1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:15,515 --> 00:00:17,884 {\an8}♪♪ 4 00:00:17,984 --> 00:00:20,754 {\an8}♪♪ 5 00:00:20,854 --> 00:00:22,856 {\an8}♪♪ 6 00:00:22,922 --> 00:00:24,491 {\an8}♪♪ 7 00:00:24,557 --> 00:00:28,228 {\an8}- In the 1920s there was a strong Black community 8 00:00:28,328 --> 00:00:30,163 {\an8}here in Tulsa called Greenwood. 9 00:00:32,832 --> 00:00:36,736 {\an8}These people were the core of Black entrepreneurship. 10 00:00:39,239 --> 00:00:41,241 {\an8}People call it the Black Wall Street. 11 00:00:46,046 --> 00:00:49,783 - Greenwood was like putting Harlem, Bourbon Street, 12 00:00:49,883 --> 00:00:53,053 and Chocolate City all in one place. 13 00:00:55,755 --> 00:00:58,358 {\an8}- But white Tulsans talked about Greenwood 14 00:00:58,425 --> 00:01:01,761 {\an8}as Little Africa or Nigger Land. 15 00:01:04,697 --> 00:01:06,800 - Tulsa was a powder keg 16 00:01:08,968 --> 00:01:11,438 needing only something 17 00:01:11,538 --> 00:01:13,406 to set the community alight. 18 00:01:13,473 --> 00:01:23,316 ♪♪ 19 00:01:23,416 --> 00:01:26,486 - Between 100 and 300 people, most of them Black, 20 00:01:26,586 --> 00:01:28,421 were killed. 21 00:01:29,823 --> 00:01:32,992 - Today, we call it a mass murder. 22 00:01:36,563 --> 00:01:39,632 {\an8}They were hastily trying to get rid of the bodies 23 00:01:42,569 --> 00:01:44,404 by dumping them in mass graves 24 00:01:44,471 --> 00:01:46,005 around the city. 25 00:01:50,243 --> 00:01:53,746 - We have Tulsans of an undermined number 26 00:01:53,813 --> 00:01:55,682 who were murdered. 27 00:01:55,782 --> 00:01:59,686 It should not have taken 99 years. 28 00:01:59,786 --> 00:02:01,754 - Anybody who thinks that this crime scene 29 00:02:01,821 --> 00:02:04,023 is not gonna speak 30 00:02:04,124 --> 00:02:07,327 doesn't have the ears to hear. 31 00:02:07,427 --> 00:02:10,497 {\an8}The ancestors are awake 32 00:02:10,597 --> 00:02:12,966 {\an8}and the earth is shaking. 33 00:02:25,145 --> 00:02:29,883 [radio tuning] 34 00:02:32,952 --> 00:02:43,463 ♪♪ 35 00:02:43,530 --> 00:02:46,299 - Ah, yeah! So rough, so tough. 36 00:02:46,366 --> 00:02:50,069 For all you people listening to KBOB 89.9, 37 00:02:50,170 --> 00:02:52,672 located right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 38 00:02:54,340 --> 00:02:57,911 This is where we tell our stories our way. 39 00:02:58,011 --> 00:03:01,047 We can be talking about these graves, 40 00:03:01,147 --> 00:03:02,749 you know, here in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 41 00:03:02,849 --> 00:03:07,086 excavation of these graves, what it means to us. 42 00:03:07,187 --> 00:03:08,988 I guess I'm gonna start with you, Kristi. 43 00:03:09,055 --> 00:03:10,723 - Uh-oh. - Uh-oh. 44 00:03:10,823 --> 00:03:13,193 [laughter] 45 00:03:13,259 --> 00:03:15,695 Kristi. Kristi Williams. 46 00:03:15,762 --> 00:03:17,864 - I came to Tulsa when I was in the sixth grade. 47 00:03:17,931 --> 00:03:20,700 {\an8}So, that's been, whoo! 48 00:03:20,767 --> 00:03:22,602 {\an8}I don't know how many years. 49 00:03:22,702 --> 00:03:25,338 My mother is from Oklahoma. 50 00:03:28,675 --> 00:03:32,111 There was a strong Black community in Tulsa 51 00:03:32,212 --> 00:03:34,280 called Greenwood. 52 00:03:35,548 --> 00:03:40,286 These people were the core of Black entrepreneurship 53 00:03:40,386 --> 00:03:44,757 and they would help you get your business started. 54 00:03:44,857 --> 00:03:48,194 I mean, Greenwood was booming. 55 00:03:48,261 --> 00:03:50,964 People call it the Black Wall Street. 56 00:03:51,064 --> 00:03:53,533 And when you read the editorials, 57 00:03:53,600 --> 00:03:56,869 and they would also post events that were happening. 58 00:04:01,241 --> 00:04:05,478 And I imagine they were having a great time! 59 00:04:05,578 --> 00:04:15,655 ♪♪ 60 00:04:15,755 --> 00:04:16,823 [sighs] 61 00:04:16,923 --> 00:04:20,560 What I love about Greenwood is what it was. 62 00:04:22,228 --> 00:04:24,931 And I love what it could be. 63 00:04:27,300 --> 00:04:30,103 But Tulsa has a truth problem. 64 00:04:36,609 --> 00:04:37,844 Hiding the truth, 65 00:04:37,944 --> 00:04:40,013 and people who will not challenge 66 00:04:40,113 --> 00:04:42,615 what is perceived to be truth. 67 00:04:46,753 --> 00:04:48,288 - What's keeping Tulsa from being 68 00:04:48,354 --> 00:04:50,690 a great shining city on a hill 69 00:04:50,790 --> 00:04:52,325 {\an8}is dealing with the legacy 70 00:04:52,425 --> 00:04:55,695 {\an8}of the so-called Tulsa race riot of 1921. 71 00:04:58,498 --> 00:05:01,167 White Tulsans murdered Black folks 72 00:05:01,267 --> 00:05:05,605 and were hastily trying to get rid of the bodies 73 00:05:05,672 --> 00:05:08,508 by dumping them in mass graves around the city. 74 00:05:10,510 --> 00:05:13,212 Awful things were done to get rid of bodies. 75 00:05:16,316 --> 00:05:19,052 In the late 1990s when Senator Maxine Horner 76 00:05:19,152 --> 00:05:22,822 and my father, State Representative Don Ross 77 00:05:22,889 --> 00:05:25,124 created the commission to study 78 00:05:25,191 --> 00:05:28,394 the Tulsa race riot of 1921, 79 00:05:28,494 --> 00:05:31,464 which brought historians, consultants 80 00:05:31,531 --> 00:05:34,167 from around the world who tried to figure out 81 00:05:34,233 --> 00:05:36,235 what happened in 1921. 82 00:05:38,905 --> 00:05:43,176 {\an8}I had many conversations with riot survivors. 83 00:05:59,692 --> 00:06:01,828 {\an8}- Oh! 84 00:06:01,894 --> 00:06:03,696 - It was one of the proudest moments that 85 00:06:03,763 --> 00:06:06,899 I can remember of my father. 86 00:06:06,999 --> 00:06:08,534 When I wrote their first articles, 87 00:06:08,601 --> 00:06:10,737 uh, "South Tulsa Tales from the Crypt", 88 00:06:10,837 --> 00:06:13,039 I got a lot of attention. 89 00:06:14,207 --> 00:06:18,044 {\an8}But nothing was done until 2018 90 00:06:18,111 --> 00:06:21,681 {\an8}when the story became a "Washington Post" story 91 00:06:21,748 --> 00:06:23,883 {\an8}thanks to a reporter who came to Tulsa 92 00:06:23,950 --> 00:06:26,619 to do a story about gentrification of Greenwood. 93 00:06:26,719 --> 00:06:28,621 No mayor, Republican or Democrat, 94 00:06:28,721 --> 00:06:31,557 never thought about or even touched the story 95 00:06:31,624 --> 00:06:33,693 of the mass graves. 96 00:06:35,194 --> 00:06:38,297 - You hear about, you know, history being erased 97 00:06:38,398 --> 00:06:41,100 in, you know, these authoritarian regimes 98 00:06:41,200 --> 00:06:44,137 or something like that. 99 00:06:44,237 --> 00:06:46,272 {\an8}You can't imagine that it would happen 100 00:06:46,372 --> 00:06:47,974 {\an8}right here in your own hometown 101 00:06:48,074 --> 00:06:50,109 {\an8}in the middle of the United States. 102 00:06:51,711 --> 00:06:54,147 And yet, it had. 103 00:06:54,247 --> 00:06:59,152 ♪♪ 104 00:06:59,252 --> 00:07:02,422 My name is G.T. Bynum. I'm the mayor of Tulsa. 105 00:07:02,488 --> 00:07:04,590 I grew up here in Tulsa. 106 00:07:04,657 --> 00:07:07,460 My family has been here since the 1870s. 107 00:07:08,795 --> 00:07:10,963 My great-great grandfather was the second mayor of Tulsa. 108 00:07:13,099 --> 00:07:16,469 I heard about the massacre in 2001 or 2002, maybe. 109 00:07:16,569 --> 00:07:18,738 And I was 24 years old at this point. 110 00:07:19,939 --> 00:07:21,441 You know, every high school student in Oklahoma 111 00:07:21,507 --> 00:07:23,843 has to go through an Oklahoma history course. 112 00:07:23,943 --> 00:07:26,145 It never came up. 113 00:07:26,245 --> 00:07:29,248 My dad had been president of the Tulsa Historical Society. 114 00:07:29,315 --> 00:07:31,184 It never came up. 115 00:07:31,284 --> 00:07:33,453 Hearing about that, it was shocking to me 116 00:07:33,519 --> 00:07:35,488 because I love Tulsa. 117 00:07:36,789 --> 00:07:38,791 I couldn't believe that Tulsa would be the kind of city 118 00:07:38,858 --> 00:07:41,360 where something like that could happen. 119 00:07:41,461 --> 00:07:45,198 We have Tulsans of an undetermined number 120 00:07:45,298 --> 00:07:48,201 who were murdered in this event. 121 00:07:48,301 --> 00:07:50,870 And so, we have a responsibility, I think, 122 00:07:50,970 --> 00:07:53,539 as a city to try and find out 123 00:07:53,639 --> 00:07:56,476 where their remains are and what happened to them. 124 00:08:09,322 --> 00:08:12,892 - You know, our ancestors literally make up 125 00:08:12,992 --> 00:08:15,161 who and what we are. 126 00:08:16,696 --> 00:08:19,232 {\an8}We are the physical manifestation of 127 00:08:19,332 --> 00:08:22,001 {\an8}our collective ancestors and their memories. 128 00:08:26,305 --> 00:08:28,641 How can I tap into his or her brilliance, 129 00:08:28,708 --> 00:08:30,376 their genius, 130 00:08:30,476 --> 00:08:33,412 so that I can really be the best that I can be? 131 00:08:35,348 --> 00:08:38,184 - I think it's at Tulsa's best interest 132 00:08:38,251 --> 00:08:41,087 to help heal the wounds, 133 00:08:41,187 --> 00:08:43,055 to go look for our dead 134 00:08:43,155 --> 00:08:45,258 and put them at a proper rest. 135 00:08:46,559 --> 00:08:49,729 Pay for the damages and for the lives 136 00:08:49,829 --> 00:08:53,032 that were lost in 1921. 137 00:08:56,936 --> 00:09:00,373 - The city deputized a lot of white men 138 00:09:00,439 --> 00:09:02,275 during the massacre 139 00:09:02,375 --> 00:09:06,712 who robbed, murdered a lot of people. 140 00:09:06,779 --> 00:09:08,781 They're accountable. 141 00:09:12,718 --> 00:09:15,354 - The story here is a story about people. 142 00:09:15,421 --> 00:09:17,456 It's about the human spirit. 143 00:09:19,458 --> 00:09:23,262 The massacre is a chapter in a much larger, richer, 144 00:09:23,362 --> 00:09:25,464 more robust narrative. 145 00:09:32,371 --> 00:09:35,775 - Most people you're going to interview, 146 00:09:35,875 --> 00:09:37,910 you need to ask this question. 147 00:09:40,713 --> 00:09:42,715 Where are you people from? 148 00:09:44,784 --> 00:09:47,920 And if they say well, we're from Oklahoma 149 00:09:47,987 --> 00:09:50,056 or Tulsa or Greenwood... 150 00:09:52,258 --> 00:09:55,728 well, when did they get here? 151 00:09:55,795 --> 00:09:57,930 - Scene Grayson Take 1, Common Marker, Mid Slate. 152 00:09:59,231 --> 00:10:02,001 {\an8}- My father, who's Creek Indian, 153 00:10:02,101 --> 00:10:04,670 {\an8}was from Oklahoma. 154 00:10:04,770 --> 00:10:09,075 My family is a mixture of Indian, Black, and white. 155 00:10:11,077 --> 00:10:14,146 And... here I am. 156 00:10:16,616 --> 00:10:19,151 {\an8}- The story of Oklahoma really began with 157 00:10:19,251 --> 00:10:22,421 {\an8}the five civilized tribes in the 1830s and 1840s. 158 00:10:22,488 --> 00:10:35,801 ♪♪ 159 00:10:35,868 --> 00:10:39,805 - The Chickasaws, the Creeks, 160 00:10:39,872 --> 00:10:41,874 the Cherokee, Choctaw, 161 00:10:41,974 --> 00:10:45,044 and the Seminoles, 162 00:10:45,144 --> 00:10:47,680 {\an8}called the five civilized tribes. 163 00:10:48,681 --> 00:10:51,317 They were originally from the South, 164 00:10:51,384 --> 00:10:54,387 from Alabama, Georgia, parts of Florida, 165 00:10:54,487 --> 00:10:58,991 Tennessee, Mississippi and the South Carolina area 166 00:10:59,058 --> 00:11:01,560 where these tribes owned plantations. 167 00:11:04,230 --> 00:11:07,299 - Civilized really is a veiled reference 168 00:11:07,366 --> 00:11:11,070 to taking on, accepting Eurocentric ways. 169 00:11:13,172 --> 00:11:17,410 One of those ways was a practice of chattel slavery 170 00:11:17,510 --> 00:11:19,912 to boost oneself economically. 171 00:11:21,514 --> 00:11:24,817 - At the Cherokee museum today are slave Bills of Sale, 172 00:11:24,884 --> 00:11:27,920 including one by then Principal Chief John Ross. 173 00:11:29,822 --> 00:11:31,390 - I don't ever talk about it very much 174 00:11:31,490 --> 00:11:33,359 because I think it's a very shameful part 175 00:11:33,426 --> 00:11:35,728 {\an8}of, um, of Cherokee history, 176 00:11:35,828 --> 00:11:38,831 {\an8}and so I've purposely avoided involving myself 177 00:11:38,898 --> 00:11:41,400 {\an8}in that whole issue. 178 00:11:48,274 --> 00:11:51,110 ♪ Java man he made a life ♪ 179 00:11:52,878 --> 00:11:55,781 ♪ But the mammy ain't his wife ♪ 180 00:11:57,550 --> 00:12:02,455 ♪ Choppin' cotton don't be slow ♪ 181 00:12:02,555 --> 00:12:04,857 ♪ Better finish out yo' row. ♪ 182 00:12:07,893 --> 00:12:10,262 - Slavery in the five civilized tribes varied. 183 00:12:12,298 --> 00:12:15,534 What's really important to remember is that 184 00:12:15,601 --> 00:12:17,770 these people were enslaved. 185 00:12:20,039 --> 00:12:24,710 So, by definition, it wasn't a good experience 186 00:12:24,777 --> 00:12:25,878 because if you're a slave, 187 00:12:25,945 --> 00:12:29,215 then you don't have your individual liberty, 188 00:12:29,281 --> 00:12:32,952 which arguably matters more than anything else. 189 00:12:33,052 --> 00:12:34,453 - Enslaving Black people, 190 00:12:34,553 --> 00:12:36,989 it was part of the economy of those tribes. 191 00:12:38,591 --> 00:12:42,561 When the Americans now wanted that land 192 00:12:42,628 --> 00:12:44,296 for their own plantations, 193 00:12:44,396 --> 00:12:46,665 they took the plantations of the Indians. 194 00:12:48,634 --> 00:12:52,304 This was done in a legal way... 195 00:12:54,406 --> 00:12:56,809 by passing legislation, 196 00:12:56,909 --> 00:12:58,811 The Indian Removal Act, 197 00:12:58,911 --> 00:13:01,614 the forced migration of the five civilized tribes 198 00:13:01,680 --> 00:13:03,482 from the Southeastern United States 199 00:13:03,582 --> 00:13:04,850 into Indian territory, 200 00:13:04,950 --> 00:13:07,753 which is what is today Oklahoma. 201 00:13:07,820 --> 00:13:10,122 {\an8}- They said, well, we're swapping you 202 00:13:10,189 --> 00:13:12,992 {\an8}this land for the lands west of the Mississippi 203 00:13:13,092 --> 00:13:14,994 {\an8}in Indian territory. 204 00:13:15,094 --> 00:13:17,530 You have no choice but to go. 205 00:13:20,299 --> 00:13:22,601 We know it as The Trail of Tears. 206 00:13:22,668 --> 00:13:30,042 ♪♪ 207 00:13:30,142 --> 00:13:33,179 The slaves that the tribes didn't sell off, 208 00:13:33,279 --> 00:13:35,548 they brought them on The Trail of Tears. 209 00:13:39,185 --> 00:13:41,620 So, just like an oxen or a bull 210 00:13:41,687 --> 00:13:43,489 that was pulling a wagon, 211 00:13:43,556 --> 00:13:46,826 the Black folks was in the same situation. 212 00:13:46,892 --> 00:13:49,528 They didn't have a choice. 