American Atheists is currently undertaking a search for its next president.
The application period for the position of President of American Atheists is open until July 7, 2018.
President
Position Overview
The President of American Atheists provides visionary leadership, stewardship, and a powerful influential voice for atheists. In collaboration with the Board of Directors and senior staff, the President will develop and oversee the implementation of programs and strategies to continue our mission to advocate for the absolute separation of religion from government, to elevate the profile of atheism in public discourse, and to build and strengthen communities that fully represent the growing number of atheists in America.
Responsibilities
Provide visionary and inspirational strategic leadership to cultivate a robust, creative, responsive, and welcoming environment for staff, affiliates, volunteers, members, donors, and coalition partners.
Serve as primary spokesperson for the organization actively promoting our mission through motivational speaking engagements and all forms of media.
Identify and develop opportunities for advocacy through coalition building, creative media campaigns, and other direct actions.
Oversee the long-term financial stability and growth of the organization and set priorities to support the needs of the programs and staff.
Develop a strong and transparent working relationship with the Board of Directors and ensure open communication about the measurement of financial, programmatic, and donor engagement information against stated goals.
Identify opportunities for program funding by cultivating, stewarding, soliciting, and maintaining a portfolio of major donors.
Expand the influence of American Atheists.
Qualifications
At least five years of management experience, either in the non-profit, for-profit, or public sector.
Extensive knowledge of and commitment to the separation of religion from government and a personal investment in the mission of American Atheists.
Outstanding communication skills, including extensive experience as an outgoing and high profile spokesperson; demonstrated ability to communicate effectively and persuasively, both orally and in writing, to articulate the priorities, programs, and mission of American Atheists; and experience in both traditional media (print, television, radio, etc.) and digital media.
Proven success as a relationship builder and fundraiser; demonstrated experience and capacity to raise funds from major donors and secure gifts in the six-figure range.
Excellent coalition building skills with an ability to work effectively with a variety of internal and external stakeholders.
Strong commitment to the professional development of staff; successful track record of recruiting and retaining a diverse team.
Demonstrated ability with budget and financial management.
Compensation and Benefits
Salary will be commensurate with experience. Additional benefits include paid sick, holiday, and vacation days; 401(k) with employer match, health insurance and dental insurance.
Location
This position can be based anywhere and will require significant travel.
To Apply
Please send your resume and cover letter to: presidentsearch@atheists.org by July 7, 2018 with the subject line “President Search”.
American Atheists is an equal opportunity employer. It is the policy of American Atheists to provide equal employment opportunity to all persons, regardless of age, race, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, political affiliations, marital status, non-disqualifying physical or mental disability, or on the basis of personal favoritism or other non-merit factors, except where otherwise provided by law.
David Silverman Courtesy Atheist Alliance of America
You’re about to see a raft of news stories claiming that I am responsible for inspiring the deaths of journalists. The bodies are barely cold and left-wing journalists are already exploiting these deaths to score political points against me. It’s disgusting. I regret nothing I said, though of course like any normal person I am saddened to hear of needless death.
The truth, as always, is the opposite of what the media tells you. I sent a troll about “vigilante death squads” as a *private* response to a few hostile journalists who were asking me for comment, basically as a way of saying, “Fuck off.” They then published it. Amazed they were pretending to take my joke as a “threat,” I reposted these stories on Instagram to mock them — and to make it clear that I wasn’t being serious.
Headlines soon appeared claiming that I was “inciting” people to murder journalists. This is wholly false. The only people whipping up hysteria about killing reporters this week were Will Sommer at the Daily Beast and Davis Richardson at the New York Observer.
If there turns out to be any dimension to this crime related to my private, misreported remarks, the responsibility for that lies squarely and wholly with the Beast and the Observer for drumming up fake hysteria about a private joke, and with the verified liberals who pretended they thought I was serious.
It is a demonstrable fact that the Open Society Foundation and other wealthy left-wing organizations have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars (maybe it’s millions!) disrupting my talks, beating up my audiences and spreading malicious rumors about me. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this shooter — just like the last one at YouTube — is another demented left-winger. Let’s hope it’s another transgender shooter, too, so the casualties are minimal.
