Speaker 1: And now move my mic back. You're like that.
Speaker 2: Strikes with waters from headquarters behind him to be.
Speaker 1: But if you're just tuning in the civic cipher, I'm
Speaker 1: your host, Ramses, Yeah, I am q Ward. You are
Speaker 1: listening to Civic Excite, you should sit around with got
Speaker 1: a lot more show in store for you. We're gonna
Speaker 1: be talking about a very uncool police department. And no
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about all day. It's funny because there's
Speaker 1: more than one. But yeah, we're gonna talk about the
Speaker 1: Kansas City Police Department. Also, we're gonna tell a little
Speaker 1: story about a black couple who helped build the Greenwood
Speaker 1: District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which you may know of as
Speaker 1: Black Wall Street. You know, for our way Black History fact,
Speaker 1: we tell stories to give you some context, so you
Speaker 1: know that our story runs a lot deeper. And we're
Speaker 1: not just We didn't just start in the eighties with
Speaker 1: EASYE you know. We you know whatever you might think,
Speaker 1: we got to bring some game to you. You're not
Speaker 1: getting it in school, so as what we're here for,
Speaker 1: so stick around for that. First up, we're going to
Speaker 1: discuss ba ba bah blah, how to become a better
Speaker 1: ally Today's BABA is sponsored by the Black Information Network
Speaker 1: Daily podcast that can be found on iHeartMedia or at
Speaker 1: binnews dot com, where you will find discussions and interviews
Speaker 1: on topics and news stories important to the Black community,
Speaker 1: hosted by Yours Truly and featuring sometimes Qward Aunt Maggie
Speaker 1: Bie Nooan. Today's story comes via Black Enterprise and we
Speaker 1: are going to clap for these folks stepping up as
Speaker 1: a launch employer. In twenty twenty P and C Bank,
Speaker 1: I actually bank with those guys. We have our business accounts,
Speaker 1: my family. How's our business council. The pn C Bank
Speaker 1: has announced that they have achieved the Management Leadership for
Speaker 1: Tomorrow Black Equity at Work Certification MLT, earning recognition as
Speaker 1: the first financial institution to achieve the certification. Achieving certification
Speaker 1: demonstrates that P and C is on the right course,
Speaker 1: but this is not the finish line, said P andc's
Speaker 1: Chief Diversity Officer, Gina Coleman. She goes on, we remain
Speaker 1: focused on and committed to continued progress. We have a
Speaker 1: responsibility to our employees, stakeholders, and the community to continue
Speaker 1: our journey toward equity with the goal of being a
Speaker 1: better company, better employer, better neighbor, and better investment. The
Speaker 1: certification focuses on people, purchasing, and philanthropy and centers on
Speaker 1: five pillars representation, compensation, workplace culture, business practices, contributions, and investments.
Speaker 1: To learn more about achieving the Black Equity at Work
Speaker 1: Certification for your organizations at MLT dot org. Also, because
Speaker 1: I know she would like for me to say it,
Speaker 1: Bank of America treats black people badly. Moving on, let's
Speaker 1: talk about a very brief timeline of one police department's corruption. Okay,
Speaker 1: so the timeline starts for our purposes. Of course it
Speaker 1: runs a lot deeper. But for our purposes, we're going
Speaker 1: to tell a story. Starting in twenty twenty one, And
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one, Jay Z's Team Rock files a
Speaker 1: lawsuit against the Kansas City Police, citing a laundry list
Speaker 1: of complaints about abuse. Now, if you've listened to the
Speaker 1: show before, you recognize that we talk about police about
Speaker 1: as much as we talk about politics. Those are the
Speaker 1: two big pillars upon which this show was founded and
Speaker 1: the reason that the show exists. I remember us saying
Speaker 1: this early on, we wish we didn't have to do
Speaker 1: this show. We wish we could do another hip hop show.