213 00:13:51,163 --> 00:14:00,172 ♪♪ 214 00:14:00,239 --> 00:14:03,876 {\an8}- The five civilized tribes officially aligned themselves 215 00:14:03,976 --> 00:14:06,478 {\an8}with the Confederacy during the Civil War 216 00:14:06,545 --> 00:14:08,314 because slaves were still needed to improve 217 00:14:08,380 --> 00:14:10,749 the economic fortunes of these tribes. 218 00:14:12,151 --> 00:14:14,053 The Confederacy lost, by the way. 219 00:14:14,153 --> 00:14:16,388 And so, after the Civil War, 220 00:14:16,488 --> 00:14:19,592 the Federal government negotiated with these tribes 221 00:14:19,692 --> 00:14:21,360 on treaties generally referred to 222 00:14:21,427 --> 00:14:23,863 as the Treaties of 1866. 223 00:14:23,929 --> 00:14:35,608 ♪♪ 224 00:14:35,708 --> 00:14:38,944 - In Article II of The Creek Treaty of 1866, 225 00:14:39,044 --> 00:14:42,081 it says that you won't have slaves anymore. 226 00:14:42,181 --> 00:14:42,948 That's a wrap. 227 00:14:43,048 --> 00:14:45,017 It's not gonna happen no more. 228 00:14:47,753 --> 00:14:51,457 Those slaves that you have, they're now your Tribal members. 229 00:14:51,557 --> 00:14:54,026 They're now your citizens. 230 00:14:55,561 --> 00:14:57,463 Black people who had been with the Indians, 231 00:14:57,563 --> 00:15:01,300 now 10, 15 generations, 232 00:15:01,400 --> 00:15:04,036 either enslaved or married among them 233 00:15:04,103 --> 00:15:06,138 or their children. 234 00:15:07,640 --> 00:15:09,808 They were called the Freedmen. 235 00:15:14,113 --> 00:15:16,048 The United States government forced the Tribes 236 00:15:16,115 --> 00:15:19,818 to divide up this land with the Freedmen. 237 00:15:19,919 --> 00:15:21,954 - The slaves who belonged to the Cherokees 238 00:15:22,054 --> 00:15:23,722 could come right back to the territory 239 00:15:23,789 --> 00:15:26,258 and settle on Indian land. 240 00:15:26,325 --> 00:15:28,093 And when allotment came, 241 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:31,430 they gave us an equal right with them in land drawings. 242 00:15:31,497 --> 00:15:33,666 The United States government forced them to do this, 243 00:15:33,766 --> 00:15:35,935 I have been told. 244 00:15:36,001 --> 00:15:50,082 ♪♪ 245 00:15:52,284 --> 00:15:55,854 - Okay, so, on this map, 246 00:15:55,955 --> 00:15:57,790 this is the Creek Nation. 247 00:15:57,856 --> 00:15:59,959 This little yellow spot up here 248 00:16:00,025 --> 00:16:01,093 is Township Tulsa. 249 00:16:05,597 --> 00:16:08,701 The green area are the allotments of the Freedmen. 250 00:16:11,637 --> 00:16:14,640 Everybody got 160 acres if you were full-blood Creek, 251 00:16:16,508 --> 00:16:18,877 if you were full Black from Africa. 252 00:16:21,347 --> 00:16:25,284 If you were female you got 160 acres. 253 00:16:25,351 --> 00:16:30,656 The Freedmen allotments totaled 1,192,240 acres. 254 00:16:32,458 --> 00:16:34,226 One million one hundred-- 255 00:16:34,326 --> 00:16:36,829 I really want people to understand that. 256 00:16:36,895 --> 00:16:41,000 That's a lot of land for a small geographical area. 257 00:16:41,066 --> 00:16:43,302 It's a lot of land to own. 258 00:16:43,369 --> 00:16:46,138 The most important part of the story 259 00:16:46,205 --> 00:16:48,540 of Black people here in Oklahoma 260 00:16:48,640 --> 00:16:51,210 is the Black land ownership. 261 00:16:55,581 --> 00:16:58,384 - As a descendent of a Creek Freedmen, 262 00:16:58,484 --> 00:17:00,819 I believe land is power, 263 00:17:00,886 --> 00:17:02,421 land is wealth, 264 00:17:02,521 --> 00:17:08,227 land is really the-the core of Black entrepreneurship. 265 00:17:13,699 --> 00:17:16,602 - You had two types of Blacks in Oklahoma. 266 00:17:16,702 --> 00:17:19,271 You had those Freedmen. 267 00:17:21,040 --> 00:17:23,609 Then you had state Blacks. 268 00:17:23,709 --> 00:17:25,411 State Blacks came to Oklahoma looking 269 00:17:25,511 --> 00:17:27,046 for the promised land. 270 00:17:27,112 --> 00:17:31,383 ♪♪ 271 00:17:31,450 --> 00:17:33,619 - There was a movement called Boosterism 272 00:17:33,719 --> 00:17:37,056 and this began in 1889 273 00:17:37,122 --> 00:17:39,024 using bulletins and encouraging Black folks 274 00:17:39,091 --> 00:17:41,226 to migrate from the deep South 275 00:17:41,293 --> 00:17:43,562 to what is now Oklahoma. 276 00:17:43,629 --> 00:17:46,765 The leader of that movement was a fellow called E.P. McCabe. 277 00:17:46,865 --> 00:17:49,134 He recruited Black people to come on the theory 278 00:17:49,234 --> 00:17:52,905 that it represented an escape from the oppressive deep South, 279 00:17:52,971 --> 00:17:55,808 an opportunity to prosper economically. 280 00:17:58,444 --> 00:18:00,212 - The time will soon come when we will be able 281 00:18:00,279 --> 00:18:03,449 to dictate the policy of this territory, or state. 282 00:18:03,549 --> 00:18:05,217 And when that time comes, 283 00:18:05,284 --> 00:18:08,253 we will have a Negro state governed by Negroes. 284 00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:10,556 We do not wish to antagonize the whites. 285 00:18:10,622 --> 00:18:12,057 They are necessary in the development 286 00:18:12,124 --> 00:18:13,492 of a new country. 287 00:18:13,592 --> 00:18:15,394 But they owe my race homes, 288 00:18:15,461 --> 00:18:16,962 and my race owes to itself 289 00:18:17,062 --> 00:18:19,932 a governmental control of those homes. 290 00:18:24,736 --> 00:18:27,106 - Land meant rebirth. 291 00:18:29,508 --> 00:18:33,679 It meant renewal. Land meant survival. 292 00:18:33,779 --> 00:18:37,316 There were 40 other Black townships around Oklahoma. 293 00:18:37,416 --> 00:18:39,751 The whole state. 294 00:18:39,818 --> 00:18:40,752 Not just Tulsa. 295 00:18:46,492 --> 00:18:49,294 - It was the promised land for a lot of people 296 00:18:49,361 --> 00:18:51,029 coming out of slavery 297 00:18:51,130 --> 00:18:53,699 wanting to escape lynchings 298 00:18:53,799 --> 00:18:55,801 and wanting just to raise their families 299 00:18:55,868 --> 00:18:58,871 in a loving community. 300 00:19:05,978 --> 00:19:09,982 - Freedman had all of this land with mineral rights 301 00:19:10,048 --> 00:19:12,885 that ultimately made them very wealthy. 302 00:19:22,361 --> 00:19:25,297 - We put ourselves in Oklahoma, 1906. 303 00:19:27,799 --> 00:19:29,968 A city called Tulsa. 304 00:19:30,035 --> 00:19:40,979 ♪♪ 305 00:19:41,046 --> 00:19:43,715 Tulsa boomed after the discovery of oil. 306 00:19:48,187 --> 00:19:51,757 Tulsa became the oil capital of the world. 307 00:19:51,857 --> 00:19:56,929 ♪♪ 308 00:19:57,029 --> 00:20:00,232 The oil drew people really from all over, 309 00:20:00,332 --> 00:20:02,901 seeking fame and fortune. 310 00:20:04,503 --> 00:20:06,605 The population just mushroomed. 311 00:20:06,705 --> 00:20:13,612 ♪♪ 312 00:20:13,712 --> 00:20:18,617 - Back then, people were moving to the city every day, 313 00:20:18,717 --> 00:20:20,752 {\an8}whether it's a sharecropper 314 00:20:20,852 --> 00:20:23,789 {\an8}leaving some rural Oklahoma county, 315 00:20:23,889 --> 00:20:26,291 looking for a job in the oilfields. 316 00:20:27,726 --> 00:20:29,294 Whether it's a young entrepreneur 317 00:20:29,394 --> 00:20:32,397 who thinks that they can strike the next one. 318 00:20:32,464 --> 00:20:34,199 People called it the Magic City 319 00:20:34,266 --> 00:20:36,235 because it just came out of nowhere. 320 00:20:36,301 --> 00:20:49,548 ♪♪ 321 00:20:49,615 --> 00:20:50,782 {\an8}- Back when I was growing up, 322 00:20:50,882 --> 00:20:54,319 {\an8}they said the 1921 race riot 323 00:20:54,419 --> 00:20:56,388 {\an8}and then they changed it to massacre. 324 00:20:56,455 --> 00:20:58,223 {\an8}And I wanted people to know my mother 325 00:20:58,290 --> 00:21:00,225 {\an8}was a survivor of that. 326 00:21:00,292 --> 00:21:01,727 A lot of people say, 327 00:21:01,793 --> 00:21:04,096 oh, we didn't know anything about it. 328 00:21:04,162 --> 00:21:05,330 I always knew about it 329 00:21:05,430 --> 00:21:08,667 because my mother told me about it. 330 00:21:08,767 --> 00:21:13,772 ♪♪ 331 00:21:13,839 --> 00:21:16,575 - Tulsa has seen a lot of growth in recent years. 332 00:21:16,642 --> 00:21:18,477 Some might even say it's showing signs of becoming 333 00:21:18,577 --> 00:21:21,947 a destination city. 334 00:21:22,014 --> 00:21:25,317 - Tulsa is a beautiful little city 335 00:21:27,152 --> 00:21:29,521 that wants to be a big city. 336 00:21:29,621 --> 00:21:39,865 ♪♪ 337 00:21:39,965 --> 00:21:41,266 It's just a little country town 338 00:21:41,333 --> 00:21:42,434 that had big skyscrapers. 339 00:21:49,941 --> 00:21:52,878 The weather is beautiful. 340 00:21:52,978 --> 00:21:55,314 The cost of living is wonderful. 341 00:21:56,648 --> 00:21:59,318 People from various different walks of life. 342 00:22:02,354 --> 00:22:04,556 And I strongly believe at one time 343 00:22:04,656 --> 00:22:08,327 that we're going to be the best city 344 00:22:08,393 --> 00:22:10,529 that this world can offer. 345 00:22:29,848 --> 00:22:32,050 Make a left at the light. 346 00:22:33,719 --> 00:22:38,890 Here we are in the historic Greenwood community, 347 00:22:39,891 --> 00:22:43,328 AKA the Black Wall Street of America, 348 00:22:43,395 --> 00:22:47,232 AKA the Negro Wall Street of America, 349 00:22:47,332 --> 00:22:50,001 AKA my home. 350 00:22:58,744 --> 00:23:01,413 Every day that I've got money in my pocket, 351 00:23:01,513 --> 00:23:03,582 I go down on Greenwood. 352 00:23:04,850 --> 00:23:06,585 I go get me a haircut. 353 00:23:08,787 --> 00:23:10,188 They give me the latest scoop, 354 00:23:10,255 --> 00:23:12,290 find out what's going on. 355 00:23:14,426 --> 00:23:16,628 What's up on Greenwood now? 356 00:23:18,764 --> 00:23:21,700 Yeah, the Tee's Barbershop is a legacy of my family. 357 00:23:21,767 --> 00:23:23,935 My father got his hair cut here. 358 00:23:24,035 --> 00:23:27,239 My son got his first haircut right here. 359 00:23:29,040 --> 00:23:31,543 Well, how long has a barbershop been on Greenwood? 360 00:23:31,610 --> 00:23:35,147 - The first barbershop that I'm-- I worked for 361 00:23:35,247 --> 00:23:37,616 was called Mim's Barbershop 362 00:23:37,716 --> 00:23:41,253 and it was in the 1100 block of North Greenwood. 363 00:23:41,319 --> 00:23:43,622 That was in 1963. 364 00:23:43,722 --> 00:23:44,923 They talking about Greenwood 365 00:23:44,990 --> 00:23:47,392 and all you can see now is one block. 366 00:23:47,459 --> 00:23:49,728 But it was businesses all the way down 367 00:23:49,795 --> 00:23:54,666 from-from Lansing back to Martin Luther King Drive today. 368 00:23:54,766 --> 00:23:57,769 ♪♪ 369 00:23:57,836 --> 00:24:00,172 - 1921. 370 00:24:00,272 --> 00:24:03,675 Greenwood was much larger than just that one block 371 00:24:03,775 --> 00:24:05,844 that you guys see today. 372 00:24:11,283 --> 00:24:13,819 Greenwood's much larger to the south, 373 00:24:13,919 --> 00:24:15,353 to the east, 374 00:24:15,454 --> 00:24:18,290 {\an8}to the west, and to the north. 375 00:24:20,926 --> 00:24:22,194 {\an8}But the only thing we have left 376 00:24:22,294 --> 00:24:24,529 {\an8}is just a sliver of its former self. 377 00:24:27,799 --> 00:24:30,035 {\an8}- Every time somebody comes back every other 20 years, 378 00:24:30,135 --> 00:24:31,369 {\an8}there's less and less of Greenwood. 379 00:24:31,470 --> 00:24:33,038 {\an8}People come here all the time and say, is this it? 380 00:24:33,138 --> 00:24:34,306 {\an8}This is Greenwood? 381 00:24:34,372 --> 00:24:35,774 This is what they've been talking about? Right? 382 00:24:37,209 --> 00:24:39,678 Everybody wants a community 383 00:24:39,778 --> 00:24:43,114 where they can grow and prosper 384 00:24:43,181 --> 00:24:43,448 and that dollar can turn over 385 00:24:47,118 --> 00:24:49,955 So, why wouldn't Black folks want that for themselves? 386 00:25:03,235 --> 00:25:05,070 {\an8}- I've been ownin' Blow Out Hair Studio 387 00:25:05,170 --> 00:25:08,206 {\an8}for 13 years now. 388 00:25:08,306 --> 00:25:10,408 Greenwood is special. 389 00:25:10,509 --> 00:25:13,011 Once you come down here, you feel the energy. 390 00:25:15,814 --> 00:25:17,249 I would hate to leave Greenwood. 391 00:25:17,349 --> 00:25:20,852 I will fight tooth and nails before I leave, 392 00:25:20,919 --> 00:25:22,354 to be honest with you. 393 00:25:25,156 --> 00:25:27,225 {\an8}- Farmers Insurance is my first business. 394 00:25:27,325 --> 00:25:29,060 {\an8}However, I have a studio, 395 00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:32,931 {\an8}Greenwood Fitness & Recreational Studio. 396 00:25:33,031 --> 00:25:36,034 {\an8}You know, we have a debt to our ancestors here. 397 00:25:36,101 --> 00:25:38,870 {\an8}You know, we have to bring back what was once there. 398 00:25:38,937 --> 00:25:40,272 {\an8}[espresso machine whirring] 399 00:25:40,372 --> 00:25:43,074 {\an8}And anyone that wants to do business here 400 00:25:43,174 --> 00:25:47,279 {\an8}should also be engaged in that same idea, 401 00:25:47,379 --> 00:25:49,447 {\an8}that same mentality, same thought process. 402 00:25:57,188 --> 00:26:01,526 - When I got to Tulsa in 1984, 403 00:26:01,593 --> 00:26:04,396 I was asked to do a regular guest editorial column 404 00:26:04,462 --> 00:26:05,530 in the Oklahoma Eagle, 405 00:26:05,597 --> 00:26:08,066 which is the Black newspaper. 406 00:26:08,133 --> 00:26:11,303 One of my assignments was to do a historical treatment 407 00:26:11,403 --> 00:26:13,471 of the Greenwood District. 408 00:26:13,572 --> 00:26:16,207 I've had this sort of obligation of service. 409 00:26:16,274 --> 00:26:17,442 And if I'm going to live in this community, 410 00:26:17,542 --> 00:26:20,912 I want the community to be the best it can be. 411 00:26:20,979 --> 00:26:22,747 We can't do that unless we engage 412 00:26:22,814 --> 00:26:25,250 in the work of racial reconciliation. 413 00:26:26,918 --> 00:26:27,819 And we can't do that 414 00:26:27,919 --> 00:26:30,055 unless we acknowledge our history. 415 00:26:30,121 --> 00:26:34,259 ♪♪ 416 00:26:34,326 --> 00:26:43,301 {\an8}♪♪ 417 00:26:43,401 --> 00:26:45,770 {\an8}A Black man, the name of O.W. Gurley 418 00:26:45,837 --> 00:26:47,606 {\an8}came to Oklahoma from Arkansas. 419 00:26:49,107 --> 00:26:50,942 {\an8}He bought land. 420 00:26:51,009 --> 00:26:54,512 {\an8}He sold land to other African Americas; 421 00:26:54,613 --> 00:26:57,916 {\an8}established his first business in 1906. 