The 1921 burning of Black Wall Street is finally being called what it was: A massacre

I was blessed to have a very good education when it comes to the Black history that has been part of American history since before the founding of what is now the United States. No thanks to my schools, of course; I give credit to my parents. My parents hated the use of the term “race riot,” which was often used to obfuscate the murder and massacre of Black people in this nation. My dad especially hated the term, since he was actually charged with “inciting a riot” during World War II when, as a Tuskegee Airman in uniform, he was attacked and beaten nearly to death by a crowd of white racists. 

It was with that framing in mind that I wrote about the 1921 attack on Tulsa’s Black Wall Street four years ago, noting that it was not a “race riot,” it was a massacre. That was not my first telling of the tale, nor will it be my last. One of the first stories I wrote here at Daily Kos in 2008 was also about the massacre; I’ve never called it a riot and won’t.

Blaming Black folks for our own deaths at the hands of white folks—be they police, or citizen vigilantes, killing us en masse or in individual lynching picnics, has gone on far too long. The good news? Since my last effort to address this tragedy, a quick search indicates that headlines and story content have actually shifted in the past few years, particularly after the HBO series Watchmen raised the profile of this well-hidden bit of racist American history. “Riot” has been eliminated in most headlines and text; “massacre” is now the standard descriptor. It’s a start. Finally, we see the faces and hear the words of survivors like Mrs. Viola Fletcher, 107, who testified before Congress this month, and about whom Marissa Higgins wrote, “If you watch one thing today, make sure it’s these testimonies from Tulsa massacre survivors.”