{"id":9581,"date":"2021-05-18T09:08:09","date_gmt":"2021-05-18T09:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/media-archive.blackartinamerica.com\/?p=9581"},"modified":"2021-05-18T13:00:55","modified_gmt":"2021-05-18T13:00:55","slug":"tulsa-100-the-art-of-looking-back-to-move-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthexhibitions.org\/media-archive\/?p=9581","title":{"rendered":"Tulsa 100: The Art of Looking Back to Move Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tulsa 100: <\/b>The Art of Looking Back to Move Forward<\/b><\/p>\n

by D. Amari Jackson<\/span><\/pre>\n
Black Wall Street. For many African Americans, the name evokes a nostalgic, near-magical period in history, a time where Black people thrived, self-contained in their own communities and mostly unencumbered by the hostile white communities surrounding them, ever-threatening, but somehow kept at bay. Black Wall Street was larger than any one community given the moniker has been applied to several successful African American communities about the nation in the first half of the 20th century including the Hayti Community in Durham, North Carolina;<\/span> the Fourth Avenue District in Birmingham, Alabama;<\/span> Jackson Ward in Richmond, Virginia;<\/span> and the city of\u00a0 Boley, Oklahoma.<\/span><\/p>\n
That acknowledged, a mere hour from Boley, lies the city with the community most associated with this fruitful moniker, the Greenwood District<\/span> of<\/span> Tulsa, Oklahoma.<\/span> At the end of the month, between May 31 and June 1, the city commemorates<\/span> the 100th anniversary of the heinous race massacre that destroyed<\/span> the Greenwood District, at the time one of the wealthiest Black communities in the United States. The sizable <\/span>schedule of events<\/span><\/a><\/span> includes panels, lectures, \u00a0 festivals, commemorative services, concerts, dedications, and additional activities involving arts and cultural organizations, government, businesses, and celebrities, both local and national. \u201cThis has galvanized our city,\u201d reported Phil Armstrong, project manager for the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission, to the <\/span>Oklahoman<\/span><\/i>. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u201cIt has coalesced the private sector, the nonprofit foundations, the community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
Today, in the very heart of this community, stands the <\/span>Black Wall Street Gallery<\/span><\/a><\/span>, the artistic and symbolic reminder of the storied community that was, and how art can inspire a more humane and viable city going forward.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
For such is the value of art. \u201cArt is a universal language, it is open to all,\u201d proclaims Dr. Ricco Wright,<\/span> owner of<\/span> Black Wall Street Gallery and a fourth-generation Tulsan who was schooled in<\/span> group economics by a great grandfather that lived through the height of Black Wall Street.<\/span> \u201cIt is also subjective, so there\u2019s no right or wrong. Everybody can create art.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
As a collector consumed with building generational wealth through art, Wright founded the Tulsa gallery in September 2018 after initially hosting a series of popular art events he labeled the \u201cBlack Wall Street Soiree\u201d at his home.<\/span> \u201cNobody was doing anything with respect to art in Greenwood,\u201d says Wright, noting<\/span> \u201cthere were no Black-owned galleries in the state of Oklahoma at the time.\u201d Upon opening, Wright launched<\/span> \u201cThe Conciliation Series,\u201d<\/span> pairing Black and white artists of various media each month for a year.<\/span> The popular series brought thousands of people to Greenwood who\u2019d never been there before, prompting increased networking between people of different races along with increased sales of Black art to white buyers.<\/span> \u201cI didn\u2019t like all the talk about reconciliation,\u201d stresses Wright. \u201cReconciliation means restoring friendly relations, which presupposes that they were established to begin with. You can\u2019t tell me the slave and the slave owner were friendly. You can’t tell me that a massacre was friendly. You can\u2019t tell me that redlining and gentrification are friendly.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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Devin Allen, Untitled, 2020, 24 x 36 in, @bydvnlln, (via BWS Gallery Instagram)<\/p><\/div>\n
Consistently, the rich and tragic legacy<\/span> of Black Wall Street, and the art it spawned, has implications far beyond Tulsa as the story reflects the checkered racial and economic dynamics of a nation still struggling to correct itself, to come to grips with its violent heritage. Recently, Wright significantly expanded this legacy by opening a Black Wall Street Gallery in New York City in the fall of 2020.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>On May 27th, the gallery will honor the 100<\/span>th<\/span> anniversary by presenting \u201c21 Piece Salute,\u201d an exhibition featuring 21 Black artists from around the world and a \u201csalute to the ancestors who lost their lives during the massacre,\u201d explains Wright. \u201cIt\u2019s also a way for us to tell the world that we believe Black art is the future, and that we will build generational wealth through art.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
