WHY TULSA?

There has been a great deal of heat about the Trump cabal's decision to return to the campaign trail with a gathering in Tulsa, Okla. But there hasn't been enough light.

A cursory gander at the headlines has informed more than a few social-media skimmers that a racist massacre occurred there. Indeed, the conflagration has been called "the single worst incident of racial violence in American history." But the context—and the symbolism—matters.

It happened 99 years ago, on May 31, 1921, in the city's Greenwood District. The area was known as the Black Wall Street and was a testament to black prosperity.

The disturbance began with the arrest of a 19-year-old black man, Dick Rowland, for an alleged assault on a white woman. A furious white crowd converged on the courthouse; rumors that Rowland had been lynched served as an accelerant on the flames. White rioters descended upon the Greenwood District, their rage at Rowland a pretext but their contempt for—and envy of—a thriving black community that disdained Jim Crow subjugation roiling beneath it all. Armed with shotguns and Molotov cocktails, they stormed through town all night and into the morning, killing people indiscriminately and burning down everything: churches, homes, stores, hospitals. The Oklahoma National Guard was dispatched, and joined the white rioters in the destruction.

At the time, the papers reported 36 casualties. It's now believed 300+ black people died. A mass grave believed to have been used to deposit the victims of this slaughter was not properly investigated until this year. Remember all of this as you see conservatives railing against shop looters and "Antifa thugs." They are looking in the mirror of history and imagine they are gazing out a window.

Now, in Tulsa, just after the anniversary of the date that the last enslaved black Americans learned of their emancipation, a huge crowd of white racists is gathering to worship their hero, the most divisive U.S. leader in modern history. The place, like so much of the country, is already a powderkeg; the same white resentments, the same projection and demonization, the same crooked and hateful authority are on display as they were 99 years ago, with the same ragged, bloody veil of patriotism drawn across the mess.

The only question is whether the rampage will be contained.

Photo credit: By United States Library of Congress, Public Domain