 I'm Marcia Joyner, and this is Cannabis Conflict, a 10,000 year audit. And for those of you that had been with us the last couple of years, you know that there comes a time when we need to talk about A, yes, cannabis, but we also need to take a look at some other parts of our history. We know that right now we are dealing with dear old Uncle Sam and how crazy it is with cannabis. But there's more to Uncle Sam and the craziness. And so I have a friend that all of you know, Theo Alexander has been with us since the very beginning of this series. Theo not only has his own business with cannabis, and he services veterans and helps them through so many things with cannabis. However, I asked Theo to be with us today because Theo is a descendant of the people who went through the horrors of the Tulsa race riots, the massacre of what was the Black Wall Street. So Theo, thank you so much for coming back. Thank you for giving us a firsthand account, you know, that because most of what we read is written by the conqueror, the people that actually created the riot, that we don't get a sense of what the riot was like, the massacre was like, except from people who, well, you're as close to firsthand as we can get, but your ancestors, your family went through this. Now, just to give you a background, this was 1921 and Tulsa at that time, was that Greenwood? It was the Greenwood history. It was unbelievably successful. It was a Black neighborhood with doctors and lawyers and dentists and pharmacists and banks and schools, hospitals, libraries. All of these were Black owned, gorgeous place, and that's why it was called Wall Street, Black Wall Street. And also Little Africa. Little Africa. That was another nickname that was attributed to Black Wall Street. So, tell us about the success of this area. Black Wall Street was centered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the districts of the streets of Greenwood, Archer, and Pine with a street set, you know, cordoned off the section of Black Wall Street. In the heyday, late 1800s up to 1900s, Oklahoma was starting to welcome settlers who were free Black slaves to open territory. This is prior to it being called Oklahoma, so that's a state. It was a place where, it was a place of refuge for a lot of people escaping the south in the tragic slavery situations that was going on along with the Jim Crow. So they settled in Oklahoma, in Oklahoma, and they established Tulsa there, and Tulsa developed into what they call a Black Macca. Prior to any other state having any kind of conservable Black wealth being shown as success even during those times of oppression and slavery and things like that and also coming out of World War I, a lot of people in the war effort brought their families there to settle. And the fortunate thing was, Oklahoma had a large oil reserve, Tulsa, which has one of the best ports, one of the most successful ports. This is what contributed to the wealth of Tulsa, which was Black-owned. And it was considered the wealthiest place on the planet at that point in time in 1921, with the oil reserves and also with the success of the bankers and success of the doctors and lawyers. Many of them contributed to first-time interventions or first-time surgeries, things like that. But we were very fortunate to have Oklahoma, or prior to Oklahoma's territory, to have that land below the Mason Dixon line even, settled by successful Blacks. And we were doing our thing back then. And so your family was in this area, in that city or town? Yes, my family. Well, it was part of the city, but it was a district. Is that correct? Yes. It was part of Tulsa, north side of Tulsa. If you look at the city grid of most states in the United States, only two, only clue cities that are settled by Blacks are set on the north side. Now, the north side is usually contributed to caucasian wealth and things like that. So Memphis, Tennessee, and Tulsa, Oklahoma was the only two cities that were set up in the north, which was the affluent section. And yes, my family came up from northern Texas in the early 1800s. We settled in around the Bristow and Langston area. And at the age of five, my parents moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma. This is the early 70s. And so we settled there, and we were... I wasn't aware of the Tulsa massacre until the age of 13. A lot of times, it's swept under the rug, like you said, the powers to be the tell the story of the newspaper owners and things like that, the broadcast stations. In that era, in the United States, across the United States, there were similar events happened. And you talked about the Elaine massacre recently. Yes. You had Rosewood in Florida. You have a series of events happening in the early 1900s and to the mid-1900s. And I would dare say that we still suffer from some of those things and some of those policies today, even as we see innocent Black death being taken by law enforcement officers in no regard for Black life. So how did this massacre begin? The story goes, there was a gentleman by the name of Dick Rowland, which is an entrepreneur in the area. Because it was segregated at that point in time, you could only use certain bathrooms at the top of the tower where the incident occurred. There was a restroom that was for color. So you had to take the elevator with an operator up to that where the restroom was on. You'd be able to do that. So Dick Rowland, which is one of the young men who entered the elevator cart, and back then they had elevator operas, as I said. I believe the lady's name was Sarah Page, a young white girl. And well, it's told that when Dick got onto the elevator, he missed his step because he was off from practice to intimidate our press or cause injury to Blacks at any cost. And so it was said that the elevator operator stopped the floor. Prior to it leveling off, when Dick Rowland walked onto the floor, he stumbled into her. And she let out a