Speaker 1: Maligue Buds has all the knowledge you want.
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Speaker 1: All the knowledge you needlig But yeah, they have all
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Speaker 3: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to Malik's bookshef bringing a world together
Speaker 3: with books, culture and community. Hi, my name is Malik,
Speaker 3: your host of Malik's Bookshew. Whoo. Now I'm out here
Speaker 3: in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I just went on a spiritual
Speaker 3: and mental journey, an historical journey. Do we call this
Speaker 3: black Lid Weekend? Around twenty five black owned bookstores around
Speaker 3: America joined together in unity to host the Black Bookstore Collective,
Speaker 3: and we called it the Black Lit Weekend. From the
Speaker 3: East coast to the West coast, from the North coast
Speaker 3: of America to the South coast of America all joined
Speaker 3: up here at Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Tusa what we call
Speaker 3: the Black Wall Street Massacre took place in nineteen twenty one.
Speaker 3: It's nicknamed Black Wall Street because of the progressive and
Speaker 3: economic elevation of black people who were former slaves migrated
Speaker 3: to Tulsa, Oklahoma to build a community, and ultimately their
Speaker 3: desire was to have their own state and none of
Speaker 3: that came to pass, but the prosperity and of progressing
Speaker 3: and the overwhelming businesses took place here. And in nineteen
Speaker 3: twenty one a race mascaret where they massacred black people.
Speaker 3: We're thirty six black people were murdered, eight hundred injured,
Speaker 3: over a thousand homes and businesses destroyed. There was no
Speaker 3: monetary compensation, There was no white people that was charged
Speaker 3: with murder or any type of crime. This was a massacre,
Speaker 3: a race massacre, and it just didn't happen in Tosa.
Speaker 3: There's many times all across America where these types of
Speaker 3: things that massacres have happened. But we hear the Black
Speaker 3: Lit Weekend that we're calling it, where the Black Bookstore Collective.
Speaker 3: It's around one hundred of us and we meet periodically monthly,
Speaker 3: and we discussed things around books, and twenty five of
Speaker 3: us came out to Tosa the network to talk about books,
Speaker 3: to talk about organizing and talk about events, to talk
Speaker 3: about anything that could elevate and enhance our business and
Speaker 3: what we can do collected together. We've had some publishers
Speaker 3: peen when Random House came out, Harbor Collins came out,
Speaker 3: and we just had a festive weekend which started with
Speaker 3: dinner and meet and greet. Then the next day we
Speaker 3: got together and went on a tour where we went
Speaker 3: to where we went to Tosa, Oklahoma, where the massacre
Speaker 3: took place.
Speaker 2: We went to.
Speaker 3: Stampede Hill where was the last grand stand to prevent
Speaker 3: the burning and the murder of all of these innocent
Speaker 3: black people, where these white mob in town colluded together,
Speaker 3: conspired together, coordinated together and took kerosene, made malotar cocktails
Speaker 3: with kerosene, got into airplanes and bombed this black town
Speaker 3: they called in Tuwsa, Oklahoma, around around the street called Greenwood.
Speaker 3: They bombed all these black businesses, They bombed these black
Speaker 3: churches and hotels, They bombed the houses from airplanes. It's
Speaker 3: the first time in America that bombs that were filled.
Speaker 3: There was malotar cocktails filled with kerosene, was thrown out
Speaker 3: of airplanes and bombed onto people Black people. This that
Speaker 3: took place in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This is the first time
Speaker 3: that that bombs was dropped on America and it was
Speaker 3: dropped on black people. And this was a hidden history.
Speaker 3: This was a history that even Malcolm Max didn't know.
Speaker 3: Most Black people didn't know. Most people didn't know unless
Speaker 3: you was from Toaso. They hit this, they hit this massacre,
Speaker 3: this twenty nineteen twenty one race massacre. They hit this
Speaker 3: from the masses of black people, white people, and everybody else.
Speaker 3: And it's just recently want to bite. President Biden came
Speaker 3: down here the one hundredth in nineteen twenty one. That
Speaker 3: was the one hundredth anniversary of the Tosa Race Mosca
Speaker 3: at night from nineteen twenty one. In twenty twenty one,
Speaker 3: they had a commemorated a celebration and President Biden came
Speaker 3: down here. A lot of people didn't know that this
Speaker 3: took place, so but I'm here on the ground witness
Speaker 3: in first hand. It was a very emotional part of
Speaker 3: our journey and our tour out here. And I'm just
Speaker 3: like you know, I was a woman. I went, We
Speaker 3: went to the museum, we walked around. First of all,
Speaker 3: we saw, you know, the areas that were bombed, and
Speaker 3: we saw and we found out, which I didn't know
Speaker 3: during Black White Street, that they rebuilt, rebuilt after this,
Speaker 3: and they had to pay twice the amount for the
Speaker 3: building materials they tried. They burnt up the at least,
Speaker 3: I mean their land that were called the deeds of
Speaker 3: their property. And then when they had to show them
Speaker 3: evidence that they own the deed, then they strict the
Speaker 3: mineral rights. Because there was oil in Tasa, Oklahoma, and
Speaker 3: black people and Indians had land with a lot of oil.
Speaker 3: I believe Oklahoma is the richest nation in America with
Speaker 3: oil and then outside of Alaska, Okay. So then what
Speaker 3: happened was they gave them land deeds without the mineral rights.
