heh, eye don't remember *this* from history klass...

[art guerrilla]

hmmm, wonder why that is, kampers...
hee hee hee

hmmm, maybe because white people
don't end up looking so good...
ho ho ho

ya' think ? ? ?
ha ha ha

(eye know, ancient history and all,
right strom troopers...
ak ak ak)

TIME FOR JUSTICE IN OKLAHOMA
McVeigh's Crime Is Not The Only One We Need To Recall
Kimberly Ellis is a doctoral candidate in American Studies at Purdue
University. She is writing her dissertation on the literary response to the
Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.

Editor's Note: This is one in a series of articles that Ms. Ellis is writing
called "All Eyes on Tulsa."

Although it was an unfortunate tragedy, the Oklahoma City bombing was not -- as
it has been labeled in the media -- the worst act of domestic terrorism in
peacetime America. If body count, property destruction and the generational
effect on human life is the measure, then the worst act of domestic terrorism
in peacetime America was the 1921 massacre of an estimated 300 mostly
African-Americans in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

On May 31, 1921, a 19-year-old black shoeshine boy named Dick Rowland
accidentally knocked up against a white woman elevator operator, Sarah Page, in
a downtown Tulsa building. The youth, who ran away after Page screamed, was
later arrested. An angry white mob descended on the jail threatening to lynch
Rowland. The mob became further incensed when armed African-American war
veterans went to the courthouse to prevent the lynching.

Whites took to the streets looting pawnshops and hardware stores for weapons.
The group of black army veterans struggled to fend off the mob and protect the
local community of Greenwood. But whites captured, disarmed, and herded black
men and women to concentration areas.

During the next 24 hours, white Oklahomans nearly wiped out the entire
Greenwood residential and business community, largely populated by black
Tulsans. At least 35 whole city blocks (not just one building as in the
Oklahoma City bombing) were completely burned down. Whites in privately or
commercially owned airplanes (at least one of which belonged to the Sinclair
Oil Company) dropped explosives on the community. The National Guard was
brought in and the killings came to a halt.

Although the precise death count is uncertain -- residents were burned in their
homes, bodies were dumped in mass graves, and officials at the time generally
neglected to gather information about dead blacks -- the approximate death
count for blacks and whites combined was 300.

Men, women and children died in the Tulsa race massacre of 1921, just as they
did in Oklahoma City. In the Oklahoma City bombing the death toll was 168. Both
tragedies were committed by cowards and conspirators.

Instead of helping the victims of the Tulsa riots, thousands of whom were left
homeless, the city and private institutions added to the problems. The Tulsa
City Commission passed a fire ordinance which prevented African-Americans from
rebuilding on their lands unless they were able to pass extremely strict
requirements. Insurance companies refused payment or restitution to victims,
consistently citing a "riot clause."

A grand jury blamed the race riot on the blacks who had tried to protect
Rowland. No white Tulsan was convicted of any riot-related offense, while a
handful of black Tulsans were charged. Sarah Page eventually told the Tulsa
police that Dick Rowland was innocent and the youth was set free.

For decades after, Oklahoma newspapers rarely mentioned the riot. School
children were taught little or nothing of the event. Though the Tulsa race riot
disappeared from public history, the story remained alive for the families of
victims.

Unfortunately, it took the large-scale loss of white lives in the 1995 Oklahoma
City bombing to re-ignite discussion of the Tulsa riot. Still, little has been
done to honor victims of this tragedy or to compensate their surviving family
members.

Unlike the Oklahoma City bombing, the state of Oklahoma has yet to create a
memorial for Tulsa's victims, nor has the Oklahoma State Legislature approved
reparations to the victims' families.

Oklahoma State Congressmembers Maxine Horner and Don Ross created a commission
to study the Tulsa race riot and investigate possible reparations. In its final
report, the 11-member commission declared on February 28, 2001, that
reparations are critical:

There is no way but by government to represent the collective, and there is no
way but by reparations to make real the responsibility ... When commissioners
went looking to do the right thing, that is what nearly all of them found and
what they recommended in last year's preliminary report ... [T]hey have used
this formal report to explore once more the distant terrain of the Tulsa race
riot and the forbidding territory in which it lies. Now, they are certain.
Reparations are the right thing to do.
Justice is not something borne of bloodlust but rather is anchored in what is
morally and legally right. Justice must be served on all fronts and while we
are in the position to remember, it is important that we record history
accurately. The Tulsa race riot and massacre was the worst act of domestic
terrorism to date in the United States. It is time for justice to come to
Oklahoma.

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