Speaker 1: That's where we come from. We used to break new
Speaker 1: music and you know, we're DJs. This is where we
Speaker 1: come from. And the reason we do this show is
Speaker 1: because it's necessary. Nobody talks about this stuff in long
Speaker 1: form format in this space on hip hop radio formats.
Speaker 1: And I know that we have some other formats around
Speaker 1: the country that carry out program as well, and we
Speaker 1: appreciate all of you, but these conversations, they don't exist
Speaker 1: in the circles where we come from, and we felt
Speaker 1: like we could contribute something meaningful. Again, if you listen
Speaker 1: to our show, you recognize that we talk about policing
Speaker 1: a lot. Policing is the one thing that a lot
Speaker 1: of Black people brush up against, a lot of brown
Speaker 1: people brush up against a lot of our Native brothers
Speaker 1: and sisters, brush up against even our Api brothers as sisters,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, And it doesn't feel it doesn't.
Speaker 1: And then you know, for black people especially there is
Speaker 1: like like statistical evidence that shows that we aren't treated fairly.
Speaker 1: So when we talk about another police department to you,
Speaker 1: it may sound again, if you listen to the show,
Speaker 1: to you, it may sound like here we go again again, right,
Speaker 1: But seldom do we get to do a deep dive
Speaker 1: like this where we can really pick apart exactly how
Speaker 1: deep corruption can run, exactly how much is covered up
Speaker 1: and for how long, exactly how much harm can be
Speaker 1: done to a community by what are effectually bullies who
Speaker 1: have blown community support from a not insignificant part and
Speaker 1: segment of the population, namely the population whose interests the
Speaker 1: police protect and defend and espouse. In other words, if
Speaker 1: you look like the police officers. Yeah, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: say something without saying it, so please hear between my words.
Speaker 1: If you look like the police officers, you might not
Speaker 1: see what the effect of policing can do and the
Speaker 1: extent that they go to cover it up. And you
Speaker 1: are espousing this group of people who are perpetuating harm
Speaker 1: on a community that you may have turned a blind
Speaker 1: eye to because you don't live that life.
Speaker 3: Their interesting thing is how selective they've become with that
Speaker 3: loyalty and support. Though, as we're going to do a
Speaker 3: deep dive in to.
Speaker 1: Say this now before we get there.
Speaker 3: Go ahead, Well, you'll see that when law enforcement has
Speaker 3: to police law enforcement, then they start talking about defunding
Speaker 3: law enforcement. Oh yeah, especially in cases like the FBI
Speaker 3: going after their leader and or the police. They don't understand,
Speaker 3: they can't wrap there. Yeah, there has to be some
Speaker 3: some form of corruption or whatever. Law enforcement is no
Speaker 3: longer law enforcement.
Speaker 1: It's corruption. It's the deep state, it's you know, these.
Speaker 3: Conspiracy They're doing what I want them to do. We
Speaker 3: have to back the move. If they don't do what
Speaker 3: I want, then if they do anything different, however, they're
Speaker 3: by nature corrupt and should be defunded. I'm glad you
Speaker 3: said that.
Speaker 4: All right, So jay Z's team rock I file a
Speaker 4: lawsuit against the Kansas City Police, citing a laundry list
Speaker 4: of complaints about abuse.
Speaker 1: That's September twenty twenty one. Let's move on. This part
Speaker 1: of our story comes from the Black Information Network. The
Speaker 1: headline is FBI arrests former detectives accused of sexually praying
Speaker 1: on black women. I'll read this. Police detective in Kansas
Speaker 1: has been charged with federal civil rights crimes involving sexual assault.
Speaker 1: On September fifteenth, retired detective Roger Golubski, sixty nine, was
Speaker 1: arrested after a federal grand jury indicted him on six
Speaker 1: counts related to the rape of two women accused. He
Speaker 1: was accused of raping two black women and forcing them
Speaker 1: to perform sexual acts on him in his vehicle and
Speaker 1: at their homes while he was working for the Kansas
Speaker 1: City Police Department. So we haven't even talked about the
Speaker 1: laundry list of stuff from the Rockefeller or the jay
Speaker 1: Z lawsuit. Right, this is a whole new thing, right
Speaker 1: from the same police department. This is a detective, police
Speaker 1: detective and he was raping black women. Looks like this
Speaker 1: was an ongoing thing, and he was doing this in
Speaker 1: uniform in his car. Right.
