37 min
S1 E9: Ashes And The Fight For Greenwood Dreams of Black Wall Street
-
- History
Over the last nearly 100 years, there has been speculation about whether or not the Tulsa Race Massacre was a planned attempt to launch an attack on Tulsa's Greenwood district. While there is no direct evidence of this, experts point to why this claim may or may not have any validity.
Additionally, following the Tulsa Race Massacre there were concerted efforts to push African American property owners off of the land that they owned, on which mostly ashes sat. On June 2, 1921 - a day after the attack on Greenwood ended, representatives from the local Real Estate Exchange in Tulsa (which later became today's Realtors' Association, made a proposal to the Public Welfare Board: relocate Greenwood's black residents and turn parts of the burned district of what some referred to as "Little Africa" into a "wholesale industrial site." On Tuesday June 7th, the Tulsa City Commission took steps to guarantee that Greenwood would not be rebuilt. At the directive of the Real Estate Exchange, the body voted 4-0 to extend the city's fire code to all of the burned district south of the Sunset Hill brick plant and Haskell Street, making it nearly rebuilding "The Negro Wall Street" impossibly expensive for blacks in Tulsa. These efforts ultimately failed due - in part - to a group of African American attorney B.C. Franklin who went to the Oklahoma Supreme Court to argue against a law that would allow African Americans in Greenwood to be stripped of their land.
In this episode listeners will hear from Tulsa Race Massacre survivor Olivia J. Hooker.
Featured guests include:
Reuben Gant, Executive Director of the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation.
Attorney and consultant, Hannibal B. Johnson, who is also the author of a number of books, including Black Wall Street.
Randy Krehbiel - Tulsa World Reporter and author of several books, including Tulsa 1921: Reporting A Massacre.
Musical Attributions
1. Glueworm Evening Blues (ID 994) by Lobo Loco License, disclaimer and copyrite information. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode Linked to music: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lobo_Loco/Welcome/Glueworm_Blues_ID_994
2. Title: Driving to the Delta (ID 923) by Lobo Loco License, disclaimer and copywite information: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lobo_Loco/Welcome/Driving_to_the_Delta_ID_923_1563 Link to music: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lobo_Loco/Welcome/Driving_to_the_Delta_ID_923_1563
3. Spirit Inside (ID 819) by Lobo Loco License, disclaimer and copyright information: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/0) Link to music: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lobo_Loco/Tree_of_Meditation/Spirit_Inside_ID_819
4. African Moon by John Bartmann Link to license, disclaimer and copyright information: CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ Link to Music: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/John_Bartmann/Public_Domain_Soundtrack_Music_Album_One/african-moon
Over the last nearly 100 years, there has been speculation about whether or not the Tulsa Race Massacre was a planned attempt to launch an attack on Tulsa's Greenwood district. While there is no direct evidence of this, experts point to why this claim may or may not have any validity.
Additionally, following the Tulsa Race Massacre there were concerted efforts to push African American property owners off of the land that they owned, on which mostly ashes sat. On June 2, 1921 - a day after the attack on Greenwood ended, representatives from the local Real Estate Exchange in Tulsa (which later became today's Realtors' Association, made a proposal to the Public Welfare Board: relocate Greenwood's black residents and turn parts of the burned district of what some referred to as "Little Africa" into a "wholesale industrial site." On Tuesday June 7th, the Tulsa City Commission took steps to guarantee that Greenwood would not be rebuilt. At the directive of the Real Estate Exchange, the body voted 4-0 to extend the city's fire code to all of the burned district south of the Sunset Hill brick plant and Haskell Street, making it nearly rebuilding "The Negro Wall Street" impossibly expensive for blacks in Tulsa. These efforts ultimately failed due - in part - to a group of African American attorney B.C. Franklin who went to the Oklahoma Supreme Court to argue against a law that would allow African Americans in Greenwood to be stripped of their land.
In this episode listeners will hear from Tulsa Race Massacre survivor Olivia J. Hooker.
Featured guests include:
Reuben Gant, Executive Director of the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation.
Attorney and consultant, Hannibal B. Johnson, who is also the author of a number of books, including Black Wall Street.
Randy Krehbiel - Tulsa World Reporter and author of several books, including Tulsa 1921: Reporting A Massacre.
Musical Attributions
1. Glueworm Evening Blues (ID 994) by Lobo Loco License, disclaimer and copyrite information. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode Linked to music: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lobo_Loco/Welcome/Glueworm_Blues_ID_994
2. Title: Driving to the Delta (ID 923) by Lobo Loco License, disclaimer and copywite information: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lobo_Loco/Welcome/Driving_to_the_Delta_ID_923_1563 Link to music: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lobo_Loco/Welcome/Driving_to_the_Delta_ID_923_1563
3. Spirit Inside (ID 819) by Lobo Loco License, disclaimer and copyright information: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/0) Link to music: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lobo_Loco/Tree_of_Meditation/Spirit_Inside_ID_819
4. African Moon by John Bartmann Link to license, disclaimer and copyright information: CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ Link to Music: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/John_Bartmann/Public_Domain_Soundtrack_Music_Album_One/african-moon
37 min