Speaker 3: This is the kind of things that have taken place
Speaker 3: in America that we can never forget. Never forget why
Speaker 3: because if you forget, you're do them to repeat history,
Speaker 3: point of history, so that it never happened again. Then
Speaker 3: on top of that, like I said, I was telling
Speaker 3: you about the stampede Hill, just the last stand a hill.
Speaker 3: We walked up this hill where they all was willing
Speaker 3: to get their guns and fight for their liberty and
Speaker 3: their freedom and their life. They all stood on that
Speaker 3: hill and they tried to prevent these white racist, white
Speaker 3: supremerists from marching up into the air into that land,
Speaker 3: their homes, their businesses, And that's you might as well say,
Speaker 3: that's some memorial because they got murdered. They got slaughtered.
Speaker 3: They got killed on this stampede hill and they made
Speaker 3: a little monument, but it's a sacred land where people
Speaker 3: dying and was murdered and killed for protecting their liberty,
Speaker 3: their homes, their children, that wi, their businesses, and they
Speaker 3: got sloughted. My security, we walked up that hill, we
Speaker 3: overlooked the whole Greenwood area there was eventually rebuilt after
Speaker 3: the massacre, and then in around nineteen sixty they used
Speaker 3: emminent domain to put freeways through the property and take
Speaker 3: it again, and that ultimately Tulsa is not what it
Speaker 3: used to be. It's a historical site. It's a site
Speaker 3: where people can come by and like we did visit
Speaker 3: the museum and take a tour and walk up and
Speaker 3: down the different areas that were prominent during that time.
Speaker 3: But the black folks they finally they left. I might
Speaker 3: have seen maybe they say it's about seven percent black
Speaker 3: now in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ultimately, we was defeated. After rebuilding,
Speaker 3: we got massacred. We showed resilience. Black people rebuilt, and
Speaker 3: in nineteen sixty the government, the local government came in
Speaker 3: and used eminent domain to destroy us again and take
Speaker 3: our land and build highways and bridges over the land.
Speaker 3: It's not what it used to be anymore. It's just
Speaker 3: a sight seeing site now it's only seven percent blacks
Speaker 3: and TOASA now, I hardly saw any I was shocked.
Speaker 3: I saw I hardly saw any black business. I hardly
Speaker 3: saw any black businesses. I was shocked. So it's just
Speaker 3: a memory. It's just a historical site now. It's just
Speaker 3: a tourist town now for us. But if you get
Speaker 3: a chance to visit in your lifetime, it's spoun binding,
Speaker 3: it's emotional, and it's a place where we hold space
Speaker 3: for a symbol of our resilience and our triumph and
Speaker 3: how we've devoted in our life to be successful in
Speaker 3: America and despite that, in fighting in every war, to
Speaker 3: come back to this henious wickedness and evil. So you
Speaker 3: know I'm this episode it's definite, definite called Black Wall
Speaker 3: Street nineteen twenty one, TUSA, Oklahoma. Definite is since this
Speaker 3: is what I'm gonna feature on this episode, that's what
Speaker 3: it's gonna be called. So I hope you enjoy the
Speaker 3: next footage, which is this young man who took us
Speaker 3: on the tour all around green Wood Tosa, Oklahoma, and
Speaker 3: gave us a tour about the history and the resilience
Speaker 3: of black people of that time. So enjoyed this episode.
Speaker 4: Was actually Booker T. Washington High School Rome night. That's
Speaker 4: the day the massac had started. So while they were
Speaker 4: having rhyme is when the mascot would have studied at
Speaker 4: that church right behind you, that is Mountain Zion Church.
Speaker 1: There. Booker T.
Speaker 4: Washington High School would have been right across the street
Speaker 4: from me.
Speaker 1: So after the school was burned, the kids went to
Speaker 1: a grocery store.
Speaker 4: That grocery store was in set on fire, and then
Speaker 4: the mascot moved into the rest of the Greenwood district.
Speaker 1: So one of the reason Booker T.
Speaker 4: Washington got a school named after him here he was
Speaker 4: in Greenwood, but also George Washington Carver came to black
Speaker 4: Wall Street too, And nineteen o five is when the
Speaker 4: founder O. W.
Speaker 1: Gurley actually came into this area.
Speaker 4: He bought the first forty acres of land in Greenwood,
Speaker 4: and the gold was to make an all black statement.
Speaker 4: That's what most of the black towns we're here for.
Speaker 4: That's why people relocated Oklahoma. So when I said that
Speaker 4: we have some of the worst racial history. It's partially
Speaker 4: due to that. Nineteen oh six, George Washington, Carver and
Speaker 4: Booker T. Washington were in Oklahoma with the different black
Speaker 4: town leaders and tried to help them apply for statehood.
Speaker 4: Nineteen oh six is when President Theodore Roosevelt came to Muskoge, Oklahoma,
Speaker 4: and he gave a speech about the danger in the
Speaker 4: lowne in all black state in the US. The main
Speaker 4: reason was Oklahoma was oil territory and if black people
Speaker 4: controlled the oil then it would cripple America's economy. So
Speaker 4: even though they tried to apply in nineteen o six,
Speaker 4: they didn't make it through the application process before being denied.
