00:00:06.725 --> 00:00:09.475
(wind whooshing)

00:00:35.919 --> 00:00:38.669
(fire crackling)

00:00:42.780 --> 00:00:45.483
- [Narrator] Wildfires,
always ready to combust.

00:00:49.097 --> 00:00:51.847
(wind whooshing)

00:01:01.320 --> 00:01:03.413
- I'm O.W. Gurley.

00:01:03.413 --> 00:01:08.413
Back in 1905, I bought 40
acres in Tulsa, Oklahoma,

00:01:09.633 --> 00:01:11.640
(birds tweeting)

00:01:11.640 --> 00:01:13.623
and I named the area Greenwood.

00:01:15.270 --> 00:01:20.050
Former slaves, former sharecroppers

00:01:21.300 --> 00:01:22.620
moved into my neighborhood

00:01:22.620 --> 00:01:24.720
and helped me build a thriving community

00:01:24.720 --> 00:01:26.733
of more than 11,000 people.

00:01:27.750 --> 00:01:29.850
We had everything. We had everything!

00:01:29.850 --> 00:01:34.620
We had a hospital. We had public schools.

00:01:34.620 --> 00:01:39.620
We had public transportation.
We had all kind of stores.

00:01:39.630 --> 00:01:43.260
We had all kind of services,
doctors and lawyers.

00:01:43.260 --> 00:01:47.351
We had homes, many, many homes.

00:01:47.351 --> 00:01:48.289
(car engines rumbling)

00:01:48.289 --> 00:01:49.122
(car horn honks)

00:01:49.122 --> 00:01:51.572
We were doing just fine.
We were doing just fine.

00:01:52.440 --> 00:01:57.063
All it took was a dream and a vision.

00:01:58.569 --> 00:02:01.569
(people chattering)

00:02:06.360 --> 00:02:10.323
But there's more to this story,
a lot more to this story.

00:02:17.425 --> 00:02:20.015
(gentle music)

00:02:20.015 --> 00:02:25.015
(birds tweeting)
(horse hooves clomping)

00:02:25.050 --> 00:02:26.460
- [Narrator] Believe it or not,

00:02:26.460 --> 00:02:29.130
the state with the most
historically all-Black towns

00:02:29.130 --> 00:02:30.780
is Oklahoma.

00:02:30.780 --> 00:02:32.040
How did a state in the middle

00:02:32.040 --> 00:02:33.640
of the country end up like that?

00:02:35.441 --> 00:02:38.550
(gentle music)

00:02:38.550 --> 00:02:40.680
- [Narrator] Beginning in the late 1700s

00:02:40.680 --> 00:02:43.710
and increasing in the early and mid 1800s,

00:02:43.710 --> 00:02:45.870
Indigenous people within the five major

00:02:45.870 --> 00:02:49.140
Native American nations,
Cherokee, Chickasaw,

00:02:49.140 --> 00:02:52.350
Choctaw, Creek/Muscogee, and Seminole,

00:02:52.350 --> 00:02:55.470
called by white settlers
the Five Civilized Tribes,

00:02:55.470 --> 00:02:57.300
adopted the white settlers' practice

00:02:57.300 --> 00:02:59.310
of enslaving African men and women

00:02:59.310 --> 00:03:01.113
as domestic and field workers.

00:03:02.910 --> 00:03:06.570
By the time of the outbreak
of the Civil War in 1861,

00:03:06.570 --> 00:03:10.173
the tribes' members owned
approximately 10,000 slaves.

00:03:11.190 --> 00:03:13.590
After the Civil War, the US government

00:03:13.590 --> 00:03:15.630
and the five Native American nations

00:03:15.630 --> 00:03:18.240
signed the treaties of 1866,

00:03:18.240 --> 00:03:20.700
which required the five
nations to free people

00:03:20.700 --> 00:03:22.380
of African descent from slavery

00:03:22.380 --> 00:03:24.450
and make them tribal citizens.

00:03:24.450 --> 00:03:26.130
The nations freed their slaves,

00:03:26.130 --> 00:03:29.550
but many still refused to grant
their freedmen citizenship.

00:03:29.550 --> 00:03:31.950
Freedmen's rights were under daily attack

00:03:31.950 --> 00:03:34.950
as they sought basic liberties
such as voting rights

00:03:34.950 --> 00:03:37.188
and equal education for their children.

00:03:37.188 --> 00:03:40.560
(metal clanking)
(gentle music)

00:03:40.560 --> 00:03:43.290
Then came the Dawes
Commission, which was taxed

00:03:43.290 --> 00:03:46.500
by President Grover Cleveland in 1893

00:03:46.500 --> 00:03:49.080
to convince tribal governments to dissolve

00:03:49.080 --> 00:03:53.490
and to assign land allotments
to individual tribal members.

00:03:53.490 --> 00:03:56.130
The enrollment process
for those land allotments

00:03:56.130 --> 00:03:57.063
was a nightmare.

00:03:58.230 --> 00:04:01.350
Leaders of the five tribes
took whatever steps they could

00:04:01.350 --> 00:04:04.023
to limit the number of
freedmen added to those rolls.

00:04:05.010 --> 00:04:07.590
When the rolls closed in 1907,

00:04:07.590 --> 00:04:12.270
the Dawes Commission
deemed 23,415 freedmen

00:04:12.270 --> 00:04:14.430
eligible for land allotments.

00:04:14.430 --> 00:04:16.320
Most got 40 acres.

00:04:16.320 --> 00:04:18.510
This marks the only time in US history

00:04:18.510 --> 00:04:20.940
when freed African slaves
and their descendants

00:04:20.940 --> 00:04:23.163
received any kind of reparations.

00:04:24.870 --> 00:04:26.220
- [Narrator] After the Civil War,

00:04:26.220 --> 00:04:28.770
the freed slaves from the
Native American tribes

00:04:28.770 --> 00:04:30.510
settled together in Oklahoma

00:04:30.510 --> 00:04:33.300
for protection and economic security.

00:04:33.300 --> 00:04:35.250
These freedmen created farming communities

00:04:35.250 --> 00:04:38.490
and towns that had a range of businesses.

00:04:38.490 --> 00:04:42.960
In the span of 55 years, 1865 to 1920,

00:04:42.960 --> 00:04:46.470
African Americans created
over 50 all-Black towns

00:04:46.470 --> 00:04:48.213
and settlements in the region.

00:04:49.320 --> 00:04:51.570
- [Narrator] Newspapers
in Redbird, Langston,

00:04:51.570 --> 00:04:54.600
Boley, and Brooksville,
to name just a few,

00:04:54.600 --> 00:04:56.820
advertised the area to Blacks in the South

00:04:56.820 --> 00:04:58.620
as the promised lands.

00:04:58.620 --> 00:05:00.720
These communities had Black-run farms,

00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:02.730
schools, and businesses

00:05:02.730 --> 00:05:05.400
and offered residents freedom
from the racial prejudice

00:05:05.400 --> 00:05:08.250
and brutality of mixed communities.

00:05:08.250 --> 00:05:11.310
This lasted for several decades.

