But another important and often neglected dimension to this history is the devastating effects of destroyed communal wealth, which had supported the flourishing of the city’s Black residents. To be clear, the loss of human life in the massacre is a horror beyond all calculation. In both periods of destruction, important Black capital that undergirded the community was lost, as were opportunities for wealth-building for Tulsa’s Black residents.
In particular, little attention is given to subsequent events in Tulsa, including the rebuilding of Greenwood by its Black residents, followed by its second destruction-this time at the hands of white city planners during the “urban renewal” period of the 1960s to 1980s. But even as the massacre itself becomes better known, much of the remaining story of Greenwood is still left untold. The Tulsa massacre is only recently receiving the national recognition it needs. “Our country may forget this history, but I cannot, I will not, and other survivors do not, and our descendants do not,” she told Congress.
In her testimony, Fletcher described what Greenwood had meant to its residents and detailed how she lives with the memories every day.
An estimated 300 people were killed and approximately 35 acres of commercial and residential property within the Greenwood District-known as Black Wall Street-were destroyed. “I’m here seeking justice and I’m asking my country to acknowledge what happened in Tulsa in 1921,” Fletcher, a survivor of the massacre, said.Ģ021 marks 100 years since the infamous 1921 massacre in Tulsa, in which white mobs unleashed violence against the city’s Black people, Black institutions, and Black wealth. to testify before Congress in its hearing for the centennial of Tulsa, Okla. On May 19, 107-year-old Viola Fletcher visited Washington, D.C.
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