Joe Biden became the first president to take part in Âremembrances of one of the darkest moments of racial violence in the US when he helped commemorate the 100th anniversary of the destruction of what was known as 바카라˜Black Wall Street바카라™ in Tulsa, ÂOklahoma. Biden바카라™s visit, in which he grieved for the more than 300 Black people killed by a white mob, came amid a national reckoning on racial justÂice. And it will stand in stark contrast to his predecessor Donald Trump바카라™s Tulsa visit last year, reports the Associated Press.
In 1921바카라”on May 31 and June 1바카라”Tulsa바카라™s white residents looted Tulsa바카라™s Greenwood district and burned it to the ground. They even used planes to drop projectiles on it. Thousands of survivors were forced for a time into internment camps overseen by the National Guard. Burned bricks and a fragment of a church basement are about all that survive today of the more than 30-block historically Black district.
Despite its horror, the Tulsa massacre has only recently entered the national discourse바카라”and the presidential visit put an even brighter Âspotlight on it. Historians say the massacre began after a local Ânewspaper drummed up a furore over a Black man accused of Âstepping on a white girl바카라™s foot. When Black Tulsans showed up with guns to Âprevent the man바카라™s lynching, white residents responded with Âoverwhelming force.
Tensions persist 100 years later. Organisers called off a headline Âcommemoration of the massacre바카라™s 100th anniversary, saying no Âagreement could be reached over monetary payments to three survivors. It highlights broader debates over reparations for racial injustice. ÂReparations for Black Americans whose ancestors were enslaved and for other forms of racial discrimination have been debated in the US since slavery ended in 1865. Biden, who was vice president to the nation바카라™s first Black president and chose a Black woman as his vice president, backs a study of reparations, both in Tulsa and more broadly.
Trump visited Tulsa last year under vastly different circumstances. After suspending his campaign rallies because of the Covid pandemic, Trump chose Tulsa as the place to mark his return. But his decision to schedule the rally on June 19, the holiday known as Juneteenth that commemorates the end of slavery in the US, was met with fierce Âcriticism. Trump was frequently accused of using racist rhetoric when painting apocalyptic바카라”and inaccurate바카라”scenes of American cities.
