Urbanology

by Negro Architects and Builders. The dollar circulated 36 to 100 times…unmatched in Black American History, even till today!!

How many people were murdered during the 1921 massacre?

The official count was listed as 300 but the actual number could have been 1000 or more. The property damage was staggering

What happened afterwards? Did they rebuild? Was it the same?

It was difficult to rebound and rebuild and the

City and State did everything they could to make sure that there would be no return to its former Glory.

With help from the NAACP, other black townships in Oklahoma, donations from black churches and a resilient Greenwood community it bounced back in part. However, some businesses like the Tulsa Star newspaper were permanently shuttered in the wake of the violence. The Greenwood District still exists today but after decades of urban renewal and integration the area’s demographics and businesses resemble little of its storied past.

Were there other

‘Black Wall Streets’? The largest number of black townships established between 1865 and 1920 were located in Oklahoma, more than 50 in the state. But there were other successful towns all over the Country. Boley – Oklahoma; Hayti - Durham North Carolina; Rosewood – Florida; Seneca Village - New York to

name a few. For more informatiom regarding sponsorship of upcoming projects contact Michael Green by email at shadesoftruththeatre@gmail.com or call

646-488-9576.

Juneteenth – June 19: A Celebration of the End of Slavery

Juneteenth is a celebration of Black history and freedom has been celebrated in the Black Community nationwide, including in Harlem for decades. The holiday gets its name from June 19, 1865. That’s the day the Union army arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce that all African-American slaves in the state were free in accordance with President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. The state was the last in the Confederacy to receive word that the Civil War was over and that slavery had been abolished, and the last where the federal Army established its authority.

As early as 1866, freed African Americans in Texas held a celebration on the date to commemorate the end of

slavery. In 1968, shortly after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, his Poor People’s Campaign held a Juneteenth Solidarity Day, giving the holiday a new prominence in the civil rights movement.

In 1980, the Texas legislature made it an official state holiday. Currently, 46 states and the District of Columbia mark the occasion as a holiday or a day of observation. But the holiday was still little known enough in 2017 outside the black community that the television show “Black-ish” could build an episode around how few of the show’s white characters had heard of it.

In recent years, a number of Juneteenth commemorations were tied to themes raised by Black Lives Matter. Jack Dorsey made both Juneteenth a formal company holiday at both Twitter Inc. and Square Inc., both of which he leads. Vox Media Inc., Nike Inc., the New York Times and the National Football League all followed suit, while Facebook Inc. said it plans to cancel

meetings that day for a “day of learning” about the experience of black Americans. MasterCard said it would give employees the day off and encouraged them to educate themselves about the history of racism in America or volunteer with a civil rights organization. Twitter, in particular, has publicly leaned into the Black Lives Matter movement, changing the bio for its corporate Twitter account, where it has 58 million followers, to #BlackLivesMatter and changing its account photo to a black Twitter

logo.

As a result of mast protests around the world, Juneteenth is likely to gain more attention this

year and increased celebrations starting in 2021 which hopefully will be the end of social distancing and the Pandemic.