The Left celebrated the shooting of Scalise and regularly incites violence against Trump supporters. They are secretly delighted by the domestic terrorism of Antifa and they cheer on Maxine Waters when she threatens consequences for Trump administration staff going about their business in public.
I made a private, offhand troll to two hostile reporters, who breathlessly publicized it and like vermin their fellow journalists swarmed to remind the world how much they hate Milo. If the Left was truly horrified by violence against journalists, they would have shown it in the aftermath of Charlie Hebdo. As you all know, they didn’t.
P.S. — You guys should decide whether you think I’m “disgraced, irrelevant and over” or “so dangerous I inspire mass shootings.” I can’t be both.
Meanwhile, as people on Twitter went back and forth blaming Milo, Maxine Waters, and Trump, it appears the shooter had a longstanding vendetta against the Capital Gazette that appears to have been going on for more than 5 years:
In February 2017, Chuck Williams, a former Senior Staff Sculptor for the Walt Disney Company and owner of Williams Studio 2 Inc., set up a Kickstarter campaign to produce the best ever Trump Troll Dolls. He set his goal at $38,000 and ended up collecting $438,737 pledged by 9,417 backers.
That goal became a reality and Williams now sells the dolls, along with t-shirts, mugs and posters, at theofficialworldsgreatesttroll.com. The resin figure is 4.75″ tall (without the hair) and is 4″ across from fingertip to fingertip.
And, Williams doesn’t plan to stop there. He recently released a sneak peek of his next troll:
Time Magazine featured Perle Mesta on the cover on March 14, 1949.
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A self-described “feminist,” in a 1952 speech to the Democratic Convention, Mesta said, “Together, men and women are a tremendous force. And I feel certain that when our forefathers said that our society should be based on equal rights for all men, they did not mean it just that way. They meant equal rights for all men—and women.”
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Serving as the inspiration for Irving Berlin’s Broadway musical comedy “Call Me Madam” starring Ethel Merman, diplomat and political activist Perle Reid Skirvin Mesta became affectionately known as The Hostess with the Mostes’.
Born in 1889 in Sturgis, Michigan, Mesta was the oldest child of William (Bill) Balser Skirvin and Harriet Elizabeth Reid. While her childhood was spent in Galveston, Texas, the family moved to Oklahoma City in the early 1900s. Her father, Bill Skirvin, struck it rich in the oil business and also had found success in real estate. In 1910, he broke ground on Oklahoma City’s Skirvin Hotel, located at First and Broadway Streets. By the time it was finished, the hotel was the biggest in Oklahoma and the most luxurious in a multi-state area.
The Skirvin family moved into the hotel, residing on the ninth floor in a suite. Mesta and her older siblings were educated at private boarding schools. In 1915, after attending the Sherwood School of Music, Mesta moved to New York City where she lived with her great aunt on Park Avenue.
Vintage postcard featuring Skirvin HotelThe Skirvin Hilton Hotel today courtesy The Skirvin
It was there that she met George Mesta, owner of the Mesta Machine Company, a manufacturer of steel machinery based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Although George Mesta was several years her senior, the two fell in love and married in 1917.
During the World War I years, the newlyweds spend much of their time in Washington, D.C., where George Mesta served on a labor management committee under the American Federation of Labor. He also turned over the use of his plant to help manufacture war machinery.
When they returned to Pittsburgh, Mesta became interested in the welfare of the workers at the plant. She began making contact with the employees, first by having them and their families to her home for Christmas. Next, she suggested an onsite cafeteria and a hospital for the workers. Then, she noticed that many of the young apprentices at the plant had not finished their high school degrees. Mesta’s observations resulted in the apprentices being granted two hours per day of studies with pay. Another employee benefit that Mesta fostered was the organization of a nursery to care for the children of the plant’s workers.
Mesta also began an active schedule as a volunteer, working for the welfare of children. She and her husband also traveled in Europe. But after eight years of marriage, her life took a dramatic turn. George Mesta died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack in April of 1925.
