Anti-mask demonstrators have clashed with a black pastor calling for reparations over the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre that left an estimated 300 African Americans dead.
Footage shared to social media earlier this week shows Rev. Robert Turner speaking into a megaphone outside Tulsa City Hall with a small group of supporters.
The activists then become surrounded by large crowd of demonstrators protesting against mandatory mask-wearing.
The group of anti-maskers – who waved placards that read ‘Fire Fauci’ and ‘Masks Harm Health’ – attempted to down out Turner by changing ‘USA! USA!’
However, Turner was not deterred, telling the crowd about the city’s historic race massacre.
‘An angry racist mob of white descended upon Greenwood [in 1921] and killed black people. Not one of those racist, white angry fools had a trial for the cause,’ he stated into the megaphone.
A white anti-mask demonstrator then stated: ‘Sweetie, let us have our voice and you can have yours!’
She subsequently yelled at Turner: ‘You’re racist! You’re racist!’
Anti-mask demonstrators clashed with a black pastor Rev Robert Turner, who is calling for reparations over the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre that left an estimated 300 African Americans dead
Turner continued, saying into the microphone: ‘It is a travesty that you care more about face masks then you do about justice.’
He went on to call for reparations for the families of those killed in the massacre, saying that Tulsa has enough money to pay up.
‘Reparations for what?’ one anti-masker then yelled.
Another appeared to wave a dollar bill at one of the activists who was holding up a sign which read: ‘Reparations now!’
According to The Washington Post, another anti-masker told the black pastor ‘My ancestors freed your people’.
No criminal complaint was filed over the clash.
In a statement, Tulsa’s Republican Mayor, G.T. Bynum, stated: ‘The plaza in front of City Hall belongs to every Tulsan, and every Tulsan should feel welcome to make their voice heard in that space.
‘Reverend Turner and I have had our differences of opinion, but I will always support his right to express that opinion.’
The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre has received new attention amid a national reckoning on racism in the United States.
THE 1921 TULSA RACE RIOT: AN ATTACK ON GREENWOOD
After World War I, Tulsa was recognized for its affluent African-American community known as the Greenwood District.
The community was often referred to as the ‘Black Wall Street’ because of its thriving businesses and residential area, but in June 1921, the community was nearly destroyed during the Tulsa Race Riot.
The events leading up to the riot began on May 30, 1921, when a young black man named Dick Rowland was riding in the elevator with a woman named Sarah Page.
The details of what followed vary from person to person and it’s unclear what actually happened, but Rowland was arrested the next day by Tulsa police, with reports suggesting Rowland assaulted Page.
During the Tulsa Riot, 35 city blocks were completely destroyed and more than 800 people were treated for injuries. Historians believe as many as 300 people may have died in the riot
Subsequently, a report in the Tulsa Tribune dated May 31, 1921 was published that night with an accompanying editorial stating that a lynching was planned for that night.
This started a confrontation between black and white armed men at the courthouse, with the white men demanding that Rowland be lynched while the black men tried to protect him.
During a struggle between two men in the mobs over a gun, shots were fired and a white man was shot, causing the the African-American group to retreat to the Greenwood District.
In the early morning hours of June 1, 1921, Greenwood was looted and burned by an estimated 10,000 white rioters, who flooded into the streets shooting residents. Planes also reportedly dropped incendiary bombs on the area.
Many of the white mob had recently returned from World War I and trained in the use of firearms, are are said to have shot Black Americans on sight.
Pictured: Part of Greenwood District burning during the Race Riots, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, June 1921. More than 1,400 homes and businesses were destroyed. The picture caption above says ‘Burning of Church Where Ammunition was Stored-During Tulsa Race Riot-6-1-21’
In addition, more than 1,400 homes and businesses were destroyed, and nearly 10,000 people were left homeless.
The riots lasted for two days, and Governor Robertson declared martial law, and National Guard troops were called in to Tulsa.
During the riot, 35 city blocks were completely destroyed. Historians believe as many as 300 people may have died in the riot – mostly Black Americans -and more than 800 people were treated for injuries.
Bodies were buried in mass graves while families of those who were killed in the riots were held in prison under martial law according to Scott Ellsworth, a University of Michigan historian, in December.
The families of the deceased were never told whether their loved ones died in the massacre, or where they were buried, and no funerals were held.
Until the 1990s, the massacre was rarely mentioned in history books, and in 2001, the Race Riot Commission was organized to review the details of the deadly riot.
A geophysical scan conducted earlier this year found signs of a mass grave in Tulsa, and an archaeological excavation has begun in attempt to uncover the remains of victims from the Massacre.
On Monday, test excavations of potential unmarked mass graves were resumed by a team of researchers and historians in the city.
A backhoe operator began slowly moving dirt at Tulsa’s Oaklawn Cemetery, where ground-penetrating radar earlier this year determined there was an anomaly consistent with mass graves.
‘Our work continues to find the graves of our fellow Tulsans who went missing during the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre,’ Tulsa’s Mayor G.T. Bynum said on Facebook.
Workers and researchers have begun digging at Oaklawn Cemetery in Tulsa, Oklahoma, pictured above, in the search for possible mass graves from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre
‘Today, we begin a test excavation in Oaklawn Cemetery to determine what is causing an underground anomaly found by geophysical scanning conducted earlier this year.’
‘Because the scan is consistent with a mass grave, a team of some of the foremost researchers in the nation have assembled in Tulsa to assess both the presence and the condition of any human remains at the site in question,’ he said.
Researchers plan to open a 6-by-3-meter excavation area using the backhoe to clear the first layer of soil, followed by shovels, trowels and even more delicate tools if remains are uncovered, said Oklahoma State Archaeologist Kary Stackelbeck.
‘It can become a tedious process, but it’s important that we do this carefully, cautiously and take copious notes along the way,’ Stackelbeck said.
For two days starting on May 31 1921, an white mob estimated to be 10,000-strong destroyed Tulsa’s Black Greenwood district, known as Black Wall Street,resulting in the deaths of an estimated 300 people and injuring 800 more
Pictured: Dirt is dumped into a truck at Oaklawn Cemetery during a test excavation in the search for possible mass graves from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Monday, July 13, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma
In the years that followed, Tulsa city and business leaders engaged in a ‘concerted cover-up’ to hide the truth about the massacre, Bynum said.
‘You had generations of people who grew up in this community … and never heard about it,’ Bynum said. ‘I feel a tremendous responsibility as mayor to try and find these folks. That’s a basic thing that a city government should do for people, and Tulsa hasn’t.’
‘In Tulsa, if you’re murdered we do everything we can to find out what happened and bring justice for your family,’ The mayor said. ‘It should not have taken us 99 years to get to this point of the investigation.
‘But this generation of Tulsans is committed to being a better city, and to doing right by the victims. We will follow the truth where it leads us.’
Forensic anthropoligist Phoebe Stubblefield, left, and other researchers view an item pulled from the ground at Oaklawn Cemetery during a test excavation in the search for possible mass graves from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in Tulsa, Okla
