US President Biden Marks 100th Anniversary Of Black Massacre

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

(Worthy News) – A teary-eyed President, Joe Biden, has marked the 100th anniversary of one of America’s worst racial massacres, saying he had “come to fill the silence” and to unveil a plan to boost economic prosperity for African Americans.

Biden is the first president to travel to Tulsa to commemorate the 1921 destruction of the Greenwood neighborhood, which killed as many as 300 Black people.

Biden said he realized that the wounds have not yet healed in the area, once informally known as “Black Wall Street” as it hosted the wealthiest Black community. “Some injustices are so heinous, so horrific, so grievous, they cannot be buried, no matter how hard people try,” Biden said. “Only with truth can come healing.”

Biden’s commemoration of the deaths of hundreds of Black people killed by a white mob a century ago came amid a fierce debate on racial justice in the United States.

“Just because history is silent, it does not mean that it did not take place,” Biden stressed. He said that “hell was unleashed. literal hell was unleashed.”

And now, he said, the nation must come to grips with what he viewed as the following sin of denial. “We can’t just choose what we want to know and not what we should know,” said Biden. “I come here to help fill the silence because, in silence, wounds deepen.”

CIVIL RIGHTS

No Black people who survived the massacre or their relatives have been given compensation in return. Insurance companies reportedly declined most Black victims’ claims, worth more than $27 million in today’s money. About 10,000 community residents were left homeless.

After Biden left, there was a spontaneous singing by some audience members of a famous civil rights march song, “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around.”

Biden has come under pressure, however, for vowing to “root out systemic racism” in the United States. He made the remarks again in a statement Monday to mark the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre.

Republicans across the country have pushed back against the teaching of critical race theory, with many states moving to bar it from classrooms.

Those criticizing such legislation have said it would limit schools from properly teaching and discussing subjects like diversity and equity.

Critics say that while racial incidents occur, they do not amount to “systemic racism” in the U.S., where Barack Obama served two terms as the nation’s first Black president.

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