On June 19th, President Trump will resume his campaign rallies in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The timing and location of the rally stand as a reminder of incidents in America’s history which were clearly driven by racism.
While June 19th, known as Juneteenth, is widely known as the anniversary of the day that the last enslaved African-Americans were read President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, most Americans remain unaware of the significance of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
In 1921, Tulsa was home to the Greenwood neighborhood that was known as “Black Wall Street.”
It was a booming economy of Black-owned businesses, one of the most successful areas for African-Americans in the nation.
A stroll in Greenwood would take you past doctors, attorneys, grocery stores, real estate offices, and churches . . . all owned by African-American entrepreneurs.
The small town was booming with success.
Only 56 years separated Juneteenth from the rise of Black Wall Street. Many of Greenwood’s residents grew up as slaves while some of Tulsa’s white residents were former slave owners.
In a perfect world, it was an amazing story of recovery from the trauma of both the Civil War and slavery in our nation.
But America was far from perfect in 1921 and the success of the Black community bred resentment among many white residents in Tulsa.
At 1 a.m. on June 1, 1921, following a day of conflict, a white mob set fire to businesses on Black Wall Street.
At sunrise, the riots shifted to an armed massacre as white gunmen filled the streets of Greenwood and gunned down black residents who either attempted to flee or defend their own lives.
Malcolm X (1963): "The white liberal has perfected the art of posing as the negro's friend and benefactor [and]… is able to use the negro as a pawn or weapon… the white liberals control this ball through tricks… false promises of integration and civil rights." pic.twitter.com/2dlSZu0u5Q
— Raheem Kassam (@RaheemKassam) June 10, 2020
Private planes circled above the town dropping firebombs on businesses and homes to quell what local law enforcement was calling a “Negro uprising.”
With the assistance of the Oklahoma National Guard, over 6,000 African-American residents of Greenwood were interned.
A state commission later found that 300 Americans were killed in the massacre while over 800 men, women, and children were hospitalized.
Ninety-Nine years later, the event is known as the “Black Wall Street Massacre.”
And when ignorance prevails, it could happen again.
The Black Wall Street Massacre was set off by a single event . . . a black shoe shiner was accused of assaulting a 17-year-old white girl. Rumors rapidly grew of the man being lynched and the black community rallied for justice.
It was a powder keg looking for a spark.
Today, with the murder of George Floyd fresh in the minds of Americans around the nation, we need to all look back at the horror of Tulsa and the ignorance of racial divide.
President Trump choosing Tulsa as his first rally gives us an opportunity to tell the story of the Black Wall Street Massacre and remind ourselves what happens when we look at each other based upon the color of our skin.
The contrast of our skin color has nothing to do with our character, but it is used all too often to divide us for power and political gain.
Democrats, spurred by the liberal media, actively work to keep tensions high as a means of control to maintain or increase their own power.
Malcolm X noted this when he said, “The Negro revolution is controlled by foxy white liberals, by the Government itself.”
It’s an undeniable truth that the Democrat Party is institutionally racist by instigating division among Americans based on the color of their skin or family origin.
They weaponize racism with the hypocrisy of labeling anyone who opposes their policies as “racist” or a “white supremacist.”
As a Jewish woman, I have been labeled a “white supremacist” by Democrat officials while actual racists call me a “white-hating heeb.”
Highly-paid Democrat operatives actively work behind the scenes to foment hate against Trump supporters by branding them as racists and “Nazis.”
While racism definitely exists within a small ignorant population, the reality is that racism is more widely used as a dangerous, unethical tactic to keep Democrats in power.
Our unity as Americans transcends race, party, and culture. We are all brothers and sisters bound by the promise of prosperity. As our nation recovers from suffering from the coronavirus pandemic, we must reject the “division for power” strategy by whom Malcolm X called “foxy white liberals” like Nancy Pelosi, and work toward the only goal that matters to ourselves and our families… to Make America Great Again.
