Tulsa, Oklahoma. A 19-year-old black man, Dick Rowland, is accused of making sexual advances toward a white woman in an elevator. He is arrested, and a thousand white citizens surround the police station to lynch him. Several armed African-Americans rush to the scene. A counteroffensive ensues against the Greenwood neighborhood, home to a black population, among the most emancipated and productive in the country. The neighborhood is razed, and ten thousand residents are forced to start over. Responsibilities are passed around for decades. Only a century later, exactly 100 years, on May 31, 2021, US President Joe Biden apologizes to Tulsa’s black community for what happened, completely reversing the meaning of that incident.