scream. At that point in time, that heard, and you were a Black man, it was something dealing with a white person. You had some detriment coming your way, even your family. So when that incident occurred, both of them exited the elevator. Dick went one way, she went the other way. And soon to come, a lynch mob formed to come apprehend him for assault or rape, that's what they were saying, of a young white girl at that point in time. And it just transferred from a lynch mob to anger. As far as the, it seemed like the whole county told us to convene on Black Wall Street at that point in time, with local law enforcement and collusion with... Oh, of course. To, you know, to cordon off the street after the lynch mob had formed. And there was a series of incidents that happened. Black wealth was not to be taken for granted at that point in time. We knew the time that people were living in. And so we wanted to protect our wealth. And at that point in time in the United States, it was not illegal. You didn't get any kind of repercussion for killing Blacks at that point in time. You still don't. Yes, it was an average of two Blacks that were lynched a week. And even by newspaper and postcard depiction. You know, that's how we know some of the things that were happening at that point in time. But so the people in Tulsa, we're not going to stand for that. So we had a lot of World War I veterans. There were a lot of the entrepreneurs, the pillars of the community, the pastors of the church, things like that. And there was an armed guard that stood guard at the courthouse or the jailhouse where Dick Rowling was being held. It was common practice for a lynch mob to come right to the steps of the judicial system or the courthouse. And the law enforcement would turn the person over for them to be lynched in the public. So a series of lynchings had gone on, probably that week, and Tulsa was not going to stand for it. And so there was a shot fired. We don't know who fired the shot. There's many different stories said. But white lynch mob, Black mob protecting the life of Dick Rowling. And things transferred, you know, transpired after that. It was very drastic. So how long did it take? How long did all of this last? It last, I think a series of four or five days total. The first day being the most devastating because people were seeing the planning that went out. The National Law was called in, the Marshall Law was called. And the World War I veterans, you know, there were white plansmen that were in the area were very, very jealous. I guess they despised the wealth of Black Wall Street and Tulsa, Oklahoma, when some of them were still living on dirt mattresses, what you call the hillbillies. And so at that point in time, you know, the Klan was very strong. The Klan was reinvigorated as a union group because there was a lot of out-of-work white male World War I veterans. And so when they did collaborate, they deputized those type of people. And they already had their guns from World War I, because it was all common practice to bring guns with you. No one took them back. Government didn't want them. So you were able to take them, which enabled them to, you know, create a very devastating situation, you know, by having machine guns. Some of them were all pilots. They had their crop dusters. They dropped napalm and fire, well, not napalm, but other means of high flammable fluids on some of the structures. So they bombed. They bombed Black Wall Street. This is why you see the destruction that was so vast. So, yes, they bombed it. But prior to bombing it, they went in and looted the wealth. A lot of these people were jewelers. They were bankers. They were not impoverished people. And so they took that. Oh, boy, it's kind of... Yes, it's heart-wrenching. It is. It is. And it was happening across the nation. It is. My mother was at Fisk University, and she says there was a lynching every weekend. This is Nashville. And she said there was a lynching every weekend just outside of town. And the mob would come, the local folks would come, and they would take souvenirs from the lynched person, their ears or whatever. Yes, and that was what took place, the savagery that took place, because also with the Native Americans and the Indian Wars, they did the same. They bought scalping and things like that. So taking souvenirs was something they intended to do. And then the tragedy even is that when they were lynching, they would bring their children there to watch. And some of the postcards depicts the people smiling and having fun as someone was being roasted over a fire while being lynched at the same time. So we had a very, very savage history in our nation, but this is 1921, less than 100 years ago. We're coming up on the centennial of that event. And to us, there's plenty past that event. Black Wall Street never regained its wealth at this point in time. We're still investigating exactly how many people were murdered. And even upon the murder of so many, even when people went back to reclaim their owned land and to borrow money to rebuild, there was ordinances and legislation put into place where insurance was not made available to any of the people who came back to reclaim their own property or to reclaim the property because of the massacre, because of the looting, because it was being burned down. So in effect, that was exactly what they intended to do to just wipe it out. Yes. And so this kid was an excuse? He was definitely an excuse. They used him as a scapegoat. Did they kill him? No. He was apprehended and he was also released. Dick Rowland, I do believe he's still, if he's not still alive, I'm not sure. Oh, of course. That was a long time ago. Yes, but it was said that him and Sarah Page were actually a couple. She had just filed for divorce when the state she was coming from. When she moved to Tulsa, she gained a job and she started dating and she was dating a, she didn't really