But such a healthy and viable future first comes, particularly in Tulsa, with an honest acknowledgement of the past. Unfortunately, there are those who still practice the art of minimizing the <\/span>extent of the massacre<\/span><\/a><\/span> a century ago; those who <\/span>support legislation<\/span><\/a><\/span> to the same effect; and those who still unknowingly or uncaringly refer to the horrific event as a series of \u201crace riots.\u201d The \u201cTulsa Race Riots\u201d of 1921 remains a common misnomer; it was clearly not a riot, but a massacre by a bloodthirsty white mob set on destroying the independent, affluent Black mecca that bordered their less viable communities. It is regarded as one of the worst episodes of racial violence in American history.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Initially<\/span> dubbed \u201cNegro Wall Street\u201d by prominent educator Booker T. Washington,<\/span> commercial enterprises thrived along Tulsa\u2019s Greenwood Avenue in the early 20<\/span>th<\/span> century as the epicenter of one of the wealthiest African American communities in the country. Anchored by oil-rich land, thousands of able, economically-minded Black residents and families engaged each other daily in commerce, farming, construction, networking, social activities, and community planning and development. Over a 12-hour period<\/span> between May 31 and June 1, 1921, local white mobs, enabled and aided by local white officials, rampaged and murdered Black men, women, and children with an arsenal including guns, knives, clubs, and circling airplanes carrying bombs and machine guns.<\/span> Ostensibly triggered by the alleged assault of a white elevator operator by a Black man, the prosperous Greenwood District was looted and burned to the ground<\/span> leaving close to 8000 people homeless and causing others to flee their city and never return. Over 35 blocks and 1200 homes were destroyed, martial law declared, and thousands of Black residents imprisoned. The estimated death toll has since ranged from 80 to 400 residents; eyewitness accounts state that hundreds were buried in mass graves.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
One such account\u2014published after being recovered in 2015 and subsequently donated to the Smithsonian\u2019s National Museum of African American History and Culture\u2014was <\/span>penned<\/span><\/a><\/span> by Oklahoma attorney Buck Colbert Franklin, the father of prominent African American historian, John Hope Franklin.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cI could see planes circling in mid-air,\u201d<\/span><\/i> wrote Franklin. <\/span>\u201cThey grew in number and hummed, darted and dipped low. I could hear something like hail falling upon the top of my office building. Down East Archer, I saw the old Mid-Way hotel on fire, burning from its top, and then another and another and another building began to burn from their top\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cThe side-walks were literally covered with burning turpentine balls,\u201d<\/span><\/i> reported Franklin.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cI knew all too well where they came from, and I knew all too well why every burning building first caught from the top\u2026 I paused and waited for an opportune time to escape\u2026 Where oh where is our splendid fire department with its half dozen stations\u2026 Is the city in conspiracy with the mob?\u201d<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
No white person was ever convicted of a single crime for the massacre.<\/span> Nonetheless,<\/span> incredibly, the Greenwood community<\/span> was quickly rebuilt by its surviving residents and, though it never enjoyed the economic prosperity it once had, it thrived for three decades before declining in the face of an aging community, lost generational wealth, and the changing economic and social dynamics of the mid-20<\/span>th<\/span> century.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Since 2001, despite the Tulsa Race Riot Commission\u2019s production of a report detailing the damage from the massacre, all attempts at securing reparations for its survivors have failed. Few American history textbooks mention the massacre. Most Americans <\/span>know little to nothing<\/span><\/a><\/span> about it.<\/span><\/p>\n
The national attention being directed toward the 100<\/span>th<\/span> anniversary should change some of that. And, appropriately, art will continue to play a central role in this quest for conciliation and recovery, this Sankofan process of<\/span> looking back to move forward.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cThe special thing about being Black is that we curate culture through art,\u201d says Wright, noting \u201cwe\u2019ve been doing this since the beginning of time. You can go all the way back to ancient Egypt. Those pyramids are art. They call it architecture.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cWe use art as a vehicle to build community,\u201d insists Wright, tapping into such<\/span> Black Wall Street Gallery themes as commemoration, truth, healing, conciliation, progress, wealth, and, ultimately, human expression. \u201cWho doesn’t enjoy some aspect of art, whether it’s painting, photography, music, dance, all of it is some form of expression,\u201d he offers. \u201cAnd, as humans, we desire to express ourselves. So when you think about what\u2019s at the core of humanity, the answer is art.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
Wright is crystal clear that if any community seeks to thrive or regenerate itself in a viable way, as his native Tulsa strives to do, the answer is the same.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s never been any civilization that prospered without art,\u201d promotes Wright. \u201cBecause the artists are the ones who speak the truth. Whether you\u2019re talking poets, painters, writers, or otherwise, these are all artists. It\u2019s not the politicians. It\u2019s not the philanthropist. It\u2019s not the economists,\u201d clarifies Wright.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the artists.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
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\"\"AMARI JACKSON\u00a0<\/b>is a creator, author, TV\/web\/film producer, and award-winning journalist. He is author of the 2011 novel,\u00a0The Savion Sequence<\/i>; creator\/writer\/coproducer of the 2012-2014 web series\u00a0The Book Look<\/i>; writer\/coproducer of the 2016 film\u00a0Edge of the Pier<\/i>; and current writer\/coproducer of\u00a0Listen Up!<\/i>\u00a0on HBCU GO\/Roku TV. He is a former Chief of Staff for a NJ State Senator; a former VP of Communications & Development for the Jamestown Project at Harvard University; and a recipient of several writing fellowships including the George Washington Williams Fellowship from the Independent Press Association. An active ghost writer, song writer, martial artist, and journalist, his writings have appeared in a wide variety of national and regional publications.<\/p>\n
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