John Legend to bring the story of ‘Black Wall Street’ to WGN

Discussion in 'Race, Religion, Science and Politics' started by Dreamwalker, Aug 27, 2016.

  1. Dreamwalker

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    John Legend is teaming up with WGN America to bring the real life story of “Black Wall Street” to a television near you.

    Black Wall Street‘ was a wealthy black neighborhood in Greenwood, Tulsa that was attacked in 1921 by a mob of angry whites who burned it down and massacred hundreds of black residents over two days.

    In spite of the devastating attack, the community rebuilt from the ruins until desegregation began.

    According to Deadline, John Legend, Mike Jackson and Ty Stiklorious’s company, Get Lifted Film Co., has already gotten a deal for early development on Black Wall Street, which will examine the historical role of Black Wall Street itself.

    The series will examine how Black Wall Street and the community around its creation became a safe haven even at a time of deep segregation. It will also examine the backlash that the community faced over the course of the two day rampage.

    “We’re so excited to continue to grow our relationship with WGN America,” Jackson told Deadline. “Our experience working with them on Underground has been fantastic. Additionally, we’re looking forward to working with our friend Tika Sumpter to help tell this incredible story that many people know nothing about.
     
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  2. ColumbusGuy

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    It is a shame more (white) people do not know of this. It really was one of the worst things to happen domestically in the 20th Century in the US-and it was glossed over forever-I never heard about it until I was an adult. Even worse, the communities that survived the segregation years intact frequently did not survive the urban renewal years which often was simply black removal.

    I should make a post and link about the Mill Valley area of St. Louis which was the 'black' area of St. Louis and what happened with 'urban renewal'. One thing I remember reading-while the community was rather poor by white middle class standards, one single block there had over 100 black owned and operated businesses. On one. single. block. I wonder how many black owned and operated businesses there are in all of St. Louis now?

    Anyway this will hopefully be well done and well received.
     
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  3. DreG

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    I feel like a lot of people don't know,and no one is really talking about it.It's like the hope is it'll be covered up by history and time .You hear about the Hindenberg,the Titanic,or 9/11,but this isn't usally mentioned in the same way.
     
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  4. Dreamwalker

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  5. ColumbusGuy

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    I have seen all kinds of numbers about the death toll, but the destruction and what happened is pretty well documented, just not out there in the public sphere. I cannot think of anything as bad in the last century really- that much property destroyed, so many people having to flee for their lives, basically being run out of the city. It was like invaders came in and just sacked and pillaged and burned the entire black area of Tulsa like some Attila the Hun stuff. In racial crimes it is certainly up there with the Japanese interment camps, but worse because of the violence and loss of life.

    I can't think of any single incident this bad, with this much killing, destruction, displacement. And it was very effectively kept under the rug for so long. I will admit I knew of it, but it was not until well after the internet and all that I learned how bad it really was-not that long ago really. Hopefully this project gets it out there more.

    I can't speak for blacks of course, but I would imagine this would fall along the lines of a Pearl Harbor and 911 for blacks, right?

    This also reminds me of the Port Chicago disaster and that cover up.
     
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  6. ColumbusGuy

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    How many people are aware of the Port Chicago disaster...has there been anything made about that? Anything that has gotten out to the public? I am not aware of anything, but I have not really checked on it. Total negligence that killed nearly 300 black servicemen-and then they are punished for not walking right back into another disaster scenario. The more this gets out the better for everyone and our society as a whole. Nasty stuff that is kept secret eats away at us collectively IMO.

    *Part of the reason I know about Port Chicago is that I know much about about most disasters.
     
  7. Dreamwalker

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    Well, if Hollywood wants to bring historical incidents like this to light they have plenty of material to work with.
    8 Successful and Aspiring Black Communities Destroyed by White Neighbors - Atlanta Black Star

    I'm looking forward to seeing a documentary about this one that happened near my home town. Nothing about it was taught in schools (not even during Black History Month) and I only learned about it a few years ago. Sadly I can't remember any of the elder members of my family talking about it either.
    Local screenwriter tells story of Elaine riot

    I hope they make as many of these movies as they can before "White Guilt Fatigue" sets in and Hollywood is no longer interested.
     
  8. Winston Smith

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    A lot of folk my age (Gen X) and older probably are more familiar with it. While books have been written about it going back decades, so John Legend is sort of late to the game (but kudos to him for a cinematic take). In fact, the great R&B group, The Gap Band, are named for streets sections of Tulsa and black Wall Street history (Gap = Greenwood Archer and Pine streets, where the group members grew up). Some even allege their song "You Dropped A Bomb On Me" has more than one meaning.
    I've known about it since the late 1980s, as it was a cover story in The Black Scholar magazine, which I used to read religiously in high school and college, story by Robert Allen. Years later, the Navy still refused to take responsibility for its racist atmosphere leading up to it:
    Black Scholar Research Leads to Navy Review: Injustice Upheld in Port Chicago Mutiny Trial on JSTOR
     
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  9. ColumbusGuy

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    Not to start a controversy here, but I have looked at many sources before regarding the Tulsa riot, and the death toll of 300 was the very highest estimate and an outlier without any other support(not that it makes it any less horrible and still probably 100-150 killed as far as I could figure from the various sources).

    Of those 8 examples, Rosewood and Tulsa stand out (to me) as really the only 'black communities destroyed'-the rest being serious terrible race riots, but not 'destroying' the community' as Rosewood and Greenwood/Tulsa were leveled to the ground. Just like with the LA riots and other urban riots(Detroit in what, 67?) some serious damage was done, but entire communities and neighborhoods were not leveled. You had serious damage but the community was still largely intact with damage generally limited to varying degrees of commercial buildings destroyed or damaged but with churches, schools, residential buildings largely undamaged. Putting these other (admittedly awful and terrible) riots on the same level as Greenwood and Rosewood does a disservice to what happened there. You cannot find pictures of entire communities leveled like Tulsa because they don't exist as that did not happen to that degree. Blocks of building burned along commercial corridors does not equal the entire leveling of a an entire community like in Rosewood-which was just about like when the Nazi's systematically leveled Warsaw in 1944. Rosewood should not be lumped in with the other events because it was on a whole different and terrible level. JMHO and again, not trying to start trouble, just expressing a viewpoint regarding scale of events.

    *I just really don't like things like death tolls being overstated because if it is determined that it was overstated it can cast a doubt on other aspects of the event as a whole. I can give some examples of other events(such as disasters) where this has happened-it just irks me for some reason. Yes it is nitpicking and I am not trying to 'lessen' what happened there.
     
    #9 ColumbusGuy, Aug 28, 2016
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2016
  10. OckyDub

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  11. ColumbusGuy

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    I know this is wrong and all...but it would totally be ok with me if they manage to work in a nude scene or two with John Legend.
     
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