{"id":663,"date":"2025-10-06T19:56:50","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T19:56:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/?p=663"},"modified":"2025-10-06T19:56:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T19:56:50","slug":"tulsa-move-and-now-americas-unbroken-pattern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/?p=663","title":{"rendered":"Tulsa, MOVE, and Now: America\u2019s Unbroken Pattern"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blackmanwrites.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FiresOfHistory.png?resize=640%2C427&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-664\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blackmanwrites.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FiresOfHistory.png?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blackmanwrites.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FiresOfHistory.png?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blackmanwrites.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FiresOfHistory.png?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blackmanwrites.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FiresOfHistory.png?resize=1360%2C907&amp;ssl=1 1360w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blackmanwrites.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FiresOfHistory.png?w=1536&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blackmanwrites.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FiresOfHistory.png?w=1280&amp;ssl=1 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In Tulsa, 1921, the cover story was \u201can uprising.\u201d White mobs, backed by police, burned down Greenwood and dropped fire from the sky. The truth never had to be proven; the accusation was enough to authorize a massacre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Philadelphia, 1985, the excuse was \u201cpublic nuisance.\u201d Police dropped a bomb on the MOVE house, killed 11 people\u2014including five children\u2014and burned out 61 Black families who had nothing to do with MOVE. Firefighters were told to let it burn. No one was held accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And in Chicago, 2025, the story is \u201cimmigration enforcement.\u201d ICE says Tren de Aragua gang members were hiding in a South Shore apartment. Helicopters circled, flashbangs and chemicals filled the air, children were zip-tied. This time the justification is immigration, but the script hasn\u2019t changed. The government will never have to prove a thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tulsa, 1921 \u2014 The First Aerial Bombing on U.S. Soil<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Location: Greenwood, \u201cBlack Wall Street,\u201d Tulsa, OK<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>White mobs and police destroyed <strong>35+ blocks<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Estimates: <strong>~300 killed, 1,200 homes burned<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Airplanes dropped incendiary devices<\/strong> on Black businesses and homes<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Legacy: Covered up for decades, survivors silenced, no accountability<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Old Playbook: Separation and Terror<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The slave trade itself was built on division. Enslavers deliberately mixed captives from different ethnic groups to break language ties and kinship bonds. They knew unity was power. They knew rebellion needed shared trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then came terror\u2014public whippings, mutilations, executions\u2014to make submission seem like the only option. It took that level of violence to force a people who outnumbered their captors to stop fighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And still we resisted. Denmark Vesey. Nat Turner. Scores of uprisings etched into memory. But may soon be erased from history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Across the water, one rebellion changed the world: <strong>the Haitian Revolution.<\/strong> In 1791, enslaved Africans in Saint-Domingue rose up and defeated the most powerful armies of France, Spain, and Britain. By 1804, Haiti stood as the first free Black republic in the Western Hemisphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That victory terrified white America. Overnight, Southern slaveholders passed harsher slave codes, banned literacy, restricted movement, and monitored Black gatherings. They built the first slave patrols\u2014the direct ancestors of American policing. The message was clear: the one thing they feared most was our collective power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Haiti, 1791\u20131804 \u2014 Freedom That Terrified America<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Enslaved Africans in Saint-Domingue rose up in 1791<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Defeated France, Spain, and Britain \u2014 the world\u2019s strongest armies<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Declared independence in 1804 \u2192 first free Black republic<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>U.S. response: <strong>tightened slave codes, banned literacy, restricted gatherings<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Fear: That collective Black resistance could spread<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Covert War: COINTELPRO<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By the 1960s, bombs and mobs gave way to subtler tools. The FBI\u2019s <em>COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) <\/em>ran from 1956 to 1971, specifically designed to \u201cexpose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize\u201d Black leaders and organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They infiltrated the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and the Black Panther Party. They spread false rumors, forged letters, stoked rivalries, and painted leaders as criminals or radicals to the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They wiretapped Martin Luther King Jr., sent him blackmail letters urging suicide, and labeled the Panthers a \u201cterrorist threat\u201d while systematically dismantling their free breakfast programs. They assassinated Fred Hampton in his sleep with the help of an informant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It wasn\u2019t tanks rolling through Harlem\u2014it was files and falsehoods, brothers turned against brothers, sisters against sisters. The strategy was simple: if brute force failed to silence us, psychological warfare would.