Their success aroused jealousy in others. These residents, of Black and Indigenous heritage, were tasked with pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and they did so.
There were churches, schools, a library, hospital, professional offices, two newspapers. The Dreamland documentary draws the viewer in with fascinating photographs of a lost way of life - happy families with successful small businesses in a segregated section of Tulsa. Some veterans were lynched in their uniforms when they returned to their home states. Those who testified recently, and survivors who were interviewed on other occasions, seek recognition and remembrance.Ĭhief among the defenders of Greenwood, also known as the Black Wall Street, were veterans of World War I, who had fought in France and who returned to the U.S. In less than 24 hours a prosperous neighborhood of self-made Americans of color was burned to the ground, destroying 190 businesses and hundreds of homes. Featured in the film are sobering testimonies of Viola Fletcher and two of her siblings, who lived in the Greenwood section of Tulsa in 1921. The Dreamland documentary has a number of executive producers, including basketball legend Lebron James. Dreamland: The Burning of Black Wall Street – CNN and HBO, May 31st.Tulsa: the Fire and the Forgotten – PBS, May 31st.Tulsa Burning – History Channel, May 30th.Now there are three documentaries available this week for an in-depth education: A few television watchers became aware due to fictional accounts in two series, Watchmen and Lovecraft Country, in 2019-2020.
Most have not heard of this violent period in American history because the governments of Tulsa and Oklahoma wiped the incident from official records decades ago. Source: Postcard in the collection of McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa. Attorney Buck Franklin was the father of famed historian John Hope Franklin (1915-2009). Upwards of 300 residents were killed, and thousands were made homeless as the prosperous Greenwood section of Tulsa was burned to the ground by outsiders armed with machine guns, while private airplanes dropped incendiary bombs.Ĭongresswoman Barbara Lee issued a statement commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Greenwood Massacre, and President Joseph Biden will speak of this solemn occasion in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a few days from now.īesides interviews over the years with a dozen survivors of the 1921 attack, we have a ten-page first-person account from attorney Buck Colbert Franklin (1879-1960), which was turned over to the Museum of African American History in Washington DC. At age 107, Viola Fletcher remembers vividly the 18 hours of terror in her previously peaceful neighborhood. Recently a survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Greenwood Massacre testified before a Congressional subcommittee.
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