Mesta found herself as the majority stockholder in the Mesta Machine Company. Her father encouraged her to become involved actively in the business, running it just as her husband had done. There were eight men on the board of directors—Mesta assumed the ninth slot. However, she named her husband’s brother as president, and although she remained on the board of directors, she opted not to run the company. Bereaved, she left Pittsburgh and moved to Washington, D.C.
For a few years, Mesta spent an uncertain period in which she described herself as spending too much money and gambling away even more. Finally, she settled down emotionally and in the late 1920s, began hosting the parties for which she would become so famous. These first parties were held both in Washington, D.C. and in New York City, with summer parties occurring in Newport, Rhode Island.
Mesta continued to make many visits back to Oklahoma. In 1930, she went in with her father on a joint oil venture in the Oklahoma City Field. The Skirvin-Mesta team struck oil, and with the profits the two decided to invest in an addition to the Skirvin Hotel called the Skirvin Tower. The ballroom in the Tower was the largest in Oklahoma, with a capacity of 2,500 people.
In the mid-1930s, Mesta again teamed up with her father on an oil venture east of Oklahoma City. One well turned out to be gas, and it was too far from a pipeline to harvest. However, the duo hit other oil wells and continued to prosper.
Mesta became concerned when she discovered her father was investing some of her oil profits without her approval. Disagreements began that terminated in litigation, a move she later regretted as it drug on for several years. But, the family remained on friendly terms, and ultimately a court-appointed hotel manager stepped in to oversee the two Skirvins.
Perle Mesta courtesy Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Around this same time, Mesta became interested in the National Woman’s Party, an organization dedicated to the equal rights for women campaign. It was at this point that Mesta became a self-described “feminist.” She began to direct her energy toward a constitutional amendment giving women equal rights. Mesta also joined the World Woman’s Party, taking her involvement to an international level.
By 1944, Mesta, always a staunch Republican, became disillusioned with her party and changed her political affiliation. She registered as a Democrat, and became interested in some of the social welfare programs of the day. That same year, she was named an alternate delegate to the Democratic Convention. She worked tirelessly for the adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment into her party’s platform. Sadly, also in 1944, Bill Skirvin was injured in an auto accident, and died shortly thereafter at the age of 84.
When Harry Truman became president, Perle Mesta dined at the White House for the second time in her life. (The first time was with her husband, who was a big financial supporter of Calvin Coolidge.) She leased a home in Washington, D.C., formerly occupied by Herbert Hoover, with the specific goal of using the home for lavish entertaining. By this point in her life, Mesta had come to realize the influence a party could have on politics when important groups of people were brought together in a social situation. Her guest lists were strategically planned to accommodate the topics of the day.
Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover and Lou lived in this house in Washington DC before he became president. Mesta then leased the home for political entertaining. Courtesy Hoover Library and Museum.
Mesta continued a very close association with Harry Truman and his family. In 1948, she was named assistant to the finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee, a fundraising position. She also became a delegate to the convention, representing Rhode Island. She was further honored by being asked to help with the Inaugural Ball when Truman was re-elected to office.
Her biggest honor, however, came in 1949 when Truman named her the Minister to Luxembourg. The appointment of Mesta to a diplomatic position was designed to raise the standing of women in politics, and it was not without controversy. Many criticized the appointment as being a political favor based solely on campaign contributions.
Mesta decided to shake off the criticism, although she was often ridiculed in the press. She moved to Luxembourg and assumed her position with all seriousness and with a profound sense of responsibility. One of her accomplishments was the establishment of monthly G.I. parties to entertain the U.S. troops stationed nearby. By 1953, Mesta had entertained a total of 25,000 men and women in the service, all paid for by her personally. She was also proud to have assisted in the organization of the European Coal and Steel Community, a joint economic venture involving Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. In 1953, Mesta was fired from her position primarily because of a change in administration and party leadership in the United States. The people of Luxembourg gave her a warm and emotional send-off.
