BONUS: Confronting the Past

Sidedoor

Smithsonian Institution

Sidedoor, National Zoo, Exhibits, National Museum, Zoo, Washington, African American History And Culture, Postal Museum, Exhibit, Society & Culture, American History, Pop Culture, History, Art19, Air And Space, Science, The Smithsonian, Tony Cohn, Museum, Smithsonian, History Of The World, Natural History, Dc

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2013

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One hundred years ago this week, from May 31 and June 1, 1921, a mob targeted and destroyed nearly 40 blocks of a wealthy black neighborhood in North Tulsa, Oklahoma. No one knows how many people died, no one was ever convicted, and no one really talked about it nearly a century later. This is the story of the Tulsa Race Massacre and why it's important that you know it.

At least 1,256 homes, along with churches, schools, businesses and even a hospital were deliberately burned or destroyed. Recently found documents are helping historians and researchers better understand the events that took place. And lots of this work is happening by staff at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. In fact, part of the Power of Place exhibition at the museum is dedicated to the events of the massacre.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Side Door, a podcast from the Smithsonian with support from PRX.
0:13.4	I'm Lizzie Peabody. 100 years ago this week, one of the most violent episodes of racial
0:27.4	violence in American history erupted over a period of three days.
0:31.6	Over the course of the Tulsa race massacre,
0:34.5	more than 1,250 homes were destroyed in Greenwood,
0:38.5	an all-black neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
0:41.5	Churches, schools, businesses, and even a hospital were also deliberately
0:46.3	burned or destroyed. By the end of it, the wealthiest black neighborhood in the United States was completely devastated.
0:55.6	And for decades, not many people talked about this horrifying, violent moment in our country's
1:00.3	history.
1:01.3	And in our silence, many Americans never even learned it happened.
1:06.2	So this week, we're re-running our episode about the Tulsa Race Massacre.
1:11.6	And just a warning for listeners, this episode contains graphic first-hand accounts of violence.
1:16.0	The story is reported by former Side Door producer Megan Dietry.
1:20.0	Okay, here we go. Here we go. hurting a bunch of the black people down to Convention Hall, they were interning in the Convention
1:34.2	Hall building.
1:35.2	We didn't know where they were taking them, and then they set our house a fire.
1:40.2	You could see the blazes from where we lived over the hill.
1:45.3	Looks like the whole world was on fire.
1:48.0	They burnt down over 30 square blocks.
1:50.3	Seems like a dream.
1:52.1	It doesn't seem like things like that ever happened.
	...

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