Speaker 4: So the corruption of power, the perversion of authority.
Speaker 1: And you know, we're talking about black people again, So
Speaker 1: I'm hoping you're still with us. We told those white stories,
Speaker 1: so you know, just try to stretch that empathy a
Speaker 1: little bit because we have beating hearts and we love
Speaker 1: our families and we want our tomorrow to be better
Speaker 1: than today. We're just like you. We have consciousness from
Speaker 1: the same creator, whoever you decide that is right. And
Speaker 1: this is the sort of thing that happens. And again, folks,
Speaker 1: especially when it's black people, folks call it, you know,
Speaker 1: collateral damage. They say it's a few bad apples, they say.
Speaker 1: They don't realize that a system that gives blind loyalty,
Speaker 1: what do you call it? You call it carte blanche,
Speaker 1: and you call it something else where they there's no consequences.
Speaker 1: I love how you say it. Impunity. That's another one
Speaker 1: where it's like, you know, if you were the bully
Speaker 1: in high school, if the girls didn't like you in
Speaker 1: high school, whatever, whatever it was, your story is, and
Speaker 1: you get a little older and you decide, I'm going
Speaker 1: to be a police officer. There's nothing to screen these
Speaker 1: people out. And even if there was, it's so easy
Speaker 1: to get through a screening process. You ask, answer a
Speaker 1: couple questions the right way, and you know, boom, your
Speaker 1: here's a badge and a gun. Go out and do
Speaker 1: whatever right. And the problem, I think is that when
Speaker 1: we're dealing with police officers, when we're dealing with people
Speaker 1: that have this type of authority that can move with impunity,
Speaker 1: and we empower them, we support them, we call them heroes. Right,
Speaker 1: it's a job. A hero, in my opinion, is when
Speaker 1: you do something above and beyond your job, like there
Speaker 1: was no money involved, you did something truly heroic. You know,
Speaker 1: being a hero because you put on a certain uniform.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's you know, that's set in the
Speaker 1: bar kind of low, you know what I mean. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't call myself a hero unless I did something heroic, right.
Speaker 1: But as far as the story with this officer and
Speaker 1: these people, the collateral damage part of it, the few
Speaker 1: bad apples part of it, that's the part that makes
Speaker 1: it very difficult because oftentimes when we tell black stories,
Speaker 1: this is the way that the opposition to our narrative
Speaker 1: frames it. Well, you know, there's some bad apples, there's
Speaker 1: you know, and they don't look at a system that
Speaker 1: blindly support like that empowers these people, makes them feel
Speaker 1: like they're gods among men. And when we look at
Speaker 1: examples like this over and over and over and over.
Speaker 3: Again, you have another example here.
Speaker 1: Oh man, same police department. Please pile on, all right,
Speaker 1: let's do it. So the next one comes from CNN,
Speaker 1: same police department. This comes from late September twenty twenty two.
Speaker 3: So it's this same police department, same month, same year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this comes y a CNN. The Department of Justice
Speaker 1: is investigating allegations that Kansas City police racially discriminated against
Speaker 1: black officers, so there's a whole new dynamic to this.
Speaker 1: The US Department of Justice is investigating whether the Kansas
Speaker 1: City Police Department in Missouri engaged in a pattern of
Speaker 1: racial discrimination against black officers. According to a letter sent
Speaker 1: to the agency Monday, quote our investigation is based on
Speaker 1: information suggesting that KCPD may be engaged in certain employment
Speaker 1: practices that discriminate against black officers and applicants. The letter
Speaker 1: provided to CNN by the police department reads, investigators will
Speaker 1: be looking into allegations involving race based disparities and hiring promotions,
Speaker 1: detective assignments, disciplining officers, and maintaining a hostile work environment.
