Services held to commemorate Tulsa Race Massacre on 100th anniversary

Services were held Monday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to remember one of the most shameful and deadly racist massacres in this nation’s history. While it began 100 years ago on May 31, for many, it’s still not over.

A century after the Tulsa Race Massacre, the community is still trying to heal.

The two-day rampage by a White mob killed an estimated 300 Black Tulsa residents and turned more than 30 square blocks of homes and businesses in the Greenwood district — known as Black Wall Street — into rubble.

Monday’s solemn ceremony honored those who were killed, with some of the last known survivors in attendance.

“The unknown names are likewise battlers for freedom and democracy in this land,” an attendee said at the ceremony.

Tulsa resident Kevin Ross says the race massacre wasn’t even acknowledged by the White community or taught in schools. But now, the city is reckoning with its past.

“I’m just overjoyed that the discussions have begun, that the silence, the conspiracy of silence has ended. Let the healing begin,” Ross said.

In 2018, the city of Tulsa started searching for the mass graves of those killed, and soon started a new dig in an area where those killed could be buried.

“I must say that the city of Tulsa, I believe, is ready,” Ross said when asked if he thought Tulsa was prepared for finding the remains of any killed.