Dear Brad Girson (Editor/Executive Director)
I’m writing to you about The Massacre of Black Wall Street: Graphic Novel. I am a student at the U School and we have been learning about the history of Black Wall Street.
This article has helped me learn so much about black wall street and what really happened. I know that black wall street was a neighborhood in greenwood tulsa where many black owned businesses were located. Many of the businesses were thriving and very successful. I know some of the whites couldn’t handle the fact that black people were more successful and self-sufficient then they were. I also know that the massacre started over a misunderstanding that the news hyped to make more people anxious and rowdy. The media never missed a chance to make black people look bad when in reality they were a very successful community minding their business,
First, I would like to share my reactions after reading and annotating the HBO Watchmen Sponsored partnership production, The Massacre of Black Wall Street: Graphic Novel (The Atlantic)
Something from my annotations that I want to share is that I feel like back then black people were more self-sufficient than now. Sometimes i cant help but wonder were they better off back then but you have to think about it because they still were getting lynched and the whole massacre thing. I also a lot of this could’ve been avoided if it wasn’t for the media. The media really just made everything worse than it already was. The black people were minding their business not bothering a soul meaning they just couldn’t win it was a lose lose situation no matter what they did .
In addition, from our reading and research I learned some important social and economic conditions that existed in 1921 that connect to our present-day, 2021. In the Hisory.Com article, Entrepreneurs Who Helped Build Tulsa’s ‘Black Wall Street’ (History.com) I learned about how people started their business from the ground and became successful from it. This shows me no matter what if you really put your mind to something you can achieve it. Most of these are these people’s first business and they’re thriving at it. I’m glad because black people have came along way from where we started.
Lastly, I would like to ask a question or offer compliment/ criticism about The Massacre of Black Wall Street: Graphic Novel.
Something that I liked was the comics that you included. I like the comics because just reading can get boring and people tend to get off track. So it was kinda something to grab the reader’s attention. Something I didn’t really like while I liked the comics they were hard to read. I don’t know if I was reading in the right order but overall I like the novel.
Sincerely,
Asiyah Johnson-Carodine
P.S. I really liked the novel