Speaker 1: The DOJ said in the letter, police commissioners welcome federal
Speaker 1: civil rights investigation into the KCPD. The president of the
Speaker 1: police board says commissioners welcome a federal investigation and the
Speaker 1: US Department of Justices civil rights investigation may be the
Speaker 1: result of a number of recent lawsuits by police officers
Speaker 1: accusing the police department of racial discrimination and retaliation. Last month,
Speaker 1: a police detective sued KCPD, claiming he was punished for
Speaker 1: reporting another officer's illegal search, and April, a sergeant sued
Speaker 1: over alleged racial profofiling during a traffic stop, and two
Speaker 1: black female officers sued the department alleging discrimination, retaliation, and
Speaker 1: a hostile work environment. Okay, so I want to take
Speaker 1: a moment to talk about black officers. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: black officers in the Deep South, but you know all
Speaker 1: over you know, the South. We have recent examples of
Speaker 1: black officers in the South doing some real anti black stuff.
Speaker 3: It doesn't have to be specific to black officers in
Speaker 3: the South. I think the environment is unique for black
Speaker 3: officers in areas that are not highly populated by black
Speaker 3: people or that are only populated by black people, because
Speaker 3: those present two very very different sets of circumstances, but
Speaker 3: both of which are kind of tricky for set officers.
Speaker 3: Right when you're policing a community where everyone looks like you,
Speaker 3: what we have to say out loud is that bad
Speaker 3: people exist because matter of what color they are, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. So police officers are going to
Speaker 3: encounter some people that are bad, that are black. The
Speaker 3: same is going to be said in the reverse. However,
Speaker 3: being a police officer does not remove you from being
Speaker 3: a person. So just like bad people exist, bad people
Speaker 3: can become police officers, ladies and gentlemen to them. I
Speaker 3: hate to have to say that to you, like you're
Speaker 3: a fourth grader, but sometimes we remove our own logic
Speaker 3: from the idea that just by nature of having passed,
Speaker 3: you know, whatever screening and that was involved to become
Speaker 3: an officer taking an oath, that you are by nature
Speaker 3: a good person because of it. That's that's just not
Speaker 3: how life works. The interesting position that you're put in
Speaker 3: when you're a black officer in the community where no
Speaker 3: one looks like you versus being one in the community
Speaker 3: where everyone looks like you, and how different that might
Speaker 3: be if your partner does or doesn't look like you,
Speaker 3: And just all the different challenges that come from upholding
Speaker 3: a system that is biased nature decide, designed to put
Speaker 3: its boot on the face and the neck of people
Speaker 3: that look like you. It's a really really interesting, dynamic,
Speaker 3: and really complex set of circumstances for black police officers,
Speaker 3: not just in the Deep South, but more specifically in
Speaker 3: those environments that are that have polarity. Right.
Speaker 1: Well, there's something else to consider here. When you think
Speaker 1: of a black officer, you know, you might not think
Speaker 1: that a black officers capable of being racist against black people.
Speaker 1: You know, not UQ, but our listeners. Yeah, no, I know,
Speaker 1: I know you know this. You're from the motor right
Speaker 1: from that d yes, sir, so I know that. But
Speaker 1: but but you are listener, you might not think about
Speaker 1: it like that. You know, you might think the solution
Speaker 1: to all these systemic policing issues is that we need
Speaker 1: to have more black officers in the community. So let
Speaker 1: me help you with this. So let's take the Kansas
Speaker 1: City Police department.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 1: If you are a good person and you happen to
Speaker 1: be black, right, and you report in Kansas or we
Speaker 1: shared these stories in the South. This is why I
Speaker 1: mentioned this out. You're a good person and you're black
Speaker 1: in that order, and you see a fellow officer doing
Speaker 1: something that's not all the way right, and you report that,
Speaker 1: you see the backlash here. We talked about this before.
