Tulsa’s Former Black Wall Street to Be Modernized With Grant | U.S. News

A $500,000 grant from the National Park service will be used to renovate buildings along Tulsa’s former Black Wall Street. TULSA, OKLA. (AP) — A $500,000 grant from the National Park service will be used to renovate buildings along Tulsa’s former Black Wall Street, nearly 100 years after the area was largely destroyed and as many […]

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Supreme Court Reverses Wrongful Conviction in Florida; Sheriff Later Shoots Both Defendants | Equal Justice Initiative

In 1949, four young black men were arrested and accused of rape in Groveland, Florida. The case, which hinged on the allegation of a young white woman with inconsistent stories of the offenses, came to be known as the “Groveland Four” and forever changed the lives of the four defendants: Earnest Thomas, who was lynched […]

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Alabama Mine Explosion Kills 128 Miners—Nearly All Black Men Forced To Work As Leased Convicts | Equal Justice Initiative

On April 8, 1911, the Banner Mine near Birmingham, Alabama, exploded, killing 128 mine workers. According to the official investigation report, “about 90 percent were negro convicts. The other men in the mine were white convicts and free negroes who were employed as shot firers and foremen.” By 1910, the State of Alabama had become […]

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White Man Tried for Killing Black Sharecroppers in Georgia; Racial Violence Continues | Equal Justice Initiative

Beginning on April 5, 1921, a local white plantation owner named John Williams stood trial in rural Georgia for allegedly killing 11 black sharecroppers to try to escape federal charges for illegally holding them in debt slavery. Although slavery was officially abolished in 1865, African Americans faced continued slavery-like conditions in systems of peonage — […]

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Louisiana Lynch Mob Claims Federal Law Cannot Punish Them; Supreme Court Later Agrees | Equal Justice Initiative

By EJI Staff, EJI On April 1, 1875, the Supreme Court finished hearing arguments in United States v. Cruikshank, a case that asked whether the federal government had the power to punish white men convicted of slaughtering dozens of black people in Louisiana. Two years earlier, on April 13, 1873, hundreds of white men clashed with […]

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In 1918, A Black Man Avoided Lynching & Convinced The Mob To Donate To His School. | InspireMore

His passion for his students was so strong that not even tornadoes, financial difficulties, or an attempted lynching could stop his work. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] In the dictionary, a hero is defined as “a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.” Oftentimes, heroes work tirelessly behind the scenes to give […]

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Before Making Military History, She Witnessed One Of History’s Worst Race Riots | NPR WAMU 88.5

Olivia Hooker was a 6-year-old in Tulsa, Okla., when a race riot destroyed her community as well as her own home. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] In less than 24 hours, mobs of white men destroyed more than 1,000 homes and businesses in the Greenwood District, an affluent African American neighborhood of Tulsa. It’s estimated as many as […]

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