Media Expert Says Outlets Also Covered up the Violence for Years
By: MMM Editorial Team
The legal team behind the ongoing lawsuit to secure reparations for descendants of the Tulsa Race Massacre has announced that it will seek a federal investigation from the Department of Justice. The news comes after the Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit from the last two survivors of the massacre. The case has launched a nationwide discussion about mass violence against Black communities.
However, while more Americans are learning about one of the most violent massacres in U.S. history, very little is known about the role the local media played.
Joseph Torres is the senior advisor of reparative policy and programs with Media 2070, a project committed to radically transforming oppressive systems in the media. Torres says that local newspapers were instrumental in pushing the false narrative that a Black teenager, Dick Rowland, had harmed a white woman, Sarah Page:
“Richard Lloyd Jones, who purchased the Tulsa Tribune in 1919, was also a big supporter of the KKK,” he said. “He’d actually run an ad about the virtues of the KKK and just before the incident that led to the massacre, you can see more coverage about crime and more demonization of the Black community … the role of these publishers and newspapers was to uphold white-supremacist hierarchies, sometimes not only in the ‘before’ by criminalizing Black people but in the aftermath as well, sometimes even applauding what happened.”
Many are watching to see if the DOJ will agree to launch an investigation as this could set a precedent nationwide. It’s critical to understand the role that the media has played not only in past atrocities like the Tulsa Race Massacre but in mass violence today.
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