Thread by @NMAAHC

#OnThisDay in 1921, one of the deadliest racial massacres in U.S. history began in the thriving Greenwood African American community of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Black Wall Street in Tulsa, OK was destroyed by a racist mob. #APeoplesJourney #ANationsStory

In late May 1921, Black teenager Dick Rowland was falsely accused of assaulting a white woman in Tulsa, OK. Clashes between Black & white residents of Tulsa spiraled into the deadliest in a series of incidents of mass racial violence that convulsed the US in the early 1900s.

In Tulsa, as in all of these massacres, white mobs destroyed Black communities, property, and lives. More than a century after the riot, the people of Tulsa & the nation continue to struggle to reckon with the massacre’s multiple legacies. More: s.si.edu/3MXtFX0

Dozens of Black-owned businesses were rebuilt in Greenwood within a year of the massacre, and hundreds more followed over the next three decades. This rapid rebuilding illustrates the energy and resiliency of the community.

Our collection items, like these pennies charred during the Massacre, help fill the silences in our nation’s memory around these events & its reverberations, preserving & sharing wider stories of Black communities & centering the testimonies of survivors & their descendants.

Confronting the past through these materials provides us opportunities to understand our present and better shape our future. View & learn more about the Tulsa items in our collection:
s.si.edu/3MV2U5z