{"id":21063,"date":"2020-06-20T02:32:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-20T02:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=21063"},"modified":"2020-06-23T10:04:48","modified_gmt":"2020-06-23T10:04:48","slug":"from-grandfather-to-grandson-the-lessons-of-the-tulsa-race-massacre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/from-grandfather-to-grandson-the-lessons-of-the-tulsa-race-massacre\/","title":{"rendered":"From grandfather to grandson, the lessons of the Tulsa race massacre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gregory B. Fairchild<\/a>, University of Virginia<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

My family sat down to watch the first episode of HBO\u2019s \u201cWatchmen<\/a>\u201d last October. Stephen Williams, the director, included quick cuts of gunshots, explosions, citizens fleeing roaming mobs, and even a plane dropping bombs. We\u2019ve come to anticipate these elements in superhero films.<\/p>\n

As the sepia-toned footage spooled across the screen, the words \u201cTulsa 1921\u201d were superimposed over the mayhem. My throat tightened.<\/p>\n

I knew that place and year well. The terror of the Tulsa race riot is something that has been with me for almost as long as I can remember. My grandfather, Robert Fairchild, told the story nearly a quarter century ago to several newspapers.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how he recounted the story in The Washington Post in 1996<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cAt 92 years old, Robert Fairchild is losing his hearing, but he can still make out the distant shouts of angry white men firing guns late into the night 75 years ago. His eyes are not what they used to be, but he has no trouble seeing the dense, gray smoke swallowing his neighbors\u2019 houses as he walked home from a graduation rehearsal, a frightened boy of 17.<\/p>\n

His has since been a life of middle-class comfort, a good job working for the city, a warm family life. But he has never forgotten his mother\u2019s anguish in 1921 as she fled toward the railroad tracks to escape the mobs and fires tearing through the vibrant black neighborhood of Greenwood in north Tulsa.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThere was just nothing left,\u201d Fairchild said recently.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post article said the Tulsa race riots of 1921 were among the \u201cworst race riots in the nation\u2019s history.\u201d It reported: \u201cThe death toll during the 12-hour rampage is still in dispute, but estimates have put it as high as 250. More than 1,000 businesses and homes were burned to the ground, scores of black families were herded into cattle pens at the fairgrounds, and one of the largest and most prosperous black communities in the United States was turned to ashes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
During the Tulsa race riots in 1921, black businesses and homes in the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, were destroyed at the hands of white residents.<\/span>
\nBettmann Archive\/Getty Images<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Riots began after a white mob attempted to lynch a teenager falsely accused of assaulting a white woman. Black residents came to his defense, some armed. The groups traded shots, and mob violence followed. My family eventually returned to a decimated street. Miraculously their home on Latimer Avenue was spared.<\/p>\n

Disturbing history<\/h2>\n

Hearing about these experiences at the family table was troubling enough. Reading a newspaper account of your ancestors\u2019 fleeing for their lives is a surreal pain. There\u2019s recognition of your family\u2019s terror, and relief in knowing your family survived what \u201c60 Minutes\u201d recently called \u201cone of the worst race massacres in American history<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

In spite of my grandfather\u2019s witness, this same event didn\u2019t merit inclusion in any of my assigned history texts, either in high school or college. On the occasions I\u2019ve mentioned this history to my colleagues, they\u2019ve been astonished.<\/p>\n

In 1996, at the 75th anniversary of the massacre, the city of Tulsa finally acknowledged what had happened. Community leaders from different backgrounds publicly recognized the devastation wrought by the riots. They gathered in a church that had been torched in the riot and since rebuilt. My grandfather told The New York Times<\/a> then that he was \u201cextremely pleased that Tulsa has taken this occasion seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA mistake has been made,\u201d he told the paper, \u201cand this is a way to really look at it, then look toward the future and try to make sure it never happens again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
An African American couple walking across a street in Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 1921.<\/span>
\nOklahoma Historical Society\/Getty Images<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That it took so long for the city to acknowledge what took place shows how selective society can be when it comes to which historical events it chooses to remember \u2013 and which ones to overlook. The history that society colludes to avoid publicly is necessarily remembered privately.<\/p>\n

Economically vibrant<\/h2>\n

Even with massive destruction, the area of North Tulsa, known as Greenwood, became known for its economic vitality. On the blocks surrounding the corner of Archer Street and Greenwood Avenue in the 1930s, a thriving business district<\/a> flourished with retail shops, entertainment venues and high-end services. One of these businesses was the Oklahoma Eagle, a black-owned newspaper. As a teenager in the early 1940s, my grandfather had his first job delivering the paper.<\/p>\n