Speaker 4: Then in nineteen oh seven, the goup of Klansmen apply
Speaker 4: for statehood and Oklahoma became a state in nineteen oh seven.
Speaker 4: So there's really a thing called stupid Oklahoma laws. You
Speaker 4: could google it. Once you see it, you'll see that
Speaker 4: we have some of the dumbest laws you'll never find.
Speaker 4: They don't enforce a lot of them, but they technically
Speaker 4: are still on the law books. The reason being is
Speaker 4: back then you needed Sea sixty five by laws when
Speaker 4: you apply for statehood. The Glansmen did not have sixty five.
Speaker 4: I think they only had like fifty. So they just
Speaker 4: made up things that were laws where they came from,
Speaker 4: or things they just didn't like, and those became lost
Speaker 4: here in Oklahoma. So, for instance, women are not allowed
Speaker 4: to do their own hair on a Sunday with all
Speaker 4: the cosmetology license. It's technically against the law. You won't
Speaker 4: get in trouble for it, but it is there. It's
Speaker 4: illegal to collect rainwater. It's also illegal to go in
Speaker 4: the restaurant and take a bite out of someone else's hamburger.
Speaker 4: If the burger has cheese, it's completely legal, specifically saying hamburger.
Speaker 2: What else.
Speaker 4: Also illegal to capture a whale in the state of Oklahoma.
Speaker 1: So if any of you have ever.
Speaker 4: Been through Oklahoma, there's the Big Blue Whale and the
Speaker 4: two so Oklahoma. That was meant to be a joke
Speaker 4: to say they call it big Blue Whale in Oklahoma.
Speaker 4: That's just some of the dumb laws they made up
Speaker 4: back then just to have enough to apply for statehood.
Speaker 4: So Oklahoma had more black towns than anywhere in the US.
Speaker 4: We still have I think fourteen that have city governments.
Speaker 4: Back then, I think it was close to the forty.
Speaker 1: Some of them are mad named.
Speaker 4: After these churches are the Dying is Burning, Rennisville, tab
Speaker 4: clear View, Tallahassee Red Bird Lang Steel one only is
Speaker 4: still one. So yeah, so when we talk about the
Speaker 4: history here, how many of y'all ever seen Killers of
Speaker 4: the Flyer move y'all seen the movie?
Speaker 1: Yet you gotta go there today because it's like for
Speaker 1: you and a half hours.
Speaker 4: But most says territory is only about five miles to
Speaker 4: the north of here.
Speaker 1: The family that they're talking.
Speaker 4: About in the movie that happened about three weeks technically
Speaker 4: was three weeks before Greenwood was burned. So back then,
Speaker 4: even though this was considered its own place that it's
Speaker 4: on US Federal post Office which gave it a US
Speaker 4: Federal post codes, this would have been its own town.
Speaker 4: After Greenwood was burned, they did have to take loans
Speaker 4: out from Tulsa banks. Some of them just pulled their
Speaker 4: money out for Part of the reason fire was used
Speaker 4: is karencine virus can't be put out with just water,
Speaker 4: and as so your bank statements and your land d's
Speaker 4: were more likely inside of your home at the time.
Speaker 4: So once those things are burned, there's no record of
Speaker 4: how much money you have in the bank. So when
Speaker 4: you went to the Tasa banks, you got whatever amount
Speaker 4: they said you had in the bank, not an accurate
Speaker 4: amount of.
Speaker 1: What you technically had.
Speaker 4: And then also once the land was destroyed, you had
Speaker 4: to be reissued another land d which you would have
Speaker 4: to then pay taxes to Tulsa to get. Our land
Speaker 4: e's were separated because of a lady named Aida Glenn.
Speaker 4: Aida Glenn was a nine year old black girl.
Speaker 1: She is the one who made.
Speaker 4: Tasa the oil capital of the world. Glynpool, Oklahoma, which
Speaker 4: is just to the south of here, is named after her.
Speaker 4: That was one of the largest oil strikes in Oklahoma history.
Speaker 4: It ended up producing in today's money, almost three hundred
Speaker 4: million dollars worth of oil.
Speaker 1: Her family only got about forty one million of that.
Speaker 4: Right after that is when our land d's were changed
Speaker 4: in Oklahoma, whereas land rights and our mineral rights are separate.
Speaker 4: So when you're asked like how these people getting money,
Speaker 4: it's all rights.
Speaker 1: Oil rights were taken by mostly landsman.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 4: If they were owned by Native American people, all you
Speaker 4: had to do was kill the husband and they married
Speaker 4: the wife and you would inherit her land or you
Speaker 4: can adopt black and Native kids because they had land
Speaker 4: allotments and they were on the Dodge Roll which Henry
Speaker 4: Dodds created to track Native Americans.
Speaker 1: So uh, the.
Speaker 4: Only ones the freemen from the Greeks were getting paid
Speaker 4: for a long time, but the rest of 'em worth.
Speaker 4: I don't have it in the iPad, but I do
Speaker 4: have a photo of how many of y'all have ever
Speaker 4: seen like the uh a dodge roll card before part
Speaker 4: So there's one that shows you how they actually got
Speaker 4: a lot of the land, and it was by omitting
Speaker 4: black people.
Speaker 1: So if you were on the.
