For All Disposed in Mass Graves of Non- Histories

“Blues epistemology aptly describes the inexorable irrepressible will, indestructibility, and malleability of Black communities in the face of white supremacy.”

This May has been marked with culminating grief as America reckons with the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Botham Jean, and Atatiana Koquice Jefferson. The injustice and systemic racism that Black communities face is simply a reminder of a legacy of violence.

On May 31, 1921, mobs of white residents massacred the thriving all-black neighborhood of Greenwood, Tulsa, in my home state of Oklahoma. In preceding days, a common yet deadly trope occurred. Sarah Page, a white woman, falsely accused Dick Rowland, a 19-year Black man for attempting to sexually assault her on an elevator. This occurred also in the murder of the 14 year old Emmett Till. The most widely accepted version of the event is that Rowland tripped against Page as the elevator jolted to a stop, and when he grabbed her arm to apologize, she screamed. By 3 pm on the day of Dick Rowland's arrest, The Tulsa Tribune headlined the sensationalized story, “Nab Negro for Attacking Girl in Elevator” and spun the dubious encounter between Page and Dick into the undeniable assumption of guilt. Talk of lynching spread across Tulsa like wood dried to burn fast. A crowd of over 400 whites gathered outside of the courthouse to lynch Dick Rowland.

What was not anticipated was the retaliation of the Black community who refused to submit to the violation of their race and community. Theorist Clyde Woods calls this phenomenon of socially evicted Black communities of the South to build power as well as ensure their political and social survival as Blues Epistemology. This frame work that pulls from the namesake of the radical music tradition, aptly describes the inexorable irrepressible will, indestructibility, and malleability of Black communities in the face of white supremacy. Blacks of the Greenwood community took a collective stand of resistance to the mob of white Tulsans that gathered outside of the county courthouse. They would protect Rowland as if their lives depended on it, because indeed their lives did depend upon it.

According to witnesses, a white man approached a black man holding an army pistol. After a heated exchange between the two, the white man attempted to grab the pistol from its’ owner. They struggled and a shot was fired--

Black residents were then attacked over a harrowing 24 hour period and their businesses and homes were burned to the ground. An estimated 300 people were killed. Historians believe the bodies of victims were disposed of in mass graves throughout the city distorting the casualty count when official reports were published. Excavation of suspected mass grave sites in Tulsa are scheduled to begin this year.

The collective violence of the massacre left nearly 10,000 of Tulsa'a Black population homeless. The Oklahoma National Guard interred the disposed Blacks into internment camps for up to a year where they were not able to leave without permission of white employers and were required to wear green identification tags. The interred suffered from disease and malnutrition in the camps.

Following the massacre, Greenwood residents were met with resistance to rebuild what had been of their community. City officials rejected offers of medical and reconstruction assistance from within and outside Tulsa. A clause written into insurance documents stating that Greenwood residents would not be reimbursed for their losses in the event of a riot, even to this day, prevent Greenwood residents from recuperating the massive financial losses totaling to the equivalent of tens of millions of dollars in contemporary currency exchange.

Following the Massacre, the self-determined residents of Greenwood rebuilt their community out of their own pockets. Starting in the early 1930s and 40s, Greenwood began to thrive again as a prosperous Black economic center. However in subsequent years, state policy massacred the thriving black community yet again. Federal redlining resulted in making it impossible for many residents to access mortgage loans because the district of Greenwood was deemed a 'credit risk'. Furthermore, “urban renewal” aimed at 'rehabilitating areas considered blighted', condemned rebuilt property in Greenwood and forced Black residents to move using eminent domain and then redeveloped the land. Covert and insidious neo-liberal policies destroyed Greenwood for yet a second time.

I share this history as both a poet who writes from the archive of Black history and a Black Oklahoman. Oklahoma curriculum failed to share this history with me, and my current body of creative work is dedicated to sharing the stories of self-determination, resilience, beauty, and the injustices perpetuated against the Black community. I share this history in the hopes that silence surrounding violence and gross exclusion of history will not be perpetuated and repeated. As we greet the anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre, remember and honor the loss that is not only happening in the present but historically for the Black community.

If you feel compelled or have the means consider donating to Greenwood Cultural Center at https://greenwoodculturalcenter.com/donation. I have no affiliation with this organization, but believe in the power of preserving, sharing, and using the archive to learn from our mistakes and cultivate positive change.”