Biden came to Tulsa to “break the silence” about …

United States President Joe Biden visited the town of Tulsa, Oklahoma on Tuesday to “help break the silence” which has long hinged on one of the worst episodes of racial violence in history from the country. The Democratic president met with three survivors from the Greenwood neighborhood on the centenary of the murder of at least 300 African Americans and asked for a memory because “you cannot bury the pain and the drama forever.” In addition economic aid measures announced for the population black with the aim of facilitating access to property and the creation of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Between May 31 and June 1, 1921, a mob of white men, in collusion with the National Guard, looted and burned more than 1,200 houses, almost completely wiping out the then prosperous neighborhood of Greenwood. Biden became the first sitting president to visit the venue on this special date. He did so after the wave of racial justice protests in the United States last year, sparked by the death of African American George Floyd after being suffocated by a white cop in Minneapolis.

“The factThe ones we are talking about happened 100 years ago, and yet I am the first president in 100 years to come to Tulsa. “said Biden, who said he wanted to “recognize the truth” of the tragedy. The Democratic president also assured that the vote of the black population “is under attack” and expressed: “I came here to help break the silence. Because in the silence the wounds deepen.”.

“It wasn’t riots, it was a massacre and one of the worst in our history”Biden pointed out of Tulsa and ended his speech by comparing white supremacist atrocities in the past with extremist threats in the present. The president recalled that one of the few survivors of the Tulsa massacre, Viola Fletcher, he said that when he saw the uprising on Capitol Hill on January 6 it “broke his heart” and “reminded him of what happened” 100 years ago. “Take a look around you at the various hate crimes against Asian and Jewish Americans. Hatred is never overcome, it hides. If your leaders get just a little oxygen, it reappears“Biden warned.

Before giving your message, the democratic leader He toured the Greenwood Cultural Center, viewed photos from the time, then met behind closed doors with three survivors, aged 101 to 107: Viola Fletcher, Hughes Van Ellis and Lessie Benningfield Randle. He also took advantage of his visit to Tulsa to announce a battery of initiatives “to reduce the racial economic gap and invest in communities left behind by failed policies”the White House reported in a statement.

Biden explained in this sense some of his main economic initiatives. pointed out that Black homeownership rate is lower today than it was in 1950 when the Fair Access to Housing Act was passed, and he pledged “all funds” at his disposal for it to be Investing in “American workers to produce American goods that benefit small and medium entrepreneurs, especially blacks and blacks”.

Beyond these specific announcements, the Biden administration has listed a series of points that are already included in its ambitious infrastructure plan being negotiated with the Republicans. Among these policies is create a $ 10 billion fund to support infrastructure projects that revitalize the poorest communities; and $ 15 billion to remodel existing infrastructure and remove the barriers that isolate certain regions. The measures will affect the whole country although they are designed to stimulate communities like Tulsa.

Biden came to this Oklahoma City to commemorate the centenary of a massacre that began after a group of black men went to the local courthouse to defend a young African American accused of assaulting a woman. The next day, hundreds of white men reacted vehemently by looting and burning on the ground the district of Greenwood, which at the time was so prosperous that it was known as “Black Wall Street”.

For decades, we talked about riots and we never even looked at the number of blacks killed, injured or lost all they had. A commission did not determine until 2001 that up to 300 black residents of Tusla had been killed in the fierce attack, and that thousands more were held for several weeks in camps guarded by the National Guard. Oklahoma.. The police, who did not try to prevent the massacre, even armed some of the rioters.

The Oklahoma Board of Inquiry recommended that Greenwood residents receive compensation, which has yet to happen.. The desire for transparency was recently revealed by excavations to find the mass graves where the many black victims were buried.

Monday, the mayor of Tulsa, Georges bynum, he officially apologized for “the town’s inability to protect” the community in 1921. Kristi williams, a local activist and descendant of massacre victims, wants Biden to do justice. “A hundred years ago, they paralyzed our homes, our economic development, our land was taken from us”. Today the country “has the opportunity to correct this mistake,” he said.

The effects of destruction continue to be felt in Oklahoma City, a former southern slave state and Ku Klux Klan stronghold.. The inequalities between the predominantly black north of Tulsa and the predominantly white south are stark.

Visitors to Tulsa “can’t believe how much segregation still exists or how racism is manifesting itself,” said Michelle Brown, educational programs manager at the local cultural center. “It hasn’t changed, we remain segregated,” said Billie Parker, a 50-year-old black woman who grew up in Tulsa.

Dozens of people gathered in the drizzle before Biden arrived. The inhabitants rubbed shoulders with people who had come exclusively to attend the tribute. Khalid Kamau, 44, said he came from Georgia not so much to commemorate the massacre as to celebrating what was once a “thriving and self-sufficient black community”. “If it has existed once, it can exist again”, he claimed.

Many believe it is time for the state to help Tulsa regain the prosperity lost in 1921. “Here there is only grass but there was investment, there was wealth, there was life”the Texas Democrat MP recalled Sheila Jackson Lee. On April 19, some of the last survivors traveled to Washington to testify before Congress and call on the country to acknowledge their suffering.

Beyond the compensations, the inhabitants hope that this opportunity will serve to publicize this drama which has long become a taboo subject. In order to Shaundra Haughton, 51 years old, great-granddaughter of the survivors of the massacre, “It’s time to heal, it’s time to tell the truth and it’s time to bring it all to light”.