This week, we interviewed Victor Luckerson, a journalist and writer who writes Run It Back, a newsletter about Tulsa’s historic Greenwood District, famously known as Black Wall Street. This interview has been lightly edited. What’s your Substack about in one sentence?
Thank you, Victor, for uncovering the details of these stories. It's important for us all to remember them. I look forward to your book when it comes out.
It’s been a while since I saw it on pbs but it was about a black farming family in Oklahoma. It was extremely interesting to me as I never even knew about the history of freed slaves who took what little they had and pulled up stakes to start a new life in rural Oklahoma. I believe the one son was thinking about going in a different direction and not taking over the farm .
He was into rodeo and because I’m from n y I knew about rodeo but never watched it , thinking it’s just white cowboys from Texas . BTW , anyone who rides a 1500 pound animal that is angry 😤 is the essence of fearless .
This interview reminded how one dimensional most of black history is portrayed in the movies .
And I suppose I should be more knowledgeable on this subject but supporting my family takes most of my time and energy .
I look forward to reading your articles and thanks for digging into a part of history that has not really been represented before .
Well low and behold on net flix is a movie called concrete cowboy .
I have not seen it yet but I also did a quick google search and black cowboys popped right up .
Lots of black families have thrived in Oklahoma as farmers and cowboys .
I’m certainly going to dig deeper into everything I can read or watch regarding this subject and Oklahoma certainly was where it was happening out west .
Another great movie I saw recently was about the first black race car driver to ever qualify for the Indianapolis 500 . It’s about time that pop culture starts to view African Americans as not some monolithic group that falls into old trope stereotypes.
What really makes me happy is one of the main reasons i found some of this out is because joined substack . The never ending non stop preaching and censoring of any opinion outside of what the big media orgs want me to think just pushed me farther away from their holier than thou BS . No different than organized religion as far as I’m concerned and they don’t even recognize it . As soon as my sons learned to read I gave them MAD magazines. I will do whatever is in my power to keep free thought alive .
We had been talking about Tulsa in a recent conversation about poverty and racism. We need to tell our stories--are you familiar with the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898? There are pockets of compelling history that if we don’t hunt them down--who will tell them? Thanks you! Additionally, while researching civil rights stories I found interesting supporting data in the Census records and church histories.
Thank you, Victor, for uncovering the details of these stories. It's important for us all to remember them. I look forward to your book when it comes out.
It’s been a while since I saw it on pbs but it was about a black farming family in Oklahoma. It was extremely interesting to me as I never even knew about the history of freed slaves who took what little they had and pulled up stakes to start a new life in rural Oklahoma. I believe the one son was thinking about going in a different direction and not taking over the farm .
He was into rodeo and because I’m from n y I knew about rodeo but never watched it , thinking it’s just white cowboys from Texas . BTW , anyone who rides a 1500 pound animal that is angry 😤 is the essence of fearless .
This interview reminded how one dimensional most of black history is portrayed in the movies .
And I suppose I should be more knowledgeable on this subject but supporting my family takes most of my time and energy .
I look forward to reading your articles and thanks for digging into a part of history that has not really been represented before .
Well low and behold on net flix is a movie called concrete cowboy .
I have not seen it yet but I also did a quick google search and black cowboys popped right up .
Lots of black families have thrived in Oklahoma as farmers and cowboys .
I’m certainly going to dig deeper into everything I can read or watch regarding this subject and Oklahoma certainly was where it was happening out west .
Another great movie I saw recently was about the first black race car driver to ever qualify for the Indianapolis 500 . It’s about time that pop culture starts to view African Americans as not some monolithic group that falls into old trope stereotypes.
What really makes me happy is one of the main reasons i found some of this out is because joined substack . The never ending non stop preaching and censoring of any opinion outside of what the big media orgs want me to think just pushed me farther away from their holier than thou BS . No different than organized religion as far as I’m concerned and they don’t even recognize it . As soon as my sons learned to read I gave them MAD magazines. I will do whatever is in my power to keep free thought alive .
Thank you again substack .
We had been talking about Tulsa in a recent conversation about poverty and racism. We need to tell our stories--are you familiar with the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898? There are pockets of compelling history that if we don’t hunt them down--who will tell them? Thanks you! Additionally, while researching civil rights stories I found interesting supporting data in the Census records and church histories.