Three things you can do

Last Sunday was a remarkable day.

At least 1,300 people of all races gathered in the Performing Arts Center to see the premiere of “Before They Die!” the new documentary about the Tulsa Race Riot.

It’s the feel-bad movie of the year.

It tells the tale of the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 and the problems that survivors of the race riot have faced in the subsequent years in their attempts to get justice.

In fewer than 100 words, here’s the story of the race riot: A black man was falsely accused of assaulting a white woman in downtown Tulsa. An armed white crowd gathered, intent on vigilante justice. A handful of armed blacks arrived intending to prevent a lynching. A shot was fired — no one knows by whom — and the white mob attacked the segregated black business district, Greenwood, which was burned and pillaged. The riot raged for 14 hours and left untold numbers dead. The city did nothing e;ective to stop the violence.

The victims of the riot have never been reimbursed for their losses — not by insurance companies, the government or anyone else.

The movie pulls no punches. It stands as an indictment of not just what happened 87 years ago, but what has happened — and failed to happen — since then.

Every voice: I can remember President Bill Clinton and the Rev. Billy Graham being at the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial service in 1995, but I can’t remember a word either said.

I can remember Ernestine Dillard being there too, and I’ll never forget what she did.

The memory of her version of “God Bless America” still makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

She sang it again at Sunday’s premiere. Her performance was just as thrilling as the one she gave in 1995.

She also sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a beautiful song that is controversial sometimes because it is also known as the black national anthem. Here’s its “controversial” message:

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,

Let us march on ’til victory is won.

Many in the audience sang along. If I had been wise enough to have learned the words, I might have also, but, then again, I wouldn’t want to cover any of Dillard’s beautiful singing.

Some people can’t understand why there is a song identified as the black national anthem. There’s only one national anthem in the United States and it’s good enough for everyone, they say.

I say anything that makes people more patriotic is a good thing.

Nothing about “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” threatens the place of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

So, sing on, Ms. Dillard.

I feel that same way about White Allies Against Racism, a new group formed at the YWCA and mentioned during Sunday’s events.

Ironically, it’s a segregated program — whites only.

It’s designed to give concerned white people — for right now only YWCA staff and board members — a safe place to explore cultural racism and talk about what they can do about it.

Racism is a white problem, said YWCA Chief Operating Officer Kim Nave, and it’s going to take white people doing something about it for racism to be eliminated.

In the contemporary world we aren’t likely to run into white people spouting the sort of racial superiority bigotry presented in movies about the American South in the before the Civil Rights movement.

More commonly, she said, we run into attitudes that are based in a presumption to racial entitlement or ingroup assumptions about a common racial perspective.

Membership in the group has helped Nave “find her voice” in speaking out when she is among other white people socially.

As you might expect, that has caused some awkward moments for her.

Twice since she joined the group she says she has encountered situations in which white people felt comfortable saying things to her that she felt had to be addressed.

What you can do: In person and in the film, Mayor Kathy Taylor offered an apology Sunday on behalf of the city.

A handful of the survivors were there to hear her.

The Monday morning pushback was predictable.

“It is ridiculous for the mayor to apologize to anyone for this,” said the first Internet poster to get to the Tulsa World story about Sunday’s premier. “She did not participate in this riot 87 years ago, nor did anyone who will likely read this story.”

The poster goes on to blame the riot on the black people who came to the courthouse to prevent a lynching, and concludes “Any people culpable in this event are dead and gone.”

I’m going to guess that the poster missed Sunday’s premiere. Had he gone he would have heard the survivor telling the story of her mother preaching to the rioters that their sins would be remembered even unto the third generation.

He also would have missed actress Alfre Woodard, who spoke before the film, and said these wise words: “We may have had nothing to do with that day, but we certainly have everything to do with what we do about it now.”

That raises a good question: What can you do about it now."

Here’s a three-point program: First, learn.

The DVD of “Before They Die!” is available for $25 from the YWCA. It soon will be available for check-out at the Tulsa City-County Library.

Second, swear that you will do your part to end racism.

The event’s hosts distributed a “Pledge to Eliminate Racism in My Life,” from YWCA USA. The pledge is available through the YWCA Tulsa — 587-2100. I also have posted it on my blog: tulsaworld.com/waynesworld.

Read it; sign it; keep it; remember it.

Third, give.

A local group has organized a private reparations fund for race riot survivors through the Tulsa Community Foundation. There’s not a penny of public money involved, although donations are tax-deductible.

It is the local edge of a national effort envisioned by the movie’s producer, Reggie Turner, to raise $5 million for the survivors.

Before the money can be distributed to race riot victims, a small change is needed in the federal tax code. The race riot survivors would have be acknowledged as a “class,” like the class created for 9/11 survivors, before the money could be given to them.

An active lobbying effort in that direction is already under way in Congress. If it becomes apparent that Congress won’t create the class, organizers say they will use the money in some other effort to fight racism.

Donations should be made to the Before They Die Racial Reconciliation Fund; c/o Tulsa Community Foundation; 7030 S. Yale Ave. Suite 600; Tulsa OK 74136.

Wayne Greene 581-8308
wayne.greene@tulsaworld.com