Joe Biden urges Americans to reflect on ‘roots of racial terror’ as he marks 100th anniversary of Tulsa race massacre

Joe Biden
Joe Biden called on Americans to ‘reflect on the deep roots of racial terror in our nation’
AP
Michael Howie1 June 2021

President Joe Biden has called on Americans to reflect on the “roots of racial terror” as he prepares to mark the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre.

Mr Biden was heading to Oklahoma on Tuesday to join a remembrance of one of the country’s darkest moments, when more than 300 black people were killed at the hands of a white mob.

In a White House speech on the eve of his landmark Deep South visit, the US President declared: “I call upon the people of the United States to commemorate the tremendous loss of life and security that occurred over those 2 days in 1921, to celebrate the bravery and resilience of those who survived and sought to rebuild their lives again, and commit together to eradicate systemic racism and help to rebuild communities and lives that have been destroyed by it.

“Today, on this solemn centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre, I call on the American people to reflect on the deep roots of racial terror in our Nation and recommit to the work of rooting out systemic racism across our country.”

Mr Biden will be the first president to be part of the remembrances of what happened in what used to be known as Black Wall Street.

On May 31 and June 1 in 1921, white residents and civil society leaders looted and burned to the ground the Greenwood district and used planes to drop projectiles on it.

The attackers killed up to 300 black Tulsans and forced survivors for a time into internment camps overseen by National Guard members.

Burned bricks and a fragment of a church basement are about all that survive today of the more than 30-block historically black district.

Mr Biden’s visit comes amid a national reckoning on racial justice, following the death of George Floyd and other black Americans at the hands of white police officers.

“This is so important because we have to recognise what we have done if we are going to be otherwise,” said Eddie Glaude, chair of the Centre for African American Studies at Princeton University.

He added Mr Biden’s visit “has to be more than symbolic. To tell the truth is the precondition for reconciliation, and reconciliation is the basis for repair.”

Historians say the trouble 100 years ago in Tulsa began after a local newspaper drummed up a furore over a black man accused of stepping on a white girl’s foot.

When black Tulsans showed up with guns to prevent the man’s lynching, white residents responded with overwhelming force.

A grand jury investigation at the time concluded, without evidence, that unidentified agitators had given Tulsa’s African Americans both their firearms and what was described as their mistaken belief “in equal rights, social equality and their ability to demand the same”.

Tensions persist in Tulsa ahead of Mr Biden’s appearance.

Organisers called off a headline commemoration of the 100th anniversary, saying no agreement could be reached over monetary payments to three survivors of the deadly attack. It highlights broader debates over reparations for racial injustice.

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