Riot and Remembrance: The Tulsa Race War and Its Legacy, by James S. Hirsch, documents what would be called in a pogrom in Jewish studies. In 1921, the Greenwood section of Tulsa, where a fairly affluent black community lived, was destroyed in a day and night of carnage by armed white people, both acting officially for the city of Tulsa and the state of Oklahoma, and unofficially as rioters and looters.
Until recently, this event, which probably left three hundred people dead, and thousands displaced, was not widely known. When I read about it in the 1990s, I had never learned of it; thankfully, that is now changing. Probably the most crucial historical issue of the massacre is mass graves. Almost all scholars of the Tulsa Race Riot agree that more African Americans died than the official tally. Stories of mass graves in at least three sites in Tulsa have long been rumored.
White Tulsa is finally facing its legacy, to some degree. In late 2019, ground anomalies were found in two areas of Tulsa long rumored to hold mass graves. This summer, an excavation will take place (if all remains on schedule). As we approach the one-hundred year anniversary of the massacre, learning more about the final resting place of its victims is long overdue.
This book is informative and necessary. The one flaw is a wave of typos, as if parts where not closely copy edited. Some of them ruin the flow of the narrative. Clown is used for down. Sims for seems. Cut for but. There are many others. They are words closely related to the intended word, as if someone was asleep at the wheel.
Until recently, this event, which probably left three hundred people dead, and thousands displaced, was not widely known. When I read about it in the 1990s, I had never learned of it; thankfully, that is now changing. Probably the most crucial historical issue of the massacre is mass graves. Almost all scholars of the Tulsa Race Riot agree that more African Americans died than the official tally. Stories of mass graves in at least three sites in Tulsa have long been rumored.
White Tulsa is finally facing its legacy, to some degree. In late 2019, ground anomalies were found in two areas of Tulsa long rumored to hold mass graves. This summer, an excavation will take place (if all remains on schedule). As we approach the one-hundred year anniversary of the massacre, learning more about the final resting place of its victims is long overdue.
This book is informative and necessary. The one flaw is a wave of typos, as if parts where not closely copy edited. Some of them ruin the flow of the narrative. Clown is used for down. Sims for seems. Cut for but. There are many others. They are words closely related to the intended word, as if someone was asleep at the wheel.
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