Speaker 1: Now your job is threatning, your hostile work environment, this, that,
Speaker 1: and the third right, and that happens now your life
Speaker 1: is threatened. All of that, all of that, and that
Speaker 1: happens to to white officers too. But I want to
Speaker 1: make a point about black officers here. Now watch this,
Speaker 1: and this is why I wanted to make sure that
Speaker 1: you knew that if you think that black officers, more
Speaker 1: black officers is the solution to the systemic issue, that
Speaker 1: you had an idea framework. We can do the stought
Speaker 1: experiment together. So let's say you are not a good
Speaker 1: person and you happen to be black, and you don't
Speaker 1: want to report, you know, on the other officers in
Speaker 1: your department that are misbehaving. Put it kindly, mildly that
Speaker 1: at best means you're complicit, and at worse means that
Speaker 1: you're doing everything in your power to fit in with
Speaker 1: your white fellow officers, meaning that you are perpetuating the
Speaker 1: same type of oppression, the same type of white supremacy
Speaker 1: as the white officers. It's very easy for a black
Speaker 1: person to perpetuate white supremacist ideas and bring harm to communities.
Speaker 1: It's very easy for people to feel like they are
Speaker 1: above other people. That's not a police and normal person.
Speaker 1: Think that's also a black officer over other black people.
Speaker 1: Thing that badge and that gun. We've elevated these folks.
Speaker 1: And the thing is the reason I keep saying this
Speaker 1: that you might think that this is normal. Yeah, well
Speaker 1: you get a little bit of authority bubble. That means
Speaker 1: to me that you haven't traveled between me and Q
Speaker 1: we've seen most of the earth. They don't do it
Speaker 1: like that in other countries. In other countries, the police
Speaker 1: fear the people. The police work for the people. Now,
Speaker 1: your mind might short circuit when I say that, because
Speaker 1: you're like, well, police shouldn't be afraid of the people.
Speaker 1: The police should be the ones in charge. Of course
Speaker 1: we need order, and of course, you know, and when
Speaker 1: you're dealing with you know, an individual, you know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the police at the end of the day should have
Speaker 1: the final say that. I think that's true in most
Speaker 1: parts of the world, you know, because there are people who,
Speaker 1: you know, overstep and we need folks to come in
Speaker 1: and say it's right, recognize that right. But there's a
Speaker 1: healthy concern for police if they don't do their job
Speaker 1: the right way. In other countries, they are afraid of
Speaker 1: the people plural right, more often than is true here,
Speaker 1: or the people singularly.
Speaker 3: That's why it's scary.
Speaker 1: Talk to me, so explain that they are.
Speaker 3: Afraid of the people singularly, that entire group as one,
Speaker 3: holding you accountable doing the job properly. Same right, the
Speaker 3: people plural. Here is the problem. Our message, our voice,
Speaker 3: our stance, our position is not singular at all. The
Speaker 3: partisan and opinion cares us a part of the way.
Speaker 3: Then the face of what's right, we just want to
Speaker 3: do what's opposed to them.
Speaker 1: As long as we're doing the opposite of what they're doing,
Speaker 1: we don't.
Speaker 3: Even care what's right or wrong.
Speaker 1: No more.
Speaker 3: Right, our stance right now is back to blue and
Speaker 3: blue lives matter because it's opposed to whatever they're saying.
Speaker 1: We got to talk about that eventually.
Speaker 3: As soon as it ain't that no more, then we
Speaker 3: don't really care about blue lives because on that day
Speaker 3: in jan January sixth, they might not have been on
Speaker 3: the same thing as us, so they got way their
Speaker 3: lives got way less valuable that day. Again, that's another conversation.
Speaker 3: But as you said, the people you said plural, But
Speaker 3: I think it's more. I see what you're saying that
Speaker 3: account ability is there and you can't just do whatever
Speaker 3: you want because you feel like it, because you might
Speaker 3: not just lose your job, but you might end up
Speaker 3: in prison as well.