understand that how strict it was. Sure she did. Well, she never pressed charges on Dick. They tried to get it to press charges. She never pressed charges. But the mob ensued anyhow using as an excuse. Of course. Yes. But they actually have children together. Oh, yeah. They settled in another part of Oklahoma and actually had children. And I guess they lived their life, but that's an unknown story. I can't really verify that, but people in Oklahoma, we understand that. You understand that. The tragedy was caused because of that. We have to take a break. When we come back, I want to know more about the story. Okay. We'll be back in one minute. Hi, guys. I'm your host, Lillian Cumick from Lillian's Vegan World. And I come to you live every second Friday from 3 p.m. And this is the show where I talk about the plant-based lifestyle and veganism. So we go through recipes, some upcoming events, information about health regarding your health, and just some ideas on how you can have a better lifestyle, eat healthier, and have fun at the same time. So do join me. I look forward to seeing you. And Aloha. Aloha. I'm your host, Sharon Thomas Yarbrough of Sister Power here at Think Tech of IE. And Sister Power is all about motivating, empowering, educating, and inspiring all people. And we have various subjects here. Sister Power is here at Think Tech every other Thursday at 4 p.m. Again, my name is Sharon Thomas Yarbrough, host of Sister Power. We look forward to seeing you. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at Sister's Empowering Kavaii at gmail.com. Look forward to chatting with you soon. Aloha. Aloha. I'm Marcia, and we're back. This is Cannabis Chronicles, and if you joined us late, it doesn't look like Cannabis Chronicles, but we have taken this opportunity to talk about a part of our history that is not known. And with the occupant and the White House, it scares me to death that we may be headed back to this very thing, this time in history. So I asked Theo to join us. Now, those of you that have watched Cannabis Chronicles, you know he's brilliant when it comes to cannabis. In however, he is also from Tulsa, Oklahoma. And his parents went through this horrors, and then grandparents went through the horrors of the Tulsa, or what they called the Wall Street, Black Wall Street massacre. So I asked Theo to talk about it, because this is something we don't talk about. We don't talk about where we were, what the last time we went through this. And at that time, we had a very racist president also. Okay. So you were telling us about Tulsa, about this Greenville, which was Greenwood, which was the Black Wall Street, and all of its wonders. And then we had the massacre. Yes. And as I say, Tulsa was unique because it was the biggest massacre on American soil up until the Oklahoma City bombing, which is also Rapture Street from Tulsa. So we have two major incidents in the two major cities in Oklahoma that depict the views on some of the government. Well, I would say anti-government views, because the people in the Black Wall Street were taxpayers. We were lending to the white sharecroppers even at that point in time. They were coming to get farming equipment and other things that they needed to survive. You know, on their farm properties and their homesteads. And unfortunately, you know, the same resentment for Black life is alive and well. On a lighter note, we had a lot of great things that come out of Tulsa. A lot of people are familiar with Charlie Wilson and the Gap Band. People don't know that Gap is an acronym. It stands for Greenwood, Archer, and Pine. Oh. Yes. So this is why, you know, a lot of things, you know, that I asked for that came out of Oklahoma and moved west and move north and move east, Black Wall Street. You can imagine if Atlanta experienced a massacre in the scale of Tulsa right now, you would imagine that how many people would, you know, it would be a mass exodus to many different places in the United States. Well, tell me, how many people do you know? How many people lost their lives? We know they lost their fortunes, but how many lost their lives, you know? Yes. Well, no one knows exactly. This is something that Tulsa Race Ride Commission right now is investigating. They want to resume the bodies of some of the locations that were discovered here recently. It was always considered to be mass graves, but the city would never entertain the idea of going in and doing an investigation to find out the facts. So at this point, the estimates are slightly above 300, but we know there was way more. Oh, yeah. Of course it was. Way more. So what is the commission now? So the commission convened. What's the name of the commission? This is the Tulsa Race Ride Massacre Centennial Commission. We're coming up on 2021. This happened in 1921. So the 100-year centennial is coming up. And so they're planning a lot of things. Greenwood District is still alive and well. It's been sectioned and pardoned off. Some of it still remains in the hands of Black ownership. Very slight, very small percentage of that. But in the grave sites, the commission was put together because they went to the Oklahoma Supreme Court to argue for explanation because the story was kept from me, you know, and many others out of the history of Oklahoma and history of the world for many, many years. As I said, I was 13 years when I first found out about it. A lot of people won't talk about it today. So what they did was in the early 80s, they went and started a former commission of successful Black entrepreneurs and legislators and mayors, and they put together the commission who started to ask and demand even compensation and also explanation for what happened then and why is it not taught in history in schools? So one thing that the commission did was they installed the Department of Education in Tulsa and Oklahoma in general, a curriculum. Two types of curriculum was a one-day