Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921

It's hard to surprise me nowadays with issues like the Jena 6, Hurricane Katrina versus Fema, and the Schlumberger case going on, but I was caught offguard when I visited Chicago's DuSable Museum recently. I saw a video called "4 Little Girls" and heard something about Black Wall Street. I was confused about this location because I'd never heard it in my entire years of elementary and high school or in college. I started doing some research on it, such as reading this book, and once again, America shows its ugly past of racism, bigotry, and determination to make sure that Blacks could not succeed in America. Ellsworth details the issues surrounding the bombing, burning, and looting of a small community of Blacks in Tulsa, Oklahoma called Black Wall Street. The Red Cross was around for the Jena 6 rally, so it was no shock to me that they were around to help Blacks of Tulsa when their homes were taken. Due to situations like Emmitt Till, it was easy for me to believe that the situation on the elevator with the white attendant happened, as well as the hangings that followed before and after. This book was thought-provoking, educational, and I will pass the word along. The eeriest part of this whole read was the way the government handled Black Tulsans getting their homes, jobs, and businesses back sounds exactly like how the government is handling the incidents with Hurricane Katrina. In Tulsa, Blacks were pushed out of their community, imprisoned for supposedly obstructing justice, not given proper food/water/clothes/money and instead being treated like prisoners, and then forced into working from prison-like terms. When people were allowed back into their own community (even though their only "crime" was self-defense), they were made to live in tents. Now doesn't this sound a lot like those trailers that Hurricane Katrina victims are living in? The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Even though this is a slim book and a fast read, it is a thorough analysis and recounting of one of the worst white riots and devastation of a African-American community in US history. While there have been many books and studies of the Tulsa riot of 1921, this one quickly and seriously explains the social-political and economic context and leaves the reader with a renewed awareness of the horrors of racism.

Rarely do we have an instance when a teller of history valiantly attempts to remain objective. The author has done well in presenting a historical perspective that does not seek unconscionable blame nor claim illusionary vindication. These acts of historical literary balance, lay the foundations upon which great civilizations have risen. Having heard the oral traditions of Greenwood, it would have been very easy to paint all white people with a broad stroke of UNDENIABLE EVIL, as it would have been with providing all blacks with a halo of SAINTHOOD. By piecemilling together facts, reminants of what many have sought to destroy, along with balancing the personal interviews, the author has provided the impetus for how we should begin discussing our history. As a Black American, I feel slighted, as if I have just been walking in circles, having never learned of moments such as Greenwood, which helps us to better understand who we are. It is strange how we have never seen war as a viable option, but have been labeled as the most violent and retched. Thanks to the author and his supporters, who have finally began removing the veil of America's History. May others, who set themselves upon pedestals, possess enough courage to pursue such a task.

Scott Ellsworth has produced what is now the most important work regarding Tulsa's 1921 race riot. While Ellsworth's conclusions may be argued, his skills as a researcher and historian are exemplary and reviews to the contrary can be discounted as meritless. This work is an important link to understanding the civil rights movements of the 50s & 60s. There is no way to lay blame for all of the riot on any group, and Ellsworth is careful to point out the failings of both whites and blacks. The underlying issues of economies and a strong black community are well developed and examined as catalysts of the violence that followed. Ellsworth also spends considerable time examining the reconstruction of black Tulsa and the ongoing tension between the races as the community tried to recover. This is an excellent work that deserves more attention than just the narrow audience of historians and scholars.