Emmanuel J. Watkins Interview

Unknown Speaker  0:01   Hello, everybody, this is Zachary banky. With the social media team. I'm here today with Professor Emmanuel J. Watkins. Tell us a little about yourself. Unknown Speaker  0:09   Yes. Hello. So Hello everybody, I am Professor Emmanuel J. Watkins with the Department of African and African American studies with San Jose State University, it is such a pleasure to be able to come to you today to have this interview to talk to you all, so that you are enlightened about the various massacres or riots that have happened around the United States at the hands of white supremacy and those who uphold it. I think that when we think about race relations and the experiences of African Americans in the United States, we are saddened to see that the actions and the behaviors have not changed (yeah) in order for them to change for the future, we have to go back look, take a look at the past, learn what we can learn and apply them to the present. So it is such a pleasure for me to be able to have this opportunity with you today. Unknown Speaker  1:03   Absolutely. So first thing, what exactly happened during the 1921, Tulsa race massacre? Unknown Speaker  1:11   Yes. So Zachary, thank you so much. One of the things that I need everyone to understand is that shortly after, uh the end of slavery, the Emancipation Proclamation at the end of the Civil War, you have the reconstruction period. And within the reconstruction period, this was an idealistic time, where African Americans who are free kind of felt like there might be an opportunity for them to be considered equal, for them to be considered a part of American society, for them to be considered or, or to believe that their wants and desires and dreams were falling on the horizon. However, the reconstruction was a big bus that equality was not felt, there were various forms of laws that were take- that were put in place, especially within the south to hinder African Americans from migrating and becoming a part of the main society. So what you begin to see is African Americans coming together and creating their own communities, creating their own churches, creating their own schools, creating their own universities, and unfortunately, often it is in a radius, white Americans, it's not like they were able to go deep down in the woods and create their own settlements we're talking about is saying San Jose, is our white town, then San Francisco is a black town, close in proximity where the white individuals knew what was going on. They knew that the black individuals were there. And that could create, which it did some jealousy, it could create some and it did created some envy. Because how is it that this newly freed group of individuals are now experiencing economic prosperity and progression? The white Americans aren't. And that is when we have and that sets the stage for the Tulsa race massacre, the torture, race riot, the Greenwood massacre, because essentially, post Oklahoma had a portion of their town that was called block black Wall Street. That was where many of the African Americans lived within that community. You're talking doctors, you're talking lawyers, you're talking teachers, you're talking, you know, entrepreneurs, and because within this time period, and we're talking about 1921. And so because of this time period, whites then often go shopping black businesses, blacks, unless they absolutely needed to didn't go shop at White businesses, the money circulated within the communities, white money within their community, that money within their community. So what you see is if there's a community of doctors, lawyers, pastors, teachers, and their money is circulating in their community, obviously, based upon group economics, that said community is going to be prosperous, that set community is going to have a will oh success or a will of prosperity. They're...