Systemic racism controls America’s history books, bleaching out evidence of egregious events that cause consternation among Caucasians whom prefer to view 1920’s America through a nostalgic haze comprised of Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, and Zelda Fitzgerald…ah the 20’s roaring with jazz, prosperity, and white supremacy.
Even the most academic, attune, and altruistic Americans were not aware of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, a violent racist coordinated event in which a white mob massacred Black citizens in the Greenwood District, known as Black Wall Street, a community filled with, “happy and successful people,” in the words of Lessie Benningfield Randle, a survivor of the massacre. The Tulsa Race Massacre isn’t acknowledged or documented in most history books, nor is it taught in most schools, as with most aspects of slavery and systemic racism, Black people are told to forget…to move on without justice, without accountability, and without sharing experiences with future generations.
The 100 year anniversary of the massacre awakened Americans to a horrific happening in America’s history intentionally deleted from public record. Redacted history eventually reveals itself. The “shining city on the hill” will be incapable of guiding anyone without the light of truth.