Pap and the G.A. P. Band, you dropped a bomb on us!

From Wikipedia:

Benjamin "Pap" Singleton (1809 – 1892) was an American activist and businessman best known for his role in establishing African-American settlements in Kansas. A former slave from Tennessee who escaped to freedom in 1846, he became a noted abolitionist, community leader, and spokesman for African American civil rights. He returned to Tennessee during the Union occupation in 1862, but soon concluded that blacks would never achieve economic equality in the white-dominated South. After the end of Reconstruction, Singleton organized the movement of thousands of black colonists, known as Exodusters, to found settlements in Kansas. A prominent voice for early black nationalism, he became involved in promoting and coordinating black-owned businesses in Kansas and developed an interest in the Back-to-Africa movement.

[edit] Early life and education

Although it is known that Benjamin Singleton was born in 1809 into slavery in Davidson County near Nashville, Tennessee, details of his early life remain scant. He was the son of a white father and an enslaved black mother. As a youth, he was trained as a skilled carpenter but regretted never learning to read and write. Reportedly Singleton made several attempts to run away but was unsuccessful.

In 1846 Singleton managed to escape to freedom. Singleton made his way north along the Underground Railroad to Windsor, Ontario, and remained there a year before relocating to Detroit, Michigan. In Detroit he lived as a scavenger and used what resources he could to help other escaped slaves find their way to freedom in Canada. Singleton remained in Detroit until after the Civil War had been underway. was a carpenter.

[edit] Separatism

After the Union Army occupied Middle Tennessee in 1862, Singleton returned and took up residence in Nashville and worked as a cabinetmaker and coffin maker.^[1] The experiences of freedmen subject to racial violence and political problems led Singleton to conclude that blacks would have no chance for equality in the South. Disgusted by political leaders who failed to deliver on promises of equality for freedmen, in 1869 Singleton joined forces with Columbus M. Johnson, a black minister in Sumner County, and began looking for ways to establish black economic independence.

In 1874, Singleton and Johnson founded the Edgefield Real Estate Association with the goal of helping African Americans obtain land in the Nashville area. Unfortunately, white landowners were unwilling to bargain with them and wanted too high prices for their land. Convinced that freedmen must leave the South to achieve true economic independence, in 1875 Singleton began to explore the idea of planting black colonies in the American West. His real estate organization was renamed the Edgefield Real Estate and Homestead Association. In 1876 Singleton and Johnson made a personal trip to Kansas to scout out land in Cherokee County in the southeastern corner of the state. Heartened by what he saw, Singleton returned to Nashville and began recruiting settlers for a proposed colony.

[edit] Singleton Colonies

In the summer of 1877, Singleton led approximately seventy-three black settlers to Cherokee County near the town of Baxter Springs.^[2] Once the settlers arrived, they began negotiating with the Missouri River, Fort Scott, and Gulf Railroad for land to build their proposed Singleton Colony. Unfortunately, rich lead deposits had been discovered in the area the previous year, which led to a mining boom and caused land prices to rise too high. Without the ability to buy land, they could not create a colony in Cherokee County. Singleton began looking elsewhere.

Singleton began looking for government land which his settlers could acquire through the 1862 Homestead Act. He found some available land on what had been the former Kaw Indian Reservation near the town of Dunlap, Kansas, on the borders of Morris County and Lyon County. Dunlap was situated along the tracks of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, familiarly called the Katy Railroad. The land was marginal, but in the spring of 1878, Singleton's settlers left middle Tennessee for Kansas via steamboats on the Cumberland River. The following year they officially established the Dunlap Colony.^[2] More than 2400 settlers emigrated from the Nashville and Sumner County areas.^[1] Most settlers lived in dugouts during their first year on the Great Plains. They stuck it out and made the colony a success.

[edit] Exodusters, 1879-1880

Main article: Exodusters

By 1879 of the "Great Exodus", 50,000 freedmen known as Exodusters had migrated from the South to escape poverty and racial violence following whites' regaining political control across the former Confederacy. They migrated to Kansas, Missouri, Indiana and Illinois seeking land, better working conditions and the chance to live in peace. Part of Topeka, Kansas was known as "Tennessee Town" because of many migrants from that state. Most had no direct connection with Singleton's organized colony movement, but Singleton and his followers were sympathetic to their plight. Many white Kansans began to object to the arrival of so many desperately poor blacks into their state. Singleton stepped forward to defend the Exodusters' right to try to make better lives in the American West.

In 1880 Singleton was requested to appear before the United States Senate in Washington, D.C., to testify on the causes of the Great Exodus to Kansas. Singleton rebuffed the efforts of southern Senators to discredit the Exodus Movement. He testified to his own success in setting up independent black colonies and noted the terrible conditions which caused freedmen to leave the South. Singleton returned to Kansas as a nationally recognized spokesman for the Exodusters. Unfortunately, the arrival of so many poor blacks put more of a financial burden on the Dunlap Colony than the original settlers could bear. By 1880, the Presbyterian Church had taken charitable control of the settlement and made plans to build a Freedmen's Academy in the town. Singleton had no more dealings with his colony at Dunlap.