Speaker 4: Road then landsmen were able to pay back. Then it
Speaker 4: was five dollars and they could take your road part number,
Speaker 4: so your name would be omitted on the road scene
Speaker 4: and then they could put their name.
Speaker 1: On the lak Uh.
Speaker 4: Let me see this, So the hearing sans that those
Speaker 4: people were omitted, and then on to the side.
Speaker 1: You can see who was added. As far as the
Speaker 1: Greenwood district when o'd w.
Speaker 4: Gurley got here, after he purchased the first forty eighters
Speaker 4: of land, his rule was he would only sell it
Speaker 4: to other black people.
Speaker 1: He brought his wife.
Speaker 4: Here who was also a millionaire in today's money. The
Speaker 4: first thing he built here was actually a rooming house
Speaker 4: or hotel, and one of the rules he had in
Speaker 4: Greenwood was no structure could be by itself, so if
Speaker 4: you had a building, you had to let another family
Speaker 4: put a business inside of it. So that's what maximized
Speaker 4: the space here. O. W. Gurley was responsible for helping
Speaker 4: start one hundred and two businesses in the Greenwood district.
Speaker 4: There were only one hundred and ninety seven, so everything
Speaker 4: went through him. He was also the fireman, the elected official,
Speaker 4: and the sheriff, so he had everybody's jobs. The hotel
Speaker 4: he built ended up being the largest hotel in Oklahoma,
Speaker 4: largest black on hotel in Oklahoma, and then he recruited JB.
Speaker 1: Strafford to move here. JB.
Speaker 4: Strafford ended up building the largest black on hotel in
Speaker 4: all of the US.
Speaker 1: So we will go to the location where that used
Speaker 1: to be. But o'd w.
Speaker 4: Gurley was arrested foring sit in the riot. He was
Speaker 4: put into the internment camp. He got out a few
Speaker 4: days later. The only thing he rebuilt was a very
Speaker 4: first hotel, and then he moved to California to Los
Speaker 4: Angeles region. His wealth in today's money was anywhere between
Speaker 4: eight and twelve.
Speaker 1: Million, counter fluctuates depend on what you're reading.
Speaker 4: By the time he died, he would have had less
Speaker 4: than three hundred thousand. So he lost everything while he
Speaker 4: was here, and so did his wife.
Speaker 1: We will see a monument that has her.
Speaker 4: Insurance claim on there, bless you. It doesn't have ow gurdleies.
Speaker 4: He didn't bought one.
Speaker 1: And then J. B.
Speaker 4: Strafford was the wealthiest person in the Greenwood district, but
Speaker 4: all of his businesses were destroyed, and he.
Speaker 1: Also did not follow the strict his claim.
Speaker 4: So as we walk the district, gonna get closer up
Speaker 4: here on Gap Band Avenue right now, some of y'all
Speaker 4: might be a little y'all to no gap.
Speaker 1: Then the rest of us do.
Speaker 4: This is called they're called the Gap band because of Greenwood,
Speaker 4: Archer and Pine. So if you're on Greenwood in between
Speaker 4: Archer and Pine, you're in the gap.
Speaker 1: So right now you are in the gap.
Speaker 4: The song that most known for his outstanding the other
Speaker 4: one is you Dropped the.
Speaker 1: Bomb on Me. So the title was about Greenwood. Song
Speaker 1: is not so if you listen to a sneak and
Speaker 1: that's what it is.
Speaker 4: Yeah, all right, So any questions while we're right here,
Speaker 4: We're all good. So this particular area here, this is
Speaker 4: the Greenwill Culture Center behind me. These monuments are what
Speaker 4: actually taught me. I had family in Greenwood. My grandma
Speaker 4: never talked about that portion of it until I was
Speaker 4: probably twenty seven twenty eight. As you can tell, I
Speaker 4: joke and play a lot. My grandmother's last name is Brewer.
Speaker 4: I saw Moses Brewer on here, so I was like, Grandy,
Speaker 4: you really old. You gotta know who these people are.
Speaker 4: She was like, well, yeah, it's my uncle. Why he like, well,
Speaker 4: his name is on this monument. But then my last
Speaker 4: name is on here too, which is Ransom. My grandfather
Speaker 4: and his aunt had a tailoring company here. So this,
Speaker 4: if there's anything you should take a picture of, it
Speaker 4: would be this because this is the people who.
Speaker 1: Filed an insurance claim.
Speaker 4: This is not all of the people that were in
Speaker 4: the Greenwood district, but you may have had a family
Speaker 4: member down here, you just didn't know it because none
Speaker 4: of these people were actually from Tosa, Oklahoma. They moved
Speaker 4: here from York DC area of Virginia, Kentucky. Like they
Speaker 4: literally came here from all over the US because they
Speaker 4: were trying to help establish the Black State. And so
Speaker 4: a lot of people that I give tours too, they
Speaker 4: do find their family names on here, and then they
Speaker 4: go back and find out that, yeah, they would have had,
Speaker 4: you know, some relatives here in the Greenwood District. And
Speaker 4: of course these numbers are all the way back in
Speaker 4: nineteen twenty one, so they'd be a lot higher now.
Speaker 4: The largest insurance claim on here is Emma Gurleys, which
Speaker 4: is one hundred and sixty one thousand, six hundred and
Speaker 4: eighty three dollars. She is right there, so that's O. W.