Without knowing the history, it would be a surprise to the casual observer that years earlier everything in this neighborhood had been razed to the ground. The Black Wall Street Memorial<\/a>, a black marble monolith, sits outside the Greenwood Cultural Center. The memorial is dedicated to the entrepreneurs and pioneers who made Greenwood Avenue what it was both before and after it was destroyed in the 1921 riot.<\/p>\n

Although I grew up on military bases across the world, I would visit Greenwood many times over the years. As I grew into my teenage years in the 1970s, I recognized that the former vibrant community was beginning to decline. Some of this was due to the destructive effects of urban renewal and displacement. As with many other black communities across the country, parts of Greenwood were razed to make way for highways<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some of the decline was due to the exit of financial institutions, including banks. This contributed to a decrease in opportunities to build wealth, including savings and investment products, loans for homes and businesses, and funding to help build health clinics and affordable housing.<\/p>\n

And at least some was due to the diminished loyalty of residents to black-owned businesses and institutions. During the civil rights movement, downtown Tulsa businesses began to allow blacks into their doors as customers. As a result, blacks spent less money in their community.<\/p>\n

Historical lessons<\/h2>\n

At the end of my father\u2019s military career in the 1970s, he became a community development banker in Virginia. His work involved bringing together institutions \u2013 investors, financial institutions, philanthropists, local governments \u2013 to develop innovative development solutions for areas like Greenwood. For me, there are lessons in the experiences of three generations \u2013 my grandfather\u2019s, father\u2019s and mine \u2013 that influence my scholarly work today.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, I study how years after the end of legal segregation, Americans remain racially separate in our neighborhoods, schools and workplaces and at alarmingly high levels. My research has shown how segregation depresses economic<\/a> and social outcomes<\/a>. In short, segregation creates closed markets that stunt economic activity, especially for blacks.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, I focus on solutions. One avenue of work involves examining the business models of Community Development Financial Institutions<\/a>, or CDFIs, and Minority Depository Institutions<\/a>, or MDIs. These are financial institutions that are committed to economic development \u2013 banks, credit unions, loan funds, equity funds \u2013 that operate in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. They offer what was sorely needed in North Tulsa, and many other neighborhoods across the nation \u2013 locally attuned financial institutions that understand the unique challenges families and businesses face in minority communities.<\/p>\n

Righting historical wrongs<\/h2>\n

There are interventions we can take, locally and nationally, that recognize centuries of financial and social constraint. Initiatives like the recent decision by the Small Business Administration and U.S. Treasury to allocate US$10 billion<\/a> to lenders that focus funds on disadvantaged areas are a start. These types of programs are needed even when there aren\u2019t full-scale economic and social crises are taking place, like the COVID-19 epidemic or protesters in the street. Years of institutional barriers and racial wealth gaps cannot be redressed unless there\u2019s a recognition that capital matters.<\/p>\n

The 1921 Tulsa race riot began on May 31, only weeks before the annual celebration of Juneteenth, which is observed on June 19. As communities across the country begin recognizing Juneteenth and leading corporations move to celebrate it<\/a>, it\u2019s important to remember the story behind Juneteenth – slaves weren\u2019t informed that they were emancipated.<\/p>\n

After the celebrations, there\u2019s hard work ahead. From my grandfather\u2019s memory of the riot\u2019s devastation to my own work addressing low-income communities\u2019 economic challenges, I have come to see that change requires harnessing economic, governmental and nonprofit solutions that recognize and speak openly about the significant residential, educational and workplace racial segregation that still exists in the United States today.<\/p>\n

[You\u2019re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation\u2019s authors and editors.<\/em> You can get our highlights each weekend<\/a>.]\"The<\/p>\n

Gregory B. Fairchild<\/a>, Associate Professor of Business Administration, University of Virginia<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gregory B. Fairchild, University of Virginia My family sat down to watch the first episode of HBO\u2019s \u201cWatchmen\u201d last October. Stephen Williams, the director, included quick cuts of gunshots, explosions, citizens fleeing roaming mobs, and even a plane dropping bombs. We\u2019ve come to anticipate these elements in superhero films. As the sepia-toned footage spooled across […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":21064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[292],"tags":[3762,8221,4390,4405,1538,8220],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21063"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21063"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21085,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21063\/revisions\/21085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}