A Reckoning in Tulsa

Overheard at National Geographic

National Geographic

Science, Society & Culture

4.5 • 10.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2021

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A Reckoning in Tulsa A century ago, Tulsa’s Greenwood neighborhood was a vibrant Black community. One spring night in 1921 changed all that: a white mob rioted, murdering as many as 300 Black residents and destroying their family homes and thriving businesses. Archaeologists are working to uncover one of the worst—and virtually unknown—incidents of racial violence in American history, as efforts to locate the victims' unmarked graves continue. For more information on this episode, visit nationalgeographic.com/overheard. Want more? For more on the Tulsa Race Massacre, check out the cover story on the anniversary from writer Deneen Brown in the upcoming June issue of National Geographic. You can also find the Race Card, a project from journalist Michele Norris, to capture people’s thoughts on race in just six words. And poet Elizabeth Alexander will reflect on what it means to be Black and free in a country that undermines Black freedom. And for subscribers: Check out Tucker Toole’s piece on how Greenwood was destroyed by the Tulsa Race Massacre, in the May/June issue of National Geographic History magazine. And soon, you’ll also be able read a personal essay Tucker wrote about his ancestor J.B. Stradford on our website. Also explore: And check out Scott Ellsworth’s new book on the Tulsa Race Massacre called, The Ground Breaking: An American City and Its Search for Justice. Finally, stay tuned this summer for National Geographic’s documentary, Rise Again: Tulsa and the Red Summer, which chronicles white supremacist terrorism and race riots that took place across the country in 1919, shortly before the Tulsa Race Massacre. If you like what you hear and want to support more content like this, please consider a National Geographic subscription. Go to natgeo.com/exploremore to subscribe today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	So I want you to close your eyes and imagine.
0:12.9	It's a sunny morning in early May, 1921, you're in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the bustling all
0:18.5	black greenwood section of town.
0:20.6	A dapper, mustachioed man pulls up in front of a Stradford Hotel in a shiny Model T-4.
0:26.6	He's a lawyer and real estate developer named JB Stradford, and the hotel is just one of
0:31.4	his properties.
0:33.2	He is not only one of the richest men in town, but one of the most prosperous African-Americans
0:37.6	in the country at the time.
0:39.6	He steps into the lobby, stops for quick shoe shine, maybe from someone like a young Robert
0:44.2	Fairchild, who recalled in a 1978 interview that he used to earn good money, shine and
0:49.6	shoes in greenwood.
1:11.0	That's Fairchild, being interviewed by Scott Ellsworth, a writer, historian, and Tulsa
1:15.4	native.
1:16.4	Scott has spent decades studying and writing about Tulsa's greenwood district.
1:20.6	And though we imagined that scenario with JB Stradford, the man himself was very real,
1:25.2	one of hundreds of African-American entrepreneurs who helped make greenwood one of the wealthiest
1:29.2	black communities in the United States in the early 20th century.
1:33.8	You know, in Greenwood there were two movie theaters, the Dixie as well as the Dreamland.
1:38.6	There were more than 30 restaurants.
1:40.8	There were 35 grocery stores and meat markets.
1:44.6	There were a dozen physicians and surgeons.
1:47.3	There were lawyers, real estate agents, you know, all sorts of shops, you know, you name
	...

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