Burned in History

In the last few days, we all started hearing about Juneteenth and the Tulsa, Oklahoma massacre and burning of a prosperous black section of the city 99 years ago. They are two unrelated historical events brought together by a president who doesn’t understand history or the racial tension and reckoning that has been boiling over in the last few weeks. He only cares about himself and how he can get a crowd to cheer for him. The biggest concern and regret Trump seems to have over the pandemic and what it’s done to the world is that the lockdown was preventing him from having a political rally where thousands of white people in red hats cheer his bragging and laugh at his lame jokes and insults aimed at opponents. So as parts of the country were starting to re-open, it was his chance to get back out on the road and bask in the love and roar of the approving crowd. But leave it to Trump to plan his roadshow comeback without thinking.

The date June 19th, the place Tulsa, Oklahoma. What Trump and his crack campaign staff didn’t realize until after he announced the date was the significance of June 19th which, it’s fair to say, many people, particularly white people, don’t know its history. On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger and his men arrived in Galveston, Texas to announce the Civil War was over and the slaves were free. It was the last place in the South to be officially notified. It became known as Juneteenth in the black community. It has been celebrated as a holiday of prayer and family gatherings. In 1980, Texas officially recognized the day. Since then, 45 states and Washington DC have done the same. Some would say, what’s the problem? Well, Trump wanted a friendly crowd in state he won big in 2016.

What he apparently didn’t know, nor did anyone advising him know, that Tulsa is the scene of the worst massacre of black citizens in US history. In 1921, the black community in the Greenwood section the city, known as Black Wall Street, was burned to the ground by white mobs. Three hundred people, mostly black were killed, 800 were hospitalized, 1,200 homes were burned, 35 square miles were destroyed. Ten thousand were left homeless. Whites even dropped firebombs and fired rifles from private planes. It all started after 19 year shoeshiner Dick Rowland was accused of assaulting 17 year old Sarah Page who was an elevator operator. She was white. Rowland was using the elevator in a building near his stand to take it to the top floor to use the only available “colored” bathroom. Witnesses say they heard a scream and saw Rowland run from the building. Page was likely interviewed by police. No written record was ever found. Page did say she wouldn’t press charges. Police treated it as minor incident. Rowland was arrested a few days later. Some believe Rowland may have had some incidental contact with Page and got scared and ran away. But the Tulsa Tribune ran an inflammatory article about an assault by a black man on a white woman.  A white lynch mob showed up at the jail where Rowland was being held. Black veterans showed up to protect him. Whites started the massacre that whites and blacks didn’t talk about for years. No one was ever charged with a crime. It wasn’t even taught in schools.

So on the backdrop of the last two weeks, Trump thinks this would be a good idea. When he was pressed about the date, he actually backed off and changed the date to June 20th after he said he’d heard from “many of his African American friends and supporters.” He also went on to say he’s done more for African Americans than any other president. He said Lincoln did good, “but let’s pass on him.” And just as another example of how much he’s done for African Americans, Trump says he will not even consider changing the names of US military bases named after Confederate generals who fought to keep African Americans enslaved.

We all must remember history so we don’t continue to get burned.