In the last twenty years of her life, Mesta never gave up the goal of a constitutional amendment granting equal rights to women. In a speech given at the Democratic Convention in 1952, Mesta said, “Together, men and women are a tremendous force. And I feel certain that when our forefathers said that our society should be based on equal rights for all men, they did not mean it just that way. They meant equal rights for all men—and women.”
Mesta returned to Oklahoma City in 1974. She died there a year later. She was laid to rest alongside her husband in the George Mesta Mausoleum in Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
This story was originally published by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Learn more at revealnews.org and subscribe to the Reveal podcast, produced with PRX, at revealnews.org/podcast.
President Donald Trump’s zero tolerance policy stands to create a zombie army of children forcibly injected with medications that make them dizzy, listless, obese and even incapacitated, according to legal filings that show immigrant children in U.S. custody subdued with powerful psychiatric drugs.
Children held at Shiloh Treatment Center, a government contractor south of Houston that houses immigrant minors, have described being held down and injected, according to the federal court filings. The lawsuit alleges that children were told they would not be released or see their parents unless they took medication and that they only were receiving vitamins.
Parents and the children themselves told attorneys the drugs rendered them unable to walk, afraid of people and wanting to sleep constantly, according to affidavits filed April 23 in U.S. District Court in California.
One mother said her child fell repeatedly, hitting her head, and ended up in a wheelchair. A child described trying to open a window and being hurled against a door by a Shiloh supervisor, who then choked her until she fainted.
“The supervisor told me I was going to get a medication injection to calm me down,” the girl said. “Two staff grabbed me, and the doctor gave me the injection despite my objection and left me there on the bed.”
Another child recounted being made to take pills in the morning, at noon and night. The child said “the staff told me that some of the pills are vitamins because they think I need to gain weight. The vitamins changed about two times, and each time I feel different.”
Shiloh is among 71 companies that receive funds from the federal government to house and supervise immigrant children deemed unaccompanied minors. These are the places set up to receive the more than 2,000 children separated from their parents in the past six weeks under the new Trump administration policy as they leave temporary way stations at the border.
An investigation by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting found that nearly half of the $3.4 billion paid to those companies in the last four years went to homes with serious allegations of mistreating children. In nearly all cases reviewed by Reveal, the federal government continued contracts with the companies after serious allegations were raised.
Photo Courtesy Shiloh Treatment Center.
At Reveal’s request, forensic psychiatrist Mark. J. Mills assessed materials from 420 pages of children’s medical records and statements filed in California federal court this April.
“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist here; it looks like they’re trying to control agitation and aggressive behavior with antipsychotic drugs,” said Mills, who practices in the Washington, D.C., area and was an expert witness for a lawsuit that in 2008 stopped the federal government from forcibly administering antipsychotic drugs to deportees.
“You don’t need to administer these kinds of drugs unless someone is plucking out their eyeball or some such. The facility should not use these drugs to control behavior. That’s not what antipsychotics should be used for. That’s like the old Soviet Union used to do.”
The records were filed in connection with an ongoing class-action status lawsuit alleging poor treatment of immigrant children in U.S. custody. An attorney representing the children said youth separated from their parents often become depressed, angry, anxious and, sometimes, unruly and that, in turn, encourages prescription of inappropriate medication.
One child was prescribed 10 different shots and pills, including the antipsychotic drugs Latuda, Geodon and Olanzapine, the Parkinson’s medication Benztropine, the seizure medications Clonazepam and Divalproex, the nerve pain medication and antidepressant Duloxetine, and the cognition enhancer Guanfacine.
Dosage recommendations at Shiloh gave orderlies what Mills called an unusually wide berth to determine how much medicine to give the children.
Maribel Bernardez first suspected her son was being drugged at the Shiloh facility when she saw a video sent by his caseworker via WhatsApp.
“He was completely hypnotized and lethargic,” Bernardez told Reveal.
Bernardez, now reunited with her son in New Orleans and seeking asylum from Honduras, provided Reveal with records showing her son was held at the Shiloh facility for six months. He was 9 when he landed at Shiloh in November after being referred for what staff considered psychological issues. Reveal is not publishing his name at his mother’s request.
