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SOLEDAD: I’M SOLEDAD O’BRIEN. WELCOME TO "MATTER OF FACT." IT’S BEEN 100 YEARS SINCE ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT EVENTS IN THE NATION’S HISTORY, AND ONE OF ITS MOST APPALLG IN MOMENTS. IT WAS POSTWAR AMERICATW, YEARS INTO PROHIBITION. AUDIENCES FILLING THEATERS T SEE CHARLIE CHAPLIN’S SILENT FEATURE FILM "THE KID." AND THE FIRST RAO DIBROADCAST OF THE WORLD SERIES. BUT A SERIES OF EVENTS IN TULSA, OKLAHOMA, SO SHOCKINANG HORRIFIC WERE NOT BROADCAST, THEY WERE INTENTIONALLY COVERED UP. IN FACT, IT’S HISTORY THAT IS STILL NOT TAUGHT IN NYMA SCHOOLS. WE’RE TALKING ABOUT THE 1921 ATTACK ON GREENWOOD, A THRINIV BUSINESS DISTRICT IN TULSA KNOWN AS BLACK WALL STREET WHAT UNFOLDED AT THE END OF MAY 1921 NEARLY DESTROYED THE ENTIRE GREENWOOD AREA, IN WHAT BECAME KNOWN AS THE TULSA RACE MASSREAC >> THIS WAS FROM MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER AND MY GREAT-GRANDMOTHER, MARY DAN ISAAC EVITT, OWNERS OF THE ZUL LOUNGE, 501 EAST CAMERON. IT WAS DESTROYED IN 1921. HE WAS NOT ABLE TO REOPEN. AND THIS INTERSTATE FREEY SIWA UPON WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN, COULD HAVE BEEN MY INHERITCEAN AND SO I’M DEPRIVED OF IT. SOLEDAD: KAVIN ROSS’S INHERITANCE WAS FIRMLY ROOTED IN THE THRIVING COMMUNITY OF GREENWOOD, THE "BLACK WALL ST REET" OF TULSA, VIBRANT AND ALIVE WITH RESTAURANTS, THEATERS, AND NIGHTCLUBS. >> IT WAS THE STREET THAT EVERYBODY WANTED TO BE ON. SOLEDAD: BUT ALL THAT CHANGED ON MAY 30, 1921, WHEN NEWS SPREAD THAT A WHITE TEENAGE ELEVATOR OPERATOR NAMED SARAHAG P ACCUSED 19-YEAR-OLD DICK ROWLAND, A YOUNG BLACK MAN, OF ASSAULTING HER. ROWLAND WAS ARRESTED THE NEXT DA THAT AFTERNOON, AN INFLAMMATORY REPORT IN THE "TULSA TRIBUNE" SET OFF AN ARMED CONFRONTATION OUTSIDE THE COURTHOUSE BETENWE WHITE LYNCH MOB AND BLACK GREENWOOD RESIDENTS THERE TO PROTECT ROWLAND, UNLEASHING THE ARSON, GUNFIRE, AND LOOTING THAT RAGED INTO THE NEXT DA >> AND THEN THIS WASN’T JUST A MOB OUT OF CONTROL. THIS WASN’T JUST DICK ROANWL AND SARAH PAGE WHOSE CONFRONTATION LED TO THE DESTRUCTION OF GREENWOOD AREA. THIS IS BECAUSE THE RACIAL TENSIONS WERE GROWING AT THAT TIME. SO LEDAD: BY JUNE 1, 36 BLOCKS OF GREENWOOD WERE FLATTENED, 2,000 HOMES AND BUSINESSES DESTROY,ED AND SEVERAL CHURCHES CONSUMEBYD FIRE, INCLUDING VERNON AME CHAPEL, GREENWOOD’S OLDEST PLA OF WORIPSH THE REVEREND ROBERT TURNER HAS BEEN VERNON’S PASTOR FOR ALMOST FOUR YEARS. >> AND OUR MEMBERSHIP