Speaking at the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre, President Joe Biden commemorated a day when 300 black Tulsa residents were killed in a massive pillage.
Those responsible for the atrocity desecrated a prosperous black district, Greenwood, a place known to history as “Black Wall Street.” Biden said this “story ain’t about the loss of life, but the loss of living, wealth, and posterity, possibilities that still reverberate today.” But while the president mentioned the great wealth of Tulsa, his speech was mainly focused on the burning of Tulsa itself. Not the exuberance of the black Americans who made the city a success story in the first place.
This is perhaps understandable, considering the 100th anniversary of Tulsa, but it also erases the memory of the town’s success. We lament this because that memory offers an empowering story of black American drive. A story that needs to be told and retold. So let’s take a moment to appreciate it.
Tulsa’s Greenwood district was established by freedmen (former slaves). Over the course of their entrepreneurial activities, they established 200 businesses, such as hotels and a taxi service. Six of the town’s black families owned a fleet of planes in Oklahoma’s airport. This enormous success caused Greenwood to garner the nickname “Black Wall Street.” The genesis of this entrepreneurial brilliance was, at first, as most great things are, seemingly unimpressive. As the Ringer notes, Greenwood’s economic success was borne in the middle of the 1900s oil rush in the most unlikely of places: a grocery store. This grocery store’s capitalistic example led to other small businesses and sole proprietorships popping up, thus generating a well of economic success.
Brilliance begets brilliance, as the saying goes. These synergies of entrepreneurial energy also led to Greenwood’s marvelous education system, which taught subjects such as Latin, chemistry, and physics. This is an amazing feat. Consider that less than a decade ago at this time, many Greenwood residents were in bondage. Greenwood residents went from slavery to salvation in less than a few decades.
These are not tales of destruction but examples of brilliant creation only possible because of the principles of the American experiment. Would-be mourners of Tulsa’s legacy would do well to remember this reality. They would do well, in part, because some elites believe that Greenwood’s destruction is evidence that black progress in this Republic is permanently stalled by what Emory University scholar Carol Anderson called “white rage.”
We disagree. Such a perspective reduces Greenwood’s entire existence to its destruction and conveniently omits the vast social relationships, values, and conditions that made “Black Wall Street” the dynamo it was. Destruction-focused narratives could never give Black Wall Street its due. A holistic approach, however, will offer a truer testament to Greenwood’s history.
In his Tuesday speech, Biden talked about the Greenwood burning as the catalyst for people to recognize the need for “black progress.” If we are to truly inspire “black progress” in our nation, let’s start by recognizing Tulsa for what it stood for when it lived, not how useful it is as a political football.
Christian Watson is the host of the Pensive Politics Podcast and a spokesman for Color Us United. He can be found on Twitter @OfficialCWatson and on the YouTube channel “Christian Watson.”
Kenny Xu is the president of Color Us United, which advocates for a raceblind America. He is the author of An Inconvenient Minority on America’s rejection of Asian Americans from its bipolar racial discourse. He can be found on Twitter @kennymxu.