Medical records show that Bernardez’s son was administered psychotropic drugs at Shiloh. She told Reveal that she repeatedly objected and did not sign any consent form.
The Shiloh Treatment Center has not responded to a request from Reveal for comment about the case. The government Office of Refugee Resettlement has not responded either.
Side effects of the medications make some children feel even more desperate, leading to the prescription of increasingly powerful medications, said Carlos Holguin, an attorney for the Los Angeles-based Center for Human Rights & Constitutional Law. Holguin is asking a judge to require parents’ permission or a court order before children in the country illegally can be medicated.
Shiloh already had a reputation for mistreating children. In December 2014, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, called for Shiloh to be shut down, citing reports from the Houston Chronicle of “physical violence, unreasonable and excessive use of physical restraints, administering emergency medications without notice to governmental authorities, and several deaths of minor children while in custody,” she said in a statement.
But the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services continued sending children and funds to Shiloh – a total of more than $19 million after the congresswoman called for its closure, according to federal payment records.
Shiloh has contracted to house immigrant children since 2013. Last year, the most lucrative yet under its agreement, Shiloh collected $5.6 million.
Children and parents interviewed by the attorneys described being forcibly injected or made to take as many as 18 pills a day. One record reviewed by Mills showed a child taking a battery of shots and pills that included three different types of antipsychotic drugs, which Mills said were improperly prescribed for “agitation” and “aggressive behavior.”
Of the 20 or so children Holguin and his colleagues interviewed, all had been medicated. Parents he interviewed described the results.
“I understand they are requiring (my daughter) to take very powerful medications for anxiety. I have noted that (my daughter) is becoming more nervous, fearful, and she trembles,” one said. “(My daughter) tells me that she has fallen several times and has injured her head and arms, to the point that she ended up in a wheelchair, because the medications were too powerful and she couldn’t walk. She has complained about the medications to the staff, that they make her afraid of people.”
Medical records included in the court exhibits suggest improper use of medications, according to Mills.
Asked how such drugs and dosages would make children feel, Mills said: “They feel like shit. They feel like they have given up their own control. The long-term complications are weight gain and developing adult onset diabetes. These drugs are not benign.”
“This story was produced by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization. Learn more at revealnews.org and subscribe to the Reveal podcast, produced with PRX, at revealnews.org/podcast.”
A Study of the Pre-Attack Behaviors of Active Shooters in the United States Between 2000 and 2013
This report, covering active shooter incidents in the United States between 2000 and 2013, examines specific behaviors that may precede an attack and that might be useful in identifying, assessing, and managing those who may be on a pathway to violence.
In 2017 there were 30 separate active shootings in the United States, the largest number ever recorded by the FBI during a one-year period. With so many attacks occurring, it can become easy to believe that nothing can
stop an active shooter determined to commit violence. “The offender just snapped” and “There’s no way that anyone could have seen this coming” are common reactions that can fuel a collective sense of a “new normal,”
one punctuated by a sense of hopelessness and helplessness. Faced with so many tragedies, society routinely wrestles with a fundamental question: can anything be done to prevent attacks on our loved ones, our children,
our schools, our churches, concerts, and communities?
Key Findings of the Phase II Study
1. The 63 active shooters examined in this study did not appear to be uniform in any way such that they could be readily identified prior to attacking based on demographics alone.
2. Active shooters take time to plan and prepare for the attack, with 77% of the subjects spending a week or longer planning their attack and 46% spending a week or longer actually preparing (procuring the means) for the attack.
3. A majority of active shooters obtained their firearms legally, with only very small percentages obtaining a firearm illegally.
4. The FBI could only verify that 25% of active shooters in the study had ever been diagnosed with a mental illness. Of those diagnosed, only three had been diagnosed with a psychotic disorder.
5. Active shooters were typically experiencing multiple stressors (an average of 3.6 separate stressors) in the year before they attacked.
(Note: The only stressor that applied to more than half the sample was mental health (62%, n = 39). Other stressors that were present in at least 20% of the sample were related to financial strain, employment, conflicts with friends and peers, marital problems, drug and alcohol abuse, other, conflict at school, and physical injury.)
