The Day Americans Bombed an American City from the Air - WhoWhatWhy The Day Americans Bombed an American City from the Air - WhoWhatWhy

Politics

Tulsa Race Riots 1921
1921 Black Wall Street Memorial, Tulsa burning 1921, National Guard truck and photos on display at Tulsa Museum Photo credit: Wesley Fryer / Flickr (CC BY 2.0), Library of Congress / Wikimedia, Tulsa world / Wikimedia and Wesley Fryer / Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

“Black Wall Street” was a prospering African-American neighborhood In Tulsa, Oklahoma, that went up in flames 95 years ago. Incredibly, most Americans have never heard of the shameful events of June 1, 1921, when whites firebombed the neighborhood from the air and an estimated 300 African-Americans were murdered.

For decades, the city of Tulsa tried to erase this dark day from its memory and history books alike. It  nearly succeeded — because what happened seems almost impossible to believe.

Complete with eyewitness accounts, the following video tells the truly stunning story of that day.


Related front page panorama photo credit: Tulsa, Oklahoma after riots of 1921 (Mary E. Jones Parrish / Wikimedia)

Author

  • Klaus Marre

    Klaus Marre is a senior editor for Politics and director of the Mentor Apprentice Program at WhoWhatWhy. Follow him on Twitter @KlausMarre.

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