2011
Rag and bone

Words & Music by Bryan Hembree

98 years ago today Greenwood was burning. Known then as the "Black Wall Street" Greenwood, on the edge of Downtown Tulsa was one of the most affluent African American business districts and communities in America. In the span of 36 hours a mob burned it to the ground. By most accounts, hundreds of Greenwood residents lost their lives. A horrific tragedy. As a kid growing up in Tulsa in the 1980's, the story was rarely talked about. It shocked me and saddened me and so many other Tulsans, but it was a mere undercurrent. It had happened so long ago, and been talked about so little that some people treated it more as a myth than the reality and tragedy it was. When I was writing this song 10 years ago, I tried to imagine what Woody Guthrie or Bob Dylan would have said had then written about the Greenwood massacre. I remember feeling that... (Continues)