The True Story Of Black Wall Street with Raven Majia Williams

Black History Year

PushBlack

History, Society & Culture

4.3 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2021

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

White terrorists have devastated flourishing Black communities in the name of white supremacy from Rosewood, Florida to Elaine, Arkansas; Colfax, Louisiana to Charleston, North Carolina. 2021 marks the 100th year anniversary of one such event, the Tulsa Race Massacre. On this episode, we're going straight to the source to uncover the truth about Black Wall Street's rise, fall, and the lingering impact of white terrorism on individuals, families, and communities. Joining us is Raven Majia Williams, the great-granddaughter of AJ Smitherman, a fearless activist who witnessed firsthand the deadly massacre of his community. History books won't teach you what we're talking this episode - it's time to listen to our people about the generational effects of white tyranny. BHY is produced by PushBlack, the nation's largest non-profit Black media company - hit us up at BlackHistoryYear.com and share this with your people! PushBlack exists because we saw we had to take this into our own hands. You make PushBlack happen with your contributions at https://BlackHistoryYear.com. Most people do 5 or 10 bucks a month, but everything makes a difference. Thanks for supporting the work. The Black History Year production team includes Tareq Alani, Abeni Jones, Patrick Sanders, Tasha Taylor, William Anderson, Jareyah Bradley, Brooke Brown, Shonda Buchanan, Briona Lamback, Akua Tay, Leslie Taylor-Grover, and Darren Wallace. Our producers are Cydney Smith and Ivana Tucker, who also edits the podcast. Black History Year’s Executive Producer is Julian Walker. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	100 years ago, with this May, more than 300 of our ancestors were murdered in a brutal
0:07.9	act of white tyranny.
0:09.1	It started the way many massacres of our people did at that time, with the white mob
0:14.1	using the lies of a white woman to unleash deep-rooted racial violence against black communities.
0:19.9	But we know all too well that such traumatic brutality never ends quietly, because there
0:25.4	are generational prices we pay for the sins of white supremacy.
0:30.1	I'm Jay from Push Black, and on this episode of Black History Year, we're remembering
0:34.6	the 1921 Tulsa race massacre.
0:46.4	Too often, the passage rewritten or erased by the violent victors of historical horrors.
0:53.4	But today, we're using the tradition of oral storytelling to begin unpacking the truth.
0:59.1	To help us do that work, we're sitting down with Raven Meijer Williams, a direct descendant
1:03.9	of a man who lived through the rise and destruction of Tulsa's Greenwood District, also known
1:09.4	as Black Wall Street.
1:12.2	Raven is the great granddaughter of AJ Smitherman.
1:15.5	Smitherman was a political visionary, civil rights activist, and a co-founder of Black
1:20.1	Wall Street.
1:21.1	And that's just a taste of the many contributions he made in his lifetime.
1:25.1	Raven is a storyteller, a businesswoman, and a digital age entrepreneur who, for almost
1:29.6	a decade, has tirelessly researched and shared the legacy of her family and great grandfather,
1:35.1	who you'll hear her finally call Big Daddy.
1:38.8	A head of the Tulsa race massacre centennial, Raven's been working with schools nationwide
1:44.0	to discuss Black journalism, economy, voting, and racial violence, and developing a podcast
	...

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