From today, the United States commemorates one of the darkest episodes in its history. 100 Years Ago: On May 31 and June 1, 1921, there was a terrible massacre in the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Nearly 300 dead, a whole neighborhood of the black community razed. What happened ?
It starts from an incident in an elevator, a supposed incident. A young black American, Dick Rowland, a shoe shiner, is accused of behaving indecently towards a 17-year-old girl. For having touched her. In fact, he would have tripped and grabbed her arm. Besides, she never said she was assaulted.
In any case, the young man is arrested. And rumor has it that he could be lynched. Part of the black community flock to the police station. Hearing this, white inhabitants run up. The confrontation is violent: 12 dead including 10 white.
The response is terrible: the white community, supported by the authorities attacks the district of Greenwood, which is called “Black Wall Street”, because a black American bourgeoisie had settled here. Black people’s homes and businesses are destroyed. An outburst of violence that would have caused the death of 300 people. Thousands of people are left homeless.
An often forgotten massacre
This massacre, one of the most terrible in American history, was quickly mentioned in the history books. For years at school we were talking about race riots. Now, when teachers talk about it in their class, they make the difference between race riots and massacres.
It became an important event again from 1997, with the creation of a commission responsible for shedding light on these events. And a lot of young Americans have in fact discovered this page of their history thanks to a series or sportsmen like Lebron James.
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For series fans, the Tulsa Massacre is the opening scene of “Watchmen”, which is a series that has won a lot of awards. Where we see in particular the planes launching incendiary bombs. Because we went that far, the local authorities took off planes to bomb the black community.
And at the moment, 2 documentaries covering these events are produced by stars of the NBA: one by Russel Westbrook (Wizards) and another by Lebron James (Lakers).
Fears of overflows
A concert scheduled to take place today has been canceled for no official reason. In fact, it would be linked to disagreements over the amount of reparations paid to the families of the victims: 300 dead, thousands of houses destroyed and no one has been sentenced. The victims were never compensated.
Of the inhabitants want boycott the museum dedicated to the massacre. Rather worrying, there are fears of parades and clashes between armed groups: between white extremists and the “new black panthers”.
More generally, there are those for whom this massacre should serve as a wake-up call, and would like an official apology. On the other side, those who say: we must move forward, it is useless to dwell on the past. We are a year after the murder of George Floyd. There are always racial tensions. The calm is precarious. Joe Biden is due to go to Tulsa tomorrow. His speech will be eagerly awaited. He will have to find the words to calm the spirits.
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