Speaker 4: Gurley's wife. That's about two point seven million dollars today.
Speaker 4: The Dreamland Theater was owned by the Williams family, Lula
Speaker 4: and John one hundred and thirty nine thousand, three hundred
Speaker 4: and thirty four dollars and fifty cents. That was the
Speaker 4: largest black woman owned theater in Oklahoma. She had three
Speaker 4: back then, one in Muskogee, one in Oakamoga, and then
Speaker 4: won here. The one here was seven hundred and fifty
Speaker 4: seats and it was the only one with their conditioning
Speaker 4: at the time. So that's the one I would have
Speaker 4: picked if I had to do. Would have been directly
Speaker 4: on the other side of that highway, and then when
Speaker 4: she rebuilt it, they tore it down again and put
Speaker 4: the highway directly on top of where the Dreamland was.
Speaker 4: It was also one of the last places burned during
Speaker 4: the maskers, so that's what most people that's the picture
Speaker 4: most people have seen before is the Dreamland signed hanging
Speaker 4: off of the building. This was the very first time
Speaker 4: planes have been used Obama Americans Ball the Americans. But
Speaker 4: Greenwood is actually almost right in the middle of what's
Speaker 4: called the Red Summer that goes from nineteen seventeen to
Speaker 4: nineteen twenty four, and in that time period that were
Speaker 4: over thirty six Black towns that would burn the exact
Speaker 4: same way. Greenwood just happened to be the time more
Speaker 4: people died here than any of the others, and then
Speaker 4: planes were not used in any of the other blacktown maskers.
Speaker 1: But it got the name Red Summer from East Saint Louis.
Speaker 4: The town leaders in East Saint Louis were all hung
Speaker 4: from street lamps and dis and bowed, so the streets
Speaker 4: were completely red with blood when people came out the
Speaker 4: next day. That's how it got the name Red Summer
Speaker 4: and then that part of that clan fax actually traveled.
Speaker 1: The country and they burned towns.
Speaker 4: TUSA was actually founded by klansmen, So inside of that
Speaker 4: iPad there was the Plan role from nineteen eighteen Tulsa's
Speaker 4: founding father. Tusa's founding father was Tate Brady. He was
Speaker 4: the founder of TUSA, but he was also listed as
Speaker 4: the chairman of the Plan in nineteen eighteen. But in
Speaker 4: nineteen nineteen is when he denounced his clansmanship and he
Speaker 4: became a Cherokee man. He went all the way to
Speaker 4: the Supreme Court to fight for Cherokee rights.
Speaker 1: Reason being he his wife, her real husband.
Speaker 4: Disappeared, and then he married her and then he inherited
Speaker 4: her land, which was a little bit over seventy acres,
Speaker 4: which is where his house is built, and a lot
Speaker 4: of his land was built there. But there's a lot
Speaker 4: of places in Tulsa, Oklahoma that are actually named after klansmen.
Speaker 4: The neighborhood I grew up in that I still live in.
Speaker 4: It's called the Heights now, but it was Brady Heights
Speaker 4: up until like a year and a half, Yeah, year
Speaker 4: and a half, two years ago. Yeah, So I live
Speaker 4: I'm on Seanne between Marshall Lackin and you black.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the street.
Speaker 4: So that actually ended up becoming a black neighborhood in
Speaker 4: like the forties and the fifties, and then the Klansmen
Speaker 4: moved out. It's now back to being a white neighborhood,
Speaker 4: but it was predominantly.
Speaker 1: Black back then.
Speaker 4: We have a part owing part which is named after
Speaker 4: Judge Robert Owen, who is the one who denied all
Speaker 4: these insurance claims, but he's listed in there as a
Speaker 4: committee member of the Klan.
Speaker 1: And then you got R. L. Jones Airport on the
Speaker 1: south side.
Speaker 4: It's named after Richard Lloyd Jones, who was the writer
Speaker 4: for the Tasa Tribune who wrote the articles that kind
Speaker 4: of helped start the Master itself telling people to arm themselves.
Speaker 4: Negros are planning and up rising in Greenwood, and of
Speaker 4: course he wrote dead Dick Rowland was supposed to be
Speaker 4: lynched for Sultan Sarah Page, so that place is named
Speaker 4: after him.
Speaker 1: Most of the Greenwood.
Speaker 4: District was named after Tate Brady. It was all called Brady.
Speaker 4: It was called the Brady Arts District up until about
Speaker 4: three years ago.
Speaker 1: So he's tell them what the the Shenanigan sid Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the one where it's still named after Braddy. Yes, so
Speaker 1: it is still named after Brady.
Speaker 4: You just got nowhere to go, and if you on
Speaker 4: Google Maps, it is still there. A lot of the
Speaker 4: businesses still say they're on Brady Street. They changed it
Speaker 4: the Reconciliation Way when but the apartments is it The
Speaker 4: Metron Brady is right on the border of Greenwood, but
Speaker 4: it's called the Metron Brady because that's Brady Street.
Speaker 1: To be honest, it only changed because people like you
Speaker 1: all are.
Speaker 4: Gonna be coming here h twenty with twenty nineteen change.
Speaker 1: Twenty eighteen is when they changed it.
