Biden has rewarded the victims of the ‘forgotten’ Tulsa race massacre by Black Lives Matter News

Joe Biden was the first president of the United States to visit Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Tuesday, where hundreds of black Americans were massacred by a white crowd in 1921, saying the United States must learn from one of the worst episodes of racism. violence in the history of the country.

It was marked by Democrats centenary of the massacre associating with a few who have survived the violence.

“This was not an incident, it was a massacre,” Biden said in a speech to the survivors and their descendants. “(It was) one of the worst in our history – but not the only one and, too, forgotten about our history.

“As soon as it happened, a clear effort was made to erase it from our collective memories … for a long time it was not even taught in Tulsa schools, much less in schools elsewhere.”

The white residents of Tulsa shot and killed 300 blacks on May 31 and June 1, 1921, and burned and robbed their homes and businesses after a white woman accused her of assaulting a black man, a complaint that was never proven.

The roller coaster destroyed the African-American community in Greenwood at a time when it was called Black Wall Street in its heyday. Historians say 10,000 people were initially left homeless.

But the insurance companies did not cover the damage and no one was charged for the violence.

Biden said the legacy of racist violence and white supremacy continued to resonate in the U.S.

“The good, the bad, we should know everything. That’s what great nations do, “he said.” They unite with their dark sides. And we’re a great nation. “

Biden said the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and some states’ efforts to reduce the right to vote were an echo of the same problem.

“What happened in Greenwood was an act of hatred and domestic terrorism, with a line that exists today,” Biden said.

Biden said one of the survivors of the attack was remembered earlier this year by supporters of the then far-right president Donald Trump. the Capitol stormed Congress, meanwhile, ensured Biden’s 2020 election victory.

Earlier, the White House announced a set policy initiatives to address racial inequalities, including plans to invest tens of billions of dollars in communities like Greenwood that suffer from enduring poverty, as well as efforts to combat housing discrimination.

Families of affected Oklahoma residents have pushed for economic repairs, Biden has pledged to investigate further.

Biden said his administration will soon roll out measures against hate crimes and white supremacist violence, and said the intelligence community has concluded that it is “the deadliest threat to the homeland.”

Voting rights

He also ordered Vice President Kamala Harris, the first black American and first Asian American to fill that position, to direct his administration’s efforts to curtail Republican efforts to reduce the right to vote.

Many Republican-led states have argued for the need to strengthen electoral security passed or proposed vote restrictions, Biden and other Democrats say black voters want to make it harder to vote.

Biden said it was “an unprecedented attack on our democracy,” vowing to fight for the rights of voters. “This sacred right is being attacked with tremendous intensity like I have never seen before.”

Biden watched a moment of silence after meeting three people living in Greenwood in the massacre of Tulsa victims, Viola Fletcher, Hughes Van Ellis and Lessie Benningfield Randle.

Now between the ages of 101 and 107, survivors turned to Congress earlier this year, demanding “justice” and for the country to acknowledge their suffering. There are also aspects of A the search for solutions to the massacre against state and local officials, including the victims’ compensation fund.

In 2001, a commission set up to investigate the tragedy concluded that the Tulsa authorities themselves had armed some white insurgents, and recommended that reparations be paid.

The mayor of Tulsa has formally apologized this week for failing to support the city government.

Biden did not respond to a reporter as to whether there should be an official apology from the president for the killings.

The president “supports the review of reparations, but believes that the first task we face is to root out systemic racism,” said spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre.

Calculating race

Biden, known among black Americans, traveled to Tulsa for U.S. race accounts as he has gained a lot of strength since last year. The murder of George FloydThe black man who drowned under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer sparked protests across the country and elsewhere in the world.

Biden turned the fight against racial inequality into a key platform for the 2020 campaign and has done the same since taking office. He met members of the Floyden family last week on the anniversary of his death and is working to pass a police reform bill bearing Floyden’s name.

But Biden’s career in race matters is complex. He came under fire in the 2020 campaign to help integrate American schools in the 70s against school bus programs. Civil rights experts say he also supported the 1994 crime bill that helped increase mass incarceration and defended his work with two segregationist senators in the South during his days in the U.S. Senate.

Tuesday’s trip provided a stark contrast to a year ago when Trump, the Black Lives Matter and other racial justice movements criticized the Republicans for organizing a political rally on June 19 in Tulsan,Juneteenth ‘ The anniversary of the end of US slavery in 1865. The reunion was postponed after criticism.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, he was once a slave owner and a stronghold of the Ku Klux Clan, whose racial differences remain significant.

There are significant differences in the northern part of Tulsa, mostly black, and in the south, mostly white.

A girl looks in front of a crowd to see US President Joe Biden when she visits Tulsa on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa massacre [Lawrence Bryant/Reuters]

Local activist Kristi Williams, a descendant of some of the victims of the massacre, told AFP that Biden wanted her to “do well.”

“It’s been 100 years, and we’ve had a negative impact from housing, from economic development, to taking over our land,” he said. “Right now this country has a chance to correct the wrong.”

There has been a growing awareness in recent years about the murders in Tulsa that have been taught in history classes or not reported by newspapers for decades.

“It is necessary to share with each generation the significant past and imperfections of inequality,” said Frances Jordan-Rakestraw, executive director of the Greenwood Cultural Center, a museum about the massacre visited by Biden.