a Searing Eyewitness Account of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921

[sheshe2]

An Oklahoma lawyer details the attack by hundreds of whites on the thriving black neighborhood where hundreds died 95 years ago



The ten-page manuscript is typewritten, on yellowed legal paper, and folded in thirds. But the words, an eyewitness account of the May 31, 1921, racial massacre that destroyed what was known as Tulsa, Oklahoma’s “Black Wall Street,” are searing.

“I could see planes circling in mid-air. They grew in number and hummed, darted and dipped low. I could hear something like hail falling upon the top of my office building. Down East Archer, I saw the old Mid-Way hotel on fire, burning from its top, and then another and another and another building began to burn from their top,” wrote Buck Colbert Franklin (1879-1960).

The Oklahoma lawyer, father of famed African-American historian John Hope Franklin (1915-2009), was describing the attack by hundreds of whites on the thriving black neighborhood known as Greenwood in the booming oil town. “Lurid flames roared and belched and licked their forked tongues into the air. Smoke ascended the sky in thick, black volumes and amid it all, the planes—now a dozen or more in number—still hummed and darted here and there with the agility of natural birds of the air.”

“The side-walks were literally covered with burning turpentine balls. I knew all too well where they came from, and I knew all too well why every burning building first caught from the top,” he continues. “I paused and waited for an opportune time to escape. ‘Where oh where is our splendid fire department with its half dozen stations?’ I asked myself. ‘Is the city in conspiracy with the mob?’”




Read more:http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/long-lost-manuscript-contains-searing-eyewitness-account-tulsa-race-massacre-1921-180959251/?no-ist

[matt819]

1. Read the OP and link

I had never heard of this.

Heartbreaking and more than infuriating.

[sheshe2]

4. I had read about it some time ago,

Just not with the new manuscript. It is indeed heartbreaking and a shameful reminder of our past.

Thanks for your comments, matt.

[brush]

2. More substantiation of the moral obligation for reparations

Last edited Tue Jun 21, 2016, 06:11 PM - Edit history (1)

People killed. Hundred of homes and businesses destroy by fire and aerial bombing, stores looted, jewelry stolen.

No one punished, all swept under the rug.

Crimes against black people didn't count then — guess they still don't.

We know this stuff happened. Justice should be done. Their survivors and/or descendants should be made whole.

[sheshe2]

5. You are right, brush.

[mopinko]

11. sure is.

one of my kids did a paper about the race riot (1918?) mentioned in the article, in chicago.
she was stunned and to her it seemed forever ago.
but my mother was born in 1913 in chicago. she was a very fair minded person, but she grew up when everyone "knew their place" in chicago. she couldnt miss noticing someone's race, even if she treated them all the same.
only 2 generations and it is forgotten.


think if this case was really pressed on a city by city basis. the history is there. dig it out. make the local guys who did nothing or worse pay.

[brer cat]

3. It's good to see some sunlight shining through.

We have lost too much history due to suppression/rewriting to fit the narrative of the white people involved.

[sheshe2]

6. You are right, brer.

I found the link a few weeks ago. Almost posted, then Orlando happened and I did not wish to take from their grief.

Damn, we have a sad history.

I am glad it is all in the Smithsonian for the world to see.

[JustAnotherGen]

7. Powerful

Thank you!

[sheshe2]

8. Hey honey....

I sorry.

[JustAnotherGen]

9. Someone is jabbering on about Reaganomics in another thread

For that person - it's been since the 1970's. For us - it's been forever.

Think about the long term economic impact.

Think about a person getting away with looting your home and stealing personal items, then burning your home, and walking down the street like they fucking earned it when they were petty thieves.

[sheshe2]

13. Wearing their jewelry that they stole.

Walking down the street like they owned it.

[phazed0]

10. Unbelievable. I can't even imagine. nt

[sheshe2]

15. Kick

Sad to know so many comments on this post were from NAME REMOVED!

There comments were gross.

Give a few minutes. Look what happened to Tulsa. Turpentine bombs from airplanes. Private planes. They leveled Tulsa to the ground. The leveled Tulsa. The terrorist's that did this. White Privileged Americans.

Running the Negro out of Tulsa





I am ashamed.

[BumRushDaShow]

16. K&R

On September 24, 2016, the National Museum of African American History and Culture is expected to officially open on the Mall in D.C. I expect there will be more about this on display there (at least that is my hope)!

[Number23]

17. Wow, what an AMAZING find!

Sheshe could you please add this to the Black History that Doesn't Make it into the History Books thread that is pinned to the top of this forum? TIA!

[sheshe2]

18. Done.

Love~

[GeoWilliam750]

19. Thank you for posting this

[sheshe2]

21. Hi Geo.

Your welcome.

[GeoWilliam750]

22. Keep posting as many of these as you can

The world forgets so easily, or - more commonly - never hears in the first place. Much of the information is still there to be found in old court records, old newspapers, and other sources, although it is now slowly being lost. It is fortunate that this document remained.

I just wish that more people would read - or rather, would want to read and understand. Being a rather rabid amateur historian, I have read through some truly shocking documents relating the horrible things that people have done to the powerless, and I have few relatively few illusions as to the character of people, although periodically there are bright lights of humanity.

[sheshe2]

23. We have a cruel history, as do most Counties.

We have watched what the powerful have done time and again to the powerless. We never seem to learn the lesson that it should have taught us.

I still have to hold out hope for the days when white is no longer the majority. We will be a more colorful nation and perhaps they can make us a more gentle one. I won't be alive to see it. I have read a couple of different dates according to the Census Bureau 2042-2050.

My family is in our fourth generation, my mom is still alive. Brings tears to my eyes to see us sitting in one room. The third and fourth generation no longer white. They are mixed and each generation becomes more beautiful.

I have watched how they have been raised. They and others like them are the bright lights of humanity.

[DemonGoddess]

20. This was a massacre, not a race riot

except maybe a ONE sided race riot on the side of the perpetrators of the massacre.