00:05:11.310 --> 00:05:12.660
- [Narrator] Lawmakers even considered

00:05:12.660 --> 00:05:15.270
trying to make Oklahoma a Black state.

00:05:15.270 --> 00:05:17.730
E.P. McCabe, former
state auditor of Kansas,

00:05:17.730 --> 00:05:19.260
spoke with members of Congress

00:05:19.260 --> 00:05:22.290
and had conversations with
President Benjamin Harrison

00:05:22.290 --> 00:05:24.633
about making Oklahoma a Black state.

00:05:25.800 --> 00:05:28.590
- [Narrator] In Oklahoma, Blacks
were finding opportunities

00:05:28.590 --> 00:05:30.300
to build their own communities

00:05:30.300 --> 00:05:32.850
and own their own lives in a comfortable,

00:05:32.850 --> 00:05:35.190
safe, and prosperous fashion,

00:05:35.190 --> 00:05:37.590
from slaves to successful
community builders

00:05:37.590 --> 00:05:38.733
in a few decades.

00:05:39.840 --> 00:05:42.330
Perhaps the most famous
all-Black community

00:05:42.330 --> 00:05:43.770
to emerge at this time

00:05:43.770 --> 00:05:46.800
was North Tulsa neighborhood
called Greenwood.

00:05:46.800 --> 00:05:48.720
Booker T. Washington was so impressed

00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:50.940
with those thriving 40 city blocks

00:05:50.940 --> 00:05:53.640
that he deemed Greenwood Black Wall Street

00:05:53.640 --> 00:05:54.870
and saw it as a roadmap

00:05:54.870 --> 00:05:57.003
for Black prosperity across the country.

00:05:59.100 --> 00:06:01.530
- [Narrator] Greenwood Avenue,
in the heart of Greenwood,

00:06:01.530 --> 00:06:03.960
was compared to Beale Street in Memphis

00:06:03.960 --> 00:06:05.703
and State Street in Chicago.

00:06:06.620 --> 00:06:09.120
(calm music)

00:06:12.390 --> 00:06:15.450
- You could say that I owned and operated

00:06:15.450 --> 00:06:18.630
the first Black business in Greenwood.

00:06:18.630 --> 00:06:20.733
First thing I opened was a boarding house.

00:06:22.170 --> 00:06:25.560
And as the word spread,

00:06:25.560 --> 00:06:27.720
the people heard about the opportunities,

00:06:27.720 --> 00:06:30.930
the jobs, and they came.

00:06:30.930 --> 00:06:33.003
They came from everywhere, Black people.

00:06:35.772 --> 00:06:38.272
(calm music)

00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:45.600
- [Narrator] Black people who
wanted to start a business

00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:48.210
could actually borrow money from Gurley.

00:06:48.210 --> 00:06:49.050
There was a system

00:06:49.050 --> 00:06:51.363
that helped Black people start businesses.

00:06:53.430 --> 00:06:56.010
- [Narrator] Lawyer and
activist J.B. Stradford,

00:06:56.010 --> 00:06:58.650
who had been born into
slavery in Kentucky,

00:06:58.650 --> 00:07:02.460
built a 55-room luxury hotel in Greenwood.

00:07:02.460 --> 00:07:05.340
Stradford felt pooling their
resources was the best way

00:07:05.340 --> 00:07:08.790
for Black people to
have economic progress.

00:07:08.790 --> 00:07:11.430
- [Narrator] A.J. Smitherman
founded "The Tulsa Star,"

00:07:11.430 --> 00:07:15.120
a Black newspaper, and
based it in Greenwood.

00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:17.520
He used the paper to keep the Black people

00:07:17.520 --> 00:07:20.730
informed of their legal
rights and about court rulings

00:07:20.730 --> 00:07:23.340
that would help or hurt the community.

00:07:23.340 --> 00:07:25.590
He also stressed the
need for the community

00:07:25.590 --> 00:07:28.020
to be ready to defend itself,

00:07:28.020 --> 00:07:32.163
a call that veterans of World
War I took very seriously.

00:07:33.900 --> 00:07:35.100
- [Narrator] It became the wealthiest

00:07:35.100 --> 00:07:37.170
Black community in the country.

00:07:37.170 --> 00:07:40.080
Many Black professionals and
businessmen moved to Greenwood,

00:07:40.080 --> 00:07:43.290
but so did less-affluent
Black individuals.

00:07:43.290 --> 00:07:45.120
Several worked in custodial positions,

00:07:45.120 --> 00:07:47.250
household help, dishwashers,

00:07:47.250 --> 00:07:49.950
but they spent the money
they earned outside Greenwood

00:07:49.950 --> 00:07:53.280
in Greenwood, which kept money active

00:07:53.280 --> 00:07:55.527
and lively in the community.

00:07:55.527 --> 00:07:59.490
The Jim Crow laws actually
helped the all-Black communities.

00:07:59.490 --> 00:08:01.590
The Jim Crow laws prohibited Blacks

00:08:01.590 --> 00:08:04.200
from spending their
money in white businesses

00:08:04.200 --> 00:08:07.350
and made them spend it in
Black-owned businesses,

00:08:07.350 --> 00:08:09.630
thus helping them build a thriving,

00:08:09.630 --> 00:08:11.673
self-sufficient community.

00:08:15.330 --> 00:08:17.283
- A very nice feeling to see,

00:08:18.390 --> 00:08:20.280
to live in a role model community.

00:08:20.280 --> 00:08:21.990
In other words, you could see people

00:08:21.990 --> 00:08:25.140
doing on every level that looked like you.

00:08:25.140 --> 00:08:29.907
So you could set your sights
anywhere that you wanted,

00:08:29.907 --> 00:08:31.443
and you felt secure.

00:08:34.950 --> 00:08:36.540
- My parents and us five children

00:08:36.540 --> 00:08:39.330
lived at 320 Hartford Avenue.

00:08:39.330 --> 00:08:42.120
We had a lovely home
with beautiful furniture,

00:08:42.120 --> 00:08:43.713
including a grand piano.

00:08:45.921 --> 00:08:48.838
(pool balls click)

00:08:49.920 --> 00:08:53.190
- My father, Hosea Oscar Vaden,

00:08:53.190 --> 00:08:55.200
owned one of the most popular pool halls

00:08:55.200 --> 00:08:56.343
in Tulsa at the time.

00:08:57.660 --> 00:08:59.070
Vaden's Pool Hall was located

00:08:59.070 --> 00:09:02.160
on Greenwood Avenue next
to Art's Chili Parlor.

00:09:02.160 --> 00:09:03.690
Famous people were always coming in

00:09:03.690 --> 00:09:06.270
to play pool at Vaden's Pool Hall.

00:09:06.270 --> 00:09:08.370
Boxer Joe Louis came by my dad's pool hall

00:09:08.370 --> 00:09:10.320
to buy newspapers.

00:09:10.320 --> 00:09:14.250
Dad sold "Black Dispatch"
and white Tulsa newspapers.

00:09:14.250 --> 00:09:16.773
My family also owned a
home on Elgin Street.

