President Joe Biden will attend memorial services for one of the darkest and most generally forgotten moments in American history: the Tulsa massacre and the destruction of a vital community on the 100th anniversary of this event.
President Biden’s visit on Tuesday, where he will honor hundreds of African-Americans killed by a white mob a century ago, comes at a time when the country is going through a moment of reflection on racial justice. The visit will highlight a stark contrast to the behavior of the previous president, who was in Tulsa for years.
Mr. Biden will become the first president to attend a memorial service for the events that led to the destruction of the neighborhood in the city of Tulsa, known as the Wall Street of African-Americans. From 31 May to 1 June 1921, white residents and leaders of the city of Tulsa looted, vandalized and burned the Grinud neighborhood.
President Biden will hold meetings with survivors of the massacre. About 300 African-Americans were killed, thousands more were sent to internment camps supervised by the National Guard. Fire-stained bricks and part of the foundation of a church are among the few traces still visible today from this once vital African-American neighborhood.
Mr Biden’s administration will be put to the test by ongoing efforts to achieve racial justice. President Biden himself would have been unable to win the election if he had not received the support of African-Americans, both during his candidacy within the party and in the race with former President Trump.
Despite the attention being paid to this 100th anniversary, the Tulsa massacre is a relatively new topic in public debate, and the president’s visit will bring it even more into the spotlight.
Joe Biden, who was vice president during the term of the only African-American president in the history of the United States and also elected the only African-American woman as vice-president, issued a proclamation declaring Monday a “memorial day” for the massacre.
Mr. Biden’s predecessor, President Donald Trump, visited Tulsa years ago under very different circumstances.
After the period of suspension of campaign activities as a result of the pandemic, President Trump resumed the campaign with an activity in Tulsa. His decision to hold a rally on June 19, a day marked for African-Americans as they celebrate the end of slavery in the US, was met with so much criticism that Mr. Trump was forced to postpone the event. A day later, the rally was accompanied by protests and was noted for low turnout inside and outside the hall.
President Trump arrived in Tulsa at a very busy time for the country, days after he ordered the forced evacuation of protesters from Lafayette Square in front of the White House. Protesters had rallied with calls for racial justice a few weeks after the murder of African-American George Floyd by a white police officer. Mr. Trump throughout his presidency sided with law enforcement and was often accused of using racist rhetoric when speaking in grim terms about America’s urban areas, which are generally African-American-majority.