MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Tomorrow marks the one 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Tulsa race massacre, one of this country's worst recorded incidents of racial violence. Starting on May 31, 1921, an armed white mob aided by complicit or complacent officials killed as many as 300 men, women and children in the area known as Black Wall Street, burning it to the ground. Numerous events are taking place this long weekend to mark the centennial, although disputes arose. One particularly high-profile event was canceled, reportedly in a disagreement over compensation for three elderly survivors who were supposed to take part.
But other events are proceeding, and there are lots of opportunities to learn more about this traumatic but consequential moment, including numerous TV projects. NPR TV critic Eric Deggans has picked three documentaries which he says you should not miss.
ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: For a long time, the Tulsa race massacre was the attack America forgot. It obliterated Tulsa, Okla.'s prosperous Black-owned Greenwood district, also known as Black Wall Street. The riots by white mobs was hushed up by local officials and overlooked in history books. But that is changing as several TV outlets marked the centennial with documentaries on the massacre and its aftermath. It's an effort to educate Americans on a horrendous attack which burned down over 1,200 homes and killed between 100 and 300 people.
Among the best and most cinematic of these efforts is the History Channel film "Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre." Co-directed by Emmy winner Stanley Nelson and executive produced by NBA star Russell Westbrook, this film opens with Reverend Robert Turner, pastor of Historic Vernon AME Church, who regularly visits Tulsa's city hall with a Bible and a bullhorn reminding residents of the atrocity.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "TULSA BURNING: THE 1921 RACE MASSACRE")
ROBERT TURNER: You are standing in a crime scene.
DEGGANS: Reverend Turner pastors the church where Black people hid in the basement to avoid white mobs 100 years ago. He now supports efforts to excavate a local cemetery where victims of the massacre are rumored to have been dumped in unmarked graves.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "TULSA BURNING: THE 1921 RACE MASSACRE")
TURNER: And pastoring the church where the members died and the survivors never saw justice, that aggravated my spirit. It's an embarrassment that we have never had a district attorney investigate the worst crime in this city's history.
DEGGANS: CNN's film, "Dreamland: The Burning Of Black Wall Street," also toggles between recounting the history leading up to the attack and showing the legacy of its impact on modern Tulsa. Using archival footage and animated scenes, this film recreates the story of how Black people fleeing the overt racism of the Confederate states after the Civil War came to Oklahoma in hopes of finding less oppression. They helped to build the Greenwood district into a community filled with hundreds of Black-owned businesses. But when a group of armed Black men tried to stop the lynching of a young Black man unfairly accused of assaulting a white woman, tension built until white mobs attacked the Greenwood district - animation and an actress reading the words of survivor Mary Parrish to recreate the scene.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DREAMLAND: THE BURNING OF BLACK WALL STREET")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As Mary Parrish) There was a great shadow in the sky. This cloud was caused by fast-approaching airplanes. It then dawned upon us that the enemy had organized in the night and was invading our district the same as the Germans invaded France. I fled out the west door on Greenwood, running amidst showers of bullets.
DEGGANS: A third film on PBS, "Tulsa: The Fire And The Forgotten," has a more personal touch, centered on the work of longtime Washington Post journalist DeNeen L. Brown. The film, narrated by this program's own Michel Martin, shows Brown interviewing descendants of attack victims, exploring efforts to find justice in the present. Yet with all her work on the massacre and its aftermath, Brown notes there's one thing she can't explain.
DENEEN L BROWN: Oftentimes, Black people are called on camera after something racist occurs to explain racism, to explain what happened, to explain the incident. But I can't explain why white people hate Black people so much.
DEGGANS: After watching these three excellent films, viewers still may not understand exactly why this hatred exists, but they will learn just how deadly and how far-reaching unchecked racism can be. I'm Eric Deggans.
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