422 00:26:57,983 --> 00:26:59,818 Businesses just proliferated 423 00:26:59,918 --> 00:27:04,589 and they became prosperous, 424 00:27:04,656 --> 00:27:06,324 creating and living 425 00:27:06,424 --> 00:27:10,595 in this insular economic community 426 00:27:10,662 --> 00:27:12,163 called the Greenwood District. 427 00:27:17,535 --> 00:27:23,675 The Greenwood District was Black Main Street. 428 00:27:23,775 --> 00:27:27,345 Mom and pop type operations, small businesses, 429 00:27:27,445 --> 00:27:31,216 hotels, restaurants, grocery stores, 430 00:27:31,316 --> 00:27:32,784 theaters, nightclubs. 431 00:27:37,789 --> 00:27:41,292 - You have the offices of African American lawyers. 432 00:27:41,359 --> 00:27:44,162 There are more than 12 physicians and surgeons 433 00:27:44,229 --> 00:27:45,864 that have their offices in Greenwood. 434 00:27:49,234 --> 00:27:52,671 {\an8}- Greenwood had about 10,000 people. 435 00:27:52,737 --> 00:27:54,839 {\an8}They were in search for a way 436 00:27:54,906 --> 00:27:57,208 {\an8}to be masters of their own fate. 437 00:27:59,511 --> 00:28:02,080 Today, most of the people connect to Greenwood 438 00:28:02,180 --> 00:28:04,883 and think Black Wall Street 439 00:28:04,983 --> 00:28:07,585 and, yes, that existed here. 440 00:28:07,686 --> 00:28:09,754 You did have people that were pioneers 441 00:28:09,854 --> 00:28:15,760 and big business tycoons living in sprawling mansions. 442 00:28:15,860 --> 00:28:28,840 ♪♪ 443 00:28:28,907 --> 00:28:32,043 And even most people who were domestic workers 444 00:28:32,110 --> 00:28:34,512 or owning small shops, 445 00:28:34,579 --> 00:28:37,115 living day to day, 446 00:28:37,215 --> 00:28:39,250 everyone has an opportunity and their skin color 447 00:28:39,350 --> 00:28:42,420 doesn't limit their capacity here. 448 00:28:42,520 --> 00:28:45,223 That's what makes Greenwood really special, 449 00:28:45,290 --> 00:28:47,125 that you have this safe haven, 450 00:28:47,225 --> 00:28:48,960 that oasis that existed here. 451 00:28:51,563 --> 00:28:53,431 {\an8}- This is a special edition of the events 452 00:28:53,531 --> 00:28:55,033 {\an8}of the Tulsa Disaster. 453 00:28:55,100 --> 00:28:58,136 {\an8}Mary Jones Parrish is very important 454 00:28:58,236 --> 00:29:01,072 {\an8}because she was hired within a week or two 455 00:29:01,139 --> 00:29:05,643 {\an8}of the massacre to collect stories of people-- 456 00:29:05,744 --> 00:29:07,712 {\an8}of survivors, including herself. 457 00:29:07,779 --> 00:29:16,988 ♪♪ 458 00:29:17,088 --> 00:29:19,157 {\an8}- On leavin' the Frisco Station, 459 00:29:19,257 --> 00:29:21,092 {\an8}goin' north to Archer Street, 460 00:29:21,159 --> 00:29:25,296 {\an8}one could see nothin' but Negro business places. 461 00:29:25,396 --> 00:29:28,433 {\an8}Goin' east on Archer for two or more blocks, 462 00:29:28,500 --> 00:29:32,103 {\an8}there you would behold Greenwood Avenue, 463 00:29:32,170 --> 00:29:33,972 {\an8}the Negroes Wall Street. 464 00:29:35,740 --> 00:29:38,943 - Mary Parrish was a remarkable woman. 465 00:29:39,010 --> 00:29:41,012 Originally from Mississippi, 466 00:29:41,112 --> 00:29:44,015 she had set up a secretarial school 467 00:29:44,115 --> 00:29:46,918 right on Greenwood Avenue to teach young women 468 00:29:46,985 --> 00:29:48,620 all of these different skills 469 00:29:48,686 --> 00:29:51,322 so they could get work as secretaries 470 00:29:51,422 --> 00:29:55,126 to some of Greenwood's Black doctors and lawyers. 471 00:29:55,193 --> 00:29:59,297 - This section of Tulsa was a city within a city. 472 00:29:59,364 --> 00:30:02,133 Every face seemed to wear a happy smile. 473 00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:11,843 ♪♪ 474 00:30:11,943 --> 00:30:16,848 {\an8}- We're sitting in the Mackey house. 475 00:30:16,948 --> 00:30:19,050 {\an8}That's Lucy. 476 00:30:19,150 --> 00:30:22,153 {\an8}The Mackeys are really emblematic 477 00:30:22,220 --> 00:30:24,389 {\an8}of the kind of middle-class Black person 478 00:30:24,489 --> 00:30:26,558 {\an8}who lived in the Greenwood community 479 00:30:26,658 --> 00:30:28,026 {\an8}during its peak. 480 00:30:29,494 --> 00:30:32,797 {\an8}But I think if we only fixate on the things 481 00:30:32,864 --> 00:30:35,700 {\an8}that are glamorous and more flattering 482 00:30:35,800 --> 00:30:37,302 {\an8}and we forget that the Greenwood District 483 00:30:37,368 --> 00:30:39,971 {\an8}is a part of the city called Tulsa. 484 00:30:44,375 --> 00:30:47,145 You have a Black segregated community 485 00:30:47,212 --> 00:30:49,581 that's not getting its fair share of tax dollars 486 00:30:49,681 --> 00:30:52,183 for infrastructure like roads, 487 00:30:52,250 --> 00:30:54,385 like sewer systems, and things like that. 488 00:30:59,691 --> 00:31:14,706 ♪♪ 489 00:31:21,379 --> 00:31:25,950 - There was so much money in Tulsa these days, 490 00:31:26,050 --> 00:31:27,585 but here's the reality. 491 00:31:27,685 --> 00:31:29,754 Money plays a complicated role 492 00:31:29,854 --> 00:31:33,091 in the intermingling between the races. 493 00:31:33,191 --> 00:31:35,960 - Affluence, wealth, prosperity 494 00:31:36,060 --> 00:31:39,264 created this tie-in between Black Tulsans, 495 00:31:39,364 --> 00:31:41,466 white Tulsans, 496 00:31:41,566 --> 00:31:43,635 but it's all about perspective. 497 00:31:43,735 --> 00:31:45,870 White Tulsans talked about Greenwood 498 00:31:45,937 --> 00:31:48,406 as Little Africa or Negro Land. 499 00:32:01,085 --> 00:32:04,589 - White Tulsans could control what justice looks like... 500 00:32:06,925 --> 00:32:10,094 could control the narrative, 501 00:32:10,161 --> 00:32:13,164 could control whatever they want. 502 00:32:13,264 --> 00:32:19,270 {\an8}[children playing] 503 00:32:19,337 --> 00:32:24,976 - I would say that I had a very neutral attitude 504 00:32:25,076 --> 00:32:26,678 about Blacks. 505 00:32:26,778 --> 00:32:32,283 We had, uh, Black maids work for our household, 506 00:32:32,350 --> 00:32:35,987 but I knew that there was separation of seating-- 507 00:32:36,087 --> 00:32:39,524 restaurants, motels. 508 00:32:39,624 --> 00:32:51,869 {\an8}♪♪ 509 00:32:51,970 --> 00:32:55,974 {\an8}- Through the years, I met all sorts of people, 510 00:32:56,040 --> 00:32:59,043 {\an8}including white people whose family was in Tulsa 511 00:32:59,143 --> 00:33:02,046 {\an8}during the people of the massacre. 512 00:33:02,146 --> 00:33:03,781 {\an8}You were telling me that you were born, 513 00:33:03,848 --> 00:33:06,050 {\an8}uh, in 1915. - Uh-huh. 514 00:33:06,150 --> 00:33:07,885 {\an8}Down on 9th and Denver is where my parents 515 00:33:07,986 --> 00:33:10,788 {\an8}bought a little house down there when they got married. 516 00:33:10,855 --> 00:33:12,790 - Did you, as a child, ever have occasion 517 00:33:12,857 --> 00:33:15,727 to visit the African American community in Tulsa? 518 00:33:15,827 --> 00:33:19,130 - I-I think that I would have been, uh, 519 00:33:19,197 --> 00:33:23,167 probably just going to and from the homes 520 00:33:23,234 --> 00:33:24,902 where our maids lived. 521 00:33:25,003 --> 00:33:28,473 - My mother always had the colored help. 522 00:33:28,539 --> 00:33:32,877 She just- she got along well with people and-- 523 00:33:32,977 --> 00:33:34,245 - When you say help, you mean domestic, 524 00:33:34,345 --> 00:33:35,079 as domestic help? 525 00:33:35,179 --> 00:33:36,748 - Yes, domestic help. Um-hmm. 526 00:33:36,848 --> 00:33:39,851 - My challenge, my charge really is to help people 527 00:33:39,917 --> 00:33:42,854 come to grips with their past, 528 00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:45,523 which is not to say that every person in America's evil 529 00:33:45,590 --> 00:33:46,891 or every white person is evil. 530 00:33:46,991 --> 00:33:49,694 It's to acknowledge a series of systems 531 00:33:49,761 --> 00:33:51,896 that exist here that advantage some people 532 00:33:51,996 --> 00:33:53,164 and disadvantage other people. 533 00:33:54,432 --> 00:33:56,100 {\an8}- We were taught by innuendo 534 00:33:56,200 --> 00:33:59,504 {\an8}to dislike or to actually hate. 535 00:33:59,570 --> 00:34:01,339 {\an8}I think the thing that bothered me the most 536 00:34:01,406 --> 00:34:03,207 {\an8}was not being able to ask questions 537 00:34:03,274 --> 00:34:06,010 {\an8}and have a discussion or hear about it 538 00:34:06,077 --> 00:34:09,347 {\an8}as just a kid growing up, a white kid. 539 00:34:13,951 --> 00:34:15,753 - The only reason that Black Wall Street existed 540 00:34:15,853 --> 00:34:18,356 was because of necessity. 541 00:34:20,625 --> 00:34:22,093 These people were not able to participate 542 00:34:22,193 --> 00:34:25,863 in the regular economy run by the dominant culture 543 00:34:25,930 --> 00:34:27,698 because of segregation. 544 00:34:31,636 --> 00:34:32,904 - The vast majority of people 545 00:34:32,970 --> 00:34:35,072 who lived in Greenwood were not wealthy. 546 00:34:35,139 --> 00:34:41,412 ♪♪ 547 00:34:41,479 --> 00:34:44,382 But they had regular jobs in the white community 548 00:34:44,449 --> 00:34:45,883 and they had a regular paycheck 549 00:34:45,950 --> 00:34:49,487 in the white community. 550 00:34:49,587 --> 00:34:52,223 You've got a lot of well-to-do white Tulsans 551 00:34:52,290 --> 00:34:55,993 who are going to hire servants, cooks, 552 00:34:56,094 --> 00:34:57,595 domestic workers. 553 00:35:00,798 --> 00:35:03,734 They would collect their paycheck at the end of the week 554 00:35:03,801 --> 00:35:05,636 and they would spend it back in Greenwood. 555 00:35:08,940 --> 00:35:11,242 You know, in Tulsa, like in other southern cities, 556 00:35:11,309 --> 00:35:14,245 African Americans can't go into a department store 557 00:35:14,312 --> 00:35:15,513 and try on clothes. 558 00:35:21,586 --> 00:35:25,256 But they can shop in their own neighborhoods. 559 00:35:25,323 --> 00:35:29,327 So, what happens is the merchants in Greenwood 560 00:35:29,427 --> 00:35:31,963 had this captive population 561 00:35:32,029 --> 00:35:35,333 and the money just flows and flows and flows. 562 00:35:39,470 --> 00:35:42,039 - And it was successful because they were supported 563 00:35:42,140 --> 00:35:44,275 by people who looked like them, 564 00:35:44,342 --> 00:35:46,611 would purchase from them, do business with them. 565 00:35:52,216 --> 00:35:55,653 - So, there's people that are living all different lives 566 00:35:55,720 --> 00:35:57,455 and different social standings 567 00:35:57,522 --> 00:36:00,324 but everyone here is making a living 568 00:36:00,391 --> 00:36:05,730 whatever way they- they decide to. 569 00:36:05,830 --> 00:36:08,666 And they're not feeling the pressures 570 00:36:08,733 --> 00:36:10,701 and the violence from the outside world. 571 00:36:17,975 --> 00:36:18,910 {\an8}- I did not grow up here, 572 00:36:22,180 --> 00:36:25,550 {\an8}and I'd recognized the importance that it had, 573 00:36:25,650 --> 00:36:26,751 {\an8}not just for this community, 574 00:36:26,851 --> 00:36:30,354 {\an8}but for the country and also the world. 575 00:36:30,421 --> 00:36:36,093 {\an8}And I wish that Greenwood would be a wonderful community 576 00:36:36,194 --> 00:36:39,864 {\an8}that would radiate the likeness of the Lord. 577 00:36:47,705 --> 00:36:50,007 - 1920 Greenwood was booming. 578 00:36:50,074 --> 00:36:59,517 ♪♪ 579 00:36:59,584 --> 00:37:01,352 It was a strong community. 580 00:37:03,221 --> 00:37:06,457 {\an8}- A.C. Jackson was a prominent Black surgeon. 581 00:37:06,557 --> 00:37:08,626 {\an8}The Mayo Clinic said that Dr. A.C. Jackson 582 00:37:08,726 --> 00:37:12,196 {\an8}was the most able Negro surgeon in America. 583 00:37:12,263 --> 00:37:15,099 {\an8}Simon Berry was a businessman. 584 00:37:15,199 --> 00:37:16,934 {\an8}His first business was a jitney service. 585 00:37:18,436 --> 00:37:20,071 {\an8}A.J. Smitherman was the editor and publisher 586 00:37:20,137 --> 00:37:21,305 {\an8}of the Tulsa Star. 587 00:37:21,405 --> 00:37:23,808 {\an8}His paper included editorials and articles 588 00:37:23,908 --> 00:37:26,811 {\an8}really talking about social justice. 589 00:37:26,911 --> 00:37:28,312 {\an8}- When you think about Stradford, 590 00:37:28,412 --> 00:37:32,216 {\an8}you think about what elegance and grace looks like. 591 00:37:32,283 --> 00:37:34,252 {\an8}- By the beginning of 1917, 592 00:37:34,318 --> 00:37:36,487 {\an8}I had amassed quite a fortune. 593 00:37:36,587 --> 00:37:38,422 {\an8}I owned fifteen rental houses, 594 00:37:38,489 --> 00:37:40,992 {\an8}a sixteen room brick apartment building. 595 00:37:41,092 --> 00:37:44,495 {\an8}The rental value was $350 a month. 596 00:37:44,595 --> 00:37:47,231 {\an8}The income from other sources were triple. 597 00:37:47,298 --> 00:37:48,899 I had a splendid bank account 598 00:37:48,966 --> 00:37:51,836 and was living on the sunny side of the street. 599 00:37:51,936 --> 00:37:54,972 I decided to realize my fondest hope, 600 00:37:55,072 --> 00:37:58,175 and that was to erect a large hotel in Tulsa 601 00:37:58,276 --> 00:38:00,111 exclusively for my people. 602 00:38:04,749 --> 00:38:07,785 - J.B. Stradford built the Stradford Hotel. 603 00:38:07,852 --> 00:38:11,856 - It's 54 rooms and crystal chandeliers. 604 00:38:11,956 --> 00:38:12,623 - It was acknowledged 605 00:38:15,293 --> 00:38:17,595 in the United States of America. 606 00:38:17,662 --> 00:38:19,530 It was the crown jewel of Greenwood. 607 00:38:21,299 --> 00:38:22,700 {\an8}- Loulah and John Williams, 608 00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:25,870 {\an8}they were really active in the community. 609 00:38:25,970 --> 00:38:27,438 {\an8}Here they had a rooming house 610 00:38:27,505 --> 00:38:29,206 {\an8}and a garage and a confectionary. 611 00:38:31,442 --> 00:38:35,513 Williams Dreamland Theatre was a grand structure, 612 00:38:35,613 --> 00:38:37,715 really one of the jewels in the Greenwood community 613 00:38:37,815 --> 00:38:38,949 at the time. 614 00:38:40,651 --> 00:38:45,022 - Imagine putting Harlem, Bourbon Street, 615 00:38:45,122 --> 00:38:46,857 and Chocolate City all in one place. 616 00:38:50,494 --> 00:38:52,463 A train stopping on a Friday night 617 00:38:52,530 --> 00:38:54,398 coming to Greenwood 618 00:38:54,498 --> 00:38:57,201 with excess of 500 people 619 00:38:57,301 --> 00:38:58,903 to listen to all the greats. 620 00:38:59,003 --> 00:39:03,240 ♪♪ 621 00:39:03,341 --> 00:39:05,710 - There are speakeasys, there are pool halls, 622 00:39:05,810 --> 00:39:09,313 there's a lot of action going on. 623 00:39:09,380 --> 00:39:11,749 In Greenwood you had hell on one side 624 00:39:11,849 --> 00:39:13,250 and the holy ghost on the other. 