Speaker 1: There you go. The accountability is way different, and they're
Speaker 1: very again, they're very easy, low hanging options that we
Speaker 1: can do to put more police accountability into the equation.
Speaker 1: Even one of them would change the optics of the narrative.
Speaker 1: Change is shift the paradigm entirely. Even if it's just
Speaker 1: officers carry personal insurance and if they if the lawsuit
Speaker 1: comes up, then they're unensurable, unemployable, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: Anyone of it can put the guns in the true
Speaker 3: The lawyer can lose their life, the leader practice law,
Speaker 3: and a doctor as well.
Speaker 1: Talk.
Speaker 3: Police should lose the privilege to be able to be
Speaker 3: an officer if there's gross misconduct keep talking, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean. You should not be able to We're
Speaker 3: going to use this word again, violate the laws that
Speaker 3: the citizens you're policing have to live up to with impunity.
Speaker 3: You shouldn't just be able to. I like when you
Speaker 3: talk like that, you know what I mean. So again,
Speaker 3: I think people will get confused with what we're upset about.
Speaker 1: And I want to I want to make sure that
Speaker 1: I that I clear that up. I historically have been
Speaker 1: this is rams is talking. That's my name, it's all
Speaker 1: my birth studio have been critical of policing the institution
Speaker 1: the way it is done. It could be better. And again,
Speaker 1: as long as I have a microphone and a satellite
Speaker 1: dish or two, I'm gonna keep saying it. The individuals
Speaker 1: are part of a system that empowers often the worst
Speaker 1: parts of them human beings, and they are not beyond redemption.
Speaker 1: The system I believe is, you know, we need to
Speaker 1: change it fundamentally, but the human beings are not beyond redemption.
Speaker 1: I do believe in forgiveness. I do believe in having
Speaker 1: love at the center of the narrative. And this is
Speaker 1: how this conversation sounds. And I don't really know how
Speaker 1: else to put any more sugar on that one for you,
Speaker 1: but I don't think you need it, because that's pretty.
Speaker 3: You said that as gracefully as it could be said.
Speaker 1: Thank you. All right, Well, it's time for the way
Speaker 1: Black History Fact stretched my leg a little bit, all right.
Speaker 1: Today's Way Black History Fact is sponsored by Hip Hopweekly
Speaker 1: Media and our story comes from history dot com. Before
Speaker 1: the Tulsa race massacre, where the city's black district of
Speaker 1: Greenwood was attacked by a white mob, resulting in two
Speaker 1: days of bloodshed and destruction, the area had been considered
Speaker 1: one of the most affluent African American communities in the
Speaker 1: United States for the early part of the twentieth century.
Speaker 1: The Massacre, which began on May thirty first, nineteen twenty one,
Speaker 1: and left hundreds of Black residents dead and one thousand
Speaker 1: houses destroyed, often overshadows the history of the Black enclave itself.
