Greenwood, 1921: One of the worst race massacres

swing_voter · Jun 20, 2020

What began as an attempted lynching at the jail erupted into a massacre. From a high grain elevator, a machine gun laid fire on Greenwood Avenue.

John W. Franklin: Where's the fire department? Where's the police when we need them? We're part of a city. This is not some small town. This is a city of wealth and order, and governance. It's now been taken over by a mob.

The police joined the mob. National Guard troops pressed the attack against what one guard officer called "the enemy." Quotes from eyewitnesses include, "old women and men, children were running and screaming everywhere." A deputy sheriff reported a black man dragged behind a car, "his head was being bashed in, the deputy said, bouncing on the steel rails and bricks." But what happened next may have frightened Buck Franklin even more.

John W. Franklin: And he hears planes circling and sees roofs of buildings catching fire. And these are from turpentine balls, burning turpentine balls dropped from planes.

Robert Turner: The first time in American history that airplanes were used to terrorize America was not in 9/11, was not at Pearl Harbor, it was right here in the Greenwood District.

Greenwood, 1921: One of the worst race massacres in American history - 60 Minutes - CBS News

So this white girl and black guy get on an elevator and take it to the first floor. The woman comes out of the elevator mad as Hell. She says the black guy made a pass at her.

An army of whites descend on the black neighborhood and destroy it.

Luther · Jun 20, 2020

swing_voter said:
What began as an attempted lynching at the jail erupted into a massacre. From a high grain elevator, a machine gun laid fire on Greenwood Avenue.

John W. Franklin: Where's the fire department? Where's the police when we need them? We're part of a city. This is not some small town. This is a city of wealth and order, and governance. It's now been taken over by a mob.

The police joined the mob. National Guard troops pressed the attack against what one guard officer called "the enemy." Quotes from eyewitnesses include, "old women and men, children were running and screaming everywhere." A deputy sheriff reported a black man dragged behind a car, "his head was being bashed in, the deputy said, bouncing on the steel rails and bricks." But what happened next may have frightened Buck Franklin even more.

John W. Franklin: And he hears planes circling and sees roofs of buildings catching fire. And these are from turpentine balls, burning turpentine balls dropped from planes.

Robert Turner: The first time in American history that airplanes were used to terrorize America was not in 9/11, was not at Pearl Harbor, it was right here in the Greenwood District.

Greenwood, 1921: One of the worst race massacres in American history - 60 Minutes - CBS News

So this white girl and black guy get on an elevator and take it to the first floor. The woman comes out of the elevator mad as Hell. She says the black guy made a pass at her.

An army of whites descend on the black neighborhood and destroy it.

1921 was also the last Morgan silver dollar

Drawdown · Jun 20, 2020

When things like this get reduced to something like back man offended a white person, I get highly skeptical. There was something else going on in this town besides some random incident to trigger something like this.

swing_voter · Jun 20, 2020

Drawdown said:
When things like this get reduced to something like back man offended a white person, I get highly skeptical. There was something else going on in this town besides some random incident to trigger something like this.

The black neighborhood was doing really well economically. Much better than its white neighbors.

TypicalRussian · Jun 20, 2020

swing_voter said:
What began as an attempted lynching at the jail erupted into a massacre. From a high grain elevator, a machine gun laid fire on Greenwood Avenue.

John W. Franklin: Where's the fire department? Where's the police when we need them? We're part of a city. This is not some small town. This is a city of wealth and order, and governance. It's now been taken over by a mob.

The police joined the mob. National Guard troops pressed the attack against what one guard officer called "the enemy." Quotes from eyewitnesses include, "old women and men, children were running and screaming everywhere." A deputy sheriff reported a black man dragged behind a car, "his head was being bashed in, the deputy said, bouncing on the steel rails and bricks." But what happened next may have frightened Buck Franklin even more.

John W. Franklin: And he hears planes circling and sees roofs of buildings catching fire. And these are from turpentine balls, burning turpentine balls dropped from planes.

Robert Turner: The first time in American history that airplanes were used to terrorize America was not in 9/11, was not at Pearl Harbor, it was right here in the Greenwood District.

Greenwood, 1921: One of the worst race massacres in American history - 60 Minutes - CBS News

So this white girl and black guy get on an elevator and take it to the first floor. The woman comes out of the elevator mad as Hell. She says the black guy made a pass at her.