6. On average, each active shooter displayed 4 to 5 concerning behaviors over time that were observable to others around the shooter. The most frequently occurring concerning behaviors were related to the active
shooter’s mental health, problematic interpersonal interactions, and leakage of violent intent.
7. For active shooters under age 18, school peers and teachers were more likely to observe concerning behaviors than family members. For active shooters 18 years old and over, spouses/domestic partners were
the most likely to observe concerning behaviors.
8. When concerning behavior was observed by others, the most common response was to communicate directly to the active shooter (83%) or do nothing (54%). In 41% of the cases the concerning behavior was reported to law enforcement. Therefore, just because concerning behavior was recognized does not necessarily mean that it was reported to law enforcement.
9. In those cases where the active shooter’s primary grievance could be identified, the most common grievances were related to an adverse interpersonal or employment action against the shooter (49%).
10. In the majority of cases (64%) at least one of the victims was specifically targeted by the active shooter.
*All percentages in this report are rounded to the nearest whole number.
The full report is available at the following link:
Silver, J., Simons, A., & Craun, S. (2018). A Study of the Pre-Attack Behaviors of Active Shooters in the United States Between 2000 – 2013. Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. 20535.
Photo courtesy Tulsa Historical Society and Museum: African-American man being detained during the Tulsa Race Riot. The man is standing next to railroad tracks and is holding his hands in the air as if being arrested. Several white men watch from the other side of the tracks.
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In 1921, Tulsa, then known as the Oil Capitol of the World, was home to what became known as “Black Wall Street.” Prosperity was high, and black citizens of Tulsa, subject to segregation laws of patronizing only other black-owned businesses, created a flourishing and rich community filled with everything from barbershops, to grocery stores, to movie theaters, to independent newspapers, to hospitals and churches and even a boutique hotel.
Educated professionals were plentiful, including well regarded lawyers, physicians, dentists and realtors. Mini-mansions were built and life was good. The community, also known as the Greenwood District, spanned a 35-block area.
On May 30, 1921, 19-year old Dick Rowland, a black shoe shiner, entered an elevator in downtown Tulsa operated by a white 17-year old woman by the name of Sarah Page. A scream was heard, and when the elevator opened, Rowland ran from the scene. Another man coming upon the scene made the assumption that Page had been assaulted.
To this day, it is not known what actually happened, but Rowland may have simply tripped and fallen against Page as the elevator was jerky. Page was questioned but it appears no account of what she reported has survived. However, misinformation and gossip spread quickly implying that Page may have been raped. The following day, May 31, Tulsa police located a fearful Rowland and took him downtown for questioning.
To complicate the already exaggerated rumors circulating amongst the townspeople, The Tulsa Tribune, an evening newspaper, printed an account that exacerbated the situation. The headline read, “Nab Negro for Attacking Girl in an Elevator.” Some witnesses remembered an editorial in the same edition of the Tribune that made reference to a possible lynching, though no record of this editorial has even been found.
The suggestion of a lynching sent both blacks and whites to the jailhouse where Rowland was being held. Tulsa Police, receiving credible threats on Rowland’s life, attempted to protect Rowland by moving him to a safe place within the building. Armed mobs of both blacks and whites began to assemble around the jail, with whites far outnumbering blacks. Eventually, in the confusion, gunfire erupted.
The night was filled with mobs dispersing, reforming, loading up on more guns and becoming more and more out of control. Sometime in the early morning hours of June 1st, white mobs entered the Greenwood District and burned to the ground all 35 blocks of the beautiful black-owned homes and businesses.
Greenwood District on fire. Stamp on back of photo reads, “Exhibit 2, Case No. 16013.” This was the Race Riot of 1921. Lower left corner gone (Tulsa Historical Society and Museum)
Burned out brick buildings. Rail tracks in foreground. Along the bottom edge “Negro Town.” This is a scrapback black paper with images on both sides. the other side has NON riot. images –Virgil Eby, VIrgil or Ward Eby W.W.I Medical Corp. (Tulsa Historical Society and Museum)
In 2001, the Tulsa Race Riot Commission was formed to piece together the verifiable facts of this horrible event. Their conclusions are the following:
Courtesy Tulsa Historical Society and Museum:
“Historical Facts as Determined by the Tulsa Race Riot Commission:
Black Tulsans had every reason to believe that Dick Rowland would be lynched after his arrest. His charges were later dismissed and highly suspect from the start.
