Tulsa, 100 Years Later

Code Switch

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2021

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

In the spring of 1921, Black residents of Tulsa, Oklahoma's Greenwood neighborhood were attacked by a mob of angry white people. More than 300 people were killed, and thousands were left homeless. Now, 100 years later, Tulsa is still reckoning with what lessons to take from that deadly massacre.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just a heads up, this episode contains a racial slur.
0:05.7	This is Code Switch from NPR, I'm Shireen Marisol Miraji,
0:09.4	and we are going back a hundred years to Tulsa, Oklahoma.
0:14.4	[♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪
0:19.8	World War I is over.
0:21.9	Oil's been discovered.
0:23.2	Tulsa's a boom town.
0:25.6	People are getting rich, fast,
0:27.8	and a neighborhood called Greenwood is thriving.
0:31.6	Lese Benningfield Randall has vivid childhood memories
0:35.2	of Greenwood.
0:36.3	She's 106 years old, but still remembers her home,
0:39.9	her toys, this feeling of safety and security.
0:44.2	She says she was lucky.
0:46.7	My community was beautiful, and we're still
0:50.2	with happy and successful black people.
0:53.2	Her community was in a part of North Tulsa
0:57.6	that African-Americans were restricted to living in.
1:02.0	Yet it had blocks and blocks of homes and shops and restaurants,
1:06.5	doctors and lawyers' offices, even its own luxury hotel.
1:13.4	Yeah, everything changed.
1:16.4	What took years to build was destroyed in two days
	...

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