What is the “R Word?” If you don’t already know, you’ll have to keep reading to see.
So, the Tulsa Massacre’s 100th Anniversary got me to thinking. Most Americans had never even heard of this tragedy until the last few days. I had heard of it back in college in the late-1970s, though not through any course I was taking. “Black Wall Street” was a term I had heard about from my own self-directed research, and from conversations with other like-minded students—some of whom were Afro-American Studies majors (which was a relatively new course of study back then. I’m pretty sure it had only arrived at my college about 5 years before I did). But what I’ve been thinking about lately is how the Tulsa Massacre stands out as perhaps the worst event of its kind—but is nowhere near the only event of its kind. So, I want to take this moment when so many Americans are starting to wake up to the realities of this country’s racist history, to bring to light a few more, similar incidents.
We show a near-constant stream of images of poverty in America, and the faces associated with it are usually Black &/or Brown. But we don’t spend all that much time explaining how that happened. We don’t often ask our teachers, our elected officials, or even ourselves, “How did we get here?” Why are there so few upper-middle-class neighborhoods that are predominantly Black (yes, there are some, btw, but they rarely if ever get shown or discussed). How did so many Black people wind up in poor neighborhoods?
There are lots of reasons, and almost none of them are told truthfully or in context. We’ve all heard of slavery and Jim Crow, and we all know that racism still exists. And frankly, those things alone are big enough hurdles to explain a lot about the economic situation we find ourselves in. But they are not the whole story. Not by a longshot. Do yourself a favor and do some real digging into the history of Redlining; or into the origin of Levittown, Long Island; or the G.I. Bill (and the racial covenants that kept Black GIs from fully benefitting from it); or watch the incredible documentary by Ava DuVernay on the 13th Amendment.
Don’t have that kind of time? I hear you. That can take years, to be honest (though, time well spent, IMO). So, here’a a bullet-point list of a few other things you might want to check out. Things that help put poverty in context.
This list is far from scholarly (a quick Wikipedia search turned these up), and even further from comprehensive. But just skim the titles of each these next several paragraphs. Then I want you to raise your hand—or better yet, leave a comment, if you have even heard of more than half of these incidents (liars, you can just put your hands down now):
Thibodaux Massacre of 1887-Louisiana: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thibodaux_massacre
“Tensions broke out in violence on November 23, 1887, and the local white paramilitary forces attacked black workers and their families in Thibodaux. Although the total number of casualties is unknown, at least 35 black people were killed in the next three days (more historians believe 50 were killed) and as many as 300 overall killed, wounded or missing”
New Orleans Dockworkers Massacre of 1895: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1895_New_Orleans_dockworkers_riot
The 1895 New Orleans dockworkers massacre was an attack against black, non-union dockworkers by unionized white workers on March 11 and 12, 1895. The mob killed six black workers. The incident had its roots in both economic pressure and racial hatred. The riot marked the end of fifteen years of racially unified unions in New Orleans, for example in the successful 1892 New Orleans general strike just three years before.
Wilmington Insurrection/Coup of 1898: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington_insurrection_of_1898
The Wilmington insurrection of 1898, also known as the Wilmington massacre of 1898 or the Wilmington coup of 1898,[6] was a mass riot and insurrection carried out by white supremacists in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States, on Thursday, November 10, 1898… The coup was the result of a group of the state’s white Southern Democrats conspiring and leading a mob of 2,000 white men to overthrow the legitimately elected local Fusionist biracial government in Wilmington. They expelled opposition black and white political leaders from the city, destroyed the property and businesses of black citizens built up since the Civil War, including the only black newspaper in the city, and killed an estimated 60 to more than 300 people. It has been described as the only incident of its kind in American history because other incidents of late-Reconstruction Era violence did not result in the direct removal and replacement of elected officials by unelected individuals.”
Phoenix (SC) Election Riot of 1898: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_election_riot
“The Phoenix election riot occurred on November 8, 1898, near Greenwood County, South Carolina, when a group of local white Democrats attempted to stop a Republican election official from taking the affidavits of African Americans who had been denied the ability to vote… The riot ignited after white land-owner Thomas Tolbert began to take affidavits of African Americans who had been disenfranchised by the new Constitution of South Carolina. Tolbert, brother of Republican candidate Robert R. Tolbert, urged African Americans to fill out and submit an affidavit if they had been prevented from voting… Violence and chaos ensued: an estimated twelve African Americans were fatally shot or lynched, hundreds more were injured by the white mob, and one white man was killed.”
Robert Charles Riots of 1900 (New Orleans): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Charles_riots
“The Robert Charles riots of July 24–27, 1900 in New Orleans, Louisiana were sparked after African-American laborer Robert Charles fatally shot a white police officer during an altercation and escaped arrest. A large manhunt for him ensued, and a white mob started rioting, attacking blacks throughout the city. The manhunt for Charles began on Monday, July 23, 1900, and ended when Charles was killed on Friday, July 27, shot by a special police volunteer. The mob shot him hundreds more times, and beat the body. White rioting continued, with several blacks killed after Charles had died. A total of 28 people were killed in the riots, including Charles. More than 50 people were wounded in the riots, including at least 11 who had to be hospitalized. Blacks made up most of the fatalities and casualties.”
