Beautifully written, so powerful, sadly it seems that history will repeat itself in terms of the brutality and inhumane treatment of human beings, the denial and whitewashing perpetrators for self gain and greed. Thank you for this piece.
Incredibly, I never knew about the Tulsa Massacre until I was well into my 50s. I wondered, then, why it wasn’t taught in my high school history class, but that class was in the late 60s, just after the Civil Rights Act but before some of the horrors of our history regarding Blacks was revealed.
My husband and I watched the Will Smith film, “Emancipation” with fascination at “Peter’s” determination and horror. We knew, of course, of the cruelty of “masters” over their slaves.
Today, with Trump’s actions and the rising of white supremacy, it seems many want to return to an ill-perceived time of American “greatness” when we were really not great at all.
Hope and the recognition of reality shine through your Sunday poem, Terry. As we raise our voices and spirits to counter the current regime, let us hold on to the hope of a brighter future, when - perhaps - we can all be truly equal.
I was also in my 50s when I learned about the massacre from an essay written by a white student. Her grandfather had taken part in it and she grappled with her love for her grandfather who had committed such evil.
Much thanks for sharing. I remember the event and Bush’s words and thought at the time how far my understanding had come from the long ago days of my high school history classes before we started to rely on primary sources. We still have further to go as two steps forward seem to end up with 1 1/2 steps back as some are unwilling or scared to see this country’s history as anything other than a glorious procession, a vision in white.
Similarly, Terry, I am a student of American history. I like be knowledgeable of the good and bad, the in-between. A lot to take in for certain, but it says, everything does not go one way. We have a horrid history with slavery, Jim Crow, the Klan, you name it. The Tulsa riots, hadn't heard about them until they were becoming a revelation..
While Truman is credited with desegregating the military ranks, Eisenhower made it a reality. In Korea, it was still white officers leading black soldiers. There was still a reluctance to allow black soldiers into combat arms and combat support roles. They were still filling the roles as kitchen help to domestic help at formal functions. If it sounds and reads cold, that is how it was. Let's not pretend otherwise. One more thing, Truman was reluctant to allow Japanese resident aliens to be naturalized. Let's not pretend he was otherwise. Again, it was Eisenhower who allowed them to be naturalized. My grandparents, who were Japanese resident aliens, absolutely loyal to the United States, never thought they would be naturalized in their lifetimes. They attended and passed their citizenship class; made it a point to excel, to prove their loyalty.
So when George W. Bush welcomed all the descendants of Thomas Jefferson to the White House, I did not find it surprising. Family is family is family, no two ways about it. When his dad, George H. W. Bush signed the reparations legislation for Japanese Americans, he did so because it was the right thing to do, adding the internment should had never happened. It happened because we allowed it to happen.
In the here and now, Donald Trump would like to wipe it all away. Say it never happened. It was an acceptable practice back in the day. There was no need to change. For Trump and his allies, they would like to go back to yesteryear. Live the way it was suppose to be. The disheartening part, many would join Trump on that journey.
Again, you've brought to us something beautiful, tragic, challenging. Thank you, Terry, for the many voices you've put on your stage, excellent voices who tap us on the shoulder and ask, "Will you come with me?"
I’m coming across this after this popped up as a notification and was posted just now coincidentally and I learned some history here myself while also finding out about this poem.
As an 81 year old Black female retired teacher, I was told to remove this picture from my classroom by a Black female principal. I left her school and the children I loved. However, even when taken down our history continues to travel through our souls. Later in my career in my own charter school, I received a photo of one my students at Brandis University standing beneath this picture. She was teaching her classmates the meaning of Kwanzaa. Students at Brandis learned and shared this beautiful cultural heritage that is now ingrained in Black History. Black History will prevail as long as there are black people. Thank you Terry.
A Poem of beautiful, and telling words - especially as a racist once again tries to erase the wrongs of the past. I was 72 when we visited a black friend in Tulsa, and she took us to the Greenwood neighborhood and told us about the massacre. 72! A student of American history all my life, and I'd NEVER heard this spoken!!!
We can not let this evil, boiling cauldron of radioactive hate prevail! We must, one and all, make Only the Control Rods of civility and kindness the language and lived action of each and every one of us. The fascism, hate and racism must be Unacceptable in all aspects of life!
There was a time in my life when I made a scholarly study of propaganda, focusing on its uses in the French Revolution. All very distant, many generations removed from me in time. It was purely fascinating at that distance to probe the link between violent social change and targeted lies, between the hunger for power and the impulse to reinvent history in its service; to examine the ways in which warring factions and cadres blurred or heightened the narrative to enhance their stranglehold on power.
It's less fascinating now that it is happening all around me, and, goodness knows, far more overwhelming. But I find it useful and in an odd way reassuring to keep in mind that none of the lies of the Revolution survived intact. They have all been investigated and blown up by historians who, like journalists, exist to try to sift through often overwhelming mountains of disparate and contradictory facts, to try to figure out what has happened rather than to creative a narrative that this or that regime will find useful and comforting.
Terry, your grasp of our history and uncompromising way of sharing it is right up there with Heather Cox Richardson. The poem no doubt rattles maga cages. Thank you.
Beautifully written, so powerful, sadly it seems that history will repeat itself in terms of the brutality and inhumane treatment of human beings, the denial and whitewashing perpetrators for self gain and greed. Thank you for this piece.
the sunday poem
sings
like a wounded
nation bird heart
the sunday poem
paints
like a dripping
hope heart wing
the sunday poem
sleeps
like a waking
heart nation hope
SJOCR SF NM Early RrrrrockTober 2025
Stephen! That is so kind.
