Back in the day, the Gap Band had a big hit with “You Dropped a Bomb on Me.” The group is from Tulsa, Okla., where in 1921 white vigilantes looted and burned America’s most prosperous black community. More than 300 people were killed, 1,200 homes and businesses destroyed, and 10,000 citizens displaced.
As my friend Harvard Law Prof. Charles A. Ogletree Jr. likes to tell audiences, the band’s name memorializes the site of the race riot. Gap is short for Greenwood Avenue, and Archer and Pine streets that were the heart of the Greenwood business district known as the “Black Wall Street.”
Ogletree is the lead counsel in a lawsuit to get reparations for the survivors, who include Otis Clark, 105, Dr. Olivia Hooker, 93, Wesley Young, 91, and Dr. John Hope Franklin. Dr. Franklin’s father’s law office was burned down by the white mob.
The time for justice is long overdue. To commemorate the 87th anniversary of one of the worst acts of domestic terrorism in U.S. history, there will be a series of events in Tulsa this weekend.
The events will include the premiere of “Before They Die,” the story of the survivors’ four-year search for justice through the federal court system. Reggie Turner, the film’s director and producer, said:
The victims of 9/11, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the Japanese-Americans from the World War II internment camps have all been compensated. The survivors of the Tulsa Race Riot are still waiting, hoping that they will see justice and compensation before they die.
The film is the cornerstone of an effort to generate knowledge of this hidden historical event, and to stimulate Americans to contribute online to provide compensation directly to the victims. The non-profit, Tulsa Project Fund Inc. has been established specifically for that purpose. Our goal is to accomplish what the legal and legislative branches of our government have failed to do. To right this wrong, to no longer simply look backward: To Step Forward from our history, by embracing our present responsibility to make life better for these victims while we have to opportunity to do so.
There will also be a march and town hall meeting featuring the survivors, religious and civic leaders from across the country, and members of the legal team.
For more info on the March on Tulsa, please go here.
For background info on the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, please visit the Tulsa City-County Library African American Resource Center.
You can view the trailer for “Before They Die” here.
