Last week, we mourned the passing of Hughes Van Ellis, one of the last remaining survivors of the 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma race massacre, which destroyed the once thriving Black community of Greenwood. The deadly attack occurred on June 1, 1921, when white rioters burned and looted the community – also known as Black Wall Street. Homes and business were destroyed, and historians believe that as many as 300 people died in the wake of the violence.
Over a century later, while there are fewer living survivors of the deadly attack, a new short film hopes to keep the memory of the community and its members alive. Descended from the Promised Land: The Legacy of Black Wall Street, the newest episode of Black Public Media’s AfroPoP Digital Shorts online series, is now streaming on Black Public Media’s YouTube channel,
For this episode, filmmaker Nailah Jefferson spoke with descendants of Greenwood residents and business owners about the neighborhood that was once the most affluent Black community in the country and the financial and emotional damage caused by the attack that are still felt today.
Jacqueline Blocker, who was interviewed for the film, said the legacy her ancestors created was killed during the summer of 1921. Her great-grandmother owned a building in Greenwood which included rooms for rent, shoe repair places, restaurants and barber shops.
“Black Wall Street and the descendants were robbed twice, Blocker said. “There was the 1921 massacre and then the laws that dismantled the rebuilding of Black Wall Street. That’s what happened to my great -grandmother’s businesses.”
Jefferson says she hopes the film will help more people learn about an important part of Black history and feel inspired by the contributions members of Greenwood made to our culture.
“For far too long, the full story of Black Wall Street – the ingenuity and brilliance that built it, the hate that destroyed it during the Tulsa Race Massacre, and the systemic barriers erected to impede its rebuilding – has been suppressed,” she said. “As a filmmaker, I’m grateful that the descendants of Lula Williams and Leona Carvet, women who worked and lived on Black Wall Street, entrusted me with their family’s story.”