AND ROU CHURCH HAS SEEN THE WORST RACE MASSACRE IN AMERICAN HISTORY AND THE SURVIVORS OF THAT MASSACRE CAME BACK TO THIS CHURCH AND OUR BASEMENT SURVIVING THE RACE MASSACRE, IT CARRIEAS WEIGHT. IT DEFINELITY IMPACTS ALL OF WHAT I DO AS A PASTOR, AS A PREACHER, YOU KNOW, AS A COMMUNITY ACTIVIST. SOLEDAD: TURNER’S ACTIVISM INCLUDES A WEEKLY PILGRIMAGE T TULSA CITY HALL, DEMANDING REPARATIONS FOR THE MASSACRE. >> AMERICA NEEDS TO REPAY, REPAIR FOR ALL THE HORROR AND DEVASTATN.IO SOLEDAD: REVEREND TURNERND A KAVIN ROSS BOTH SAY FEW AMERICANS KNOW THE FULL STORY OF THE MASSACRE THE OFFICIAL DEATH TOLL REPORTED AND REPEATED FOR YEARS WAS7, 3 25 BLACK AND 12 WHITE. BUT THOSE FABRICATED NUMBE WERE PART OF AN ENORMOUS COVER-UP -- MASS GRAVES, DUMPED BODIES, AND HUNDREDS, NOT DOZENS OF DEATHS, ALL HIDDEN HISTOR >> WHEN WE START TALKING ABOUT THE MASS GRAVES BACK INTO 2018 WHEN WHITE TULSANS CAME RTFO AND PASSED DOWN STORIES TO THEIR DESCENDANTS, TALKING ABOUT WHEN THEY WERE CHILDREN SEEING BODIES BEING TOSSED IN THESE IN THESE TRENCHES AND ALSO THROWN IN ARKANSAS RIVER BY THE TRUCKLOADS. I THOUGHT IT WAS A RUMOR UNTIL I HEARD IT FROM THEIR MOUTHS. SOLEDAD: IN 2018, THE CITY OF TULSA AGREED TO INVESTIGATE ETH POSSIBILITY OF MASS GRAVES, GU IDED BY AN OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE, WHICH KAVIN ROSS CHAIRS. LAST OCTOBER, THE TEAM UNEARTHED 12 COFFINS IN OAKLAWN CEMETERY, WHICH WILL BE EXHUMED IN JUNE. NOBODY KNOWS WHETHER THE REMAINS ARE VICTIMS OF THE MASSACRE, B IF THEY ARE, ROSS HOPES TO ACHIEVE WHAT SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED A CENTURY AGO. >>PPENED A CENTURY AGO. I’M HOPING THAT WE CAN TAK THEM OUT OF OAKLAWN AND PLACE THEM SOMEWHERE IN THE HISTORIC GREENWOOD DISTRICT, BECAUSE MOST LIKELY THEIR BLOOD FERTILIZED THE GROUNDS RIGHT HERE IN GREENWOOD. SO, IT’S OUR HOPE THAT WE CAN MAKE SOME KIND OF MEMORIAL AND NAFIL RESTING PLACE AND GIVE THEM A PROPER BURIAL SITE THAT THEY SHOULD HAVE RECEIVED HUNDRED YEARS AGO. SOLEDAD: THE EVENTS OF THE TULSA MASSACRE HAVE COME TO LIGHT AFTER DECADES OF EFFORTS TO OBSCURE, REMOVE, AND OBLITERATE THEIR MEMORY. NOW WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO TUNE IN TO A HISTORY CHANNEL SPECIAL, "TULSA BURNING - THE 1921 RACE MASSACRE THE DOCUMENTARY IS EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY NBA SUPERSTAR AN PHILANTHROPIST RUSSELL WESTBROOK. THE SPECIAL CALLS TEATNTION TO THE LIVES DEVASTATED BY THE MASSACRE. "TULSA BURNING" PREMREIE ON SUNDAY,