They had cause to believe that his personal safety, like the defense of themselves and their community, depended on them alone.
As hostile groups gathered and their confrontation worsened, municipal and county authorities failed to take actions to calm or contain the situation.
At the eruption of violence, civil officials selected many men, all of them white and some of them participants in that violence, and made those men their agents as deputies.
In that capacity, deputies did not stem the violence but added to it, often through overt acts that were themselves illegal.
Public officials provided fire arms and ammunition to individuals, again all of them white. Units of the Oklahoma National Guard participated in the mass arrests of all or nearly all of Greenwood’s residents. They removed them to other parts of the city, and detained them in holding centers.
Entering the Greenwood district, people stole, damaged, or destroyed personal property left behind in homes and businesses.
People, some of them agents of government, also deliberately burned or otherwise destroyed homes credibly estimated to have numbered 1,256, along with virtually every other structure — including churches, schools, businesses, even a hospital and library — in the Greenwood district.
Despite duties to preserve order and to protect property, no government at any level offered adequate resistance, if any at all, to what amounted to the destruction of the Greenwood neighborhood
Although the exact total can never be determined, credible evidence makes it probable that many people, likely numbering between 100-300, were killed during the riot.
Not one of these criminal acts was then or ever has been prosecuted or punished by government at any level: municipal, county, state, or federal.
Even after the restoration of order it was official policy to release a black detainee only upon the application of a white person, and then only if that white person agreed to accept responsibility for that detainee’s subsequent behavior.
As private citizens, many whites in Tulsa and neighboring communities did extend invaluable assistance to the riot’s victims, and the relief efforts of the American Red Cross in particular provided a model of human behavior at its best.
Although city and county government bore much of the cost for Red Cross relief, neither contributed substantially to Greenwood’s rebuilding, in fact, municipal authorities acted initially to impede rebuilding.
Despite being numerically at a disadvantage, black Tulsans fought valiantly to protect their homes, their businesses, and their community. But in the end, the city’s African-American population was simply outnumbered by the white invaders
In the end, the restoration of Greenwood after its systematic destruction was left to the victims of that destruction.
While Tulsa officials turned away some offers of outside aid, a number of individual white Tulsans provided assistance to the city’s now virtually homeless black population. But it was the American Red Cross, which remained in Tulsa for months following the riot, that provided the most sustained relief effort. Maurice Willows, the compassionate director of the Red Cross relief, kept a history of the event.”
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Curriculum resources for teachers include a 1-day lesson plan and a 5-day lesson plan and are adjusted for age, particularly since many of the photos are extremely graphic.
This 6-minute video is recommended by the Commission as an excellent introduction and includes the testimony of survivors:
TULSA RACE RIOT OR TULSA RACE MASSACRE?
Excerpted from the 1-day lesson plan:
Lesson Starter: What is the difference between a riot and a massacre? (Discuss, write answers on the board)
Define the terms, connecting them with modern national or local events that the students are familiar with. After a quick discussion, tell them there was an incident in Oklahoma state history; in 1921 in a Tulsa neighborhood. It is known to most as the Tulsa Race Riot, but the survivors refer to it as a massacre.
Why is this important?
According to the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum, the designation of the event as a “riot” was crucial because insurance companies were exempted from paying claims.
An example of a standard property and casualty insurance policy clause at the time in history reads:
“This company shall not be liable for loss caused directly or indirectly by invasion, insurrection, riot, civil war or commotion, or military or usurped power, or by order of any civil authority; or by theft; or by neglect of the insured to use all reasonable means to save and preserve the property at and after a fire or when the property is endangered by fire in neighboring premises; or (unless fire insures, and, in that event, for the damage by fire only) by explosion of any kind or lightning; but liability for direct damage by lightning may be assumed by specific agreement hereon.”