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>History does not repeat \u2014 it rhymes.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">COINTELPRO, 1956\u20131971 \u2014 The Silent War<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>FBI program to <strong>\u201cexpose, disrupt, and neutralize\u201d<\/strong> Black leaders<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Surveilled MLK<\/strong>, sent blackmail letters urging suicide<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Infiltrated SNCC, SCLC, Black Panthers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Spread false letters\/rumors to sow division<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Assisted in the assassination of <strong>Fred Hampton<\/strong> in Chicago<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The New Memorandum<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, as of October 2025, Donald Trump has signed a presidential memorandum to initiate a new strategy against so-called \u201cdomestic terrorism and organized political violence.\u201d On paper, it claims to protect the nation. In practice, it directs federal agencies to \u201cinvestigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations\u201d deemed responsible for political violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The catch? Who decides what counts as violence. Critics argue\u2014and history suggest it won\u2019t be white nationalist militias that feel the weight of this order. It will be the movements that don\u2019t align with Trump\u2019s agenda: Black resistance, immigrant solidarity, labor uprisings, environmental protests, and anyone who dares to dissent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019re watching the merger of two strands of state power: the open militarization we saw in Tulsa, MOVE, and South Shore, and the covert dismantling of dissent perfected under COINTELPRO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">MOVE, 1985 \u2014 A Bomb on Osage Avenue<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Black liberation group MOVE targeted in Philadelphia<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Police dropped a <strong>bomb from a helicopter<\/strong> on their home<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>11 killed (5 children)<\/strong>, <strong>61 homes burned<\/strong>, 250+ displaced<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Firefighters ordered to let the blaze spread<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>No officials held accountable<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Present Playbook<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Look at what\u2019s already happening:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A protester in Broadview shot, with the story that she carried a semi-automatic weapon and assaulted ICE officers. Whether true or not will never matter, the accusation alone is the verdict.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>300 federal troops on their way to Chicago, to \u201cprotect ICE officers while they are doing their job.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Trump openly saying the military may run \u201cwarfighter\u201d training in American cities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>South Shore was a rehearsal. Broadview was a test. Blackhawk helicopters overhead are not about one gang; they are about normalizing a battlefield posture in Black neighborhoods. The \u201caccidental\u201d shootings will come next. Dogs in the streets will follow. And then, the quiet but crushing demand for \u201cpapers\u201d just to exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What\u2019s at Stake<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If we don\u2019t focus on the power of collective resistance, we are in trouble. Not marches alone, not hashtags, not symbolic statements\u2014but a rediscovery of what solidarity means when the sirens are this loud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The enslavers made sure we would never fully trust our own people. That psychological conditioning has a 400-year head start. But it doesn\u2019t have to have the last word. What we need is collective therapy, collective truth-telling, collective planning, a Black group session where we confront how deeply those divisions run and how urgently we need to heal them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because history tells us that when the government escalates, it does so expecting us to fracture. They are betting on distrust. They are betting on silence. They are betting on isolation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Haiti showed what happens when those bets fail. When Black unity breaks the chains. That\u2019s why America has worked so hard to erase that history, to paint Haiti as cursed rather than victorious, to ensure we don\u2019t believe in our own collective strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Siren Warning<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tulsa. MOVE. Haiti. COINTELPRO. South Shore. The names change, the justifications shift, but the logic is the same. Black presence framed as Black threat. Black communities treated as enemy territory. Black life made expendable in the name of \u201corder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The sirens are already sounding. The smoke is already rising. The dogs are straining against leashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The question is not whether history will repeat. It is whether we will finally resist in a way that history has not yet seen (Well there was Haiti)\u2014not fragmented, not suspicious of one another, but together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because if we don\u2019t, we already know what comes next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Tulsa, 1921, the cover story was \u201can uprising.\u201d White mobs, backed by police, burned down Greenwood and dropped fire from the sky. The&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-race","category-society"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=663"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":665,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663\/revisions\/665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}