00:09:22.023 --> 00:09:23.160
(people chattering faintly)

00:09:23.160 --> 00:09:26.190
- [Narrator] Greenwood had
luxury shops, restaurants,

00:09:26.190 --> 00:09:30.420
grocery stores, hotels,
jewelry and clothing stores,

00:09:30.420 --> 00:09:33.210
movie theaters, barbershops and salons,

00:09:33.210 --> 00:09:35.490
a library, pool halls, nightclubs,

00:09:35.490 --> 00:09:39.300
and offices for doctors,
lawyers, and dentists.

00:09:39.300 --> 00:09:41.400
And it had its own school system

00:09:41.400 --> 00:09:43.740
where male students wore suits and ties

00:09:43.740 --> 00:09:45.510
and girls wore dresses,

00:09:45.510 --> 00:09:48.090
a post office, a savings and loans bank,

00:09:48.090 --> 00:09:51.390
a hospital with an entirely Black staff,

00:09:51.390 --> 00:09:53.370
and bus and taxi service.

00:09:53.370 --> 00:09:55.173
Greenwood had everything it needed.

00:09:56.190 --> 00:09:59.883
For African Americans,
Greenwood was truly a dreamland.

00:10:04.177 --> 00:10:06.677
(calm music)

00:10:29.370 --> 00:10:33.420
- O.W. Gurley bought 40 Tulsa acres,

00:10:33.420 --> 00:10:35.373
named them Greenwood.

00:10:36.210 --> 00:10:39.723
Said they were only to be
sold to colored in Greenwood,

00:10:40.560 --> 00:10:45.560
where he dreamed of a bigger
Boley, Langston, Taft, Redbird,

00:10:47.160 --> 00:10:51.243
thriving all-Black Oklahoma
towns before Greenwood,

00:10:52.170 --> 00:10:55.290
before statehood brought its Jim Crow laws

00:10:55.290 --> 00:10:59.163
that made the Klan king
everywhere but Greenwood,

00:11:00.300 --> 00:11:02.790
where Gurley opened up rooming houses

00:11:02.790 --> 00:11:05.805
that sheltered fleeing Black migrants.

00:11:05.805 --> 00:11:07.530
(calm music)

00:11:07.530 --> 00:11:11.763
Greenwood, from its start a promised land.

00:11:13.680 --> 00:11:18.680
Greenwood, where Gurley met
young lawyer J.B. Stradford,

00:11:18.810 --> 00:11:21.093
and the two built empires.

00:11:22.950 --> 00:11:27.950
Greenwood, only place
Black Tulsan's could shop,

00:11:28.050 --> 00:11:30.870
where a dollar traded hands over years

00:11:30.870 --> 00:11:32.583
and built communal wealth.

00:11:34.200 --> 00:11:38.253
Greenwood, a self-sufficient world,

00:11:39.300 --> 00:11:44.300
10,000 people, 40 blocks of
Black businesses and homes,

00:11:45.510 --> 00:11:50.510
20 churches, its own hospital,
post office, banks, schools.

00:11:53.730 --> 00:11:56.367
Greenwood, home to The Stradford,

00:11:56.367 --> 00:11:58.773
the nation's best Black hotel,

00:12:00.390 --> 00:12:05.160
velvet wing-backed chairs,
oak tables and doors,

00:12:05.160 --> 00:12:10.160
chandeliers, its own pool
hall, dining room, saloon.

00:12:11.970 --> 00:12:15.333
And of course, Greenwood
had the Dreamland,

00:12:16.170 --> 00:12:19.803
Tulsa's Apollo, Black Vaudeville,

00:12:21.150 --> 00:12:25.713
theater troupes, silent
films with live piano,

00:12:26.910 --> 00:12:30.630
750 seats and Black people free

00:12:30.630 --> 00:12:33.993
to walk through the front
door and sit in any of them.

00:12:36.480 --> 00:12:40.500
Greenwood, where a man
could get a suit, shine,

00:12:40.500 --> 00:12:44.613
shave, and fade on the same
block he shot whiskey and pool.

00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:49.620
Greenwood, where Remingtons clacked

00:12:49.620 --> 00:12:53.760
through evening typing classes,
and maids packed salons

00:12:53.760 --> 00:12:56.133
to primp for their Thursday nights off.

00:12:57.780 --> 00:13:02.010
Greenwood, fork clink, chatter hum,

00:13:02.010 --> 00:13:06.783
steam rising off barbecue and
chili in any number of cafes,

00:13:08.070 --> 00:13:13.070
Sunny Side, Cosy Corner, Busy Bee,

00:13:13.230 --> 00:13:18.230
Little & Bell, Lone Star, Square Deal.

00:13:19.830 --> 00:13:24.060
Greenwood, dancers and doctors,

00:13:24.060 --> 00:13:27.000
hustlers and haberdashers,

00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:29.010
Smitherman stressing vigilance

00:13:29.010 --> 00:13:31.197
in each edition of "The Star."

00:13:33.120 --> 00:13:36.360
Greenwood, more than the Negro Wall Street

00:13:36.360 --> 00:13:37.563
Washington deemed it.

00:13:38.940 --> 00:13:41.760
Greenwood, Black Main Street,

00:13:41.760 --> 00:13:45.243
a blueprint for making
a way out of no way,

00:13:46.650 --> 00:13:51.573
a dreamland real as rain
raising a river over its bank,

00:13:52.590 --> 00:13:56.280
real as footprints
swallowed by the mud there

00:13:56.280 --> 00:13:59.790
as oil spewed out of a burnt-out well

00:13:59.790 --> 00:14:02.373
that looks like smoke
when the wind catches it,

00:14:03.810 --> 00:14:06.273
the only cloud in a clear sky,

00:14:08.100 --> 00:14:11.470
real as the Greenwood Avenue
you could walk this afternoon

00:14:12.360 --> 00:14:14.730
toeing snow off tiny markers

00:14:14.730 --> 00:14:17.013
where offices and shops once stood,

00:14:20.190 --> 00:14:21.543
whispering prayers,

00:14:23.370 --> 00:14:27.730
listening for any sound
of all that was Greenwood

00:14:30.210 --> 00:14:34.680
and only hearing the steady whoosh of 244,

00:14:34.680 --> 00:14:38.890
built like the ballpark
and health center to erase

00:14:39.810 --> 00:14:44.810
the crime scene, the open
wound, the sacred ground,

00:14:45.990 --> 00:14:49.211
the victory that is Greenwood.

00:14:49.211 --> 00:14:51.628
(calm music)

00:14:58.284 --> 00:15:01.200
(upbeat music)

00:15:01.200 --> 00:15:04.200
- [Narrator] Greenwood was
a center for jazz and blues.

00:15:04.200 --> 00:15:06.060
It is said that a young Count Basie

00:15:06.060 --> 00:15:08.283
first encountered big band jazz there.

00:15:09.859 --> 00:15:11.553
- [Narrator] It had 22 churches.

00:15:13.170 --> 00:15:15.413
- [Narrator] The schools
there were exceptional.

00:15:16.521 --> 00:15:20.259
(mellow jazz music)

00:15:20.259 --> 00:15:23.009
(fire crackling)

00:15:48.915 --> 00:15:52.560
- And then it happened. A
siren sounded about dawn.