Incredibly, I never knew about the Tulsa Massacre until I was well into my 50s. I wondered, then, why it wasn’t taught in my high school history class, but that class was in the late 60s, just after the Civil Rights Act but before some of the horrors of our history regarding Blacks was revealed.
My husband and I watched the Will Smith film, “Emancipation” with fascination at “Peter’s” determination and horror. We knew, of course, of the cruelty of “masters” over their slaves.
Today, with Trump’s actions and the rising of white supremacy, it seems many want to return to an ill-perceived time of American “greatness” when we were really not great at all.
Hope and the recognition of reality shine through your Sunday poem, Terry. As we raise our voices and spirits to counter the current regime, let us hold on to the hope of a brighter future, when - perhaps - we can all be truly equal.
I was also in my 50s when I learned about the massacre from an essay written by a white student. Her grandfather had taken part in it and she grappled with her love for her grandfather who had committed such evil.
Wow. I’ve never thought about that experience of our history.
Much thanks for sharing. I remember the event and Bush’s words and thought at the time how far my understanding had come from the long ago days of my high school history classes before we started to rely on primary sources. We still have further to go as two steps forward seem to end up with 1 1/2 steps back as some are unwilling or scared to see this country’s history as anything other than a glorious procession, a vision in white.
Similarly, Terry, I am a student of American history. I like be knowledgeable of the good and bad, the in-between. A lot to take in for certain, but it says, everything does not go one way. We have a horrid history with slavery, Jim Crow, the Klan, you name it. The Tulsa riots, hadn't heard about them until they were becoming a revelation..
While Truman is credited with desegregating the military ranks, Eisenhower made it a reality. In Korea, it was still white officers leading black soldiers. There was still a reluctance to allow black soldiers into combat arms and combat support roles. They were still filling the roles as kitchen help to domestic help at formal functions. If it sounds and reads cold, that is how it was. Let's not pretend otherwise. One more thing, Truman was reluctant to allow Japanese resident aliens to be naturalized. Let's not pretend he was otherwise. Again, it was Eisenhower who allowed them to be naturalized. My grandparents, who were Japanese resident aliens, absolutely loyal to the United States, never thought they would be naturalized in their lifetimes. They attended and passed their citizenship class; made it a point to excel, to prove their loyalty.
So when George W. Bush welcomed all the descendants of Thomas Jefferson to the White House, I did not find it surprising. Family is family is family, no two ways about it. When his dad, George H. W. Bush signed the reparations legislation for Japanese Americans, he did so because it was the right thing to do, adding the internment should had never happened. It happened because we allowed it to happen.
In the here and now, Donald Trump would like to wipe it all away. Say it never happened. It was an acceptable practice back in the day. There was no need to change. For Trump and his allies, they would like to go back to yesteryear. Live the way it was suppose to be. The disheartening part, many would join Trump on that journey.
Thanks, David. Your own family story shows how important telling the truth about our history is. T
Again, you've brought to us something beautiful, tragic, challenging. Thank you, Terry, for the many voices you've put on your stage, excellent voices who tap us on the shoulder and ask, "Will you come with me?"
Love that, Karen
Wow powerful and provocative
I’m coming across this after this popped up as a notification and was posted just now coincidentally and I learned some history here myself while also finding out about this poem.
As an 81 year old Black female retired teacher, I was told to remove this picture from my classroom by a Black female principal. I left her school and the children I loved. However, even when taken down our history continues to travel through our souls. Later in my career in my own charter school, I received a photo of one my students at Brandis University standing beneath this picture. She was teaching her classmates the meaning of Kwanzaa. Students at Brandis learned and shared this beautiful cultural heritage that is now ingrained in Black History. Black History will prevail as long as there are black people. Thank you Terry.
Amen, Carrie. Thanks for teaching the truth to our children all those years.
A good read....These Truths, history of the United States by Jill Lepore
A Poem of beautiful, and telling words - especially as a racist once again tries to erase the wrongs of the past. I was 72 when we visited a black friend in Tulsa, and she took us to the Greenwood neighborhood and told us about the massacre. 72! A student of American history all my life, and I'd NEVER heard this spoken!!!
We can not let this evil, boiling cauldron of radioactive hate prevail! We must, one and all, make Only the Control Rods of civility and kindness the language and lived action of each and every one of us. The fascism, hate and racism must be Unacceptable in all aspects of life!
Amen, Dale.
There was a time in my life when I made a scholarly study of propaganda, focusing on its uses in the French Revolution. All very distant, many generations removed from me in time. It was purely fascinating at that distance to probe the link between violent social change and targeted lies, between the hunger for power and the impulse to reinvent history in its service; to examine the ways in which warring factions and cadres blurred or heightened the narrative to enhance their stranglehold on power.
It's less fascinating now that it is happening all around me, and, goodness knows, far more overwhelming. But I find it useful and in an odd way reassuring to keep in mind that none of the lies of the Revolution survived intact. They have all been investigated and blown up by historians who, like journalists, exist to try to sift through often overwhelming mountains of disparate and contradictory facts, to try to figure out what has happened rather than to creative a narrative that this or that regime will find useful and comforting.
The truth will out, I also believe.
Terry, your grasp of our history and uncompromising way of sharing it is right up there with Heather Cox Richardson. The poem no doubt rattles maga cages. Thank you.
Best description of Harriet Tubman that I've ever read.
Ha! She’s amazing. Put her on the money!!
WOW. Thanks. Blew me away.
Great piece, thank you.