Encore: Tulsa Race Massacre | The Promised Land | 1

American History Tellers

Wondery

History, Education For Kids, Kids & Family, Society & Culture

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2021

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1921, Tulsa, Oklahoma boasted one of the nation’s most prosperous African-American communities. Greenwood was home to 108 Black-owned businesses, two theaters, 15 physicians, two newspapers, and a luxury hotel. It was nicknamed “the Black Wall Street.”

Then, on May 30th, a Black shoeshine boy named Dick Rowland was accused of assaulting a white teenaged elevator operator, Sarah Page. What happened next would ultimately lead to the destruction of Greenwood and the deaths of over 300 African Americans -- a massacre that, until recently, was virtually erased from American history.

This episode originally aired in 2019.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon Music,
0:05.6	download the app today.
0:09.0	Imagine as 4pm on May 30th, 1921.
0:22.8	Your glasses slide down your nose, a sweat trips off your forehead.
0:26.6	The rain that drenched the Memorial Day Parade Goers didn't break the heat, it's still
0:30.4	in the 90s.
0:31.6	And for the last few hours, you've been unpacking heavy boxes of clothing, working alongside
0:36.2	Charlie, your fellow clerk at Renberg's Clothing on Main Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
0:42.0	Thanks Mrs. Logan, we'll call you when your new dress comes in.
0:46.3	Charlie's been a fixture at Renberg's for years, but your job is new.
0:50.0	You had to take it when the work slowed down in the accounting office.
0:53.3	You're good with numbers and you love that job, but when the oil boom slowed, it hurt
0:57.5	all the businesses that supported it.
0:59.6	They didn't need you anymore.
1:01.1	And with so many white men unemployed, it took weeks to find a new job.
1:05.5	Renberg doesn't pay nearly as well as your old job, but you sure as heck need it, with
1:09.7	three kids and another one on the way.
1:12.9	As Charlie usheres a customer out the door, you pause to wipe a salty drip off your face,
1:17.9	as usual Charlie glitters at you.
1:20.1	But you can't take it, I knew you wouldn't last at this job, harder than it seems, huh?
1:25.5	Charlie's a beefy, muscular guy, and he acts like he owns the place.
1:29.8	You sigh and start hauling the box to the front of the store.
	...

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