An army of whites descend on the black neighborhood and destroy it.

unfortunate

bongsaway · Jun 20, 2020

Drawdown said:
When things like this get reduced to something like back man offended a white person, I get highly skeptical. There was something else going on in this town besides some random incident to trigger something like this.

Yeah, I think it's called racism.

Drawdown · Jun 20, 2020

bongsaway said:
Yeah, I think it's called racism.

Think harder.

Tigerace117 · Jun 20, 2020

Drawdown said:
When things like this get reduced to something like back man offended a white person, I get highly skeptical. There was something else going on in this town besides some random incident to trigger something like this.

“What was going on” is that the African Americans there were relatively prosperous, and that enraged the local whites who thought that they were “uppity” and were determined to “put them in their place”.

Drawdown · Jun 20, 2020

Tigerace117 said:
“What was going on” is that the African Americans there were relatively prosperous, and that enraged the local whites who thought that they were “uppity” and were determined to “put them in their place”.

It happened after 10 whites and 2 blacks were shot at the sheriff's station when a white civilian tried to disarm a black civilian. Prosperity does not seem to be a factor.

Tigerace117 · Jun 20, 2020

Drawdown said:
It happened after 10 whites and 2 blacks were shot at the sheriff's station when a white civilian tried to disarm a black civilian. Prosperity does not seem to be a factor.

Because the African Americans citizens were there to stop the accused from being lynched and defended themselves from the white mob.

Drawdown · Jun 20, 2020

Tigerace117 said:
Because the African Americans citizens were there to stop the accused from being lynched and defended themselves from the white mob.

The blacks were leaving after the sheriff assured them there would by no lynching when the incident happened.

Ringo Stalin · Jul 7, 2020

By the way, why do the "Free world" like monuments to "victims of communism", so much. but there are none to "victims of capitalism"? Were there not opium wars, colonies, genocide, the slave trade, imperialism, world wars, interventions, coups? Has anyone used chemical or nuclear weapons?

soylentgreen · Jul 7, 2020

Drawdown said:
When things like this get reduced to something like back man offended a white person, I get highly skeptical. There was something else going on in this town besides some random incident to trigger something like this.

Some history might help.
List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States - Wikipedia

1919 – Red Summer, white riots against blacks Red Summer is the period from late winter through early autumn of 1919 during which white supremacist terrorism and racial riots took place in more than three dozen cities across the United States, as well as in one rural county in Arkansas.
Blakeley, Georgia (February 8)
Memphis, Tennessee (March 14)
Morgan County, West Virginia (April 10)
Jenkins County, Georgia (April 13)
Charleston, South Carolina (May 10)
Sylvester, Georgia (May 10)
New London, Connecticut (May 29)
Putnam County, Georgia (May 27–29)
Monticello, Mississippi (May 31)
Memphis, Tennessee (June 13)
New London, Connecticut (June 13)
Annapolis, Maryland (June 27)
Macon, Mississippi (June 27)
Bisbee, Arizona (July 3)
Dublin, Georgia (July 6)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (July 7)
Coatesville, Pennsylvania (July 8)
Tuscaloosa, Alabama (July 9)
Longview, Texas (July 10–12)
Garfield Park riot of 1919 (July 14)
Port Arthur, Texas (July 15)
Washington, D.C. (July 19–24)
Norfolk, Virginia (July 21)
New Orleans, Louisiana (July 23)
Darby, Pennsylvania (July 23)
Hobson City, Alabama (July 26)
Chicago, Illinois (July 27 – August 3)
Newberry, South Carolina (July 28)
Bloomington, Illinois (July 31)
Syracuse, New York (July 31)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (July 31)
Hattiesburg, Mississippi (August 4)
Texarkana, Texas riot of 1919 (August 6)
New York, New York (August 21)
Knoxville, Tennessee (August 30)
Ellenton, South Carolina (September 15–21)
Omaha, Nebraska (September 28–29)
Elaine, Arkansas (October 1–2)
Baltimore, Maryland (October 1–2)
Corbin, Kentucky (October 31, 1919)

What you have here is a classic rule .303. meaning being, that he shot them because he had the means to do so at hand and that was all the authority he needed.

Greenwood, 1921: One of the worst race massacres

Another California Refugee