Atlanta Massacre of 1906: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_massacre_of_1906
“The Atlanta Massacre of 1906 was an attack by armed mobs of White Americans against African Americans in Atlanta, Georgia (United States), which began the evening of September 22 and lasted through September 24, 1906… The final death toll of the conflict is unknown and disputed, but officially at least 25 African Americans[4] and two whites died.[5] Unofficial reports ranged from 10–100 black Americans killed during the massacre. According to the Atlanta History Center, some black Americans were hanged from lampposts; others were shot, beaten or stabbed to death. They were pulled from street cars and attacked on the street; white mobs invaded black neighborhoods, destroying homes and businesses.”
The Brownsville (Texas) Affair of 1906: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownsville_affair
“The Brownsville affair, or the Brownsville raid, was an incident of racial discrimination that occurred in 1906 in the southwestern United States due to resentment by white residents of Brownsville, Texas, of the Buffalo Soldiers, black soldiers in a segregated unit stationed at nearby Fort Brown. When a white bartender was killed and a white police officer wounded by gunshots one night, townspeople accused the members of the African-American 25th Infantry Regiment. Although their commanders said the soldiers had been in the barracks all night, evidence was allegedly planted against the men.[1]
As a result of a United States Army Inspector General’s investigation, President Theodore Roosevelt ordered the discharge without honor of 167 soldiers of the 25th Infantry Regiment, costing them pensions and preventing them from ever serving in federal civil service jobs. The case aroused national outrage in both black and white communities. After more investigation, several of the men were allowed to re-enlist.”
The Slocum Massacre – (Texas) of 1910: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slocum_massacre
“Between eight and two hundred black residents around Slocum, Texas were killed by hundreds of armed white men. Eleven white men were arrested, none went to trial. The Slocum Massacre occurred on July 29-30, 1910 in Slocum, Texas. Only six deaths were officially confirmed, but it is estimated as many as one hundred African Americans lost their lives in this massacre. Historians have provided several explanations for the motives of the all-white perpetrators of the massacre. When the story spread, it was altered to favor the white suspects and the black residents of Slocum were blamed. The whites from the mob did their best to destroy any evidence against them. African Americans reached out to higher levels of government for a fair investigation, but little to nothing was done on their behalf. As a result, the African American population in Slocum, Texas declined drastically.”
East St. Louis, Illinois 1917: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_St._Louis,_Illinois
“On July 1st, an African-American man was rumored to have killed a white man. Violence against African-Americans continued for a week, resulting in estimations of 40 to 200 dead African-Americans. In addition, almost 6,000 African-Americans lost their homes during the riots then fled East St. Louis.”
Red Summer of 1919. Tension in the summer of 1919 stemmed significantly from white soldiers returning from World War I and finding that their jobs had been taken by African-American veterans.[54]
- 1919: Elaine Race Riot (Elaine, Arkansas)
- 1919: Baltimore riot of 1919
- 1919: Omaha Race Riot of 1919
- 1919: Charleston riot of 1919
- 1919: Longview, Texas
- 1919: Knoxville Riot of 1919 (Knoxville, Tennessee)
Rosewood Massacre (Fla) of 1923: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood_massacre
“The Rosewood massacre was a racially motivated massacre of black people and destruction of a black town that took place during the first week of January 1923 in rural Levy County, Florida. At least six black people and two white people were killed, though eyewitness accounts suggested a higher death toll of 27 to 150. The town of Rosewood was destroyed in what contemporary news reports characterized as a race riot…Rosewood had been a quiet, primarily black, self-sufficient whistle stop on the Seaboard Air Line Railway. Trouble began when white men from several nearby towns lynched a black Rosewood resident because of accusations that a white woman in nearby Sumner had been assaulted by a black drifter. A mob of several hundred whites combed the countryside hunting for black people and burned almost every structure in Rosewood. Survivors from the town hid for several days in nearby swamps until they were evacuated by train and car to larger towns. No arrests were made for what happened in Rosewood. The town was abandoned by its former black and white residents; none ever moved back, none were ever compensated for their land, and the town ceased to exist.”
A film was made about this incident in 1997, starring Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle, Esther Rolle and Jon Voight:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120036/
This is a brief snippet of the known incidents between 1887 and 1923. That’s over 20 such incidents in 36 years: a small window of time, before Redlining, and after slavery! And without even mentioning the impacts of over-policing, under-educating, and poor housing.
The scales have been so far out of balance for so long that many people think that this is what a level playing field is supposed to look like…well, they’re wrong! The surprising thing about American society isn’t that Blacks have suffered and struggled for so long, it’s that there has ever been a Black person to have overcome those odds and to have succeeded in spite of them. That there has ever been a W.E.B. DuBois, or a Dr. Charles Drew, or a Madame CJ Walker, or a Jesse Owens, or a Jackie Robinson, or a Marian Anderson, or a Martin Luther King, Jr, or a Shirley Chisholm, or a Colin Powell, or a Barack Obama, or a Charles Bolden, or a Kamala Harris is somewhat miraculous, given the odds that have been stacked against every single one of them for the exact same, ridiculous reason…the color of their skin.
What might our country have achieved if they and so many others before them had been championed instead of terrorized—encouraged instead of discriminated against? We’ll never know. But what we do know is that the playing field is still nowhere near level, and that we will continue to waste vast amounts of potential, and miss out on the chance to correct vast amounts of injustice, if we do NOT make good on the promise of our country, and make right what has been wrong for the entirety of its existence.
So, yes, count me as one who believes that “the R Word,” Reparations, are in order, and have been since the first slave ship landed here. The only question is, are we ready, as a society to look at these hidden tragedies of our past? Are we ready to face the implications of those incidents and countless others? Are we ready to even attempt to re-pay our debts?