Speaker 4: King's ball room had a star in front of it
Speaker 4: that says Tate Brady. He killed himself in nineteen twenty
Speaker 4: four in the kitchen of his house, thank goodness. And
Speaker 4: then that used to be his parking garage. But his
Speaker 4: name is actually still on the building. So people made like,
Speaker 4: you know, of course they wanted that start taking up.
Speaker 4: So the city did say, oh well, we're gonna take
Speaker 4: up the start. But if you look right above where
Speaker 4: the star was, his name is on the buildings and
Speaker 4: it says Brady nineteen twenty four because he killed.
Speaker 1: Himself that year.
Speaker 4: So a lot of it is real subtle. If you're
Speaker 4: not really paying attention to it, you wouldn't know. Even
Speaker 4: when they have we have a festival, Mayfest Festival. They
Speaker 4: moved it to Greenwood. Technically it's not on Greenwood. It
Speaker 4: happens on Detroit Elgin, but it's advertised that it's in
Speaker 4: the black Wall Street district, but not really even as
Speaker 4: concrete is brand new. We got this in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: It like this before y'all got here. You know, it's
Speaker 1: actually a flame up there that's supposed to be lych.
Speaker 4: It has not been leased in twenty twenty one. You're
Speaker 4: gonna see on the other side, it's not a foot spin.
Speaker 4: It's just a real muddy.
Speaker 1: Pond over there. But that mountain used to work until
Speaker 1: after the centennial was over, and then everything went back
Speaker 1: to what.
Speaker 4: It was, and so even the clean up of this area,
Speaker 4: stuff like that, it was really all the show did
Speaker 4: it right for six months or so and then went
Speaker 4: back to the way we normally do things. These second
Speaker 4: paragraph on theirs, what actually talks about the Greenwood district,
Speaker 4: which is the Greenwood area is something of the most
Speaker 4: devastating single incident of racial violence in.
Speaker 1: The twentieth century on June first, I'll stopped there.
Speaker 4: It actually happened May thirty first, but it was a
Speaker 4: sixteen hour battle, so.
Speaker 1: It went from May thirty first to June first.
Speaker 4: Benison's following the historic false flame was assault in twenty
Speaker 4: four hours. As many as three hundred black citizens died,
Speaker 4: thirty six square blocks, twenty three churches, and more than
Speaker 4: two thousand businesses and homes went up in flames. Again,
Speaker 4: that number is one hundred ninety seven businesses, one two
Speaker 4: hundred and fifty six homes. Fig Gray Paul hung over
Speaker 4: Toas's northern horizon for days as a result of the
Speaker 4: mass of fires, with hands raised before the guns and
Speaker 4: soldiers and estimated six thousand black men, women and children
Speaker 4: trustpassed Greenwood and Archer Streets.
Speaker 1: The temporary internment camps.
Speaker 4: Once those people got out of those internment camps, they
Speaker 4: were given tents and that's what they lived in until
Speaker 4: they were able to rebuild their facilities in their business.
Speaker 4: The person who filed all of these insurance claims, his
Speaker 4: name was Buck Colbert Franklin BC Franklin, So John Hope
Speaker 4: Franklin Park is named after his that's his son He
Speaker 4: actually filed these insurance claims from directly in front of
Speaker 4: that street, a little small tree right by the street.
Speaker 4: That's where he filed all of these insurance claims from.
Speaker 4: He did every last one of them. The city of
Speaker 4: Tulsa did actually change the fire ordinance here three days
Speaker 4: after the master to say any structure that was not
Speaker 4: fireproof the city could confiscate the land.
Speaker 1: So again this is three days after it was burned.
Speaker 4: So it was BC Franklin who sued the city of
Speaker 4: Tulsa helped get the people that land back, but then
Speaker 4: they were denied every insurance claim after that.
Speaker 1: The only claim that was paid was to J. W. McGee.
Speaker 1: He got paid for his guns and ammunition. That was
Speaker 1: a white man who lived in Greenwood.
Speaker 4: He owned a sporting goods store and his guns and
Speaker 4: ammunition was stolen, so he was paid. But nobody else
Speaker 4: on this list has ever been paid, even up until today.
Speaker 1: So the amount of two million.
Speaker 4: Seven hundred and nineteen thousand, seven hundred and forty five
Speaker 4: dollars and sixty one cents comes out to about forty
Speaker 4: eight million dollars today. If you're a numbers person, if
Speaker 4: you were to multiply that buy. I did it at
Speaker 4: one hundred years three percent a year. That number came
Speaker 4: out to two point one billion dollars, which most businesses
Speaker 4: tend to grow twelve to fifteen percent a year. I
Speaker 4: did it at three just in case they weren't no
Speaker 4: good at business, but they were, so it would have
Speaker 4: been a lot higher than that. But when you hear
Speaker 4: about the most prominent black business district, you're actually hearing
Speaker 4: about the second generation of people that were here, not
Speaker 4: the first. The first generation did make quite a bit
Speaker 4: of money, but the rebuild of Greenwood.
Speaker 1: Is actually what made the most.
Speaker 4: And then it was in the green book for the
Speaker 4: Negro motorists.
Speaker 1: It was a part of the Chittling circuit, so Nat King, Cole,
Speaker 1: Billie Holliday, they all used to come perform here.
Speaker 4: So second generation is when Greenwood actually ended up growing.