[edit] Final years

In 1881, Benjamin Singleton was seventy-two-years-old, and most people referred to him affectionately as "old Pap." He was still a formidable figure and used his reputation to bring together blacks into an organization called the Colored United Links (CUL). The goal of the CUL, which he created in Topeka, Kansas, was to combine the financial resources of all black people to build black-owned businesses, factories, and trade schools. The CUL formed in 1881 and held several conventions. The organization was successful enough locally that Republican Party officials in Kansas became interested in its potential political strength. Presidential candidate James B. Weaver of the Greenback Party met with CUL leaders, to discuss fusion between the two groups. After 1881, CUL membership faltered, however, and the organization soon fell apart.

After the failure of the CUL, Singleton became convinced that blacks would never be allowed to succeed in the United States. In 1883 Singleton briefly joined with St. Louis, Missouri, businessman Joseph Ware and black minister John Williams in proposing that blacks migrate to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. That idea did not develop. In 1885 Singleton moved to Kansas City where he began to organize around Pan-Africanism. In 1885 Singleton founded the United Transatlantic Society (UTS) with the goal of having all blacks relocate from the United States to Africa. This was a time when Bishop Henry McNeil Turner had his own proposed African migration movement.

The UTS lasted till 1887 but never managed to send anyone to Africa. In poor health, Singleton retired from his life of activism. He raised his voice one final time in 1889 to call for a portion of the newly opening Oklahoma Territory to be reserved as an all-black state. Benjamin Singleton died in 1892. The location of his grave is unknown.

From Wikipedia:

The Tulsa race riot was a large scale racially-motivated conflict between the White and Black communities of Tulsa, Oklahoma, allegedly including aerial attack, beginning May 31, 1921. During the 16 hours of the assault, over 800 people were admitted to local hospitals with injuries, an estimated 10,000 were left homeless, and 35 city blocks composed of 1,256 residences were destroyed by fire caused by bombing.

Contents

[edit] Background

This section requires expansion.

Ku Klux Klan attacks against blacks occurred in Oklahoma, as they did in many southern states. Lynching was another form of violence, with some black victims being murdered because they happened to be relatives of someone else previously lynched.^[1]

The Tulsa race riot occurred in the racially and politically tense atmosphere of northeastern Oklahoma, some of which was a growing hotbed of anti-black sentiment at that time. The Ku Klux Klan made its first major appearance in Oklahoma on August 12, 1921,^[2] less than three months after the riot.

As in several other states and territories during the early years of the twentieth century, lynchings were not uncommon in Oklahoma. Between the declaration of statehood on November 16, 1907, and the Tulsa race riot some thirteen years later, thirty-one individuals — twenty-six of whom were black — were lynched in Oklahoma. During the twenty years following the riot, the number of lynchings statewide fell to two.^[3]

According to the Oklahoma State Commission established to study the riot:

"The local Klan also was highly active in politics in Tulsa. It regularly issued lists of Klan-approved candidates for both state and local political offices, that were prominently displayed in Tulsa newspapers. According to one student of the Klan in Tulsa Country during the 1920s, 'mayors, city commissioners, sheriffs, district attorneys, and many other city and country office holders who were either klansmen or Klan supporters were elected, and reelected, with regularity.' In 1923, three of the five members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from Tulsa Country were admitted klansmen."^[4]

The Greenwood section of Tulsa was home to a commercial district so prosperous it was known as "the Negro Wall Street" (now commonly referred to as "the Black Wall Street"). Ironically, the economic enclaves here and elsewhere — bounded and supported by racial separation — supported prosperity and capital formation within the community. In the surrounding areas of northeastern Oklahoma, blacks also enjoyed relative prosperity and participated in the oil boom.^[5]

From Wikipedia:

Early years

Growing up with a Pentecostal minister father, the Wilson brothers formed the Greenwood, Archer, and Pine Street Band in 1967, with Tuck Andress (later of Tuck and Patti). In 1921, the Greenwood district was the site of one of the most violent racially motivated attacks in United States history. The complete destruction of the community was the result of the Tulsa Race Riot.

NOW HOW MANY DAMN BUILDINGS WERE BUILD ON OUR GROUND ZERO? CHURCHES THAT BURNED THE CROSS?

This was Rosewood times ten. Give us Oral Roberts University and every Black that attends has a FREE EDUCATION! We want Greenwood, Archer, and Pine back!

Robert Wilson died of a heart attack at his home in Palmdale, California on August 15, 2010. This is in Memory of Charlie's Brother who still has a concert scheduled on Aug, 28 which people should attend. GIVE US TULSA BACK !