After emancipation, the Greenwood community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, served as an example of what African Americans could build in a free world. So-called “Black Wall Street” epitomized a community built around entrepreneurship, social responsibility, freedom, and neighborly love. They embodied American ideals of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” as much as anyone else.
Until the jealous white mob got involved in 1921. One night, in response to false accusations against a black citizen, this white mob burned the Greenwood community to the ground and murdered hundreds (we don’t have a count) of black citizens. Those who remained had to flee and encounter a new life of poverty and Jim Crow racism. Viola Ford Fletcher, the oldest living survivor of this tragedy, tells her story here.
The recent Black Lives Matter movement brought a new spotlight on historic injustices done – and still being done – to the African-American community all over the United States. The Tulsa Massacre was one of those featured in this movement. In response, Fletcher and her family were invited to testify before Congress and provide her account of what happened that fateful day. She expands on that story here in her memoir.
Her account of the day in 1921 reminded me of accounts of the Rwandan genocides in the 1990s. Today, many white people think that such things only happen in “uncivilized Africa.” Fletcher reminds us that such inhumanity occurred even in 20th-century America, only by the white mob. Even sadder were the effects that day had on Fletcher’s entire life. Instead of a stable home in a healthy community, she had to live out of a tent with her family for years. Her education stopped in the fourth grade. For decades, she was oppressed by Jim Crow racism. Bosses swindled her, and she lived in poverty. Her dreams were mostly halted.
Nonetheless, like many black Americans who have been mistreated in history, she persevered and clung to American ideals of liberty and equality. To drink a little of that fine, aged wine is why this book deserves to be read. Yes, it reminds us of the inhumanity people do to people. Yes, it tells of tragic suffering. But it also speaks of a noble character – Fletcher herself – whose determination can inspire us all, of any skin color. Though her court case ultimately failed, I’m glad she received some taste of a good life and recognition before she dies. May her tribe increase and those swept under by history receive their just rewards, too.
Don’t Let Them Bury My Story: The Oldest Living Survivor of the Tulsa Massacre in Her Own Words
By Viola Ford Fletcher & Ike Howard
Copyright (c) 2023
Mocha Media
ISBN13 9781737168409
Page Count: 140
Genre: Memoir
www.amazon.com