A peaceful block party during Juneteenth celebrations in the Greenwood section of Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 20, 2020. © 2020 Human Rights Watch

Tensions were high in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday morning, especially in the historic Greenwood district, as residents and community leaders wondered how President Donald Trump’s visit to their city, his first political rally since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, would play out.

One day earlier, Greenwood’s residents had celebrated Juneteenth, marking 155 years since the last enslaved people in the United States were declared free. June also marked 99 years since an estimated 300 people were killed, the vast majority of them Black, in Greenwood, which was then known as Black Wall Street due to its affluence.

Would Trump or Vice President Mike Pence try to tour the district? Would they drive or walk through Greenwood on their way to the Bank of Oklahoma (BOK) Center, where Trump’s rally would be held? Would white supremacist groups who have expressed support for Trump try to come to Greenwood and provoke trouble?

Dr. @TiffanyCrutcher makes final plea for cancellation of @realDonaldTrump’s planned rally in #Tulsa today due to health and safety concerns, and reiterates that she and other leaders “do not condone violence or hate whatsoever.” pic.twitter.com/RrcRvuX64e
— Ida Sawyer (@ida_sawyer) June 20, 2020

Community leaders held an outdoor press conference in Greenwood around noon on Saturday, making a final plea for Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum to cancel the Trump rally due to safety and health concerns amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

During the press conference, Dr. Tiffany Crutcher, whose twin brother Terence was killed by Tulsa police in 2016, called on those demonstrating to focus their efforts not on protesting the Trump rally but on urging Tulsa leaders to build up the Greenwood community by improving housing, education and economic opportunities.

Reverend Robert Turner, pastor of Greenwood’s historic Vernon AME church, delivered a message to Trump at the press conference: “We are sick and tired of you inciting violence and anger and hatred throughout this city and throughout this nation.” He later added: “If you do love Black people, do something about it. Pass a bill. Give reparations. Change the policies that discriminate against us to this very day.”

For the community leader and mayoral candidate Greg Robinson, Trump’s rally was a “dog whistle,” an “intentional attempt to destruct the growth and unity that cities like Tulsa are trying to create and disrupt it with hateful rhetoric.”

“We are sick and tired of you inciting violence and anger and hatred throughout this city and throughout this nation.” - message to @realDonaldTrump from Rev. Robert Turner of #Greenwood #Tulsa’s Vernon AME church pic.twitter.com/xhEfvlIoQE
— Ida Sawyer (@ida_sawyer) June 20, 2020

Worried that Trump or Pence might visit the memorial of the massacre, community members covered it up with a tarp and signs saying “This is Sacred Ground—Not a Photo-Op,” and “Reparations Now.” They anxiously guarded the area, concerned that US Secret Service agents might come and remove the coverings.

In the end, Trump and Pence stayed clear of Greenwood.

Meanwhile, about a mile away, a small group of Trump supporters had gathered near the BOK center in downtown Tulsa since Thursday, waiting for the doors to open to get into the rally. More Trump supporters arrived Saturday morning, as well as groups of anti-Trump and Black Lives Matters protesters.

Soon after the gates to get into the BOK Center opened, at around 11:22 a.m., Sheila Buck, a 62-year-old schoolteacher from Tulsa, went through the gates. She had a ticket, she later told Human Rights Watch, but like others, said she was told she didn’t need one and that people were allowed in on a “first come, first serve” basis. Buck said she was wearing an “I Can’t Breathe” shirt – a reference to George Floyd’s last words – and a black hood, channeling the actor Regina King. King starred as a police officer in the Watchmen – a 2019 futuristic HBO television series about a police department in Tulsa that, in the series, fought white supremacists waging a war against it, in part due to its enforcement of reparations granted by law in the series to victims of prior racial injustice.

Tensions in downtown #Tulsa as #Trump supporters and #BlackLivesMatter protesters converge. Peaceful for now. pic.twitter.com/NJaeD958NE
— Ida Sawyer (@ida_sawyer) June 21, 2020

As Buck stood in line after the first barrier, a group of men in button-down shirts pulled her out of line and said she wasn’t allowed to be there. They called the police over, she said, and then she knelt on the ground and prayed.