curriculum and then another was a five-day curriculum. The one-day curriculum is for people who just need to be acclimated about the history, kind of a nutshell approach of what happened, and it's taught from grace, third grade up until your junior year as an Oklahoma history course in college. So it covers a broad, broad scale of the age groups that need to know and understand. You can see that curriculum or a lot of other things that depict the history of Black Wall Street and Tulsa, Oklahoma at Tulsa2021.org. It's a very great site. There are a few videos and also some of the things that you should know about Black Wall Street and what we're doing today to commemorate. Yeah, now repeat that again the name of the website. The website, what the commission's called the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission and you can find that website at www.tulsa2021.org. So can anybody take the curriculum? Can anybody, I mean you don't have to be in a class and Tulsa can outside people? Yes, the curriculum is there to teach the history of those Tulsa Race riots. Teaching the history often helps you to understand where you need to go in the future. Yes, of course. If we don't know our history, we're doomed to repeat it. And we're headed down that road as we speak. Oh boy. And like I said, I don't think things have changed too much from these days of taking, you know, of the massacre. Like I said, Rosewood, Elaine Mastery. There were so many things happening between that time period, but if you look today, if you look at the list, the ongoing list of innocent black life that is taken in the public with video and nothing, nothing has happened. These people go to a grand jury and are acquitted almost 100% of the time. Yes. And it's very... It's the same, it's the same. And that man in the White House caters to them. That is who he's talking to. Yes, you know. And that's why I wanted you to do this, so that young people, especially those that know you, know, get a sense of where we've been. So that, you know, you can't just say, oh well, you know, we really need to take a look at all of... I'm just sorry that we can't do all of it. Yes, I understand. But we need to open the door. You need to have people tune into the curriculum. Yes. We need... There's so many videos online about Tulsa. Yes, terrible. If you just Google on YouTube or just go to YouTube and put in Tulsa Race Ride or Tulsa Lenshing 1921 or Tulsa Master 1921, Black Wall Street, a plethora of videos and information depicting the rich history, oral and both written of blacks in the United States. We didn't come over here in slavery. People don't understand that there were natives or indigenous cultures just like the Aborigines. There were indigenous cultures there in Oklahoma that resided before they listed that as a native territory and pushed all the other tribes to Oklahoma. We were there, you know, no matter what they called us, what we called ourselves was successful, God fearing. And it's unfortunate that we don't see that today. Probably anyone that's taught that, you know, their taught slavery helped to build America, but they don't teach you that the people who were enslaved were engineers, architects, medics. I mean, these people were not ignorant of society or civilization. This is why they were enslaved to build this great nation. And as we come upon 2020 and there's many legislators arguing for reparation. Well, I don't know how you, and I'm not going to pretend that I do know how you would do reparations fairly. However, what I think could happen. And that would be free. Absolutely. Because that's paying it forward. Yes, that's one of the things that. That would pay it forward that because you need an education and especially now where jobs that we think of today will disappear. So we need to be educated for tomorrow. Yes. And I would say that the education should be directed towards skill learning skills. Trade skills because those are the jobs that are going to show up all of this new artificial intelligence. Right. We need to enter into the innovative and the creativity and the movement that's happening right now with technology and things. And I think that we have a surplus of young people and people who are professional at this point that are leading that fight and leading that, you know, the interest into that world, including the world of hemp, of course. Yes, of course. We haven't talked about camps, but I would say, you know. And the hemp industry opens up a plethora of opportunities. Yes. When we started the show a couple of years ago, they said there were 50,000 products made of hemp. Who knows what they are now? How many? Exactly. Exactly. And so, I mean, along with teaching trade skills and teaching, you know, the regular curriculum, having retuition would be definitely a plus if we look at the rate of debt. Oh, my gosh, yes. That young people, I'm still paying my student on. So, I mean, the rate of debt that we incur just getting an education to go to a job that doesn't exist sometimes. The debt doesn't exist, yes. So, trade skills are something, you know, growing up, people will tell you, you know, as a derogatory means, you can only be good with your hands. You'll never be a lawyer, a doctor, a policeman. Those days are past, but what do we need to survive? We need those skills. We do. You do. Well, we have been, this has been a real pleasure to spend the time with you. And, of course, you will come back and talk, we'll talk more about Camo as we progress. So, thank you for this, and I think our audience, I want to thank you all. And again, do you have an email at the webpage for this? The webpage, the easiest way to get in contact with this. Well. Just one information to further your knowledge is to contact them at www.telsa-tulsa-2021.org. Again, that's www.telsa-2021.org. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure. And we'll see you next time. Aloha. Aloha.