‘Watchmen’ revived it. But the history of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre was nearly lost

The explosive opening in the first episode of HBO’s “Watchmen,” with citizens of a black Tulsa, Okla., neighborhood being gunned down by white vigilantes, black businesses deliberately burned and even aerial attacks, has brought new attention to the nearly buried history of what the Oklahoma Historical Society calls “the single worst incident of racial violence in American history.” Though it looked like something made up for the series inspired by Alan Moore’s original “Watchmen” stories for DC Comics, the Tulsa race massacre of 1921 was an all too real incident that decimated 35 city blocks, including the business district of Tulsa’s Greenwood community, which Booker T. Washington once called the “Black Wall Street of America.” The official death toll was 36, but more recent estimates say that as many as 300 may have been killed; 800 were treated for injuries and more than 6,000 black citizens were interned at the city’s convention hall and fairgrounds for up to eight days. Television Commentary: More manipulative than meaningful, ‘Watchmen’ has a ‘Lost’ problem HBO’s “Watchmen,” from “Lost” creator Damon Lindelof and starring Regina King, has been overrated, say Times critics Lorraine Ali and Robert Lloyd. under the color of law, destroyed the Black Wall Street of America,” said former state Rep. Don Ross in the 2001 “Tulsa Race Riot: A Report by the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Race Riot of 1921.” “Some known victims were in unmarked graves in a city-owned cemetery and others were hauled off to unknown places in full view of the National Guard. “I had violated the conspiracy of silence going on for 50 years.” Ross went on to become an Oklahoma state representative and was on the commission that in 2001, 80 years after the destruction of America’s “Black Wall Street,” produced “Tulsa Race Riot: A Report by the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.” It includes a discussion of the disputed death toll, the use of airplanes to drop bombs on civilians, and the still unresolved issue of reparations.