A Tulsa on edge celebrates Juneteenth on eve of Trump rally

On a day that marked the emancipation of slaves, in a time of racial pain and widening pandemic, crowds descended in the Greenwood District to celebrate Juneteenth and lay to rest past injustices even as new ones gathered across a troubled and divided nation. We called it Greenwood.” Teshayla Bell, 23, a Tulsa native, said she brought her son Jaylon Tarbell to the park to celebrate Juneteenth — a celebration of the day enslaved Black people in Texas received word of emancipation in 1865 — for the first time, “just to be closer to my history.” Teshayla Bell, 23, a Tulsa, Okla., native, said she brought her 2 year-old son Jaylon Tarbell to John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park to celebrate Juneteenth for the first time, “just to be closer to my history.” It was in Greenwood that white lynch mobs descended 99 years ago, angered by rumors that a young Black man had stumbled into a white female elevator operator. “We have had such a history of violence against us.” Shcarry Chatmon, 32, a Tulsa, Okla., native, brought her boyfriend Asher Riley, 30, to tour the city’s historically Black Greenwood District on Juneteenth. Tulsa police were working with the Secret Service to create a zone to keep the area “clear of individuals that are only present to break the law and disrupt the rights of people assembling peacefully.” The vice chair of Tulsa’s City Council, Vanessa Hall-Harper, was upset to see the mayor back down on the curfew, which she said might prevent street clashes between rally attendees and protesters. “It wasn’t great for slaves and Jim Crow, fighting for the right to vote.” Sharpton, who said he had received threats before coming to Tulsa, called on the president to stop condemning protesters and instead, “Look over here in Greenwood tonight: This is what makes America great.” Sharpton was introduced by Tiffany Crutcher, 40, of Tulsa whose twin brother Terence Crutcher was fatally shot in 2016 by a white police officer who was later acquitted and is still working in law enforcement.