ABSTRACT
How are race massacres remembered and memorialized? And, how useful are constructed public memory and memorialization projects in suppressing a history of Black Rage? We explore these two questions by looking at the Tulsa Race Massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that occurred on May 31, 1921, and the circumstances that followed. Recently, the Tulsa Massacre and the accompanying business district of Greenwood more publicly known as “Black Wall Street” have become a fixture of United States’ folklore. Boasting about an independent Black “city” where Black people owned everything, there are now attempts to recreate the idea of Black Wall Street in modern cities despite said idea never truly existing as an independent city nor a thriving economic center like Wall Street. Here, we explore the origins of the myths surrounding Black Wall Street and more importantly analyze why this story is laundered for State purposes.