00:15:52.560 --> 00:15:56.700
500 whites deputized by city officials,

00:15:56.700 --> 00:16:00.780
and all hell broke loose,
tearing through the houses,

00:16:00.780 --> 00:16:03.033
loading whatever they wanted on trucks,

00:16:03.990 --> 00:16:07.160
shooting Black people dead on
the streets of Little Africa,

00:16:07.160 --> 00:16:08.010
(gunshot pops)

00:16:08.010 --> 00:16:10.590
as the white folks called it.

00:16:10.590 --> 00:16:15.590
And then the fire, from
torches, from airplanes even.

00:16:16.770 --> 00:16:19.930
Wherever we looked, the world was burning.

00:16:24.163 --> 00:16:27.435
- "We got to go." And I
said, "No, I don't wanna go.

00:16:27.435 --> 00:16:28.268
I don't wanna go out there."

00:16:28.268 --> 00:16:30.060
He said, "Yeah, you got to go."

00:16:30.060 --> 00:16:31.860
So you remember he had told the people

00:16:31.860 --> 00:16:34.010
he couldn't hardly get
me out of the house.

00:16:35.460 --> 00:16:39.513
So I give him a little argument
about it, but I had to go.

00:16:40.560 --> 00:16:43.110
And I just had on my barefoot sandals

00:16:43.110 --> 00:16:46.353
and had a head rag on my head.

00:16:47.250 --> 00:16:49.380
And he said, "Let's go,
we can't stay here."

00:16:49.380 --> 00:16:51.450
Said, "We got to keep moving."

00:16:51.450 --> 00:16:54.990
So he got out there, and he
went to preaching to the people.

00:16:54.990 --> 00:16:57.930
See, we was very thickly settled then

00:16:57.930 --> 00:17:00.000
on both side of the streets,

00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.293
and all the houses was
burnt down on my side,

00:17:05.160 --> 00:17:07.110
on this side and that side

00:17:07.110 --> 00:17:10.260
but two houses, my house and another.

00:17:10.260 --> 00:17:12.150
All the rest of 'em were burnt down.

00:17:12.150 --> 00:17:14.820
See all those little people,
every chance they got,

00:17:14.820 --> 00:17:16.833
they would stick fire to the house.

00:17:18.266 --> 00:17:20.887
And all that fire was burning,

00:17:20.887 --> 00:17:25.800
and folks was hollering,
some of 'em been running.

00:17:25.800 --> 00:17:28.050
And my husband told 'em,
he said, "Don't run.

00:17:28.050 --> 00:17:32.710
So walk and stay out in the
opening where they'll see you

00:17:33.686 --> 00:17:35.186
and so won't nobody get shot."

00:17:36.360 --> 00:17:38.760
- Things were very much
upset and disturbed.

00:17:38.760 --> 00:17:40.770
And the thing that bothered me the most

00:17:40.770 --> 00:17:44.370
was that I had seen them
set fire to my doll clothes,

00:17:44.370 --> 00:17:47.850
and I thought, "That was the last straw."

00:17:47.850 --> 00:17:49.830
The doll clothes were hanging on the line

00:17:49.830 --> 00:17:51.150
because the lady that used to help us

00:17:51.150 --> 00:17:52.590
had washed all the clothes.

00:17:52.590 --> 00:17:54.540
My grandmother was a fine seamstress,

00:17:54.540 --> 00:17:58.440
and she had made the doll
all kinds of good things,

00:17:58.440 --> 00:18:02.760
and then to see them take a
torch and set them on fire.

00:18:02.760 --> 00:18:05.130
- So, but I didn't tell you,

00:18:05.130 --> 00:18:09.730
one of my husband's best
friends was killed that day

00:18:11.413 --> 00:18:12.540
while we was in that rush.

00:18:12.540 --> 00:18:17.190
See, he told him not to run
and don't get in close places

00:18:17.190 --> 00:18:19.593
because they would just
shoot in that bunch.

00:18:21.090 --> 00:18:23.073
This fellow was named Willie Lockett.

00:18:24.780 --> 00:18:27.360
He and my husband were great friends.

00:18:27.360 --> 00:18:30.000
And T.R. said to him, said,
"Where you going, Willie?"

00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:32.537
He said, "I don't know,
man, I'm just going."

00:18:32.537 --> 00:18:34.050
And he was on a horse,

00:18:34.050 --> 00:18:37.260
and they said this was one
of their favorite horses

00:18:37.260 --> 00:18:38.493
of the Lockett family.

00:18:39.570 --> 00:18:42.387
So T.R. told him to be careful

00:18:42.387 --> 00:18:46.481
and stay out in the opening,
but he was killed that day.

00:18:46.481 --> 00:18:49.064
(solemn music)

00:18:55.560 --> 00:18:59.280
- And over the course of just 18 hours,

00:18:59.280 --> 00:19:03.490
18 hours, everything that we had built

00:19:04.530 --> 00:19:08.610
was smoldering in ashes,
everything we built,

00:19:08.610 --> 00:19:13.610
the houses, everything, all
because they said a white girl

00:19:16.710 --> 00:19:18.813
said a Black man attacked her.

00:19:19.823 --> 00:19:22.406
(somber music)

00:19:24.480 --> 00:19:25.860
- Every single insurance company

00:19:25.860 --> 00:19:29.610
that had a policy covering
any kind of damage to homes

00:19:29.610 --> 00:19:31.720
or commercial businesses or industry

00:19:33.330 --> 00:19:35.100
cut and ran on their insurance policy

00:19:35.100 --> 00:19:37.413
because a riot wasn't included.

00:19:40.020 --> 00:19:42.090
The federal government
and state governments

00:19:42.090 --> 00:19:47.067
didn't have programs in
place to compensate citizens

00:19:48.150 --> 00:19:51.483
for being the victims of a
breakdown of law and order.

00:19:53.430 --> 00:19:58.150
So effectively, the citizens
who lived in Little Africa

00:19:59.910 --> 00:20:01.143
took the entire loss.

00:20:04.140 --> 00:20:09.140
The problem was that when
we're talking entire laws,

00:20:09.660 --> 00:20:11.640
we're talking everything.

00:20:11.640 --> 00:20:15.210
There was no FDIC then.

00:20:15.210 --> 00:20:16.470
They might've had their money in a bank,

00:20:16.470 --> 00:20:18.963
and if the bank was burned
and the money stolen,

00:20:19.980 --> 00:20:21.480
there was no way to recoup it.

00:20:22.860 --> 00:20:25.743
Jewelry stores in Little
Africa were stripped clean.

00:20:28.170 --> 00:20:30.093
Furniture was taken out of homes.

00:20:31.680 --> 00:20:33.510
Everything was gone,

00:20:33.510 --> 00:20:35.823
and the homes were burned to the ground.

00:20:36.930 --> 00:20:38.880
So when we're talking about refugees,

00:20:38.880 --> 00:20:41.670
we're talking about refugees
that had nothing left

00:20:41.670 --> 00:20:43.620
except what they carried on their back.

00:20:44.460 --> 00:20:46.773
- Folks wanna act like this never existed,

00:20:47.880 --> 00:20:49.143
like it never happened.

