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Source: Courtesy of Tulsa Historical Society & Museum via AP
President Trump's recent rally in Tulsa didn't attract the expected crowd, but it was a good one. There was no violence and the President was at his best. One of the best things to come out of the event was increased awareness of the massacre of over 300 black citizens in Tulsa 99 years ago, the worst racial violence in US history.
Many former slaves left the deep south after the Civil War for Oklahoma expecting less discrimination among the tribes. The community in Tulsa became so wealthy it earned the nickname of the Black Wall Street of America. But many confederates also migrated and soon outnumbered the tribes and blacks. The KKK moved into Tulsa in 1920 and began looking for an excuse to attack the black community. It found one in the fabricated story of the rape of a 17-year old white girl, Sarah Page, by a 19-year old black boy, Dick Rowland.