Macon Magazine

64 maconmagazine.com | DECEMBER 2023/JANUARY 2024 white woman. This was similar to an earlier successful action taken by Black citizens in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, to prevent a lynching there. By June 1, rioters had burned Greenwood to the ground, destroying 1,250 structures and killing hundreds of people, injuring hundreds more, and burying them in mass graves in locations that, until 2021, were unknown. Thousands were left homeless. No compensation was ever given to those who lost their homes, businesses, and livelihoods. A grand jury was convened, and the Tulsa World newspaper led with the headline, "Grand Jury Blames Negroes for Inciting Race Rioting; Whites Clearly Exonerated." "I felt a sense of loss and sadness," Hatcher said. "Thirty- five city blocks were destroyed. What remains is half a block and a dividing freeway. Was justice truly served?" In the spirit of the Intercity Tour and applying lessons learned from Tulsa to Macon, Hatcher concluded, "We must do a better job of revitalizing Macon's historic Black neighborhoods." That's not where the insults and injury ended for Black Tulsans. In 1975, Interstate 244 was built. The highway, in a cruel irony, is named the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Expressway and cuts straight through Greenwood. Efforts by residents and politicians to get the highway removed have been unsuccessful. Hall called the highway "a monument without being a monument. It is a living monument that is an identical parallel [to Interstate 75 cutting through "How can we be happy about going home when home is here, LEFT Greenwood Rising in Tulsa, regarded as one of the best hyperlocal museums globally, tells the remarkable and resilient story of the Greenwood community by bringing the story of Tulsa's Black Wall Street to life. Photo courtesy of Greenwood Rising/ JW Photography. CENTER LEFT The Tubman African American Museum in Macon is the largest of its kind in the Southeast, educating people about African American art, history and culture. Photo by Matt Odom.

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