00:20:50.099 --> 00:20:51.394
(fire crackling)

00:20:51.394 --> 00:20:54.390
(gunshot booming)

00:20:54.390 --> 00:20:55.924
Well, it did.

00:20:55.924 --> 00:20:58.674
(fire crackling)

00:21:02.757 --> 00:21:03.990
- [Narrator] How could so many people

00:21:03.990 --> 00:21:05.193
be ready to destroy it?

00:21:06.090 --> 00:21:09.420
The residents in Greenwood must
have sensed what was coming.

00:21:09.420 --> 00:21:11.220
Yes, they were doing well,

00:21:11.220 --> 00:21:13.080
and many white families in Tulsa

00:21:13.080 --> 00:21:15.630
and other surrounding areas
were not doing so well,

00:21:16.620 --> 00:21:19.320
the green monster of jealousy brewing,

00:21:19.320 --> 00:21:21.399
but there had to be more.

00:21:21.399 --> 00:21:24.000
(gunshot pops)

00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:26.600
- When we saw coming up the walk

00:21:26.600 --> 00:21:29.410
in the front of the house
off of Easton Street

00:21:31.200 --> 00:21:34.470
four men with torches in their hand,

00:21:34.470 --> 00:21:36.183
these torches were burning.

00:21:38.280 --> 00:21:41.853
When my mother saw them coming, she says,

00:21:41.853 --> 00:21:44.400
"You get up under the
bed, get up under the bed,

00:21:44.400 --> 00:21:45.570
get up under the bed."

00:21:45.570 --> 00:21:47.910
And all four of us got up under the bed.

00:21:47.910 --> 00:21:51.870
I was the last one, and
my sister grabbed me

00:21:51.870 --> 00:21:54.840
and pulled me under there.

00:21:54.840 --> 00:21:59.400
And while I was under the bed,

00:21:59.400 --> 00:22:03.240
one of the guys coming past
the bed stepped on my finger,

00:22:03.240 --> 00:22:06.663
and I was, as I was about to scream,

00:22:08.100 --> 00:22:12.000
my sister put her hand over my
mouth so I couldn't be heard.

00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:13.473
Now, I remember that.

00:22:16.260 --> 00:22:17.850
They set our house on fire.

00:22:17.850 --> 00:22:19.500
They went right straight to the curtains

00:22:19.500 --> 00:22:24.500
and set the curtains on
fire, and as a result,

00:22:25.200 --> 00:22:29.313
that's how our house
first started to burning.

00:22:30.660 --> 00:22:33.183
- And I can't remember which it was,

00:22:34.110 --> 00:22:36.870
you talking about a disturbing moment

00:22:36.870 --> 00:22:40.947
was when we got to the edge of,

00:22:46.486 --> 00:22:49.311
oh, Lord, what is it, Sperry up here.

00:22:49.311 --> 00:22:54.311
We hadn't got even through
the town to the fairgrounds

00:22:57.247 --> 00:23:01.473
before these white people,
white guy asked my grandfather,

00:23:03.427 --> 00:23:08.163
"Where in the hell you
going?" using the N-word.

00:23:10.980 --> 00:23:13.490
And my grandfather said,
"We're heading out.

00:23:13.490 --> 00:23:15.567
We're going out of town."

00:23:17.100 --> 00:23:21.390
And he said, "Not this day,
you're not going out town."

00:23:21.390 --> 00:23:22.680
Bam!
(gunshot explodes)

00:23:22.680 --> 00:23:26.117
- [Interviewer] Ooh, you saw
your grandfather get shot?

00:23:26.117 --> 00:23:28.320
- I saw him get shot. Bam!

00:23:28.320 --> 00:23:29.213
- [Interviewer] Oh.

00:23:30.720 --> 00:23:34.861
- And he just tumbled.

00:23:34.861 --> 00:23:36.307
My mother let out a scream,

00:23:36.307 --> 00:23:39.390
"Oh, you have killed my
father. You killed him."

00:23:40.530 --> 00:23:42.480
And I thought he was going to do

00:23:42.480 --> 00:23:44.783
the same thing to my mother, but-

00:23:47.220 --> 00:23:48.450
- [Narrator] African American writer

00:23:48.450 --> 00:23:51.390
and civil rights activist
James Weldon Johnson

00:23:51.390 --> 00:23:54.510
called the summer of 1919 the Red Summer

00:23:54.510 --> 00:23:57.600
due to the large number of
lynchings and anti-Black riots

00:23:57.600 --> 00:24:00.150
that broke out in more
than three dozen cities

00:24:00.150 --> 00:24:01.655
across the country.

00:24:01.655 --> 00:24:02.790
(fire crackling)

00:24:02.790 --> 00:24:06.060
- [Narrator] The media played
a role in increasing tension

00:24:06.060 --> 00:24:09.630
and elevating racist patterns
through inaccurate reporting

00:24:09.630 --> 00:24:13.260
that included omission
of important information

00:24:13.260 --> 00:24:14.790
and even lies.

00:24:14.790 --> 00:24:17.220
- [Narrator] Over 300 people were killed.

00:24:17.220 --> 00:24:19.860
Some say that number is much higher.

00:24:19.860 --> 00:24:23.030
Official white records say 36.
(gunshot pops)

00:24:23.030 --> 00:24:25.500
- [Narrator] 35 city blocks
burned to the ground,

00:24:25.500 --> 00:24:28.083
more than 1,400 homes and businesses.

00:24:29.347 --> 00:24:32.296
- [Narrator] Over 10,000
people were left homeless.

00:24:32.296 --> 00:24:34.846
(solemn music)
(fire crackling)

00:24:34.846 --> 00:24:38.013
(car engine rumbling)

00:24:40.494 --> 00:24:43.077
(solemn music)

00:24:45.390 --> 00:24:48.030
- I was frightened. I was scared.

00:24:48.030 --> 00:24:53.030
And we had to get out of the way.

00:24:53.067 --> 00:24:57.810
And there were airplanes flying in the sky

00:24:57.810 --> 00:25:01.540
that seemed to have been
dropping something down

00:25:03.249 --> 00:25:07.687
to the houses and setting them on fire,

00:25:08.760 --> 00:25:12.180
and of course we had to run

00:25:12.180 --> 00:25:15.910
to try to stay out of their way

00:25:16.860 --> 00:25:19.715
and because we didn't wanna get burned,

00:25:19.715 --> 00:25:23.040
and so we just like kept running.

00:25:24.150 --> 00:25:27.060
- I got caught in the middle of that riot.

00:25:27.060 --> 00:25:29.460
Some white mobsters were
holed up in the upper floor

00:25:29.460 --> 00:25:31.233
of the Ray Rhee's Flour Mill.

00:25:33.990 --> 00:25:36.240
And they were just
gunning down Black people,

00:25:37.290 --> 00:25:41.193
just picking 'em off like
they were swatting flies.

00:25:42.660 --> 00:25:45.420
Well, I had a friend who worked
for Jackson Funeral Homes,

00:25:45.420 --> 00:25:47.460
and he was trying to get
to that new ambulance

00:25:47.460 --> 00:25:49.053
so he could drive it to safety.

00:25:50.220 --> 00:25:52.110
I went with him.