Speaker 1: Greenwood District, with a population of ten thousand at that time,
Speaker 1: had thrived as the epicenter of act African American business
Speaker 1: and culture, particularly on bustling Greenwood Avenue, commonly known as
Speaker 1: Black Wall Street. Founded in nineteen oh six, Greenwood was
Speaker 1: developed on Indian territory, the vast area where Native American
Speaker 1: tribes had been forced to relocate, which encompasses much of
Speaker 1: modern day eastern Oklahoma. Some African Americans, who had been
Speaker 1: former slaves of the tribes and subsequently integrated into tribal communities,
Speaker 1: acquired allotted lands in Greenwood through the DAWs Act, a
Speaker 1: US law that gave land to individual Native Americans, and
Speaker 1: many black sharecroppers fleeing racial oppression relocated to the region
Speaker 1: as well in search of a better life. Post Civil War,
Speaker 1: Oklahoma begins to be promoted as a safe haven for
Speaker 1: African Americans who start to come particularly host emancipation to
Speaker 1: Indian territory, says Michelle Place, executive director of the Tulsa
Speaker 1: Historical Society and Museum. The largest number of black townships
Speaker 1: after the Civil War were located in Oklahoma. Between eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty five and nineteen twenty, African Americans founded dozens of
Speaker 1: black townships and settlements in the region. Old W. Gurley,
Speaker 1: a wealthy black landowner, purchased forty acres of land in Tulsa,
Speaker 1: naming it Greenwood after the town of Mississippi. Credited with
Speaker 1: having the first black business in Greenwood in nineteen oh six,
Speaker 1: he had a vision to create something for black people,
Speaker 1: by black people. Gurley started with a boarding house for
Speaker 1: African Americans. Then word began to spread about opportunities for
Speaker 1: black people in Greenwood, and they flocked to the district.
Speaker 1: Gurley would loan money to people who wanted to start
Speaker 1: a business, and had a system where someone who wanted
Speaker 1: to own a business could get help doing that. Other
Speaker 1: prominent black entrepreneurs followed suit. J. B. Stratford, born into
Speaker 1: slavery in Kentucky, later became a lawyer and activist, moved
Speaker 1: to Greenwood in eighteen ninety eight. He built a fifty
Speaker 1: five room luxury hotel bearing his name, the largest black
Speaker 1: owned hotel in the country. An outspoked spoken businessman, Stratford
Speaker 1: believed that black people had a better chance of economic
Speaker 1: progress if they pulled their resources. Aj Smitherman, a publisher
Speaker 1: whose family moved to Indian Territory in the eighteen nineties,
Speaker 1: founded The Tulsa Star, a black newspaper headquartered in Greenwood
Speaker 1: that became instrumental in establishing the district's socially conscious mindset.
Speaker 1: The newspaper regularly informed African Americans about their legal rights
Speaker 1: in any court rulings or legislation that were beneficial or
Speaker 1: harmful to their community. Demands for equal rights were an
Speaker 1: ongoing mission for Black Americans in Tulsa, despite Jim Crow oppression.
Speaker 1: Greenwood itself had a railway track running through it that
Speaker 1: separated the black and white populations. Consequently, Gurley and Stratford's
Speaker 1: vision of having a self contained and self reliant black
Speaker 1: economy came to be not only by desire, but by
Speaker 1: logistics quote as a practical matter. As a practical matter,
Speaker 1: they had no choice as to where to locate their businesses,
Speaker 1: said john said Johnson. Tulsa was rigidly segregated, and Oklahoma
Speaker 1: became increasingly racist after statehood. On Greenwood Avenue, there where
Speaker 1: luxury shops, restaurants, grocery stores, hotels, jewelry and clothing stores,
Speaker 1: movie theaters, barbershops and salons, a library, pool halls, nightclubs,
Speaker 1: and offices for doctors, lawyers, and dentists. Greenwood also had
Speaker 1: its own school system, post office, as savings and loan bank, hospital,
Speaker 1: and bus and taxi service. Greenwood was home to far
Speaker 1: less affluent African Americans as well. A significant number still
Speaker 1: worked in menial jobs such as janitors, dishwashers, porters, and domestics.
Speaker 1: The money they earned outside of Greenwood was spent within
Speaker 1: the district. It is said within Greenwood every dollar would
Speaker 1: change hand nineteen times before it left the community, said place.
Speaker 1: It wasn't long before the affluent African Americans attracted the
Speaker 1: attention of local white residents, who resented the upscale lifestyle
Speaker 1: of people they deemed to be an inferior race. I
Speaker 1: think the word jealousy is certainly appropriate during this time,
Speaker 1: says Place. If you have particularly poor whites who are
Speaker 1: looking at this prosperous community, who have large homes, furniture, Crystal's,
Speaker 1: China linens, etc. The reaction is they don't deserve that.
