‘Black Wall Street’: Trump’s plan for rally in Tulsa calls attention to 1921 race massacre

https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/3179886001

The history of the massacre in the area, which was also known as “Black Wall Street,” has shined a spotlight on the formation of an affluent Black community and the gruesome events that destroyed it. 

In 1921, a white mob attacked a predominantly Black area in Tulsa, killing hundreds of people and destroying the country’s wealthiest African-American community. Its abrupt demise and similar incidents around the country during that period played a role in widening the racial wealth divide, experts say.   

Part of what enranged critics, Trump had planned to speak to supporters on June 19, or Juneteenth, known as Emancipation Day — the date in 1865 when a Union general traveled to Galveston, Texas to read President Lincoln’s orders freeing the slaves.

“This isn’t just a wink to white supremacists—he’s throwing them a welcome home party,” Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., tweeted Thursday. 

‘Black Wall Street’: Trump’s plan for rally in Tulsa calls attention to 1921 race massacre