TULSA — The Greenwood Community announced "I too, am America Juneteenth Rally for Justice."
The event will take place on Greenwood Avenue on Friday, June 19, 2020.
The community posted the event on Facebook explaining the event will include local and national musicians and speakers.
The legacy of Black Wall Street, the "Negro Wall Street of America," as the honorable Booker T. Washington coined it, is both sacred and inspiring. Two generations after Emancipation, African Americans built the most prosperous Black community in the African diaspora. In the shadow of Jim Crow, this unique community boasted their own school system, educators, doctors, hospitals, businesses, grocery stores, attorneys, transportation systems, airmen, etc.
From May 31 to June 1, 1921, screams of horror ricocheted off buildings as bullets rained down like hell’s fire from Standpipe Hill. An angry white mob descended into the community, looted, burned and massacred 300 black residents. Our ancestors are buried in mass graves throughout the City of Tulsa, and we never received justice.
The Greenwood Community announced the event after President Trump announced plans to hold a rally in Tulsa on June 19.
READ MORE: President Trump to hold Tulsa rally at BOK Center next week
Trump's rally is a decision some are celebrating while others are upset.
Every year on this date African-Americans celebrate the holiday Juneteenth, the day African-Americans were freed from slavery in 1865.
"It's a total slap in the face and show of insensitivity to not only what’s going on locally but what’s going on nationally,” said Tulsa County District 1 Representative Vanessa Hall Harper. “I’m concerned about things going very bad very quickly."
Many are looking forward to the rally and say the date of the event could be a way for the president to bring people together.
“I don’t think it’s disrespectful," Bob Jack, the chairman of the Tulsa County Republican Party. "I think depending on how the president handles it could be very respectful and he could highlight it and emphasize the fact of it."
READ MORE: Opinions split on president's Tulsa rally
This year, Tulsa's Juneteenth Celebration has been postponed until next year due to the coronavirus. The Tulsa Juneteenth Inc. Board of Directors said they made the difficult decision based on CDC recommendations.
READ MORE: Tulsa's annual Juneteenth celebration postponed due to pandemic
The "I too, am America Juneteenth Rally for Justice" will be from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
More information on the rally can be found here.
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