Speaker 1: With the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan, black residents
Speaker 1: in Greenwood Beard racial violence and the removal of their
Speaker 1: voting rights, The Oklahoma Supreme Court for years routinely upheld
Speaker 1: the state's restrictions on voting access for African Americans, subjecting
Speaker 1: them to the poll tax and literacy tests, and lynchings
Speaker 1: proliferated across the count The countries are particularly during the
Speaker 1: Red Summer of nineteen nineteen, where anti black riots erupted
Speaker 1: in major cities across the United States, including Tulsa. In
Speaker 1: response to Tulsa, Star encouraged Black residents to take up
Speaker 1: arms and to show up at courthouses and jails to
Speaker 1: make sure black people who were on trial were not
Speaker 1: taken and killed by white lynch mobs. But the heightened
Speaker 1: racial animosity and Tulsa erupted in nineteen twenty one when
Speaker 1: nineteen year old Dick Roland, a black shoe shiner, was
Speaker 1: accused of attempted sexual assault of a seventeen year old
Speaker 1: white elevator operator named Sarah Page. When an angry white
Speaker 1: mob went into the courthouse to demand that the sheriff
Speaker 1: hand over Roland. The sheriff refused. A group of about
Speaker 1: twenty five armed black men, including many World War One veterans,
Speaker 1: then went into the courthouse to offer to help guarding Roland.
Speaker 1: As word of a possible lynching spread, a group of
Speaker 1: around seventy five armed black men returned to the courthouse,
Speaker 1: where they were met by some fifteen hundred whites. After
Speaker 1: clashes between the groups, the black men retreated to Greenwood.
Speaker 1: Mobs of armed white men then to sit in our Greenwood,
Speaker 1: looting homes, burning down businesses, and shooting black residents dead
Speaker 1: on the spot. With millions in property damage and no
Speaker 1: help from the city, the rebuilding of Greenwood began almost immediately,
Speaker 1: thanks to the assistance of the NAACP, other black townships
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma, donations from black churches, and a resilient Greenwood community. However,
Speaker 1: some businesses, like the Tulsa Star newspaper, were permanently shuttered
Speaker 1: in the wake of the violence. The Greenwood District still
Speaker 1: exists today, but after decades of urban renewal and integration,
Speaker 1: the area's demographics and business resemble little of its story
Speaker 1: the past, and that'd be.
Speaker 3: That compared to our ancestors and forefathers we saw bro
Speaker 3: They they paint the Doctor King versus Malcolm X's narrative
Speaker 3: as the any means necessary versus turn the other cheap narrative. Right,
Speaker 3: they both had to be willing to be slapped in
Speaker 3: the face for either of those methods to have any merit.
Speaker 3: So even who they declare a pacifist Doctor King for
Speaker 3: us and for our causes, even as he, even as
Speaker 3: he became the champion of peace and nonviolence for us,
Speaker 3: he was willing to be slapped in the face. We're
Speaker 3: not even willing in a lot of cases to be
Speaker 3: talked bad about. Our people were taking arms and literally
Speaker 3: putting their lives and the lives of their families on
Speaker 3: the line to further our causes. And we can't even
Speaker 3: say black lives matter without it being a contentious Well.
Speaker 1: I could definitely say that black lives matter, but that's
Speaker 1: going to do it for us here on Civic Cipher.
Speaker 1: Once again, I'm your host, rams' jah Jah.
Speaker 3: Most of the time they called me q ward around
Speaker 3: these parts, and as we should.
Speaker 1: Today's show is produced by our producer MS Maggie a
Speaker 1: ka Maggie be known and yeah, I hit the website
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Speaker 1: What's happening? It's how you got a questions to ask.
Speaker 2: If the news is just a TV show you're passing
Speaker 2: And this from a wife wartime journalist headlines wait god,
Speaker 2: pres and recess.
Speaker 1: Like this like what like this, like
Speaker 2: We can't find that action the sports