625 00:39:17,088 --> 00:39:20,591 - The church life in those days were very strong 626 00:39:20,691 --> 00:39:24,929 and the church was a source, 627 00:39:25,029 --> 00:39:27,598 not just for God, but also for community. 628 00:39:27,698 --> 00:39:30,067 [piano playing blues music] 629 00:39:30,167 --> 00:39:36,707 ♪♪ 630 00:39:36,774 --> 00:39:37,708 - Well-to-do families, 631 00:39:37,775 --> 00:39:40,778 Black families in Tulsa would have pianos. 632 00:39:40,878 --> 00:39:44,548 They would have their daughters take piano lessons. 633 00:39:44,615 --> 00:39:48,919 You might hear a blues song, 634 00:39:49,019 --> 00:39:51,088 but you might also hear a Mozart sonata. 635 00:39:51,188 --> 00:39:56,560 [piano playing classical music] 636 00:39:56,627 --> 00:39:58,963 It's part of the blood of the city. 637 00:39:59,063 --> 00:40:00,931 This is a part of the heartbeat of the town. 638 00:40:04,235 --> 00:40:05,302 - And the sky was the limit. 639 00:40:05,403 --> 00:40:06,537 There was nothing that you could not do. 640 00:40:14,779 --> 00:40:16,714 - When thinking about Tulsa 641 00:40:16,781 --> 00:40:19,417 in the early part of the 20th century, 642 00:40:19,483 --> 00:40:20,384 it's important to remember 643 00:40:20,451 --> 00:40:23,454 where the Greenwood community is. 644 00:40:23,554 --> 00:40:26,323 It abuts downtown, separated by the Frisco tracks. 645 00:40:30,628 --> 00:40:36,167 If you live in a society in which white supremacy 646 00:40:36,267 --> 00:40:38,469 is the prevailing paradigm, 647 00:40:38,569 --> 00:40:41,906 but you live in a community in which you can look across 648 00:40:41,972 --> 00:40:46,143 the dividing line, the Frisco tracks, 649 00:40:46,243 --> 00:40:48,579 and see Black folks driving nice cars 650 00:40:48,646 --> 00:40:51,749 and wearing fur coats and living in nice homes, 651 00:40:51,816 --> 00:40:54,518 then it causes cognitive dissonance, 652 00:40:54,618 --> 00:40:57,655 garden variety jealousy. 653 00:40:57,755 --> 00:41:00,357 {\an8}That land was desired by corporate interest 654 00:41:00,458 --> 00:41:03,527 {\an8}in Tulsa. We know that. 655 00:41:03,627 --> 00:41:06,130 The idea was to remove the Black folks from the land, 656 00:41:06,197 --> 00:41:08,632 move them farther north, 657 00:41:08,699 --> 00:41:10,201 and use the land for what was considered 658 00:41:10,301 --> 00:41:12,770 to be higher and better purposes. 659 00:41:12,837 --> 00:41:16,373 {\an8}- Tulsa appears now to be in danger of losing its prestige 660 00:41:16,474 --> 00:41:18,876 {\an8}as the whitest town in Oklahoma. 661 00:41:18,976 --> 00:41:20,878 {\an8}Does Tulsa wish a double invasion 662 00:41:20,978 --> 00:41:23,113 {\an8}of criminal Negro preachers, 663 00:41:23,180 --> 00:41:24,815 {\an8}Negro shysters, 664 00:41:24,882 --> 00:41:27,852 {\an8}crap shooters, gamblers, bootlegs, prostitutes, 665 00:41:27,952 --> 00:41:29,954 {\an8}and smart alecks in general? 666 00:41:30,020 --> 00:41:43,501 ♪♪ 667 00:41:43,567 --> 00:41:45,202 - We took Oklahoma history in the ninth grade. 668 00:41:45,302 --> 00:41:47,137 And in our-- in our textbook, 669 00:41:47,204 --> 00:41:49,006 there was probably a page, or a page and a half 670 00:41:49,073 --> 00:41:52,042 about the race massacre. 671 00:41:52,142 --> 00:41:53,744 We did not cover that in class. 672 00:41:53,844 --> 00:41:57,515 I read it because I was really interested in history 673 00:41:57,581 --> 00:42:00,217 and it was a real revelation. 674 00:42:01,719 --> 00:42:07,157 It brought home just how pervasive racism was 675 00:42:07,224 --> 00:42:11,195 in the United States and in the social system. 676 00:42:11,262 --> 00:42:12,997 - Historians often refer to the early part 677 00:42:13,063 --> 00:42:14,265 of the 20th century in America 678 00:42:14,365 --> 00:42:16,867 as the low point of race relations in America. 679 00:42:18,202 --> 00:42:20,604 {\an8}- African Americans are under attack 680 00:42:20,704 --> 00:42:24,375 {\an8}in all different quarters in all parts of the Union. 681 00:42:24,441 --> 00:42:27,444 {\an8}This is an era where the nature of lynchings 682 00:42:27,545 --> 00:42:29,280 {\an8}are getting more and more barbaric. 683 00:42:33,551 --> 00:42:35,252 - Lynching is a form of domestic terrorism 684 00:42:35,352 --> 00:42:39,890 that targeted primarily African Americans. 685 00:42:39,957 --> 00:42:45,296 In events to which people brought their children, 686 00:42:45,396 --> 00:42:47,965 lynching was widespread in the United States. 687 00:42:51,135 --> 00:42:53,270 That there would be such a film like "Birth of a Nation" 688 00:42:53,370 --> 00:42:57,541 produced at the time... 689 00:42:57,608 --> 00:42:58,976 neither shocks nor surprises me. 690 00:43:00,144 --> 00:43:08,953 {\an8}♪♪ 691 00:43:09,053 --> 00:43:11,088 - "Birth of a Nation", 692 00:43:11,155 --> 00:43:14,258 a landmark film that came out in 1915. 693 00:43:18,262 --> 00:43:19,830 Black people were- were portrayed 694 00:43:19,930 --> 00:43:21,599 in a very demeaning manner. 695 00:43:27,237 --> 00:43:29,440 ...the Ku Klux Klan as heroes. 696 00:43:29,506 --> 00:43:33,344 ♪♪ 697 00:43:33,444 --> 00:43:36,180 - "The Birth of a Nation" attests to the purity 698 00:43:36,280 --> 00:43:40,484 and chastity of white women 699 00:43:40,584 --> 00:43:43,253 and Black men mixing with white women 700 00:43:43,320 --> 00:43:48,125 is a distinct taboo, 701 00:43:48,192 --> 00:43:50,327 which often did result 702 00:43:50,427 --> 00:43:51,962 in the death of the Black men. 703 00:43:56,800 --> 00:43:58,602 - The film became, uh, you know, 704 00:43:58,669 --> 00:44:00,371 pretty much of a national phenomenon. 705 00:44:04,808 --> 00:44:08,212 President Woodrow Wilson endorsed it. 706 00:44:08,312 --> 00:44:10,981 It showed all over the country. 707 00:44:11,048 --> 00:44:13,851 It showed in Tulsa in the convention hall. 708 00:44:18,188 --> 00:44:21,191 It certainly validated these ideas. 709 00:44:25,129 --> 00:44:26,730 - How do you survive if you're a Black person 710 00:44:26,830 --> 00:44:29,400 in America during this era? 711 00:44:29,500 --> 00:44:33,203 And part of the answer came through African American 712 00:44:33,303 --> 00:44:37,574 veterans of World War I who'd fought in combat units 713 00:44:37,675 --> 00:44:39,977 in France where they were treated 714 00:44:40,044 --> 00:44:42,346 with respect and with honor. 715 00:44:42,413 --> 00:44:43,814 And they came back to the United States 716 00:44:43,881 --> 00:44:47,017 and they found none. 717 00:44:47,084 --> 00:44:50,154 - We have Black veterans in Greenwood. 718 00:44:50,220 --> 00:44:51,255 They fought for their country, 719 00:44:51,355 --> 00:44:52,723 they fought for their freedom. 720 00:44:52,823 --> 00:44:56,026 So, when they come home, they expect to be respected. 721 00:44:59,229 --> 00:45:03,867 But what they come home to is, again, more Jim Crow laws, 722 00:45:03,934 --> 00:45:05,869 more prejudice, and more restrictions 723 00:45:05,936 --> 00:45:08,005 on their freedom that they fought for. 724 00:45:11,508 --> 00:45:12,443 - After World War I, 725 00:45:16,447 --> 00:45:20,684 in uniform being lynched by white mobs. 726 00:45:20,751 --> 00:45:25,389 It's pretty stunning and remarkable. 727 00:45:25,456 --> 00:45:29,626 The idea is we're going to show you what your place is. 728 00:45:29,727 --> 00:45:33,897 We don't care whether you've fought for the country. 729 00:45:33,964 --> 00:45:36,767 When you're here, you play by our rules. 730 00:45:38,969 --> 00:45:42,439 - The Ku Klux Klan is kind of the bogeyman. 731 00:45:42,539 --> 00:45:44,441 I think, especially as white people, 732 00:45:44,541 --> 00:45:46,910 we load up all the bad stuff and we attribute it 733 00:45:46,977 --> 00:45:49,480 to this vague group over here 734 00:45:49,580 --> 00:45:52,950 that we call the Ku Klux Klan. 735 00:45:53,050 --> 00:45:56,887 Even the people who considered themselves friends 736 00:45:56,954 --> 00:45:58,155 of the Black people 737 00:45:58,255 --> 00:46:02,426 didn't really consider them equals in a social way. 738 00:46:02,493 --> 00:46:04,161 I mean, they- they didn't want them-- 739 00:46:04,261 --> 00:46:06,296 they didn't want them killed, they didn't want them cheated, 740 00:46:06,396 --> 00:46:07,664 they didn't want their houses burned down 741 00:46:07,765 --> 00:46:09,066 but they didn't want to sit next to 'em 742 00:46:09,133 --> 00:46:10,768 in the restaurant either. 743 00:46:12,903 --> 00:46:13,737 In those times, 744 00:46:13,804 --> 00:46:15,773 Tulsa was like a lot of other places. 745 00:46:15,839 --> 00:46:18,609 You had African Americans who were just sort of tired 746 00:46:18,675 --> 00:46:21,578 of being sent to the back of the bus, 747 00:46:21,645 --> 00:46:23,413 literally and figuratively. 748 00:46:23,480 --> 00:46:25,816 They were ready to stand up for their-- 749 00:46:25,916 --> 00:46:28,519 for their right. 750 00:46:28,619 --> 00:46:31,488 There had to have been tension building up. 751 00:46:33,590 --> 00:46:36,860 - The Tulsa Tribune published a series 752 00:46:36,960 --> 00:46:39,329 of inflammatory articles... 753 00:46:44,034 --> 00:46:45,869 ...that really fomented 754 00:46:45,969 --> 00:46:47,304 hostility in the white community 755 00:46:47,371 --> 00:46:48,872 against the Black community. 756 00:46:48,972 --> 00:46:51,341 ♪♪ 757 00:46:51,441 --> 00:46:54,311 Tulsa was a powder keg, 758 00:46:54,378 --> 00:46:58,215 a tinderbox needing only something 759 00:46:58,315 --> 00:46:59,716 to set the community alight. 760 00:47:10,294 --> 00:47:14,865 - Many years ago, I was at a cemetery. 761 00:47:14,965 --> 00:47:17,534 I was taking pictures of the tombstones. 762 00:47:22,139 --> 00:47:24,508 And I heard this strange noise. 763 00:47:24,575 --> 00:47:26,510 Tsshh. 764 00:47:26,577 --> 00:47:29,179 I looked around; it was nothing there. 765 00:47:29,246 --> 00:47:32,249 Then I heard a "tsshh" to the right. 766 00:47:32,349 --> 00:47:35,085 Then I heard that same sound surrounding me. 767 00:47:35,185 --> 00:47:36,353 Tsshh. 768 00:47:36,420 --> 00:47:37,754 I ran out of there. 769 00:47:41,892 --> 00:47:44,027 That's when I saw a flock of redbirds 770 00:47:44,094 --> 00:47:45,395 come out of the trees. 771 00:47:48,699 --> 00:47:49,900 I thought that was unusual. 772 00:47:50,000 --> 00:47:51,602 Normally you see one or two redbirds, 773 00:47:51,702 --> 00:47:53,437 but I never saw a flock of them 774 00:47:53,537 --> 00:47:57,107 flying together like that. 775 00:47:57,207 --> 00:48:00,277 And I told a good friend of mine and she said, 776 00:48:00,377 --> 00:48:02,613 you saw redbirds in a cemetery? 777 00:48:05,549 --> 00:48:07,618 Oh, baby, that's nothin' but an omen, she said. 778 00:48:10,053 --> 00:48:13,056 That was the spirit of the dead telling you 779 00:48:13,123 --> 00:48:18,629 to go tell somebody that they are not at peace. 780 00:48:23,567 --> 00:48:26,370 - The ancestors are speaking to us. 781 00:48:26,436 --> 00:48:31,275 The ancestors are throwing clues at us. 782 00:48:31,375 --> 00:48:34,411 We have a responsibility and an obligation 783 00:48:34,478 --> 00:48:36,113 to find the truth. 784 00:48:37,481 --> 00:48:39,082 - The mass graves investigation 785 00:48:39,149 --> 00:48:42,286 started out in 1997, actually, 786 00:48:42,386 --> 00:48:44,821 with Don Ross, Kavin Ross' father. 787 00:48:46,323 --> 00:48:48,725 - When he was first told about the massacre, 788 00:48:48,792 --> 00:48:50,761 my father, he thought it was just a lie, 789 00:48:50,827 --> 00:48:52,896 that it didn't happen. 790 00:48:52,963 --> 00:48:56,500 It was not in the history books. 791 00:48:56,600 --> 00:48:58,635 But then in high school, 792 00:48:58,735 --> 00:49:01,104 he heard first-hand from survivors 793 00:49:01,171 --> 00:49:03,006 who were schoolteachers at the time 794 00:49:03,106 --> 00:49:04,841 and that was something that stuck with him 795 00:49:04,942 --> 00:49:06,410 until he got to the point 796 00:49:06,476 --> 00:49:07,945 where he could do something about it. 797 00:49:08,011 --> 00:49:10,147 - White political leaders tried to bury the truth 798 00:49:10,247 --> 00:49:12,582 along with all those Black victims of the riot. 799 00:49:12,649 --> 00:49:15,285 And they pretty much succeeded for 76 years 800 00:49:15,352 --> 00:49:17,154 until 1997, 801 00:49:17,254 --> 00:49:19,690 when the state legislature appointed a commission 802 00:49:19,790 --> 00:49:22,859 of 11 people to finally uncover the truth 803 00:49:22,960 --> 00:49:25,829 about the horrific riot of 1921. 804 00:49:25,929 --> 00:49:29,700 - Don Ross went to the governor and the legislature and said, 805 00:49:29,800 --> 00:49:31,702 we've never had an official study 806 00:49:31,802 --> 00:49:33,303 of this little-known event. 807 00:49:33,370 --> 00:49:37,674 - That was inspired by the Oklahoma City bombing. 808 00:49:37,774 --> 00:49:41,011 Uh, when they said it was the largest urban disaster 809 00:49:41,111 --> 00:49:43,480 in America, wrong. 810 00:49:43,547 --> 00:49:46,616 Uh, more people were killed than any such disaster, 811 00:49:46,683 --> 00:49:48,151 wrong. 812 00:49:48,218 --> 00:49:51,888 - I was asked to be the historian for the commission. 813 00:49:51,989 --> 00:49:54,825 During that period, I was thinking 814 00:49:54,891 --> 00:49:56,560 maybe we could use this to figure out 815 00:49:56,660 --> 00:49:59,463 how many people died and where they were buried. 816 00:50:00,998 --> 00:50:03,066 {\an8}- I'm ready. - Kavin, you good? 817 00:50:03,166 --> 00:50:05,068 {\an8}- Go ahead. - Hi, I'm Eddie Faye Gates, 818 00:50:05,168 --> 00:50:07,070 {\an8}chair of the Survivors Committee 819 00:50:07,170 --> 00:50:09,706 {\an8}of the Oklahoma Legislative Commission to study 820 00:50:09,806 --> 00:50:12,509 {\an8}the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. 821 00:50:12,576 --> 00:50:15,879 - I was a videographer for the race riot commission report. 822 00:50:16,847 --> 00:50:19,750 I was on it to accompany Eddie Faye Gates, 823 00:50:19,850 --> 00:50:21,418 who was the commissioner at the time. 824 00:50:21,518 --> 00:50:24,087 Her job was to record the testimonies 825 00:50:24,187 --> 00:50:26,023 of the riot survivors. 826 00:50:26,089 --> 00:50:30,060 ♪♪ 827 00:50:30,160 --> 00:50:34,531 - We have located fifty-one actual living riot survivors, 828 00:50:34,598 --> 00:50:37,334 ages 78 to 104. 