00:25:52.110 --> 00:25:55.803
He had the keys in his
hand, ready for the takeoff.

00:25:57.840 --> 00:26:01.620
Then some mobster in that
building zoomed in on him

00:26:01.620 --> 00:26:03.003
and shot him in the hand.

00:26:04.080 --> 00:26:08.220
The keys flew to the ground,
blood shot out of his hand,

00:26:08.220 --> 00:26:10.620
and some of it sprayed on me.

00:26:10.620 --> 00:26:13.923
We immediately abandoned our
plans to save that ambulance.

00:26:15.510 --> 00:26:17.193
We ran for our lives.

00:26:19.260 --> 00:26:21.663
We never saw my stepfather again.

00:26:25.020 --> 00:26:29.000
- On the east side of
Hartford was a lumberyard,

00:26:31.470 --> 00:26:34.300
and early that morning

00:26:37.127 --> 00:26:37.960
(gunshot shot pops)

00:26:37.960 --> 00:26:39.980
started getting rifle shots

00:26:43.650 --> 00:26:47.782
and gunshots come over on Greenwood.

00:26:47.782 --> 00:26:50.460
(somber music)

00:26:50.460 --> 00:26:53.250
- [Narrator] I ask you, is it not history

00:26:53.250 --> 00:26:54.850
unless the white man says it is?

00:26:56.338 --> 00:26:58.921
(somber music)

00:27:04.923 --> 00:27:07.423
(calm music)

00:27:13.410 --> 00:27:16.380
- The "Tribune" said Dick
Rowland was a delivery boy

00:27:16.380 --> 00:27:18.780
who paced the Drexel third floor

00:27:18.780 --> 00:27:20.400
looking up and down the hallway

00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:23.190
as if to see if there was anyone in sight,

00:27:23.190 --> 00:27:24.633
not a pool hall shoeshiner

00:27:24.633 --> 00:27:26.580
in a Drexel third floor bathroom,

00:27:26.580 --> 00:27:29.670
the only one open to him, a Black man,

00:27:29.670 --> 00:27:32.190
in downtown Tulsa in 1921.

00:27:32.190 --> 00:27:35.850
- So Rowland was a delivery
boy looking to rape,

00:27:35.850 --> 00:27:38.730
the paper said, Sarah Page,

00:27:38.730 --> 00:27:42.090
a 17-year-old white elevator girl,

00:27:42.090 --> 00:27:45.690
an orphan paying her way
through business college.

00:27:45.690 --> 00:27:49.620
- Even though she was 21,
not in school, nor orphan.

00:27:49.620 --> 00:27:51.330
- Even though all
Rowland was looking to do

00:27:51.330 --> 00:27:54.270
was relieve himself and
maybe sip cold water

00:27:54.270 --> 00:27:55.590
through cupped cracked hands

00:27:55.590 --> 00:27:59.220
that ached at the joints,
are stiff at the joints

00:27:59.220 --> 00:28:02.910
after hours of swirling
polish across the tongues

00:28:02.910 --> 00:28:05.250
of rich, white oilsmen's shoes

00:28:05.250 --> 00:28:08.043
in a slant of cigar fog
Magic City sunlight.

00:28:08.940 --> 00:28:11.730
- [Narrator] Hands that shook most likely

00:28:11.730 --> 00:28:14.400
from the elevator that lurched.

00:28:14.400 --> 00:28:15.990
- [Narrator] And he stepped on Page's shoe

00:28:15.990 --> 00:28:17.910
and broke his fall by grabbing her arm,

00:28:17.910 --> 00:28:19.750
and she screamed.

00:28:19.750 --> 00:28:21.360
(calm music)

00:28:21.360 --> 00:28:23.640
- The paper saying Rowland attacked her,

00:28:23.640 --> 00:28:26.913
scratching her hands and
face, tearing her clothes.

00:28:27.960 --> 00:28:29.790
- So he attacked her.

00:28:29.790 --> 00:28:34.200
Diamond Dick pushed her against
the elevator's wire cage,

00:28:34.200 --> 00:28:36.840
poor white orphan girl trapped with a boy

00:28:36.840 --> 00:28:39.990
whose age was not given, just his race.

00:28:39.990 --> 00:28:42.180
- Though the clerk who ran up to help Page

00:28:42.180 --> 00:28:44.040
said that she was not bruised

00:28:44.040 --> 00:28:46.710
nor her clothing disarranged in any way,

00:28:46.710 --> 00:28:48.990
though Page wouldn't file charges,

00:28:48.990 --> 00:28:51.270
and there's no mention of scratches

00:28:51.270 --> 00:28:53.520
or tears in the police report

00:28:53.520 --> 00:28:56.820
or in the interview with
Page's neighbor Anna Green,

00:28:56.820 --> 00:28:59.520
whom Page told the next day
that she swung her purse

00:28:59.520 --> 00:29:01.950
when Rowland fell toward
her, and that's it.

00:29:01.950 --> 00:29:03.650
- [Narrator] She screamed. He ran.

00:29:04.590 --> 00:29:07.890
- Maybe Page was racist,
got up against a Black man.

00:29:07.890 --> 00:29:10.860
Maybe after two divorces
from white men who struck her

00:29:10.860 --> 00:29:12.660
made her sick of lurching hands.

00:29:12.660 --> 00:29:17.660
Either way, Rowland ran out the elevator

00:29:17.760 --> 00:29:21.210
and the Drexel building down
Main, past the Beno Hall,

00:29:21.210 --> 00:29:23.760
where the Klan pledged allegiance

00:29:23.760 --> 00:29:27.063
to fire and hate in their
next extravagant parade.

00:29:28.680 --> 00:29:30.150
And he had to know-

00:29:30.150 --> 00:29:34.680
- That that scream was the
whistle they'd been waiting for.

00:29:34.680 --> 00:29:38.430
- So many thousand strong.
It took five hours-

00:29:38.430 --> 00:29:40.380
- For the parade to float-

00:29:40.380 --> 00:29:44.430
- Like smoke through downtown
Tulsa in formations of crosses

00:29:44.430 --> 00:29:47.790
and rows of troops
prepped for another war,

00:29:47.790 --> 00:29:50.070
always through Greenwood.

00:29:50.070 --> 00:29:54.420
- Past Rowland's family's
rooming home on Archer.

00:29:54.420 --> 00:29:57.240
- Their numbers saying,
"We will erase this place,

00:29:57.240 --> 00:29:59.490
purge the scourge from the earth."

00:29:59.490 --> 00:30:02.373
All they need is a spark
to light their torches.

00:30:03.300 --> 00:30:07.423
And from that evening's
headlines, it rose.

00:30:07.423 --> 00:30:09.923
(eerie music)

00:30:14.522 --> 00:30:16.939
(calm music)

00:30:18.701 --> 00:30:21.451
(fire crackling)

00:30:24.968 --> 00:30:27.840
(explosion booms)

00:30:27.840 --> 00:30:29.850
All because a white mob

00:30:29.850 --> 00:30:33.220
wanted to lynch a young Black man, again

00:30:34.440 --> 00:30:36.120
because of the words of a white woman

00:30:36.120 --> 00:30:39.513
saying he touched her, again.

