Monday 28 / October / 2024
US President Joe Biden visited the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma on Tuesday to mark the centennial anniversary of one of the deadliest events of racist violence in the country's history.
"I come here to help fill the silence because in silence wounds deepen," Biden said of the racist incident which has long been considered a taboo.
"Some injustices are so heinous, so horrific, so grievous, they cannot be buried, no matter how hard people try," the president said.
Tulsa became a scene of carnage a century ago when an angry white mob burned down a prosperous Black neighborhood — often referred to as the Black Wall Street — and in the process killed some 300 people.
Biden's visit comes as the country faces an upswell of people protesting police violence and systemic discrimination against Black and other non-white people.
A dark chapter of US history
The president, who served as vice president under the country's first Black president, Barack Obama, also met with three survivors of the attack who were just children at the time.
He highlighted the importance of remembering the deadly incident.
"Just because history is silent, it does not mean that it did not take place," Biden said, describing the course of events by saying that "hell was unleashed, literal hell was unleashed.''
From May 31 to June 1 in 1921, violence erupted in the town after a group of Black men went to a courthouse to defend a young man from being lynched who had been accused of stepping on a white woman's foot.
In response, an angry group formed at dawn the next day and proceeded to loot and burn down buildings in the more than 30-block district. Thousands ended up in internment camps, watched over by the national guard.
Biden takes a different approach to Trump
Biden — who secured his election win with the overwhelming support from Black voters — has pursued a very different path than his predecessor when it comes to handling questions of racism.
Former President Donald Trump sparked outrage when he decided to host a campaign rally in the city of Tulsa on June 19, the holiday known as Juneteenth that celebrates the end of slavery in the US — he ended up delaying it by a day.
The Republican president also drew criticism for violently clearing Black Lives Matters protesters from Lafayette Park last year for a photo opportunity.
The Republican party has also been accused of trying to disenfranchise Black people with voter law reforms. Biden responded to the latest efforts on Tuesday by appointing Vice President Kamala Harris to lead efforts on voting rights.