829 00:50:37,401 --> 00:50:41,104 No research takes the place of eyewitness testimony, 830 00:50:41,204 --> 00:50:44,074 and that is why this day is so significant. 831 00:50:44,174 --> 00:50:46,543 {\an8}Mrs. Simms. 832 00:50:46,610 --> 00:50:48,779 {\an8}Go on and tell it. 833 00:50:48,879 --> 00:50:51,548 {\an8}- You will never forget that riot. 834 00:50:51,615 --> 00:50:55,385 That's something that will be always in your remembrance. 835 00:50:55,452 --> 00:50:58,522 - This has been the age-old story here in Tulsa. 836 00:50:58,588 --> 00:51:00,057 I never knew what happened to my great uncle, 837 00:51:00,123 --> 00:51:01,792 never saw my great aunt again. 838 00:51:01,892 --> 00:51:03,527 You hear those stories over the ages. 839 00:51:05,095 --> 00:51:06,463 Folks were coming in with oral history, 840 00:51:06,563 --> 00:51:08,732 where bodies could be buried. 841 00:51:08,799 --> 00:51:11,868 - We interviewed over three hundred Tulsans 842 00:51:11,935 --> 00:51:16,039 to identify what we thought were three very likely spots 843 00:51:16,106 --> 00:51:20,577 in town where massacre victims were buried in unmarked graves. 844 00:51:25,449 --> 00:51:27,818 - Clyde Eddy took some of the same steps today 845 00:51:27,918 --> 00:51:31,788 he first took 78 years ago, 846 00:51:31,888 --> 00:51:33,790 days after the Tulsa Race Riot. 847 00:51:33,890 --> 00:51:36,126 He was ten at the time, drawn by the curious sight 848 00:51:36,226 --> 00:51:37,727 of men digging a trench 849 00:51:37,794 --> 00:51:39,930 with large boxes stacked nearby. 850 00:51:42,099 --> 00:51:44,801 - Clyde Eddy talked about at the age of ten, 851 00:51:44,901 --> 00:51:46,636 when he was at the Oaklawn Cemetery, 852 00:51:46,736 --> 00:51:50,006 he saw these giant boxes. 853 00:51:51,108 --> 00:51:54,911 He and his cousin would go to one of these crates. 854 00:51:54,978 --> 00:51:56,313 - We opened the first box, 855 00:51:56,413 --> 00:51:59,449 {\an8}and there were, um-- excuse me. 856 00:51:59,516 --> 00:52:02,486 {\an8}There were three bodies of Black people. 857 00:52:02,586 --> 00:52:04,187 The stench was terrible. 858 00:52:04,287 --> 00:52:06,156 - There were other boxes. 859 00:52:06,256 --> 00:52:07,858 Lift up the lid, and that saw that there 860 00:52:07,958 --> 00:52:10,460 was Black folks inside of that one. 861 00:52:13,196 --> 00:52:15,799 Black people in a box, dead. 862 00:52:15,866 --> 00:52:18,201 That's something that would be etched in your mind forever, 863 00:52:18,301 --> 00:52:21,838 and so for him to tell a story with such conviction. 864 00:52:21,938 --> 00:52:23,974 I said, let's dig 'em up now. 865 00:52:27,477 --> 00:52:30,881 - So many people have said there were no bodies there. 866 00:52:30,981 --> 00:52:33,049 But you know, all the Black folk 867 00:52:33,150 --> 00:52:36,887 in the community, we believe they're there. 868 00:52:36,987 --> 00:52:39,289 Those stories were passed on to us. 869 00:52:40,790 --> 00:52:43,293 - Inch by inch, crews are digging into 870 00:52:43,360 --> 00:52:47,063 the history of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. 871 00:52:47,164 --> 00:52:50,066 Tulsa's mayor, G.T. Bynum, initiated the investigation 872 00:52:50,167 --> 00:52:52,669 to try and find if there are any victims 873 00:52:52,736 --> 00:52:54,804 buried in mass graves. 874 00:52:54,871 --> 00:52:58,341 - There was a systematic cover up of the event. 875 00:52:58,408 --> 00:53:02,078 It should not have taken 99 years. 876 00:53:05,315 --> 00:53:06,917 - We have to pay attention, 877 00:53:07,017 --> 00:53:09,920 we have to pick up the charred baton 878 00:53:10,020 --> 00:53:11,354 that has been left in our hands, 879 00:53:11,421 --> 00:53:14,658 and figure out where the screams are coming from. 880 00:53:14,724 --> 00:53:25,101 ♪♪ 881 00:53:25,202 --> 00:53:28,205 - Monday, May 30, 1921. 882 00:53:29,773 --> 00:53:31,107 It happened to be Memorial Day. 883 00:53:38,515 --> 00:53:41,384 {\an8}- May 30th could have happened at any point in time 884 00:53:41,451 --> 00:53:45,355 because Tulsa was already a powder keg. 885 00:53:45,422 --> 00:53:47,724 We do know that the deathly KKK members 886 00:53:47,791 --> 00:53:49,526 that are part of the police force, 887 00:53:49,593 --> 00:53:52,395 proudly marching down the street on Memorial Day. 888 00:53:52,462 --> 00:53:54,731 People describe it as a massacre, 889 00:53:54,798 --> 00:53:57,901 I've been calling it a war. 890 00:53:57,968 --> 00:54:02,906 - There's systemic causes for what happened here in 1921, 891 00:54:02,973 --> 00:54:06,142 but you fixate on this trigger incident 892 00:54:06,243 --> 00:54:10,380 that involved a Black boy and a white girl on an elevator. 893 00:54:10,447 --> 00:54:12,882 The teenage boy is a boy named Dick Rowland. 894 00:54:16,987 --> 00:54:18,655 He's at work on Memorial Day, 895 00:54:18,755 --> 00:54:20,957 shining shoes in Downtown Tulsa. 896 00:54:23,393 --> 00:54:25,495 - Dick Rowland was nineteen years old 897 00:54:25,595 --> 00:54:28,431 in the spring of 1921. 898 00:54:28,498 --> 00:54:31,501 He worked in a white-owned 899 00:54:31,601 --> 00:54:34,170 and white-patronized shine parlor 900 00:54:34,271 --> 00:54:38,141 on Main Street in Downtown Tulsa. 901 00:54:38,241 --> 00:54:41,177 - His nickname is "Diamond Dick" 902 00:54:41,278 --> 00:54:44,347 so he's known to be this flashy young guy. 903 00:54:44,447 --> 00:54:46,616 [laughing] 904 00:54:46,683 --> 00:54:48,818 He is just another person in the community 905 00:54:48,918 --> 00:54:51,021 that everyone knows, 906 00:54:51,121 --> 00:54:53,623 but he's-he's never been seen as a troublemaker. 907 00:54:58,962 --> 00:55:00,430 - There's not a restroom facility 908 00:55:00,497 --> 00:55:03,166 in the shine parlor, 909 00:55:03,266 --> 00:55:05,035 so the white owner has arranged for them 910 00:55:05,135 --> 00:55:08,438 to walk down Main Street to the Drexel Building. 911 00:55:10,273 --> 00:55:12,842 On the fourth floor there was, quote, "a colored restroom". 912 00:55:20,517 --> 00:55:24,454 {\an8}Something happens when he enters the elevator. 913 00:55:24,521 --> 00:55:28,391 Elevators are-are manually operated by a wheel, 914 00:55:28,491 --> 00:55:31,061 it takes a great amount of skill to get the floor 915 00:55:31,161 --> 00:55:35,131 of the elevator and the actual floor to line up. 916 00:55:35,198 --> 00:55:38,968 That particular elevator was very difficult to center, 917 00:55:39,035 --> 00:55:39,869 so the belief is, 918 00:55:43,239 --> 00:55:45,875 that as Dick walked onto the elevator, 919 00:55:45,975 --> 00:55:48,211 he tripped and just, by reflex, 920 00:55:48,311 --> 00:55:51,514 threw his hands out to cushion the fall, 921 00:55:51,581 --> 00:55:54,217 that he grabbed Sarah by the shoulder, 922 00:55:54,317 --> 00:55:56,753 ripped her dress, she screams, 923 00:55:56,853 --> 00:56:00,090 and he realizes this is a dangerous moment for him, 924 00:56:00,190 --> 00:56:01,891 and he runs out of the elevator 925 00:56:01,991 --> 00:56:03,426 and takes off. 926 00:56:03,526 --> 00:56:06,196 But there was a white clerk at the Renberg's Clothing Store 927 00:56:06,262 --> 00:56:08,098 who heard the scream, 928 00:56:08,198 --> 00:56:10,700 saw Dick run out of the building, 929 00:56:10,767 --> 00:56:13,436 and in his mind he puts two and two together, 930 00:56:13,536 --> 00:56:16,606 and says, "This is an interracial rape attempt." 931 00:56:18,942 --> 00:56:20,443 The Tulsa Police are summoned, 932 00:56:20,543 --> 00:56:23,546 but they don't put out an all-points bulletin 933 00:56:23,613 --> 00:56:24,547 for Dick Rowland, 934 00:56:24,614 --> 00:56:26,850 they don't go searching for him. 935 00:56:26,916 --> 00:56:30,587 They're not particularly worried about this event. 936 00:56:30,687 --> 00:56:33,189 However, the Tulsa Tribune, 937 00:56:33,256 --> 00:56:36,559 Tulsa's white daily afternoon newspaper, 938 00:56:36,626 --> 00:56:38,762 decides to portray this incident 939 00:56:38,862 --> 00:56:41,264 in a completely different light. 940 00:56:41,364 --> 00:56:42,766 - The "Tribune" published an account 941 00:56:42,866 --> 00:56:45,935 of the elevator incident entitled, 942 00:56:46,035 --> 00:56:49,939 "Nab Negro for Attacking Girl In an Elevator". 943 00:56:52,108 --> 00:56:54,744 The "Tribune" essentially claimed that Dick Rowland 944 00:56:54,811 --> 00:56:57,313 tried to rape Sarah Page in broad daylight 945 00:56:57,414 --> 00:57:00,750 in a public building in Downtown Tulsa. 946 00:57:00,817 --> 00:57:03,653 The article went out of its way 947 00:57:03,753 --> 00:57:06,256 to make Sarah Page look virtuous, 948 00:57:06,322 --> 00:57:08,992 and, as a corollary, to make Dick Rowland look villainous, 949 00:57:09,092 --> 00:57:11,828 playing on that white female, 950 00:57:11,928 --> 00:57:14,998 Black male taboo. 951 00:57:15,098 --> 00:57:17,267 - So the next morning, Tuesday, May 31st, 952 00:57:17,333 --> 00:57:18,668 the Tulsa Police decide, 953 00:57:18,768 --> 00:57:20,470 "We're gonna pick up Dick Rowland". 954 00:57:20,570 --> 00:57:23,440 So they go to where he lives with his mother in Greenwood, 955 00:57:23,506 --> 00:57:26,276 arrest him, 956 00:57:26,342 --> 00:57:28,111 take him to the courthouse, and like, 957 00:57:28,178 --> 00:57:31,181 as with other prisoners, put him up on the-- 958 00:57:31,281 --> 00:57:35,318 in the fourth floor jail. 959 00:57:35,418 --> 00:57:37,921 The first edition of the "Tulsa Tribune" 960 00:57:37,987 --> 00:57:40,857 hits the streets around 3:00, 3:30. 961 00:57:43,293 --> 00:57:44,961 Within thirty minutes there's lynch talks 962 00:57:45,028 --> 00:57:46,596 on the streets of Tulsa. 963 00:57:50,099 --> 00:57:53,002 Lynch talk soon turns into a lynch mob. 964 00:57:55,605 --> 00:57:57,874 Meanwhile, Black people are trying to figure out 965 00:57:57,974 --> 00:57:59,809 what's going on, what to do, 966 00:57:59,876 --> 00:58:02,445 how to organize. 967 00:58:02,512 --> 00:58:04,814 On the stage of the Dreamland Theatre, 968 00:58:04,881 --> 00:58:07,283 an African-American World War I Vet 969 00:58:07,350 --> 00:58:10,653 jumps up on the stage and says, "Shut this place down. 970 00:58:10,720 --> 00:58:13,056 "We ain't gonna let this happen here." 971 00:58:13,156 --> 00:58:14,824 "It" being a lynching. 972 00:58:16,726 --> 00:58:18,728 There was a feeling amongst Black vets 973 00:58:18,828 --> 00:58:22,565 that if trouble comes my way, I ain't dodgin' it. 974 00:58:22,665 --> 00:58:25,835 In Tulsa there had not been an African-American lynched, 975 00:58:25,902 --> 00:58:28,571 and there were Black men and women who were prepared 976 00:58:28,671 --> 00:58:32,141 to make sure that didn't happen. 977 00:58:32,208 --> 00:58:35,545 Around 10:30 at night or a little before then, 978 00:58:35,645 --> 00:58:37,881 a rumor gets greenlit 979 00:58:37,981 --> 00:58:39,849 that whites are storming the jail. 980 00:58:42,552 --> 00:58:44,687 Seventy-five African-American men, 981 00:58:44,754 --> 00:58:48,024 all armed, drive to the courthouse. 982 00:58:50,026 --> 00:58:52,829 They march up to the courthouse, 983 00:58:52,896 --> 00:58:54,831 they go up to the sheriff, 984 00:58:54,898 --> 00:58:56,399 who's waiting for them on the steps, 985 00:58:56,499 --> 00:58:59,903 and they say, "We are here to help to protect the prisoner 986 00:59:00,003 --> 00:59:01,738 "if you need our help." 987 00:59:01,838 --> 00:59:04,774 Sheriff McCullough says, "Get the hell out of here, 988 00:59:04,874 --> 00:59:07,343 "I don't want you." 989 00:59:07,410 --> 00:59:09,779 [crowd yelling] 990 00:59:09,879 --> 00:59:13,550 As they are leaving, an elderly white man 991 00:59:13,616 --> 00:59:17,453 goes up to a tall Black vet, 992 00:59:17,554 --> 00:59:21,024 and says, "Where you goin' with that gun?" 993 00:59:21,090 --> 00:59:24,193 And the vet says, "I'm gonna use it if I need to." 994 00:59:25,361 --> 00:59:27,797 The white man says, "Like hell you are." 995 00:59:27,897 --> 00:59:30,767 Tries to get the gun, there's a struggle, 996 00:59:30,867 --> 00:59:31,935 a shot goes off. 997 00:59:32,035 --> 00:59:34,037 [gun shot] 998 00:59:34,103 --> 00:59:36,239 The worst incident of racial violence 999 00:59:36,306 --> 00:59:37,707 in American history begins. 1000 00:59:41,911 --> 00:59:44,881 - As the evening starts to fall, May 31st, 1001 00:59:44,948 --> 00:59:47,483 by seven o'clock there are already hundreds of people 1002 00:59:47,584 --> 00:59:49,652 circling around the courthouse. 1003 00:59:49,752 --> 00:59:52,989 By nine, ten is where things really start to reach 1004 00:59:53,089 --> 00:59:57,427 this sort of, uh boiling point, and shots are fired. 1005 00:59:57,493 --> 01:00:00,063 At the same time all this is happening downtown. 1006 01:00:00,129 --> 01:00:02,332 You have people that are still waiting 1007 01:00:02,432 --> 01:00:04,233 to go to their prom at Booker T. Washington. 1008 01:00:06,803 --> 01:00:08,471 You have people that are still going to movies 1009 01:00:08,571 --> 01:00:10,907 in the Dreamland and the [indistinct] Theater. 1010 01:00:10,974 --> 01:00:13,943 You have people that are still moving about their lives 1011 01:00:14,010 --> 01:00:15,845 that aren't aware of what's happening. 1012 01:00:19,649 --> 01:00:23,319 {\an8}- We went down to a late show, movie. 1013 01:00:23,419 --> 01:00:25,755 {\an8}Somebody came in and shouted, "Nigger fight! Nigger fight!" 1014 01:00:28,191 --> 01:00:30,193 We went out the door and just got there 1015 01:00:30,293 --> 01:00:32,595 when a Negro ran out of the alley. 1016 01:00:32,662 --> 01:00:34,530 The minute his head showed outside, 1017 01:00:34,631 --> 01:00:37,033 somebody shot him. 1018 01:00:37,133 --> 01:00:39,268 And, uh, this man was shot and rolled out 1019 01:00:39,335 --> 01:00:42,038 in the middle of the street with a revolver in his hand. 1020 01:00:43,806 --> 01:00:46,142 And this crowd around him wouldn't let anybody touch him, 1021 01:00:46,209 --> 01:00:49,379 pick him up, wouldn't let an ambulance take him. 1022 01:00:49,479 --> 01:00:52,548 But he was the first man that was shot in the riot. 1023 01:00:52,649 --> 01:00:54,784 - Nobody cares about Dick Rowland anymore. 1024 01:00:54,851 --> 01:00:57,687 The white mob is now out to get any Black person 1025 01:00:57,787 --> 01:00:59,188 in their sights. 1026 01:01:01,824 --> 01:01:04,827 - The teeming white mob spilled over the Frisco tracks 1027 01:01:04,894 --> 01:01:07,163 into the Greenwood community... 1028 01:01:09,699 --> 01:01:14,170 - ...carrying rifles, pistols, 1029 01:01:14,237 --> 01:01:16,906 matches, and cans of gasoline. 