When @RealDonaldTrump announced he would be holding a campaign rally on June 19 in #Tulsa, #Oklahoma, there was immediate backlash. #Juneteenth nbcnews.com/politics/congr…
Not only had the president chosen #Juneteenth - a day celebrating freedom and recognizing the resilience of enslaved people - but he also chose the city where a mob of white supremacists terrorized and killed Black people, destroying #BlackWallStreet in the 1921 #TulsaMassacre.
As our nation grapples with recent police killings of Black people and calls to address systemic racism and white supremacy culture in our society, @RealDonaldTrump was criticized for co-opting historically significant spaces for Black people for himself.
.@RealDonaldTrump, who claims the original plan to hold the rally on #Juneteenth wasn’t intentional, rescheduled the #Tulsa event for June 20. cnn.com/2020/06/12/pol…
.@SenatorTimScott says @RealDonaldTrump scheduled the rally without understanding the historical and racial context of doing so on #Juneteenth in #Tulsa. essence.com/news/politics/…
It is important that all of us - including @RealDonaldTrump - understand the significance of #Juneteenth, #BlackWallStreet and the #TulsaMassacre in America’s history and how those legacies carry on today. nbcnews.com/news/us-news/j…
There is more than one Independence Day in the U.S. Today marks the 155th Anniversary of #Juneteenth, also known as #FREEDOMDAY and #JUBILEEDAY. 
"Students, particularly Black students, can find empowerment in the jubilant celebrations of culture, activism and the humanity of a people." — @Tolerance_org’s Coshandra Dillard #Juneteenth tolerance.org/magazine/teach…
#Juneteenth is a celebration honoring the day enslaved Black people were legally freed in the U.S. - when news of emancipation and the Civil War’s end reached the last group of enslaved people in America - in #Galveston, Texas. tolerance.org/magazine/happy…
Although the #EmancipationProclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863, many enslaved people remained captive. #FreedomDay is a symbolic date that celebrates the freedom of those people from chattel slavery. #JuneteenthDay #Juneteenth
Uninterested in staying with their captors, most freed people searched for their families and migrated to northern states, which became known as “the scatter.” #Juneteenth pbs.org/wnet/african-a…
In #Alabama, #Juneteenth is not a state holiday. But the state continues to observe days like Jefferson Davis’s Birthday and Confederate Memorial Day, furthering the systemic supremacy deeply rooted in the south. #TheMarchContinues
Unfortunately, #Juneteenth did not mark the end of all slavery. The #13thAmendment provides an exception, allowing the exploitation of incarcerated people for free or cheap labor. #TheMarchContinues
There is still work to do. Nobody's free until everybody's free - June 19, 1865! #Juneteenth #StillBreakingChains #BlackIndependence nytimes.com/article/junete…
.@realDonaldTrump plans to rally in #Tulsa today, not far from the site of the #TulsaMassacre in which a white mob destroyed #BlackWallStreet 99 years ago. The rally was rescheduled from June 19 after backlash for conflicting with #Juneteenth. splcenter.org/news/2020/06/2…
"President Trump’s address is not only disrespectful, it’s reprehensible. Black people in the U.S. are suffering from centuries of white supremacy and their pain should not be used as a political stunt." - @splcaction's @MargaretLHuang splcenter.org/presscenter/sp…
Local history - like the freeing of the last enslaved people in Galveston, Texas on #Juneteenth 155 years ago and the #TulsaMassacre that destroyed #BlackWallStreet 99 years ago - matters. tolerance.org/magazine/recov…
“Don’t you realize that #Greenwood was Wakanda before #Wakanda?”
The section of North #Tulsa known as #BlackWallStreet prospered in the early 1900s oil boom. There were 2 newspapers, 2 cinemas, 15 well-known doctors, 23 churches, writes @VLuck.
theringer.com/2018/6/28/1751…
The section of North #Tulsa known as #BlackWallStreet prospered in the early 1900s oil boom. There were 2 newspapers, 2 cinemas, 15 well-known doctors, 23 churches, writes @VLuck.
theringer.com/2018/6/28/1751…
By 1921 — not 60 years since the end of chattel slavery — Black Tulsans had found economic success and self-determination, despite the segregation that relegated them to the city's north side. They still were not free from racist violence. #Tulsa tulsa2021.org/history
On May 30, 1921, a white woman alleged that a teenage shoe shine named Dick Rowland had assaulted her in an elevator. He was arrested. Fearing he'd be lynched, a number of Black men from Greenwood went to stand guard outside the courthouse where he was jailed. #Tulsa
At some point, a Black veteran and a white man scuffled. A gun went off. Twenty minutes later, 20 men, both Black and white, were dead or injured. 5,000 white men - hundreds deputized by police - attacked Greenwood that night. #Tulsa
The white attackers looted Black homes and killed residents, including children. Surgeon A.C. Jackson was shot on his porch even though his hands were raised to show he was unarmed. #Tulsa
Survivors remember bombs falling from the sky. The white assailants burned #Greenwood to the ground. The death toll rose to somewhere between 300 and 1,000. White Tulsans insisted it was a riot, but it was a massacre. #Tulsa
Much about #BlackWallStreet and the #TulsaMassacre is documented by @GCCenterTulsa, which aims to preserve this heritage and uplift the resurgence of the #Greenwood District in the months and years following the attack. greenwoodculturalcenter.com
The history of the #TulsaMassacre matters not just in Oklahoma, not just because @HBO's @Watchmen ignited public interest in it, and not just because @realDonaldTrump is speaking there tonight.
It matters because anti-Black violence still happens all over the country.
It matters because anti-Black violence still happens all over the country.
