President Joe Biden travelled to Tulsa, Oklahoma on Tuesday to mark the 100th anniversary of one of the bloodiest episodes of racist violence in the US, when a white mob destroyed 35 blocks of a flourishing Black neighbourhood in Greenwood, displaced thousands of residents, and killed as many as 300 people within 14 hours beginning on 31 May, 1921.
The president – the first within the last century to address the massacre from Tulsa – also met with the three known living survivors, who continue to press for justice for the atrocities.
“As painful as it is, only in remembrance do wounds heal,” the president said in his remarks, arguing for a national recognition of the country’s history of racist violence.
The US must “come to terms with its dark side” as other great nations do, he said.
“We just have to choose to remember,” he said. “Memorialise what happened here in Tulsa so it can’t be erased.”
The anniversary of the attack also has revived discussions about the decades of systemic injustice that followed, not just in Tulsa but across the US, as the White House unveils a new series of proposals and administration goals aimed at repairing discriminatory policies and reversing the white-Black wealth gap.
“Disinvestment in Black families in Tulsa and across the country throughout our history is still felt sharply today,” the White House said.
Thousands of people have gathered in Tulsa to commemorate the anniversary at vigils, memorials, discussions and other events.
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