Crisis Archives » Native Voice One

A century ago the United States was finally free from the Great War and dealing with day-to-day waves from a flu pandemic.

The country was also tested by unresolved questions about racism and violence.

Tested and largely failed.

This week marks the 99th anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre.

This is Trahant Reports.

Trahant Reports · TR060120Tulsa

The headlines from summer of 1919 almost seem familiar today. Riots in Washington, D.C.; Knoxville, Tennessee; Longview, Texas; Phillips County, Arkansas; Omaha, Nebraska and – most dramatically – Chicago. The spark was racial strife.

Even the pandemic, the flu, had a racial framework because hospitals were segregated and African Americans had to seek care at black-owned institutions.

That era was known as the “Red Summer. There were public murders and lynchings carried out on streets across the country, dismissed as riots. That story conflicted with the story that America was telling the world that the post-World War I-era notion that America was making the world safe for democracy.

And, if the Red Summer was not enough … on May 31, 1921, stirred by a resurgent Ku Klux Klan, the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, known as the Black Wall Street, was attacked and demolished.

“A mob destroyed 35 square blocks of the African American Community during the evening of May 31, through the afternoon of June 1, 1921,” said a report on the event by the state of Oklahoma in 2001.

Hundreds of whites were deputized and participated in the violence, even providing firearms and ammunition to people, all of them white, who looted, killed and destroyed property. Officials may have blamed African Americans for the “race riot.” But the community and the Red Cross labeled it a massacre from the start.

No one was ever prosecuted or punished for the violent criminal acts.

Human Rights Watch published a report Friday that called for reparations. Finally.

“The Tulsa Race Massacre and surrounding events led directly to the loss of hundreds of lives, loss of liberty, substantial personal and business property loss, and damage to objects of cultural significance. Compounding inequalities stemming from the massacre led to lower life expectancy, increased need for mental health services, loss of economic opportunity, and other harms to community members over decades … Yet the victims of the massacre have yet to receive an effective remedy.”

I am Mark Trahant.

The human crisis on the border is worse than previously reported. The government’s own investigation shows that the treatment of migrants by border officials is a “ticking time bomb” that will continue to escalate. The government has had the report since May, but its contents were only released last week.

This is Trahant Reports.

The Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security reviewed five Border Patrol facilities and two ports of entry in Texas and “observed serious overcrowding and prolonged detention of unaccompanied alien children, families, and single adults that require immediate attention.” The report warned of potential riot conditions because of the treatment of those seeking asylum in the United States.

“The current situation on the Southern Border represents an acute and worsening crisis.” The report said. “Our immigration system is not equipped to accommodate a migration pattern like the one we are experiencing now.”

This Inspector General reinforces observations made by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus after a recent visit to the border.

Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat from Texas, said not all of the women in detention had access to water and some of them had not had a bath or shower in more than two weeks.

Rep. Castro secretly recorded his visit on a mobile phone. Members of Congress were told by the Border Patrol not to take pictures during their visit.

https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1146052528997588992

Other members of Congress reported that the Border Patrol was dismissive of their oversight visit. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, wrote on Twitter, that many of the children she spoke with spoke Indigenous languages. Quote: “Some I met were budding trilingual (speak K’iche’, Spanish & learning English).”

Meanwhile, a U.S. District Court Judge issued a ruling Tuesday that required the government to adjudicate asylum claims faster or release migrants from custody. “The purposes of immigration detention are simple and straightforward: to facilitate removal (if removal is deemed justified), and to prevent flight and harm to the community,” wrote Judge Marsha Pechman from Seattle.

The White House issued a statement calling the decision a “war on the rule of law.”

“A single, unelected district judge in Seattle issued an injunction that prevents the government from ensuring the detention of those aliens who cross the border unlawfully until the completion of their immigration court proceedings,” the White House said.

“The decision only incentivizes smugglers and traffickers, which will lead to the further overwhelming of our immigration system by illegal aliens. No single district judge has legitimate authority to impose his or her open borders views on the country. We must restore our democracy and ensure Americans have the voice to which they are entitled under our Constitution,” the White House statement said.

Congress, the Trump administration, and indeed, the country, remain deeply divided about what steps should be taken next. And so the crisis on the border is certain to grow worse.

I am Mark Trahant.