Speaker 4: So it went from one hundred and ninety seven businesses
Speaker 4: to two hundred and thirty eight, from thirty six city
Speaker 4: blocks to forty city blocks. So most people just think
Speaker 4: it was all three nineteen twenty one, but it was
Speaker 4: actually that second generation that grew out. Those buildings are
Speaker 4: that's some of the only ones that are still around.
Speaker 1: For back then that used to be a knack then.
Speaker 4: All right, so we're gonna go on the other side,
Speaker 4: check out some of the businesses and then we'll what
Speaker 4: what what breaks that just got that few years ago?
Speaker 5: Was it?
Speaker 4: I was on the ground, the ground, it just leaves over.
Speaker 6: If the second generation was prosperous more then the first.
Speaker 2: What happened? Just the freeway, that highway? What's the devastation?
Speaker 1: Yep?
Speaker 6: Domain, So the leadst the legal So this time they
Speaker 6: used legislation.
Speaker 1: Legal law. The demolished the second generation. So the reason
Speaker 1: they couldn't actually fight that Urban.
Speaker 4: Renewal was a federal program that gave each city the
Speaker 4: right to put a highway wherever they wanted. Uh, the
Speaker 4: irony is our mayor, now his grandfather is the put
Speaker 4: that highway here. He decided he wanted it there. So
Speaker 4: back then they had to pay thirty percent of your
Speaker 4: property value, at least thirty percent, so you would get
Speaker 4: thirty percent of what your property was worth. But if
Speaker 4: you didn't take the money, they were gonna tear down anyway.
Speaker 4: So it was a lout to take the money or not.
Speaker 4: But that thirty percent is also just enough for you
Speaker 4: to go rent another space but not actually buy one.
Speaker 4: And so by putting that highway there and turn it up,
Speaker 4: they did what they couldn't do the first time, which was.
Speaker 1: Take the land owner ship away.
Speaker 4: So once the land was taken from the people, there
Speaker 4: was no way for them to rebuild. And since Greenwood's
Speaker 4: second generation, that has not been a black on gas
Speaker 4: station since then. He just got the first black on
Speaker 4: grocery store two years ago, or there's not been a
Speaker 4: black on hotel here or anything like that. So these
Speaker 4: are the ones that were burned. This is all one
Speaker 4: hundred and ninety seven of them. It does have a
Speaker 4: US Federal post office here, so technically to burn the
Speaker 4: Greenwoods should have been a federal crime. It was not
Speaker 4: tried as a federal crime. But if you would have
Speaker 4: burned a post office today, you are going.
Speaker 1: To the fix. There's quite a few hotels on here.
Speaker 4: Fourteen different hotels in Greenwood the first time, and then
Speaker 4: they had sixteen.
Speaker 1: The second time.
Speaker 4: Barry Jones' parents had a private school, and then Madam C. J.
Speaker 4: Walker had a beauty parlor here. It actually used to
Speaker 4: be right underneath where the highway is too.
Speaker 1: And then what else.
Speaker 4: This is a list of the black doctors with practice
Speaker 4: in this area up until two thousand and then it
Speaker 4: was two thousand and six. We didn't have this many
Speaker 4: black doctors in the entire city until two thousand and six.
Speaker 4: So Greenwood had it first. How many have y'all ever
Speaker 4: been to a black owned hospital?
Speaker 1: Don't look he there? Yeah, I didn't even know this
Speaker 1: was a thing. That's wrong. Okay, well, yeah you an.
Speaker 1: S Pristill Memorial was the first hospital they had here,
Speaker 1: and then it was more than the second time. But
Speaker 1: if you're from the South, we call it Moton, then
Speaker 1: it ain't Morton to us. Been my favorite. They would
Speaker 1: have had a waffle house down here. I don't know
Speaker 1: why I love wafe house what I do? It would
Speaker 1: have been right where that white van is over there.
Speaker 1: I was Cameron Street. So once they rebuilt.
Speaker 4: It, they put it there, and then the highway toy
Speaker 4: up Camon Street.
Speaker 1: All right, who else is gonna hear? Jackson undertaking company?
Speaker 4: That is actually Michael Jackson's family. Tito Jackson comes here
Speaker 4: a few times a year. That's Joe Jackson's uncle. Wish
Speaker 4: they'd have found that out with Michael was still here,
Speaker 4: because maybe he had pulled up it actually is still
Speaker 4: functioning now though it's called Jack's Funeral Service now, but
Speaker 4: that one used to be here.
Speaker 1: What else.
Speaker 4: Couston had their own libraries here, Cotton Clubs.
Speaker 1: So listen to Knox.
Speaker 4: He was actually from Harlem, so he brought his guy
Speaker 4: the Club from Harlem to here and.
Speaker 6: He plans for a memorial for the second generation of
Speaker 6: success in Tosa. I want to get your name for
Speaker 6: Victor lu Lucker's son, Lucas Lucasen.
Speaker 2: Okay, Victor Lucasen.
Speaker 6: This is Malik from Malik's Bookshelf bringing the world together
Speaker 6: with books, culture and community. And when I see an author,
Speaker 6: especially a non fiction author, I like to get some
Speaker 6: words about their book and just what inspired you to
Speaker 6: write Built from the Fire.
Speaker 2: So Victor Lucason tell us.