Interestingly, this is where my family intersected with The Tulsa Race Riot/Massacre. My great-grandfather opened the first insurance agency in Tulsa in 1903 (prior to statehood). In 2001, when The Tulsa Race Riot Commission was hard at work determining the facts of the event, I asked my grandmother what she remembered about the riot. She was born in 1913, and was only 7 years old when the riot occurred. She had virtually no memories of those days but said she wondered if her father had left their home that night. She said it just wasn’t talked about as far as she could recollect. However, when she married my grandfather in 1933, she learned that The Kramer Company, the family insurance business, had held the insurance on many black-owned businesses and homes at the time of the riot. The Kramer Company was a brokerage, not an actual insurance company—in other words, they brokered with various major property and casual companies to find the best deals for their clients. She told me that The Kramer Company was heartbroken that they could not negotiate settlements for their black customers because of the riot clause. Based on the documentation I have read, I believe this memory to be accurate.
Courtesy Tulsa Historical Society and Museum:
“What’s in a Name? Riot vs. Massacre
In recent years there has been ongoing discussion about what to call the event that happened in 1921. Historically, it has been called the Tulsa Race Riot. Some say it was given that name at the time for insurance purposes. Designating it a riot prevented insurance companies from having to pay benefits to the people of Greenwood whose homes and businesses were destroyed. It also was common at the time for any large-scale clash between different racial or ethnic groups to be categorized a race riot.
What do YOU think?
Definition of RIOT: a tumultuous disturbance of the public peace by three or more persons assembled together and acting with common intent.
Definition of MASSACRE: the act or an instance of killing a number of usually helpless or unresisting human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty.”
The full Tulsa Race Riot/Tulsa Race Massacre curriculum and resources may be found here:
Photograph taken during the 1921 Race Riot. Dead man lying in the street. Written on reverse: “Race riot casualty Tulsa June 1, 1921.” (Tulsa Historical Society and Museum)
Photograph taken during the 1921 Race Riot. Armed white man standing by railroad tracks. Written on reverse: “Sir Galahad ‘Where our cause is just.’ A white hope. June 1, 1921. Tulsa Race Riot.” (Tulsa Historical Society and Museum)
The Binding is now in post-production and set to be released in the Fall of 2018.
The Binding tells the story of David Salisbury, a Wiccan priest and political activist, who uses the Craft to take a stand against one of the country’s most persistent and devastating problems.
Plot Outline
For centuries, society has vilified practitioners of witchcraft, labeling them “evil” and “wicked”. Witch hysteria has fueled periods of grave violence and hatred against the pagan community throughout our country’s history. But in the wake of one of the most divisive elections in recent memory, hatred and violence are the new normal, and no one is immune from the suffering. When these attitudes precipitate from the highest branches of our government, what is good and what is evil is not so easily distinguished. In The Binding, a group of witches band together to counter the toxic political environment, combating one of our country’s most persistent issues.
In September 1906, nearly a quarter of a million people flocked to the Bronx Zoo in New York City. Many came for a startling new exhibit in the Zoo’s Monkey House. But it wasn’t a monkey they came to see. It was a man. His name was Ota Benga. A pygmy from the African Congo, Ota Benga was exhibited in a cage along with monkeys.
Benga was not alone. He was one of literally thousands of indigenous peoples who were put on public display throughout America in the early twentieth century. Often touted as “missing links” between man and apes and as examples of the “lower” stages of human evolution, these native peoples were harassed, demeaned, and jeered at. Their public display was arranged with the enthusiastic support of the most elite members of the scientific community, and it was promoted uncritically by America’s leading newspapers.
Human Zoos tells the horrifying story of this effort to dehumanize entire classes of people in the name of science. It will also tell the story of the courageous African-American ministers in New York City who tried to stop what was going on. Finally, the documentary will expose how some organizations are still trying to cover up their involvement in what happened and re-write the past.
The documentary features interviews with a number of experts, including Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Pamela Newkirk, author of Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga.
Visit humanzoos.org for additional resources and screening information.
