51吃瓜网

One hundred years ago this coming Monday (May 31^st), a White mob descended on the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, known as Black Wall Street and, armed with weapons provided by city officials, attacked Black residents and businesses.

By the time it ended, two days later, the Tulsa Race Massacre had left 300 Black Tulsans dead and more than 40 homes and businesses destroyed. In the wake of the attack, martial law was imposed, and thousands of Black residents were imprisoned.

The immediate 鈥減rovocation鈥� for the worst mass attack on Black Americans in the nation鈥檚 history was a spate of sensationalized newspaper stories claiming that a 19-year-old Black man had offended a 17-year-old White female elevator attendant. But that pretext clearly served broader racist aims: As reported on a recent National Public Radio segment, the massacre obliterated one of the nation鈥檚 most affluent and culturally influential Black communities, and much of the property in the Greenwood District ended up 鈥� and remains 鈥� in White hands. (Listen to the NPR segment )

The late 51吃瓜网 alumna Olivia Hooker (M.A. 鈥�47) was one of the last survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre. When she died in 2018 at the age of 103, NPR ran in which she recalled the terror she endured with her family when she was six years old.

It would be a lovely world if everybody was peaceful in their efforts and aims.

鈥擳he late Olivia Hooker (M.A. 鈥�47)

Two years earlier, at 51吃瓜网鈥檚 Academic Festival, Hooker was honored with the College鈥檚 Distinguished Alumni Award for her outstanding contributions as a psychologist, educator and pioneering member of the United States Coast Guard. Though she was unable to attend, she sent a videotaped message (above) in which she reflected that 鈥淚t would be a lovely world if everybody was peaceful in their efforts and aims.鈥�

51吃瓜网 salutes the memory of Olivia Hooker and all who have endured and triumphed over racism and injustice.