Speaker 6: About this wonderful new book that was released.
Speaker 2: By Random House, Built from the Fire.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I'm Victim. I'm the author Built from the Fire.
Speaker 5: My book just came out in May, and it's really
Speaker 5: a full account of the Greenwood's history. You're gonna learn
Speaker 5: about not only the race massacre, that traumatic event, but
Speaker 5: also the building up of Greenwood. You know, how they
Speaker 5: created this eating of the western Oklahoma how they rebuild
Speaker 5: it after the race masker, what's going on there now?
Speaker 5: Afi followed several families for generations across Greenwood, so you
Speaker 5: really get that generation of saga and learn about black
Speaker 5: folks doing for themselves, working together, building you know something
Speaker 5: that we all now idolizing Revere in Black Wall Street.
Speaker 1: That's really what this story is about.
Speaker 5: It's about black success, Black holid aarity, black community.
Speaker 1: Wow. Wow.
Speaker 2: Why is that important?
Speaker 6: If people know this history and learns in what happened
Speaker 6: here at Tasa Oklahom.
Speaker 5: I mean, one reason it's important is because none of
Speaker 5: us got taught at in school. You know, I didn't
Speaker 5: learn this in school. My friends didn't learn it. I
Speaker 5: didn't need you know what I mean? But this is,
Speaker 5: this is this is vital American history, not only because
Speaker 5: of the race Master, but because of that idea of
Speaker 5: black success. We don't get taught about black success when
Speaker 5: we're young people in America, and so I think getting
Speaker 5: those kind of lessons two people of all ages is vital.
Speaker 5: And that's why there's a book, as I said, really
Speaker 5: focuses on the black experience in Greenwood, the way this
Speaker 5: folks were able to overcome so many obstacles across generations,
Speaker 5: and so are so are today We're near agree with
Speaker 5: right now, and we saw basually are facing here in
Speaker 5: this community right now that folks are working to overcome.
Speaker 2: You know, I just found out that.
Speaker 6: The Massacre from nineteen twenty one that they rebuilt and
Speaker 6: it was the imminent domain that destroyed the prosperity in
Speaker 6: the building of you know, after the nineteen twenty one
Speaker 6: touch on that for me a little bit because I
Speaker 6: just found that out today.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So Greenwood was rebuilt after the race of Massacre
Speaker 5: had a second heyday thirties, forties and fifties. For the
Speaker 5: nineteen sixties, the government put a highway right in the
Speaker 5: middle of the neighborhood. It is still there today. And
Speaker 5: also with emminent domain, they took hundreds of properties from
Speaker 5: black landowners in that era. And so my book goes
Speaker 5: through in great detail all that I'm folded that kind
Speaker 5: of second theft of the neighborhood in the book.
Speaker 1: I call it slower burn, that.
Speaker 5: Second destruction and the strain point I understanding that history
Speaker 5: too to really understand why black communities are the way
Speaker 5: they are today across the United States.
Speaker 2: I got one more.
Speaker 6: Question because you probably get this question sometimes, why bring
Speaker 6: up this old history when this is twenty twenty three
Speaker 6: and we should just move on. Can you talk about
Speaker 6: how you address those types of questions, Why we bring
Speaker 6: it up old history and bringing up killing off the
Speaker 6: band aid of old wounds when we should be just
Speaker 6: focusing on to now and getting along now. And how
Speaker 6: can we get along if we keep ripping off the
Speaker 6: band aid?
Speaker 2: About these my slinkers and I mean my singers.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Well, the first thing you got to understand is
Speaker 5: that American history is.
Speaker 1: Not a line, it's a circle. You know.
Speaker 5: We live in cycles in this community, in this country,
Speaker 5: and so when you learn about Greenwood, a lot of ways,
Speaker 5: you're learning about some of the obits we may be
Speaker 5: facing in the future. The race masker was violent, yes,
Speaker 5: but we have racer of violence going on right now
Speaker 5: in America. That kind of violence and hatred, it can
Speaker 5: always re emerge. So there's no way we can bury
Speaker 5: the history because we're always dealing with it in this country.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, and we need to be mindful that this can
Speaker 6: be repeated if we don't learn the lessons from yesterday.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's things that's.
Speaker 6: Going around right now and just systematic and discriminating in
Speaker 6: people and gentrification and destruction of our culture and our history.
Speaker 6: It's still happening today, banned books.
Speaker 2: So you know, give me your.
Speaker 6: Final thoughts and from my audience on Belief's bookshelf.
Speaker 5: Well, you know, I think learning, learning our through is vital,
Speaker 5: Learning true history is vital. There's so many challenges to
Speaker 5: our true history going on right now across the United States.
Speaker 5: So whether you read my book or anybody else's book,
Speaker 5: that's accurate, that's true, that's courageous. That's want people to
Speaker 5: embrace that true Black history because that's all we got.
Speaker 6: You heard it first hand, so you gotta pick your
Speaker 6: copy up. Built from the Fire by Victor Lucason.
Speaker 2: I gotta get it right, get it tight.
Speaker 6: Thanks for listening to Malik's bookshelf with topics on the
Speaker 6: shelf are books, culture, and community.
Speaker 2: Be sure to subscribe and leave me a review. Check
Speaker 2: out my instagram at Maleak Books. See you next time.