Easily, the two most studied race massacres of the 20th Century are the Tulsa race massacre of 1921, followed closely by the East St. Louis race massacre of 1917.
To be exact, the proper terminology to describe these events are pogroms, as Penn State professor Charles Lumpkins refers to them. They were “an assault, condoned by officials, to destroy a community defined by ethnicity, race or some other social identity”.
Don’t get me wrong, I derive no pleasure in comparing travesties. However, both massacres or pogroms share the thread of the annihilation of Black folks under false and racist pretenses in order to deprive them of their God-given right to self-determination.
The recent centennial anniversary of the Tulsa massacre and destruction of what was referred to as “Black Wall Street” was well documented and thoroughly covered by many network and media outlets nationally. Yet it was barely discussed publicly for much of that century – not even by Tulsa natives.
During that Memorial Day weekend of 1921, up to 300 Black Tulsa residents were murdered. Thirty-five square blocks of Black homes, churches, businesses and schools were looted, burned and firebombed, simply because they defied the racist stereotype that “Black people are lazy” and, instead, created their own affluent reality.
And why? In this case it was a lie that a 19-year-old black male shoeshine had assaulted a 17-year-old white female elevator operator. White racist mobs used the tale as fuel to justify the destruction of a black community whose progress they already detested.
In the case of the July 2, 1917, East St. Louis race massacre, the powder keg was ignited when the Aluminum Ore Company recruited and hired 470 black migrant workers to replace white workers who had gone on strike.
Following a city council meeting in which angry white workers lodged formal complaints against black migrant workers, racist thugs and terrorists organized lynch mobs who cowardly beat, stoned, shot and kill black workers, spilling over into the black residential community.
Over 300 black homes were torched, with estimates as high as 200 blacks being slaughtered; many shot as they attempted to flee from their burning homes and some drowning in the Mississippi River as they attempted to swim across to St. Louis, MO after police shut down the Eads Bridge, which many had used to flee.
Both massacres are horrific, only exacerbated by the fact that for a century they were rarely discussed by white or black residents of either community. Nor were they taught or discussed in Tulsa or East St. Louis public schools.
I’d love to see the same national attention given to Tulsa, given to East St. Louis and her race massacre; not out of some desperate desire for recognition, but to amplify and document the frequency and intensity that these pogroms took place throughout American history.
If there’s ever to be a true racial reckoning in America it must begin with the telling of this narrative that has, largely, been a well-kept dirty secret that must be told, unpacked and addressed. Otherwise, peace will become an elusive mirage in an America whose biggest lie is that there is “liberty and justice for all.”
Email: jtingram_1960@yahoo.com Twitter@JamesTIngram