Member-only story
Why Black People Should Hate Swimming
The untold stories of how America drowned thriving Black towns
I’ve heard so many times from white friends how they can’t understand why so many Black folks don’t do better in America after all these years.
Why, 160 years after slavery ended, we can’t move the needle farther.
Whites place blame for the problems facing the Black community on a variety of culprits, but the failing-to-pull-oneself-up-by-the-bootstraps theme certainly is a common one.
The reality, though, is that Black people repeatedly built successful thriving communities, only to face destruction by the very type of people who ironically want to blame Black people for the pervasive issues facing them today.
Most people have finally begun to learn the history of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Just in case you missed it, Black Wall Street, as the Greenwood area of Tulsa became known, was a thriving, self-sustaining, affluent Black community of banks, theatres, bowling alleys, doctors, lawyers, retail stores and the like. Two wealthier residents even owned private planes.
The community was twice destroyed by whites.