00:30:41.160 --> 00:30:43.083
So many unanswered questions.

00:30:44.160 --> 00:30:45.750
How could the mob assemble so quickly

00:30:45.750 --> 00:30:47.823
and destroy so much so fast?

00:30:48.660 --> 00:30:50.073
How could they be prepared?

00:30:51.930 --> 00:30:55.563
- That riot cheated us out
of childhood innocence.

00:30:56.670 --> 00:31:00.003
My life dreams were
destroyed, too, by that riot.

00:31:01.140 --> 00:31:02.580
In fact, I had made my mind up

00:31:02.580 --> 00:31:04.930
about becoming a school
teacher when I grew up.

00:31:05.880 --> 00:31:07.353
The riot put an end to that,

00:31:08.804 --> 00:31:10.290
and I had to drop out of school

00:31:10.290 --> 00:31:12.993
to work and help with family support.

00:31:14.640 --> 00:31:17.343
And not only did I not
become a school teacher,

00:31:18.270 --> 00:31:20.433
I won't even be able
to finish high school.

00:31:22.440 --> 00:31:25.803
What a loss that was to
Tulsa and to society.

00:31:27.720 --> 00:31:30.900
I had such a calling for
the teaching profession

00:31:30.900 --> 00:31:34.323
and such a love for learning and teaching.

00:31:35.640 --> 00:31:38.663
I know in my heart I
would've made a good teacher.

00:31:40.590 --> 00:31:42.480
- I was only five years old,

00:31:42.480 --> 00:31:45.420
way too young to know the
significance of a riot.

00:31:45.420 --> 00:31:48.360
But I do remember that my
mother was so frightened

00:31:48.360 --> 00:31:51.210
that I knew something was terribly wrong.

00:31:51.210 --> 00:31:53.700
While my dad and uncles
were taken to a detention,

00:31:53.700 --> 00:31:56.490
my mother slipped away
with my sister and me,

00:31:56.490 --> 00:31:58.620
and we hid in a chicken house.

00:31:58.620 --> 00:32:01.623
My mother talked about the riot
often, but my dad never did.

00:32:02.569 --> 00:32:04.986
(calm music)

00:32:21.690 --> 00:32:26.040
- Someone knows who you are,

00:32:26.040 --> 00:32:28.500
armed man posing for the camera

00:32:28.500 --> 00:32:30.200
in front of the Dreamland Theatre,

00:32:31.860 --> 00:32:36.510
sucking the last of a cigar,
feet spread over rubble

00:32:36.510 --> 00:32:41.510
like you're waiting for a
trolley, stare blank as a child's.

00:32:41.760 --> 00:32:45.690
- Watching a loose balloon
rise over the Arkansas

00:32:45.690 --> 00:32:50.690
whose current swirled that
morning over and around.

00:32:50.970 --> 00:32:55.970
The truckloads of Black
bodies not hauled out of town

00:32:56.550 --> 00:32:59.310
were heaped into mass graves.

00:32:59.310 --> 00:33:04.310
- Store owners, barbers, doctors,

00:33:04.770 --> 00:33:09.770
lawyers, teachers, chefs and shoeshiners,

00:33:11.850 --> 00:33:14.310
printers and publishers.

00:33:14.310 --> 00:33:16.980
- Hustlers and hoteliers
sentenced to death

00:33:16.980 --> 00:33:19.140
for the crime of having more than you.

00:33:19.140 --> 00:33:22.290
- Of having built in North Tulsa

00:33:22.290 --> 00:33:27.030
between Archer and Pine,
Cincinnati and Lansing,

00:33:27.030 --> 00:33:30.540
a world that didn't need white people.

00:33:30.540 --> 00:33:34.893
- Someone knows your
name, terrorist, assassin,

00:33:35.730 --> 00:33:39.393
dime-a-dozen thug who slips
soon beyond the camera's eyes.

00:33:40.290 --> 00:33:44.370
- To squint down a
sight aimed at a runner,

00:33:44.370 --> 00:33:45.760
the machine gunners missed

00:33:47.340 --> 00:33:48.970
before you jump into a truck

00:33:49.860 --> 00:33:53.283
and rumble back like nothing
happened, to your life.

00:33:54.510 --> 00:33:56.943
- Maybe a wife who'd
leave you if she could,

00:33:58.110 --> 00:34:00.933
who heaps supper onto
your plate that night,

00:34:02.430 --> 00:34:05.280
June 1st, 1921.

00:34:05.280 --> 00:34:07.140
- [Narrator] That you chewed open mouth.

00:34:07.140 --> 00:34:10.680
- [Narrator] While you spun
your own myth to your kids,

00:34:10.680 --> 00:34:14.920
passing to them, then as
always, the language of hate

00:34:16.020 --> 00:34:18.993
in which they will become
fluent to please you.

00:34:19.860 --> 00:34:22.920
Because kids need heroes as fathers,

00:34:22.920 --> 00:34:24.783
need their fathers' gifts to be good.

00:34:26.550 --> 00:34:29.250
- Someone wrote on the back of a photo

00:34:29.250 --> 00:34:30.363
what you were called,

00:34:32.040 --> 00:34:37.040
Buddy or Skip, son, grandpa, father,

00:34:39.480 --> 00:34:41.670
maybe some saint or martyr,

00:34:41.670 --> 00:34:46.020
maybe gangster Fred Barker,
like a researcher says,

00:34:46.020 --> 00:34:47.943
although he can't be sure.

00:34:48.960 --> 00:34:50.620
- Someone knows where you're from

00:34:51.510 --> 00:34:55.140
and if oil or crime or something else

00:34:55.140 --> 00:34:58.593
brought you to Oklahoma,
facts lost now to the air,

00:34:59.940 --> 00:35:04.940
your eyes lost in this photo
to shadows and midday sun,

00:35:06.150 --> 00:35:08.973
sleeves rolled against heat.

00:35:10.830 --> 00:35:13.440
- [Narrator] In each hand, a shotgun.

00:35:13.440 --> 00:35:16.533
- As smoke curls around the dreamland,

00:35:17.970 --> 00:35:20.620
rises as one long cloud

00:35:22.470 --> 00:35:25.120
over Greenwood, over Tulsa

00:35:27.000 --> 00:35:28.533
on an otherwise beautiful day.

00:35:30.660 --> 00:35:32.430
- [Narrator] Someone knows who you are,

00:35:32.430 --> 00:35:34.110
scrawny man, long dead.

00:35:34.110 --> 00:35:36.450
- [Narrator] Emblem of hostility,

00:35:36.450 --> 00:35:39.210
bronze in Reconciliation Park.

00:35:39.210 --> 00:35:41.610
Someone else knows the
three men behind you,

00:35:41.610 --> 00:35:44.373
taking in the scene like a sunrise,

00:35:45.360 --> 00:35:47.580
but they let themselves forget.

00:35:47.580 --> 00:35:50.943
- [Narrator] But you keep
smirking inside the sepia print,

00:35:52.401 --> 00:35:54.600
a smirk that says you'll know

00:35:54.600 --> 00:35:57.963
you'll get away with
everything, and you did.

00:35:59.700 --> 00:36:04.700
Never charged. Not one
white person even tried.