1030 01:01:17,006 --> 01:01:23,379 ♪♪ 1031 01:01:23,479 --> 01:01:26,582 - In the words of one of the massacre survivors, 1032 01:01:26,683 --> 01:01:28,017 "All hell broke loose." 1033 01:01:31,220 --> 01:01:33,356 Looting... 1034 01:01:33,423 --> 01:01:35,825 shooting... 1035 01:01:35,892 --> 01:01:39,228 burning, destroying everything in sight. 1036 01:01:42,832 --> 01:01:46,169 - People are taking shelter in their homes 1037 01:01:46,235 --> 01:01:47,537 or packing up their stuff and fleeing, 1038 01:01:47,603 --> 01:01:50,606 whatever they can. 1039 01:01:53,176 --> 01:01:54,610 {\an8}- My Mother said, "Here they come, 1040 01:01:54,711 --> 01:01:55,545 {\an8}"here they come." 1041 01:01:55,611 --> 01:01:57,013 {\an8}And they came in the house with torches 1042 01:01:57,080 --> 01:02:00,450 and they set the house on fire. 1043 01:02:00,550 --> 01:02:03,853 Oh, it was like a nightmare. Everything was in flames. 1044 01:02:09,792 --> 01:02:12,428 {\an8}- On the evening of May 31st, 1045 01:02:12,528 --> 01:02:13,730 {\an8}my little girl had not retired 1046 01:02:13,796 --> 01:02:16,466 {\an8}but was watching the people from the window. 1047 01:02:16,566 --> 01:02:20,236 She said, "Mother, I see men with guns." 1048 01:02:20,303 --> 01:02:22,772 Then I ran to the window and looked out. 1049 01:02:22,872 --> 01:02:25,274 There I saw many people gathered in little squads, 1050 01:02:25,374 --> 01:02:27,110 talking excitedly. 1051 01:02:27,210 --> 01:02:29,245 There was a great shadow in the sky, 1052 01:02:29,312 --> 01:02:32,081 and upon second look we discerned that this cloud 1053 01:02:32,148 --> 01:02:35,885 was caused by fast-approaching airplanes. 1054 01:02:35,952 --> 01:02:38,454 It then dawned upon us that the enemy 1055 01:02:38,554 --> 01:02:42,158 had organized in the night and was invading our district 1056 01:02:42,258 --> 01:02:45,328 the same as the Germans invaded France. 1057 01:02:45,428 --> 01:02:47,096 I took my little girl, Florence Mary, 1058 01:02:47,163 --> 01:02:50,333 by the hand and fled out the West door on Greenwood, 1059 01:02:50,433 --> 01:02:52,969 running amidst showers of bullets. 1060 01:02:57,473 --> 01:03:00,076 {\an8}- I was so afraid, 1061 01:03:00,143 --> 01:03:02,812 {\an8}because bullets were coming down around us. 1062 01:03:02,912 --> 01:03:06,015 All of the planes were up in the air, 1063 01:03:06,115 --> 01:03:10,086 shooting down, and I could hear those bullets falling. 1064 01:03:10,153 --> 01:03:12,522 There were a lot of people running, 1065 01:03:12,622 --> 01:03:16,926 dodging the bullets, and just afraid. 1066 01:03:20,096 --> 01:03:21,430 - They're shooting people on sight, 1067 01:03:21,497 --> 01:03:23,699 even if you're complying with their demands. 1068 01:03:23,800 --> 01:03:27,103 That's what happened to Dr. A.C. Jackson. 1069 01:03:27,170 --> 01:03:29,806 - A.C. Jackson was a prominent Black surgeon, 1070 01:03:29,872 --> 01:03:32,642 he was accosted at his home, 1071 01:03:32,708 --> 01:03:34,811 he exited his house in compliance 1072 01:03:34,877 --> 01:03:37,013 with the demands of the mobsters, 1073 01:03:37,113 --> 01:03:39,549 hands held high. 1074 01:03:39,649 --> 01:03:41,884 But he was actually gunned down by a young white man 1075 01:03:41,984 --> 01:03:44,153 and he ultimately bled to death. 1076 01:03:49,192 --> 01:03:53,062 Black men put up a vigorous, robust defense. 1077 01:03:53,162 --> 01:03:54,564 They were outgunned, and outnumbered, 1078 01:03:54,664 --> 01:03:56,299 and overmatched. 1079 01:04:03,005 --> 01:04:06,209 The violence lasted sixteen hours, 1080 01:04:06,309 --> 01:04:09,245 a unit of the National Guard sent in from Oklahoma City. 1081 01:04:09,345 --> 01:04:13,749 ♪♪ 1082 01:04:13,850 --> 01:04:17,720 When the dust settled, at least 1,250 homes 1083 01:04:17,820 --> 01:04:19,856 in the Black community were destroyed. 1084 01:04:21,991 --> 01:04:25,027 Between 100 and 300 people, most of them Black, 1085 01:04:25,094 --> 01:04:26,429 were killed. 1086 01:04:26,529 --> 01:04:39,208 ♪♪ 1087 01:04:39,275 --> 01:04:40,443 - So twenty years ago, 1088 01:04:40,543 --> 01:04:41,911 we had a mayor here that said, "Hey. 1089 01:04:42,011 --> 01:04:44,247 "We're gonna go into Oaklawn and were gonna excavate, 1090 01:04:44,347 --> 01:04:47,783 "because we have an idea of where some bodies might be." 1091 01:04:49,685 --> 01:04:51,954 {\an8}- We brought in ground penetrating radar; 1092 01:04:52,054 --> 01:04:55,024 {\an8}they showed that there were anomalies in these areas. 1093 01:04:56,859 --> 01:04:59,629 - I was twenty years younger, standing out in Oaklawn. 1094 01:05:01,464 --> 01:05:02,732 We were all out there, 1095 01:05:02,798 --> 01:05:04,634 but we were about to do this, right? 1096 01:05:08,571 --> 01:05:09,772 They called it off abruptly 1097 01:05:09,872 --> 01:05:11,641 because there was a white family 1098 01:05:11,741 --> 01:05:16,279 that did not want that area to be disturbed. 1099 01:05:16,379 --> 01:05:19,081 They suggested that there was a, perhaps, 1100 01:05:19,148 --> 01:05:22,418 a white body that was buried underground 1101 01:05:22,485 --> 01:05:23,986 and that that body would have been disturbed 1102 01:05:24,086 --> 01:05:26,055 as you're looking for race massacre dead. 1103 01:05:29,292 --> 01:05:31,727 - Our effort got caught up in politics. 1104 01:05:31,794 --> 01:05:33,396 - A bunch of lawmakers, 1105 01:05:33,462 --> 01:05:35,431 they pretty much didn't really care. 1106 01:05:35,498 --> 01:05:38,067 {\an8}It made the state look bad. 1107 01:05:38,134 --> 01:05:41,070 {\an8}- I am thoroughly convinced 1108 01:05:41,137 --> 01:05:43,673 {\an8}that the state of Oklahoma was not culpable. 1109 01:05:45,441 --> 01:05:47,643 - We were shut down by the City of Tulsa, 1110 01:05:47,743 --> 01:05:49,312 and at that point, I, you know, 1111 01:05:49,412 --> 01:05:51,080 I thought the ballgame was over. 1112 01:05:57,820 --> 01:05:58,854 - For some people it's like, 1113 01:05:58,955 --> 01:06:00,690 "Why are you guys desecrating the grave?" 1114 01:06:00,790 --> 01:06:02,525 - Right. - We're not desecrating graves, 1115 01:06:02,625 --> 01:06:04,994 we're finding out the truth. - And those answers-- 1116 01:06:05,094 --> 01:06:07,496 ancestors had never had a proper burial. 1117 01:06:07,596 --> 01:06:08,798 - Absolutely. 1118 01:06:11,434 --> 01:06:13,202 - I was on the City Council at the time. 1119 01:06:16,439 --> 01:06:19,375 Years later, a local journalist-- 1120 01:06:19,475 --> 01:06:21,978 - My name's Lee Roy Chapman, and this is "Public Secrets". 1121 01:06:22,044 --> 01:06:25,314 - He did a video series about Tulsa's hidden secrets. 1122 01:06:25,381 --> 01:06:26,682 [squeaking] 1123 01:06:26,782 --> 01:06:29,151 And one of them, I was watching... 1124 01:06:29,218 --> 01:06:31,787 - Um, Oaklawn Cemetery has been rumored 1125 01:06:31,854 --> 01:06:34,523 for nearly a hundred years to be the, uh, 1126 01:06:34,623 --> 01:06:36,459 location of a mass grave, 1127 01:06:36,525 --> 01:06:38,894 uh, attributed to the Tulsa Race Riot. 1128 01:06:38,995 --> 01:06:41,297 - What's my immediate reaction? 1129 01:06:41,364 --> 01:06:44,166 There is no way that could possibly be true. 1130 01:06:44,233 --> 01:06:46,702 The mass grave in Oaklawn cemetery, 1131 01:06:46,802 --> 01:06:49,071 where my great grandparents are buried, 1132 01:06:49,171 --> 01:06:50,139 and that no one would have ever bothered to look. 1133 01:06:55,511 --> 01:06:59,048 This is a historic day for Tulsa and for our country 1134 01:06:59,148 --> 01:07:03,652 as we begin a test excavation in Oaklawn Cemetery. 1135 01:07:05,388 --> 01:07:07,590 - There's nothing abstract, there's nothing theoretical. 1136 01:07:07,690 --> 01:07:09,258 {\an8}This is not a research project. 1137 01:07:09,358 --> 01:07:11,594 {\an8}This is an investigation. 1138 01:07:11,694 --> 01:07:14,030 - Scientists are set to finally break ground 1139 01:07:14,096 --> 01:07:18,601 in the effort to find victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre. 1140 01:07:18,701 --> 01:07:20,770 - Nearly 100 years later, the families to victims 1141 01:07:20,870 --> 01:07:23,205 of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre 1142 01:07:23,272 --> 01:07:26,409 could get answers and closure. 1143 01:07:26,509 --> 01:07:28,077 - It should have been done well before now, 1144 01:07:28,177 --> 01:07:29,945 but it wasn't. 1145 01:07:30,046 --> 01:07:33,082 That is a baton that's been handed to us, 1146 01:07:33,182 --> 01:07:36,052 and it is-- it is not an easy race. 1147 01:07:39,388 --> 01:07:43,292 The initial excavation will be focused on a location 1148 01:07:43,392 --> 01:07:46,062 within Oaklawn Cemetery that we felt had a high likelihood 1149 01:07:46,128 --> 01:07:49,465 for encountering a mass grave. 1150 01:07:49,565 --> 01:07:52,234 We focused on an anomaly, 1151 01:07:52,301 --> 01:07:54,136 uh, that had been detected. 1152 01:07:56,272 --> 01:07:58,441 That anomaly to us was an indication 1153 01:07:58,541 --> 01:08:00,976 that it was possibly a mass grave. 1154 01:08:03,779 --> 01:08:06,482 As we were excavating down, we very quickly realized 1155 01:08:06,582 --> 01:08:09,285 that we had materials that didn't really belong there. 1156 01:08:13,222 --> 01:08:15,391 - The search turned up many old artifacts, 1157 01:08:15,458 --> 01:08:18,160 but after reaching three and a half meters in depth, 1158 01:08:18,260 --> 01:08:21,330 the excavation was called off on Wednesday. 1159 01:08:21,430 --> 01:08:24,400 - We do not have indications of a mass grave, um, 1160 01:08:24,467 --> 01:08:26,235 in this portion of Oaklawn Cemetery. 1161 01:08:31,107 --> 01:08:34,410 There is a-a heavy weight of responsibility 1162 01:08:34,477 --> 01:08:37,847 that comes with trying to assist in this effort. 1163 01:08:39,415 --> 01:08:40,449 There is that sense of optimism 1164 01:08:40,516 --> 01:08:43,619 that comes from the fact that the investigation 1165 01:08:43,686 --> 01:08:46,789 has been reopened. 1166 01:08:49,125 --> 01:08:52,027 But you-you also are worried because it has-- 1167 01:08:52,127 --> 01:08:53,295 there's a perpetual feeling 1168 01:08:53,362 --> 01:08:55,297 that the other shoe is gonna fall, 1169 01:08:55,364 --> 01:08:58,767 and this expectation of disappointment. 1170 01:08:58,834 --> 01:09:03,105 But it's extremely important to remember why we're there 1171 01:09:03,172 --> 01:09:05,541 and who we're trying to find. 1172 01:09:12,281 --> 01:09:15,885 - Sometimes stuff just makes you want to just give up, 1173 01:09:15,985 --> 01:09:17,486 but other times those are those times like, 1174 01:09:17,553 --> 01:09:19,488 no, you keep going, 1175 01:09:19,555 --> 01:09:21,857 'cause the ancestors are not gonna let you give up, 1176 01:09:21,957 --> 01:09:23,225 they're gonna keep pushing you. 1177 01:09:23,325 --> 01:09:26,195 When you say you quit, they say, "No, you don't", 1178 01:09:26,295 --> 01:09:29,832 it puts you right back up and do it all over again. 1179 01:09:29,899 --> 01:09:31,534 - That's why it's cold today. 1180 01:09:31,634 --> 01:09:32,801 The ancestors are like, 1181 01:09:32,868 --> 01:09:34,803 "You're gonna feel the chill of my bones today, man." 1182 01:09:34,870 --> 01:09:37,072 - Ooohh. - Yes. 1183 01:09:37,173 --> 01:09:38,307 - Ooohh. 1184 01:09:38,374 --> 01:09:39,475 - That's what-that's what they want us to feel. 1185 01:09:39,542 --> 01:09:41,577 They want everybody to feel what that feels like. 1186 01:09:46,982 --> 01:09:48,884 - There's all kinds of good things 1187 01:09:48,984 --> 01:09:50,586 that you find in South Tulsa. 1188 01:09:50,686 --> 01:09:54,023 {\an8}You'll find computer stores, you'll find bookstores, 1189 01:09:54,089 --> 01:09:56,926 {\an8}you'll find twenty-four hour pharmacy, 1190 01:09:57,026 --> 01:09:58,761 you'll find health food stores. 1191 01:09:58,861 --> 01:10:01,263 None of those things can be found in North Tulsa. 1192 01:10:01,363 --> 01:10:04,600 North Tulsa's a food desert, and that's got to change. 1193 01:10:11,507 --> 01:10:13,676 {\an8}- One of the things that people don't generally know 1194 01:10:13,742 --> 01:10:16,245 {\an8}is that the Greenwood community actually came back 1195 01:10:16,345 --> 01:10:18,214 {\an8}after it was destroyed. 1196 01:10:19,381 --> 01:10:21,951 {\an8}- It was rebuilt because the rural community, uh, 1197 01:10:22,051 --> 01:10:26,722 {\an8}rural lands were still owned mostly by Black folk. 1198 01:10:29,925 --> 01:10:31,894 But by the 1960s, 1199 01:10:31,961 --> 01:10:33,963 these towns started to disappear. 1200 01:10:37,233 --> 01:10:40,803 - There is this idea that Greenwood was destroyed in 1921, 1201 01:10:40,903 --> 01:10:42,738 and that's the end of the story. 1202 01:10:42,805 --> 01:10:45,774 But there's 100 years after that that we need to talk about. 1203 01:10:49,712 --> 01:10:52,248 - Tulsa is just a tale of two cities. 1204 01:11:00,122 --> 01:11:02,958 North Tulsa's a predominantly African-American community. 1205 01:11:08,097 --> 01:11:11,600 And South Tulsa you have predominantly white community. 1206 01:11:13,636 --> 01:11:17,239 This city of Tulsa is the most segregated city, 1207 01:11:17,306 --> 01:11:20,009 geographically, economically, 1208 01:11:20,109 --> 01:11:23,679 socially, and all of the above. 1209 01:11:26,949 --> 01:11:27,816 - Growing up in North Tulsa, 1210 01:11:31,587 --> 01:11:34,023 I started to notice buildings looked different, 1211 01:11:34,123 --> 01:11:35,824 institutions looked different. 1212 01:11:39,295 --> 01:11:41,130 Wow, there's a whole 'nother world 1213 01:11:41,196 --> 01:11:42,631 I wasn't even aware of. 1214 01:11:47,503 --> 01:11:50,606 We've already experienced dislocation, 1215 01:11:50,673 --> 01:11:52,808 urban removal, 1216 01:11:52,875 --> 01:11:54,510 eminent domain, 1217 01:11:54,610 --> 01:11:56,779 all of those things. 1218 01:11:59,281 --> 01:12:03,452 Those people who lived in Greenwood saw its demise twice. 1219 01:12:03,519 --> 01:12:06,021 [explosion rumbling] 1220 01:12:13,896 --> 01:12:17,132 {\an8}- The people who have lived in an urban center for many years 1221 01:12:17,199 --> 01:12:19,535 {\an8}certainly do have rights. 1222 01:12:20,969 --> 01:12:25,474 {\an8}However, they do not have the right to frustrate 1223 01:12:25,541 --> 01:12:28,677 the creative efforts of very diligent people 1224 01:12:28,744 --> 01:12:30,879 who are trying to bring back 1225 01:12:30,979 --> 01:12:34,483 vitality, and wholeness, and beauty into the city. 1226 01:12:39,488 --> 01:12:41,657 - I grew up at 1415 North Greenwood. 