The Tulsa massacre of 1921 may have become known to many
Americans because of a fictional HBO series, but it actually happened. Is the
probable discovery of heretofore undiscovered mass graves in Tulsa enough to
propel the city to a reckoning —
an unambiguous admission of responsibility for horrific acts and a determined
mind to make right what was wrong? We are about to find out.
In a recent public oversight committee meeting in Tulsa, it was announced that a team of forensic scientists using ground-penetrating radar at sites around the city found anomalies consistent with mass graves at two locations, suggesting that the scale and scope of the massacre may be even more extensive than previously admitted by authorities. Until the truth is reckoned with, the stench of racism will hover on Tulsa.
The original narrative around the 1921 Tulsa massacre was
that Blacks were armed, intoxicated and unjustifiably violent. The local paper described
the Greenwood section of the city not as Black Wall Street, but as “Niggertown,”
and original official estimates were about 36 people killed. These reports were
contradicted
by American Red Cross Worker Maurice Willows, who spoke of mass graves and
estimated the dead at 300.
The racist narrative around the 1921 massacre was false. The
Black community was preventing a lynch mob from killing a young Black man who had
been unjustly arrested. The only shot fired by a Black person while confronting
the lynch mob came during a struggle with a white man and resulted in no one
being injured. During the massacre, people took private airplanes and flew over
Greenwood dropping burning balls of turpentine on the buildings and homes,
causing many of the structures to burn from their top. Blacks were gunned down
in the street when they fled burning buildings.
This was not a riot or a disturbance — it was a massacre. And the findings suggest a deliberate attempt to cover-up what happened – an attempt that was successful for decades.
The mayor of Tulsa has called these possible mass grave
sites potential crime scenes. Why?
Because nobody was prosecuted for their role in the massacre, despite the
existence of photographs showing whites walking down the street carrying guns
and the ability to identify whites who had access to planes on the day of the
massacre.
Over the last 99 years, prosecutors and law enforcement
turned a blind eye to this atrocity committed against the Black community of
Tulsa. Even if no one alive can be prosecuted, naming names and placing
responsibility where it lies is a critical part of a reckoning.
The narrative the 2016 killing of Terence Crutcher by Tulsa
police reflected the narrative about the 1921 massacre. Both narratives suggest
that the deaths of Black people were ultimately their own fault.
When the findings of the forensic team were announced Monday,
Terence Crutcher’s twin sister Dr. Tiffany Crutcher was in the audience. She left her career to establish the Terence Crutcher
Foundation, and she has led the way in making sure the false narrative about
her brother does not survive. The
not-guilty verdict in the criminal trial of Crutcher’s killer simply means the
state did not prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
The verdict does not change the fact that Terence had his
hands in the air and was unarmed, was not advancing toward the officers when he
was shot, and never made an aggressive move toward the officers. The verdict
does not change the fact that the officer who killed Crutcher admitted that she
had cleared his car and determined that there were no weapons in it before she
killed him. The verdict doesn’t change the fact that the same jury that
acquitted the officer appended a note to the verdict questioning her training
and her actions, and whether she should be allowed to return to law
enforcement.
A reckoning for the massacre and the murder is required
and overdue. Tulsa can reject the false racialized narrative it has clung to
for a century and start a new 100 years of progress away from racism.
Apologies and commemorations are a necessary part of the
reckoning process, but they are not enough.
A true reckoning requires action — and leaders of impacted communities
in Tulsa should expect action when they speak to the city about making what is
wrong right again.