00:36:07.530 --> 00:36:11.823
- [Narrator] For shooting,
killing, burning down a world.

00:36:13.650 --> 00:36:18.650
- And gifting the cash he
didn't sell as souvenirs,

00:36:18.960 --> 00:36:21.243
smoke stink and soot still on them,

00:36:23.160 --> 00:36:28.160
watches, brooches, rings
now family heirlooms.

00:36:28.800 --> 00:36:32.050
- [Narrator] And white
Tulsa for a hundred years

00:36:34.380 --> 00:36:39.380
flaunted in photos, hanging
crooked in passed-down houses,

00:36:40.920 --> 00:36:43.620
white families squeezed together.

00:36:43.620 --> 00:36:45.400
- Spiffed up in their Sunday best

00:36:46.260 --> 00:36:50.820
looking serious as an armed
man posing for the camera

00:36:50.820 --> 00:36:52.520
in front of the Dreamland Theatre,

00:36:54.480 --> 00:36:58.420
the jewels of dead or weeping Black women

00:36:59.640 --> 00:37:03.813
glimmering with them through
generations of light.

00:37:10.020 --> 00:37:14.730
- Hey, I left, as did
many of the survivors.

00:37:14.730 --> 00:37:18.070
Me, I moved to California

00:37:19.320 --> 00:37:24.320
to live a quiet, invisible, peaceful life.

00:37:29.460 --> 00:37:31.413
Hey, you don't know me.

00:37:34.260 --> 00:37:37.350
- My name is Viola Ford Fletcher.

00:37:37.350 --> 00:37:40.830
I'm a survivor of the Tulsa race massacre.

00:37:40.830 --> 00:37:43.620
On May 31st in '21,

00:37:43.620 --> 00:37:47.280
I went to bed in my
family's home in Greenwood.

00:37:47.280 --> 00:37:51.330
The night of the massacre,
I was awakened by my family.

00:37:51.330 --> 00:37:54.420
My parents and five siblings were there.

00:37:54.420 --> 00:37:57.663
I was told we had to
leave, and that was it.

00:37:58.710 --> 00:38:02.370
I will never forget the
violence of the white mob

00:38:02.370 --> 00:38:04.230
when we left our home.

00:38:04.230 --> 00:38:07.770
I still see Black men seeing being shot,

00:38:07.770 --> 00:38:09.903
Black bodies lying in the street.

00:38:10.830 --> 00:38:14.400
I still smell smoke and see fire.

00:38:14.400 --> 00:38:18.450
I still see Black businesses being burned.

00:38:18.450 --> 00:38:21.363
I still hear airplanes flying overhead.

00:38:22.200 --> 00:38:24.360
I hear the screams.

00:38:24.360 --> 00:38:27.764
I have lived through
the massacre every day.

00:38:27.764 --> 00:38:31.500
Our country may forget
this history, but I cannot.

00:38:31.500 --> 00:38:34.020
For 70 years, the city of Tulsa

00:38:34.020 --> 00:38:36.090
and its chamber of commerce told us

00:38:36.090 --> 00:38:38.760
that the massacre didn't happen,

00:38:38.760 --> 00:38:43.080
like we didn't see it with our own eyes.

00:38:43.080 --> 00:38:45.390
When my family was forced to leave Tulsa,

00:38:45.390 --> 00:38:48.570
I lost my chance of an education.

00:38:48.570 --> 00:38:51.333
I never finished school
past the fourth grade.

00:38:52.410 --> 00:38:55.233
I have never made much
money in my country.

00:38:56.160 --> 00:38:59.970
We lost everything that day,
our homes, our churches,

00:38:59.970 --> 00:39:04.020
our newspapers, our theaters, our lives.

00:39:04.020 --> 00:39:06.660
Greenwood represented all the best

00:39:06.660 --> 00:39:10.050
of what was possible for
Black people in America

00:39:10.050 --> 00:39:13.830
and for all, for all the people.

00:39:13.830 --> 00:39:17.880
No one cared about us for
almost a hundred years.

00:39:17.880 --> 00:39:22.593
We and our history have
been forgotten, washed away.

00:39:27.460 --> 00:39:29.877
(calm music)

00:39:36.030 --> 00:39:37.580
- Why is this not talked about?

00:39:39.450 --> 00:39:42.270
- How come I never learned
about this in school?

00:39:42.270 --> 00:39:44.120
- Why have reparations not been made?

00:39:45.510 --> 00:39:47.613
- Why are parts of history erased?

00:39:49.590 --> 00:39:51.890
- Who tried to pretend
like it never happened?

00:39:53.010 --> 00:39:54.060
- Who is accountable?

00:39:55.500 --> 00:39:58.410
- Why does it seem that history is biased?

00:39:58.410 --> 00:39:59.793
- What else do I not know?

00:40:01.110 --> 00:40:02.560
- Who protected these people?

00:40:04.230 --> 00:40:06.030
- How could someone let this happen?

00:40:07.590 --> 00:40:09.890
- Do we have enough power
to stop the erasure?

00:40:11.760 --> 00:40:14.520
- Why was nobody punished for this?

00:40:14.520 --> 00:40:15.990
- Where else has this happened?

00:40:15.990 --> 00:40:18.174
- And why does this keep happening?

00:40:18.174 --> 00:40:20.674
(calm music)

00:40:21.510 --> 00:40:23.670
- [Narrator] And what about
the other Black Wall Streets?

00:40:23.670 --> 00:40:26.640
- [Narrator] What about Jackson
Ward in Richmond, Virginia,

00:40:26.640 --> 00:40:28.440
the Harlem of the South,

00:40:28.440 --> 00:40:31.650
where Maggie Walker became the
first African American woman

00:40:31.650 --> 00:40:33.240
to charter a bank

00:40:33.240 --> 00:40:35.100
and the first African American woman

00:40:35.100 --> 00:40:36.723
to serve as a bank president?

00:40:38.010 --> 00:40:40.650
- [Narrator] What about the
Bronzeville section of Chicago,

00:40:40.650 --> 00:40:43.500
teeming with Black culture
through Great Migration,

00:40:43.500 --> 00:40:45.450
home to poet Gwendolyn Brooks,

00:40:45.450 --> 00:40:47.900
first African American to
win the Pulitzer Prize?

00:40:49.680 --> 00:40:52.290
- [Narrator] What about
Sweet Auburn in Atlanta,

00:40:52.290 --> 00:40:54.540
West Ninth in Little Rock?

00:40:54.540 --> 00:40:56.610
What about Farish Street in Jackson,

00:40:56.610 --> 00:40:58.573
the Black Mecca of Mississippi?

00:41:01.818 --> 00:41:04.235
(calm music)

00:41:38.184 --> 00:41:41.434
(calm music continues)

00:41:53.122 --> 00:41:55.789
(intense music)

00:42:02.236 --> 00:42:04.653
(calm music)

00:42:35.261 --> 00:42:38.511
(calm music continues)

00:43:06.266 --> 00:43:09.516
(calm music continues)

00:43:41.838 --> 00:43:45.088
(calm music continues)

00:44:14.045 --> 00:44:17.295
(calm music continues)