1227 01:12:41,724 --> 01:12:44,493 We owned the house on Greenwood. 1228 01:12:44,560 --> 01:12:47,529 When I grew up, I had a church in front of me, 1229 01:12:47,596 --> 01:12:51,500 right literally behind me was the school that I went to, 1230 01:12:51,567 --> 01:12:52,901 to my right was the Black hospital 1231 01:12:53,001 --> 01:12:55,904 that I was born in, that was Morton Hospital, 1232 01:12:56,004 --> 01:12:58,374 and then we had Jack's Memory Chapel 1233 01:12:58,440 --> 01:13:00,676 right there, so the whole cycle of life 1234 01:13:00,743 --> 01:13:03,679 was right within a block and a half of me where I lived. 1235 01:13:03,746 --> 01:13:05,848 That's the community I grew up in. 1236 01:13:05,914 --> 01:13:08,951 As happened in every city across this nation 1237 01:13:09,051 --> 01:13:11,720 in the sixties, seventies, 1238 01:13:11,787 --> 01:13:14,123 there was something called urban, 1239 01:13:14,223 --> 01:13:16,725 what they call renewal, what I call urban removal. 1240 01:13:20,095 --> 01:13:21,263 Yeah, I love that. 1241 01:13:21,363 --> 01:13:22,464 Yeah, when they want to talk about Black folks, 1242 01:13:22,564 --> 01:13:23,799 right, instead of saying, "Black folks live over here. 1243 01:13:23,899 --> 01:13:25,768 "That's the urban area." Right? 1244 01:13:25,868 --> 01:13:27,569 "That's urban music." 1245 01:13:27,636 --> 01:13:30,572 Just call things as they are. 1246 01:13:30,639 --> 01:13:32,941 - To whites, the words urban renewal 1247 01:13:33,041 --> 01:13:35,577 have a promising, hopeful sound. 1248 01:13:35,644 --> 01:13:38,080 But to Blacks, they mean move out. 1249 01:13:38,147 --> 01:13:41,550 In a block like this, as many as a thousand men, 1250 01:13:41,617 --> 01:13:43,886 women, and children have been forced out 1251 01:13:43,952 --> 01:13:47,156 in the name of some progress yet to come. 1252 01:13:47,256 --> 01:13:50,459 - So urban renewal was coming through telling you all, 1253 01:13:50,559 --> 01:13:51,994 "Those houses that you're living in here, 1254 01:13:52,094 --> 01:13:54,563 "we have a better use" as they say, 1255 01:13:54,630 --> 01:13:57,766 "a greater use for this land." 1256 01:13:57,833 --> 01:13:58,734 And they tell you, 1257 01:13:58,801 --> 01:14:00,335 "We're gonna renew your community, 1258 01:14:00,436 --> 01:14:04,239 "and this is gonna be better then you left it." 1259 01:14:04,306 --> 01:14:08,677 They moved us out of our houses for the "greater good". 1260 01:14:08,777 --> 01:14:11,580 We were dislocated from our home. 1261 01:14:11,647 --> 01:14:14,783 And when I tell you there's still a big space 1262 01:14:14,850 --> 01:14:16,418 at 1415 North Greenwood, 1263 01:14:16,485 --> 01:14:20,022 nothing was ever built there, but they told us we had to go. 1264 01:14:20,122 --> 01:14:22,991 And then you saw the decline of Greenwood 1265 01:14:23,091 --> 01:14:26,695 as you saw folks moved out of their homes. 1266 01:14:28,964 --> 01:14:33,602 {\an8}- The reason and the causes of this economic downturn 1267 01:14:33,669 --> 01:14:36,705 was the construction of the Crosstown Expressway 1268 01:14:36,805 --> 01:14:40,542 that cut through the heart of Greenwood. 1269 01:14:40,642 --> 01:14:43,111 In fact, they took the heart out. 1270 01:14:43,178 --> 01:14:45,347 Urban renewal and this major highway construction 1271 01:14:45,447 --> 01:14:48,550 really took out the-- most of the entrepreneurial, 1272 01:14:48,650 --> 01:14:51,487 uh, businesses that were there. 1273 01:14:51,553 --> 01:14:54,456 - Just this area's changed a lot with the, uh-- 1274 01:14:54,523 --> 01:14:56,158 uh, Crosstown coming through. 1275 01:14:56,225 --> 01:14:58,227 Hasn't a lot of the business moved out? 1276 01:14:58,327 --> 01:14:59,495 - That's correct. 1277 01:14:59,561 --> 01:15:00,362 - What happened in Tulsa 1278 01:15:00,462 --> 01:15:02,130 happened all over the United States. 1279 01:15:02,197 --> 01:15:04,233 Highways were located right through the heart 1280 01:15:04,333 --> 01:15:05,734 of communities of color. 1281 01:15:07,870 --> 01:15:11,907 - I started photographing back in 1969 1282 01:15:12,007 --> 01:15:15,377 here at North Tulsa, the Greenwood area. 1283 01:15:15,477 --> 01:15:18,580 And what I saw in the Greenwood area was that 1284 01:15:18,680 --> 01:15:21,149 there were a lot of businesses that were closing up. 1285 01:15:21,216 --> 01:15:23,218 One of those photographs that I took on Greenwood, 1286 01:15:23,318 --> 01:15:26,421 he was a tall gentle, and erect proud Black man, 1287 01:15:26,522 --> 01:15:31,260 I call it Baltimore Barbershop that I took in 1970. 1288 01:15:31,360 --> 01:15:32,427 He went to the window and started 1289 01:15:32,528 --> 01:15:36,498 looking out the window, and what he saw was 1290 01:15:36,565 --> 01:15:40,168 bulldozers tearing down buildings in front of him. 1291 01:15:41,870 --> 01:15:43,605 And I asked him what he thought about that, 1292 01:15:43,705 --> 01:15:46,842 and he said, "Well, I think I'm gonna be next." 1293 01:15:49,244 --> 01:15:51,246 So I took his photograph 1294 01:15:51,346 --> 01:15:54,116 and, uh, the next day I came back, 1295 01:15:54,216 --> 01:15:56,118 sure enough, his business was gone 1296 01:15:56,218 --> 01:15:58,453 and so was he. 1297 01:15:58,554 --> 01:16:02,257 Most of the businesses in that area were boarded up, 1298 01:16:02,357 --> 01:16:05,460 and all that remained was a [indistinct] 1299 01:16:05,561 --> 01:16:07,462 of Black Wall Street. 1300 01:16:07,563 --> 01:16:09,097 It was no longer Black Wall Street, 1301 01:16:09,197 --> 01:16:10,799 it was a ghost town. 1302 01:16:10,899 --> 01:16:17,906 ♪♪ 1303 01:16:30,285 --> 01:16:32,988 - Oh man, I tell ya... 1304 01:16:46,602 --> 01:16:50,072 {\an8}- We owned a skating rink there. 1305 01:16:50,138 --> 01:16:54,910 {\an8}During the riot it got burned down, 1306 01:16:54,977 --> 01:16:58,447 {\an8}our home got burned down. 1307 01:16:58,513 --> 01:17:01,917 We lost all of this-- our property, our home. 1308 01:17:08,824 --> 01:17:14,930 - Every church, our schoolhouses was blown up. 1309 01:17:24,006 --> 01:17:25,540 People were killed, and you go in 1310 01:17:25,641 --> 01:17:27,342 {\an8}and see the people mangled. 1311 01:17:30,612 --> 01:17:33,148 {\an8}And then some people you never heard of anymore of, 1312 01:17:33,215 --> 01:17:36,051 {\an8}you don't know where they-- whether they were killed, 1313 01:17:36,151 --> 01:17:38,787 whether they'd just left town. 1314 01:18:13,188 --> 01:18:18,527 - On the morning of June 1st, after the massacres, 1315 01:18:18,593 --> 01:18:22,230 the National Guard and some police 1316 01:18:22,330 --> 01:18:25,500 and maybe some civilians began rounding up 1317 01:18:25,567 --> 01:18:28,870 all of the African-American population in Greenwood 1318 01:18:28,937 --> 01:18:31,740 that they-that they could. 1319 01:18:31,840 --> 01:18:36,344 There were between five and seven thousand people detained. 1320 01:18:39,281 --> 01:18:41,683 And the reason given for that was that 1321 01:18:41,750 --> 01:18:43,618 it was for their own protection, 1322 01:18:43,719 --> 01:18:46,455 that they were gonna be put some place safe. 1323 01:18:46,555 --> 01:18:48,724 Everybody who was still in custody 1324 01:18:48,790 --> 01:18:52,728 was moved to the fairgrounds east of Greenwood. 1325 01:18:52,794 --> 01:18:55,230 They set up cots in a kitchen, 1326 01:18:55,297 --> 01:18:58,433 they dug latrines. 1327 01:18:58,533 --> 01:19:01,470 The people who stayed there were expected to work. 1328 01:19:01,570 --> 01:19:04,473 The women would prepare the meals, 1329 01:19:04,573 --> 01:19:08,276 the men were sent out to work cleaning up Greenwood. 1330 01:19:13,815 --> 01:19:15,117 - Folks in these internment camps 1331 01:19:15,217 --> 01:19:19,054 had to have a green card. 1332 01:19:19,121 --> 01:19:21,623 - I don't know how they got these little cards 1333 01:19:21,723 --> 01:19:22,624 {\an8}printed so fast, 1334 01:19:22,724 --> 01:19:25,293 {\an8}but everybody had a little I.D. card, 1335 01:19:25,393 --> 01:19:28,663 {\an8}school children and all, told what you did, 1336 01:19:28,764 --> 01:19:30,899 {\an8}and you had to have that little I.D. 1337 01:19:30,966 --> 01:19:32,667 wherever you went. 1338 01:19:32,768 --> 01:19:35,070 - And to get out of these internment centers, 1339 01:19:35,137 --> 01:19:37,606 they needed to be countersigned by a white person. 1340 01:19:37,672 --> 01:19:40,008 Essentially, a white person would vouch for them 1341 01:19:40,108 --> 01:19:42,444 and get them out of these internment centers. 1342 01:19:44,780 --> 01:19:47,315 {\an8}The theory at-- by the authorities 1343 01:19:47,415 --> 01:19:49,651 was that this was done to protect people 1344 01:19:49,751 --> 01:19:52,687 from physical harm in a context of 1345 01:19:52,788 --> 01:19:55,023 this chaotic situation. 1346 01:19:55,123 --> 01:19:57,492 There wasn't a lot of justification that was needed 1347 01:19:57,592 --> 01:20:00,128 because who has power and who doesn't? 1348 01:20:02,531 --> 01:20:06,868 - The people who had homes to go to went to those homes. 1349 01:20:06,968 --> 01:20:10,705 Some people left town. 1350 01:20:10,806 --> 01:20:12,140 The Red Cross was operating out of 1351 01:20:12,207 --> 01:20:14,209 Booker T. Washington High School, 1352 01:20:14,309 --> 01:20:16,945 and the Red Cross would buy them a train ticket 1353 01:20:17,012 --> 01:20:20,115 if they wanted to leave town. 1354 01:20:20,182 --> 01:20:22,150 {\an8}- I found that the high school building 1355 01:20:22,217 --> 01:20:23,852 {\an8}was still standing. 1356 01:20:23,952 --> 01:20:27,689 {\an8}I saw a big white streamer with a red cross on it. 1357 01:20:27,789 --> 01:20:30,225 I felt pangs of joy, for this meant to me 1358 01:20:30,325 --> 01:20:34,296 that I was getting in close touch with friends again. 1359 01:20:34,362 --> 01:20:37,699 I breathed a prayer of thanks. 1360 01:20:37,799 --> 01:20:40,635 - The Red Cross began obtaining these tents 1361 01:20:40,702 --> 01:20:43,138 that people could live in. 1362 01:20:43,205 --> 01:20:45,874 - Many Black families spent days, weeks, months 1363 01:20:45,974 --> 01:20:49,744 living in tent cities on the charred earth. 1364 01:21:01,857 --> 01:21:04,893 {\an8}- Everything they had was gone, and they were expected 1365 01:21:04,993 --> 01:21:06,361 to immediately just go about their lives 1366 01:21:06,428 --> 01:21:09,531 like nothing had happened. 1367 01:21:09,598 --> 01:21:13,001 Y-You have to think the trauma was-was terrible. 1368 01:21:18,940 --> 01:21:22,377 {\an8}- When we reaching the house, I saw my piano 1369 01:21:22,444 --> 01:21:26,114 {\an8}and all my elegant furniture piled in the street. 1370 01:21:27,515 --> 01:21:33,622 My safe had been broken open, all my money stolen, 1371 01:21:33,722 --> 01:21:36,691 all my silverware, cut glass, 1372 01:21:36,758 --> 01:21:38,593 all my family clothing, 1373 01:21:38,693 --> 01:21:42,631 and everything of value had been removed, 1374 01:21:42,731 --> 01:21:45,901 even my family Bible. 1375 01:21:45,967 --> 01:21:46,868 Our car was stolen 1376 01:21:46,935 --> 01:21:49,738 and most of my large rugs were taken. 1377 01:21:49,804 --> 01:21:52,707 I lost seventeen houses that paid me an average 1378 01:21:52,774 --> 01:21:55,911 of over $425 per month. 1379 01:21:57,412 --> 01:22:11,993 ♪♪ 1380 01:22:13,762 --> 01:22:16,231 - Riot is a term of art, really. 1381 01:22:16,298 --> 01:22:18,066 These events throughout the nation 1382 01:22:18,133 --> 01:22:20,468 during this period were called "Race Riots". 1383 01:22:23,438 --> 01:22:26,474 And it's significant in part because insurance polices, 1384 01:22:26,574 --> 01:22:28,176 for example, during that period 1385 01:22:28,276 --> 01:22:30,612 often had exclusionary clauses. 1386 01:22:30,679 --> 01:22:32,981 And so if your damage was occasioned by riot 1387 01:22:33,081 --> 01:22:34,082 or civil unrest, 1388 01:22:34,149 --> 01:22:35,951 the insurance company didn't have to pay. 1389 01:22:37,585 --> 01:22:40,355 One of the things we know is that 1390 01:22:40,455 --> 01:22:41,923 a number of people in the mob 1391 01:22:41,990 --> 01:22:43,124 that destroyed the Greenwood community 1392 01:22:43,191 --> 01:22:47,262 were deputized by local law enforcement officers; 1393 01:22:47,329 --> 01:22:49,698 much of that was done by a wink and a nod. 1394 01:22:49,798 --> 01:22:52,100 Those people knew that they were not going to be 1395 01:22:52,167 --> 01:22:55,470 impeded by law enforcement. 1396 01:22:55,537 --> 01:22:57,872 The massacre was referred to, in some documents, 1397 01:22:57,973 --> 01:23:00,709 as a Negro uprising, which suggests that 1398 01:23:00,809 --> 01:23:04,212 the Black community's to blame. 1399 01:23:06,314 --> 01:23:09,150 - In the immediate aftermath there was a grand jury, 1400 01:23:09,217 --> 01:23:13,221 and it indicted, I think it's 88 people. 1401 01:23:13,321 --> 01:23:16,992 Some of whom were white, most of whom were Black. 1402 01:23:17,058 --> 01:23:20,128 - First was the indictment of J.B. Stradford 1403 01:23:20,195 --> 01:23:22,897 who owned a hotel and was a lawyer. 1404 01:23:22,998 --> 01:23:24,966 A.J. Smitherman was the editor and publisher of 1405 01:23:25,033 --> 01:23:26,067 "The Tulsa Star", 1406 01:23:26,167 --> 01:23:29,337 which is the leading Black newspaper. 1407 01:23:29,404 --> 01:23:31,406 He, along with a number of other Black men 1408 01:23:31,506 --> 01:23:34,542 was indicted for inciting a riot. 1409 01:23:35,977 --> 01:23:38,313 - Let the blame for this Negro uprising 1410 01:23:38,380 --> 01:23:42,250 lie right where it belongs: on those armed Negroes 1411 01:23:42,350 --> 01:23:44,519 and their followers who started this trouble 1412 01:23:44,586 --> 01:23:46,154 and who instigated it. 1413 01:23:46,221 --> 01:23:48,590 And any persons who seeks to put half the blame 1414 01:23:48,690 --> 01:23:50,759 on the white people are wrong. 1415 01:23:56,431 --> 01:23:59,768 - It is one of the big ironies of-of all of this 1416 01:23:59,868 --> 01:24:03,104 that the two people who are most often seen 1417 01:24:03,204 --> 01:24:05,006 at the center of it are two people 1418 01:24:05,073 --> 01:24:07,942 that we know very, very little about. 1419 01:24:08,043 --> 01:24:12,347 Sarah Page left the day after the massacre. 