day 12: tulsa: greenwood rising, plus more street art

This morning we opted not to wake up early to stand in line for baked goods, choosing a slower morning over local colour. We didn't even fulfill our alternate intention of getting downtown before the Mayfest crowds. But we did check off everything on our list for the day. 

I bought the fish

Back in the Tulsa Arts District, we walked around the festival for a bit and got some food. I showed Allan the art I fell in love with the day before. Fortunately I came to my senses and did not buy something that cost more than my monthly mortgage payment purely for esthetic purposes. 

We saw some smaller (and less expensive) pieces, and were chatting a bit with the artist. He asked where we were visiting from, and upon hearing "Canada," he brought up the political situation in the US, practically out of nowhere. I was really surprised. People are not talking about it with strangers. I tread carefully at first, feeling him out, and quickly learned he was a good guy. We had a good talk, but it was very unexpected. 

And then... I bought the fish. The bottlecap fish I posted yesterday. I have plans for a grouping of a colourful wooden fish we bought in Oaxaca about a million years ago, a replica Gaudi (Park Guell) lizard, a colourful wooden streetscape from St. John's (Newfoundland), and this fish. 

I can well understand why Tulsa has this annual festival in May. It was 78 F / 25 C early in the day, heading for the 85 F / 29 C. Shade was at a premium. 

We found the murals

We found all the Arts District murals, which includes the one pictured here. In case you don't know: the date is "Bloomsday," the day that James Joyce's famous novel Ulysses takes place; the YES! is from the book's famous ending; the glasses are Joyce's; and the glass is that iconic Irish beverage: a pint of Guinness.

I look forward to posting pics of all the murals on Flickr. It's quite a collection. 

Greenwood lives

We left the festival for the Greenwood District, again less than a 10 minute walk. Greenwood is the location of the former "Black Wall Street," the thriving Black community that was the site of one of the most shameful moments in US history, the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. The neighbourhood has been rebuilt, but was destroyed all over again, cut up and cut off by a highway. What wasn't destroyed by bullets and fire was later destroyed by so-called urban renewal.

We found and shot more murals, then went to Greenwood Rising, a museum about the Black experience in Tulsa, focusing on the massacre. It was truly excellent -- very interactive, very strong and honest, emotionally gripping (how could it not be), but with a focus on resiliency and hope. 

The story is a nightmare. If it was fiction it would be too wildly unbelievable; people would say the author laid it on too thick. 

Black people came to Oklahoma to escape Jim Crow. In Oklahoma, Native Americans (most of them there through forced relocation), white people, and Black people were living in relative peace and cooperation. Then oil was discovered, and white people came to claim it in large numbers. One of their first order of business was to pass a whack of Jim Crow laws.

Blacks were only allowed to live in one part of town. They couldn't go to white schools, visit white doctors or dentists, go to a white barbershop. So, as in so many American cities, Black people built an alternative universe, a Black one. Greenwood was a vibrant, thriving place that came to be known as the Negro Wall Street. And the success of that community ate away at the dominant white establishment.

A group of Black men came to the courthouse to try to prevent a lynching. Any time a young Black male was accused of "assaulting" a white woman (which could mean he didn't lower his head and look away as she passed, or didn't do that fast enough, or almost anything else), townspeople would storm the jail, drag the man out, and lynch him. This was happening all over the south, in great numbers. In Greenwood, men were determined to prevent that.

The Black men gathered, some of them armed. The idea of this so outraged white people, that they attacked the Black crowd, and then -- vastly outnumbering the Black residents -- visited a deadly pogrom on Greenwood. They shot anyone they saw, no matter their gender or age. They looted the shops and houses. And they burned down the entire community. Burned to the ground.

And then... The wild, murderous lawlessness was blamed on the victims, and publicized as an "uprising". Survivors were forced into internment camps and needed passes and permission to leave.  Tulsa never acknowledged what happened, and no reparations were made. After much agitation, this finally changed in 2020.

I really appreciated the strong, honest language used in the exhibits. For example, the Ku Klux Klan is very rightly called a "domestic terrorist group". I think most Americans have a different mental image of terrorism, but Black Americans have always lived under the threat of terrorism, whether that was the auction block, slave catchers, lynching, or racist policing.

Books and more books

The museum was a very emotional experience. After, we went next door to Fulton Street Books and Coffee, to decompress. They have an excellent collection of books on Greenwood and antiracism, along with some queer titles. 

On the way back to the car, we ducked into Magic City Books, to confirm how many Greenwood-related titles they had on display. I had guessed 12, and Allan thought I was exaggerating or misremembering. Guess what? There were 22 titles! I will update that post.

Because I bought the Bottlecap Fish, I did not buy the graphic novel about Woody Guthrie's Dustbowl Ballads. I believe I am owed a medal for my restraint.

Allan dropped me at the Airbnb, then headed off to find Gardner's Used Books, Oklahoma's biggest bookstore. I spent a few hours on the lovely, shaded deck, reading, writing, and relaxing. 

Our trip is almost over. Still to come: the Red Sox at Kansas City, the John Brown Historic Site (which we learned about on the drive to Tulsa), and one more barbecue dinner. Then we drive to St. Louis, stay one night at an airport motel, maybe eat more Mexican food. May 13 is a very long travel day, then... puppies!! We can't wait to see them.