Today President Biden delivered remarks in Tulsa, Oklahoma to mark the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre after meeting with the few survivors of the tragedy. Although the 100th anniversary would've generated a lot of attention on the Tulsa Race Massacre, it was Watchmen where many first learned about the events of May 31, 1921-June 1, 1921 that was re-created in the opening for the HBO series that premiered in October 2019. "Viewers were stunned by the introductory scene of HBO’s Watchmen, an alternate-history sequel to the classic 1980s graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons that used its collection of Justice League-like heroes for acute social commentary," says Kevin Polowy. "Based on the source material, many presumed the brutal, attention-grabbing show opening was fiction but enough viewers were unsure that search engine inquiries for “Tulsa 1921” and related terms spiked in the hours after the premiere. Fans learned that the events were a surprisingly authentic depiction of Tulsa’s Black Wall Street Massacre, which took place 100 years ago. Beginning May 31 and stretching into June 1, 1921, dozens of white Oklahomans stormed the Greenwood District — then the wealthiest Black community in the U.S., known as 'Black Wall Street' — and burned it to the ground. And just like that, with its widely viewed, widely acclaimed debut on Oct. 20, 2019, Watchmen helped teach Americans a pivotal history lesson long resigned to a footnote — if not omitted altogether — in educational materials and textbooks." As Watchmen star Regina King tweeted the next day: "Seeing so many tweets that #Watchmen was the first time they heard about Black Wall Street and had no idea that our opening depicted the Tulsa Massacre which had not been taught in US history classes."
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TOPICS: Watchmen, The Legacy of Black Wall Street, Tulsa: The Fire and the Forgotten, Jonathan Silvers, Salima Koroma, Documentaries, Tulsa Race Massacre