1420 01:24:12,414 --> 01:24:14,082 She left town and never came back 1421 01:24:14,182 --> 01:24:15,550 as far as we know. 1422 01:24:15,617 --> 01:24:18,686 Dick Rowland, it appears, remained in jail 1423 01:24:18,753 --> 01:24:21,589 through the summer and then was released. 1424 01:24:21,689 --> 01:24:24,392 In September, the county attorney said 1425 01:24:24,459 --> 01:24:26,061 he'd received a letter from Sarah Page 1426 01:24:26,127 --> 01:24:28,630 asking not to press charges. 1427 01:24:28,730 --> 01:24:32,767 People had really lost interest in it. 1428 01:24:32,867 --> 01:24:35,103 - No white person's ever held accountable 1429 01:24:35,203 --> 01:24:39,908 for the some 100 to 300 deaths that we believe occurred, uh, 1430 01:24:39,974 --> 01:24:41,976 during the massacre. 1431 01:24:45,613 --> 01:24:47,916 - I've never spoken to a white Tulsan 1432 01:24:47,982 --> 01:24:50,485 who would admit to be a member of the mob 1433 01:24:50,585 --> 01:24:51,386 during the riot. 1434 01:24:51,453 --> 01:24:52,987 And one reason is simply this: 1435 01:24:53,088 --> 01:24:55,623 there's no statute of limitations on murder. 1436 01:24:55,723 --> 01:24:58,993 These homicides have now entered the historic realm, 1437 01:24:59,094 --> 01:25:00,829 they can no longer be prosecuted, 1438 01:25:00,929 --> 01:25:03,231 there's no one left to prosecute. 1439 01:25:07,936 --> 01:25:12,674 {\an8}- The massacre destroyed the superstructure, 1440 01:25:12,774 --> 01:25:16,578 {\an8}but miraculously the basement survived. 1441 01:25:22,784 --> 01:25:27,455 This is a picture of the basement. 1442 01:25:27,522 --> 01:25:30,425 So this picture was taken August 1921, 1443 01:25:30,492 --> 01:25:34,095 and the massacre happened May 31st through June 1st. 1444 01:25:34,162 --> 01:25:35,763 People came and hid in our basement 1445 01:25:35,830 --> 01:25:36,798 during the massacre. 1446 01:25:36,865 --> 01:25:39,934 You see ashes above every window piece 1447 01:25:40,001 --> 01:25:43,037 except the back window. 1448 01:25:45,607 --> 01:25:48,977 So this is the space where that window frame 1449 01:25:49,043 --> 01:25:51,946 that we saw that had no ash on top of it, 1450 01:25:52,013 --> 01:25:53,148 it's still right there. 1451 01:25:53,214 --> 01:25:56,184 If you can imagine people being in this room 1452 01:25:56,284 --> 01:25:59,954 not knowing if the fire would somehow come through 1453 01:26:00,021 --> 01:26:01,656 or come from above, 1454 01:26:01,723 --> 01:26:06,895 but they managed to survive in this space. 1455 01:26:08,963 --> 01:26:12,734 When I learn about bodies being dumped in mass graves 1456 01:26:12,834 --> 01:26:16,037 and not ever receiving a proper burial, 1457 01:26:16,137 --> 01:26:18,640 that touched me as a pastor on a visceral level. 1458 01:26:20,175 --> 01:26:30,151 ♪♪ 1459 01:26:30,218 --> 01:26:35,356 As a pastor, when you bury somebody 1460 01:26:35,423 --> 01:26:38,860 it's more than just giving a eulogy. 1461 01:26:38,927 --> 01:26:41,829 When we do what we call the committal, 1462 01:26:41,896 --> 01:26:45,433 which is that ashes to ashes, that dust to dust 1463 01:26:45,533 --> 01:26:47,335 over their bodies, 1464 01:26:47,402 --> 01:26:52,040 that is our way of spiritually releasing them 1465 01:26:52,106 --> 01:26:57,345 to go wherever they're going. 1466 01:26:59,781 --> 01:27:06,955 And to deny that to the people that were dumped or killed 1467 01:27:07,055 --> 01:27:10,858 during the race massacre is evil! 1468 01:27:12,060 --> 01:27:15,230 It shows you that at that time period 1469 01:27:15,296 --> 01:27:18,800 people didn't even care about the souls of Black folks, 1470 01:27:18,900 --> 01:27:22,270 let alone their bodies. 1471 01:27:22,370 --> 01:27:26,441 I believe there is no expiration date on morality, 1472 01:27:26,541 --> 01:27:28,977 and if it was wrong in 1921 1473 01:27:29,077 --> 01:27:32,380 and that it has not been repaired for today, 1474 01:27:32,447 --> 01:27:35,483 then we ought to do something about it. 1475 01:27:41,623 --> 01:27:45,727 - One of the most basic, I think, responsibilities 1476 01:27:45,793 --> 01:27:48,930 that a city has to the residents who live there 1477 01:27:48,997 --> 01:27:52,166 is if you're murdered, we'll do everything we can 1478 01:27:52,267 --> 01:27:54,335 to try to find out what happened to you, 1479 01:27:54,435 --> 01:27:56,004 to find your remains for your family, 1480 01:27:56,104 --> 01:27:59,574 and to render justice for you and your family. 1481 01:28:03,111 --> 01:28:05,613 - It makes me feel, um, 1482 01:28:05,680 --> 01:28:09,017 kind of like Charlie Brown said, "good grief." 1483 01:28:09,117 --> 01:28:13,254 {\an8}Because it's good that we unveiled the story, 1484 01:28:13,321 --> 01:28:17,659 {\an8}but it's grief to us as we unveil it. 1485 01:28:17,759 --> 01:28:19,193 Tell it right. 1486 01:28:19,294 --> 01:28:23,665 They took those planes from that oil field 1487 01:28:23,765 --> 01:28:26,968 and they planned an aerial attack, 1488 01:28:27,035 --> 01:28:29,037 and that's what makes it different 1489 01:28:29,137 --> 01:28:33,675 from all the other race riots in America. 1490 01:28:33,775 --> 01:28:35,476 Tell it right. 1491 01:28:35,543 --> 01:28:38,513 They bombed us, they bombed us. 1492 01:28:40,148 --> 01:28:56,030 ♪♪ 1493 01:28:57,565 --> 01:28:59,367 - There's something very spiritual 1494 01:28:59,467 --> 01:29:02,070 about this work. 1495 01:29:05,740 --> 01:29:08,009 And anybody who thinks that this sacred ground 1496 01:29:08,076 --> 01:29:12,747 that we find ourselves on, 1497 01:29:12,847 --> 01:29:15,416 this crime scene that we find ourselves on 1498 01:29:15,516 --> 01:29:19,854 is not gonna speak, doesn't have the ears to hear. 1499 01:29:21,856 --> 01:29:29,330 ♪♪ 1500 01:29:29,397 --> 01:29:33,000 - Kavin Ross talks about the redbirds. 1501 01:29:33,067 --> 01:29:37,438 He says that they are the spirits of our ancestors. 1502 01:29:37,538 --> 01:29:43,111 Monday morning, I went out to my garden, 1503 01:29:43,211 --> 01:29:46,547 and as I stepped on my back porch, 1504 01:29:46,614 --> 01:29:52,019 I saw a whole bunch of redbirds, and they were looking at me. 1505 01:29:55,690 --> 01:29:57,792 And I ran in here to get my phone, 1506 01:29:57,892 --> 01:29:59,761 "Kavin, I gotta tell you the story of what happened 1507 01:29:59,861 --> 01:30:00,762 "with the redbirds." 1508 01:30:00,862 --> 01:30:04,098 He said, "Girly, come"-- he says girly. 1509 01:30:04,198 --> 01:30:07,535 "Girly, come get your butt down here to the cemetery." 1510 01:30:12,740 --> 01:30:17,779 Well, I knew something huge is gonna happen from that, 1511 01:30:17,879 --> 01:30:19,614 and it did. 1512 01:30:21,249 --> 01:30:31,392 ♪♪ 1513 01:30:31,459 --> 01:30:34,929 - I'm here to report an update. 1514 01:30:34,996 --> 01:30:37,465 I can confirm that we have identified, um, 1515 01:30:37,565 --> 01:30:39,167 a large hole that had been excavated 1516 01:30:39,267 --> 01:30:42,003 and into which several individuals, 1517 01:30:42,103 --> 01:30:45,106 um, have been placed. 1518 01:30:45,173 --> 01:30:47,575 This constitutes a mass grave. 1519 01:30:51,279 --> 01:30:52,947 - Tonight scientists believe they have found 1520 01:30:53,014 --> 01:30:56,484 evidence of a mass grave in Oklahoma. 1521 01:30:56,584 --> 01:30:58,519 - More than a year after work had started 1522 01:30:58,619 --> 01:31:03,691 at Oaklawn Cemetery, the team found human remains. 1523 01:31:03,791 --> 01:31:07,862 - Today is a significant moment in the history of our city 1524 01:31:07,962 --> 01:31:12,533 in trying to do right by the victims of this event. 1525 01:31:12,633 --> 01:31:15,970 - When I heard that they found twelve bodies, 1526 01:31:16,037 --> 01:31:19,607 I said, "Finally! Finally!" 1527 01:31:19,674 --> 01:31:23,945 It's no longer folklore, it's no longer a rumor, 1528 01:31:24,011 --> 01:31:27,281 it's true. 1529 01:31:27,348 --> 01:31:28,516 And that's going just to be 1530 01:31:28,616 --> 01:31:31,018 the beginning of justice. 1531 01:31:32,220 --> 01:31:34,355 - People in this community who've been saying 1532 01:31:34,455 --> 01:31:36,657 that bodies were dumped in mass graves, 1533 01:31:36,724 --> 01:31:39,627 their stories have now been vindicated. 1534 01:31:39,694 --> 01:31:42,830 Gets us one step closer to giving their families 1535 01:31:42,897 --> 01:31:48,836 the opportunities to have the truth be known 1536 01:31:48,903 --> 01:31:51,706 and actually give them a proper burial. 1537 01:31:59,347 --> 01:32:01,816 - This is all part of a-a mission 1538 01:32:01,883 --> 01:32:05,386 to get back what was lost. 1539 01:32:05,486 --> 01:32:07,755 We've lost a lot of history, we've lost a lot of testimony, 1540 01:32:07,855 --> 01:32:09,824 we've lost a lot of known heritage 1541 01:32:09,891 --> 01:32:11,759 that could have been passed down 1542 01:32:11,859 --> 01:32:14,428 because it wasn't safe to talk about for so long. 1543 01:32:18,032 --> 01:32:21,068 - Nobody said nothing until now. 1544 01:32:21,168 --> 01:32:22,837 We're just now talking about it. 1545 01:32:25,072 --> 01:32:27,909 - Growing up, old folks have talked, 1546 01:32:28,009 --> 01:32:31,679 and they actually kind of hid a lot of stuff from us. 1547 01:32:33,915 --> 01:32:36,117 - Staying quiet was one of those ways 1548 01:32:36,217 --> 01:32:38,052 of protecting yourself. 1549 01:32:38,119 --> 01:32:39,287 It's kind of in the back of your mind, 1550 01:32:39,387 --> 01:32:41,455 wondering could this happen again? 1551 01:32:41,556 --> 01:32:44,191 What can I do to prevent this from happening again 1552 01:32:44,258 --> 01:32:46,093 for my children? 1553 01:33:11,886 --> 01:33:13,955 - That is another part of trauma, 1554 01:33:14,055 --> 01:33:15,957 the silence that it creates. 1555 01:33:16,057 --> 01:33:17,391 And while people were murdered 1556 01:33:17,458 --> 01:33:20,828 and we need to acknowledge that and we need to find them, 1557 01:33:20,928 --> 01:33:22,763 we also need to talk about how they lived. 1558 01:33:22,830 --> 01:33:25,266 We need to talk about what they built, 1559 01:33:25,333 --> 01:33:26,434 we need to talk about what's left behind 1560 01:33:26,500 --> 01:33:27,602 and tell that story, 1561 01:33:27,668 --> 01:33:30,605 because that story lasts for a hundred years, 1562 01:33:30,671 --> 01:33:34,942 the massacre was two days. 1563 01:33:37,011 --> 01:33:39,246 - Hut, hut. Come on, boy. 1564 01:33:39,313 --> 01:33:43,117 Hut, hut, hut. 1565 01:33:50,191 --> 01:33:52,159 Hut. 1566 01:33:53,361 --> 01:33:56,831 People say, "Why don't you leave here?" 1567 01:33:56,931 --> 01:33:58,833 Because the memory of something 1568 01:33:58,933 --> 01:34:01,702 that I will never see anywhere else is still here. 1569 01:34:03,838 --> 01:34:07,341 And these pages contain all of the photographs 1570 01:34:07,441 --> 01:34:10,778 of my ancestors who lived on Greenwood. 1571 01:34:12,847 --> 01:34:17,018 The memory, we're connected to our memories. 1572 01:34:17,785 --> 01:34:20,655 Olivia Hooker, who was a survivor, 1573 01:34:20,721 --> 01:34:23,791 was a really beautiful soul. 1574 01:34:26,794 --> 01:34:30,231 - At that night of the massacre, Olivia Hooker, 1575 01:34:30,331 --> 01:34:34,735 who was a six-year-old girl, saw her own home ripped apart. 1576 01:34:34,835 --> 01:34:37,171 White folks came into her house, 1577 01:34:37,238 --> 01:34:41,142 destroyed her piano with a hatchet, 1578 01:34:41,208 --> 01:34:44,979 and when they left, she went over there 1579 01:34:45,046 --> 01:34:49,717 and they struck the keyboard, and there was still sound 1580 01:34:49,817 --> 01:34:52,920 coming out of that piano. 1581 01:34:53,020 --> 01:34:55,389 That's who Greenwood is. 1582 01:34:57,925 --> 01:34:59,860 You might destroy the outside of me, 1583 01:34:59,927 --> 01:35:02,396 you might shoot me, you might burn me, 1584 01:35:02,496 --> 01:35:05,700 you're not gonna destroy my soul. 1585 01:35:05,766 --> 01:35:07,768 We still got a song to sing. 1586 01:35:09,203 --> 01:35:13,174 ♪♪ 1587 01:35:13,240 --> 01:35:17,078 - We have these cycles of Greenwood being built, 1588 01:35:17,178 --> 01:35:20,047 destroyed, rebuilt. 1589 01:35:20,114 --> 01:35:21,282 If you look at it all together 1590 01:35:21,382 --> 01:35:22,950 in a 100 year journey... 1591 01:35:27,221 --> 01:35:29,123 it's a consistent story of resilience. 1592 01:35:31,792 --> 01:35:35,362 - We are so close to getting over this madness. 1593 01:35:35,429 --> 01:35:39,734 In time, we can go on to be a great city 1594 01:35:39,800 --> 01:35:42,369 that we are destined to be. 1595 01:35:43,571 --> 01:35:48,943 - There's a resilience that our people have. 1596 01:35:49,043 --> 01:35:55,049 The people here in Tulsa have kept the story alive. 1597 01:35:57,752 --> 01:36:02,423 We know with our people, it's never the end. 1598 01:36:02,490 --> 01:36:21,175 ♪♪ 1599 01:36:21,275 --> 01:36:26,747 {\an8}- My dreams of what Greenwood should look like, 1600 01:36:26,814 --> 01:36:29,917 {\an8}it should look like us. 1601 01:36:29,984 --> 01:36:33,320 {\an8}- My hope for Greenwood is that she can become 1602 01:36:33,420 --> 01:36:34,622 {\an8}back what she used to be. 1603 01:36:35,623 --> 01:36:37,358 {\an8}- I wish Greenwood would be healed. 1604 01:36:37,858 --> 01:36:39,960 {\an8}A lot of stuff was buried deep. 1605 01:36:40,027 --> 01:36:40,194 {\an8}- My dream is to have a replicate 1606 01:36:42,863 --> 01:36:44,799 {\an8}of what we had in 1921 1607 01:36:44,865 --> 01:36:47,201 {\an8}with all the Black businesses, 1608 01:36:47,301 --> 01:36:48,035 {\an8}everybody supporting each other. 1609 01:36:50,337 --> 01:36:54,341 {\an8}- We are the youngest business owners on Greenwood. 1610 01:36:54,441 --> 01:36:56,811 {\an8}I would like to see young people, you know, 1611 01:36:56,877 --> 01:36:58,979 {\an8}rebuilding Black Wall Street. 1612 01:36:59,046 --> 01:37:01,282 {\an8}- Let there be some type of closure 1613 01:37:01,348 --> 01:37:04,718 {\an8}and some type of life back here that we're enjoying. 1614 01:37:04,819 --> 01:37:07,054 {\an8}- We need to reclaim what was ours 1615 01:37:07,154 --> 01:37:09,023 {\an8}from the beginning. 1616 01:37:09,123 --> 01:37:11,325 {\an8}Our people built Black Wall Street 1617 01:37:11,392 --> 01:37:13,194 {\an8}by hard work and dedication, 1618 01:37:13,294 --> 01:37:15,796 {\an8}we did it one time, we can do it again. 1619 01:37:15,863 --> 01:37:18,032 {\an8}- Greenwood can be that again, 1620 01:37:18,132 --> 01:37:20,734 {\an8}we can be all that we wanna be.