Police then approached her and said it was a private event and she did not have the right to be there. “It’s like you’re in someone’s home,” she said they told her. She insisted that she had a ticket, she lived in Tulsa, and had a right to be there. But the police proceeded to arrest her, handcuffing her and taking her to the Tulsa county jail. The Tulsa police department later said on Twitter that “Ms. Buck was in an area that is considered a private event area and the event organizer, in this case the Trump Campaign, can have people removed at their discretion.”

She said that when she arrived at the jail, officials took her blood pressure, and since it was elevated, they brought her to the Oklahoma State University medical center. Once her blood pressure went down, they brought her back to the jail. She was held there until being released at around 5 p.m., after $500 bail was posted on her behalf, and with a summons to appear in court on charges of “obstructing and interfering with a police officer.”

Greenwood post-Trump rally block party. Peaceful BLM protesters welcomed. pic.twitter.com/BlMml8o78h
— Brian Root (@brian_root) June 21, 2020

Later that afternoon, at around 5:45 p.m., police arrested three activists who had scaled a flagpole and were attempting to put up flags in defense of Black lives, including one that said “Defund the Police” and another that said “Invest in Black Communities,” on a flagpole outside the BOK Center. The three activists were: Alexandra Scott, a council member from Norman, Oklahoma; Ashley McCray, an Indigenous rights activist from Shawnee, Oklahoma; and Jonathan Engle, a veteran and activist from Taos, New Mexico. They said that police also arrested Alan Pogue, a photojournalist who had media credentials to attend the rally and who was standing nearby.

The police forced the three off the flagpole, the three activists said, by cutting the ropes of their harnesses and yanking them down. They then cuffed the four of them with zip ties and brought them to the police vehicle, where Secret Service agents questioned them, before taking them to the county jail. Scott said the handcuffs were so tight that she started losing circulation. When she complained to a police officer, she said he told her, “I don’t care. You’ll have to pass out before we loosen them.”

At around 11:30 p.m., after their $500 bails had been posted, they were all released. They were told that they had been charged with “obstructing a police officer.” Engle said that he had about two dozen insect bites the next day, and he thought the clothes they made him wear in jail must have been infected with fleas, bedbugs, or something else.

McCray said that as a member of the Absentee Shawnee tribe of Oklahoma, she wanted to put up the flags to show that Indigenous people are standing in solidarity with their Black relatives. “It’s important that we amplify the message that we do not accept hate, we do not accept white supremacy, and we do not accept Trump,” she said. “He’s only coming here to incite hatred and stir up white supremacy which is rampant throughout our state. It’s definitely not lost on us that he chose Tulsa, and we’re approaching the 100-year anniversary of the Greenwood massacre. Coming here just after Juneteenth with his message of hate and division, we wanted it very clear that we do not accept his presence here.”

Let’s be clear @TiffanyCrutcher @GregForTulsa and @RobertRATurner1, among others, set the tone for Tulsa’s response to the #TrumpRally yesterday. Yesterday ended with a continued celebration of Greenwood, Tulsa, and it’s vibrant black community. This is leadership in the flesh. https://t.co/C7X7HAmm5x
— Dreisen Heath (@dreisenheath) June 21, 2020

Scott said that she wanted to put the flags up to send a message to those who feel threatened by Trump’s “vulgar, hateful rhetoric,” his “racism,” and his “sexual assaults on women.” She said she wanted to use her privilege as a white person and her platform as a council member to let people who have been targeted by Trump’s policies and rhetoric know that they are heard and seen, and everyone should feel safe. “I don’t live in Black or brown skin, and I was scared to go out there and do what we did,” she said. “But I’m not scared to leave my house and not come home because of police brutality or a white supremacist. So it was important for me that people know we’re here.”

While Engle, McCray, and Scott were in jail, crowds of anti-Trump and Black Lives Matters protesters marched across downtown Tulsa near the BOK Center, sometimes converging with groups of Trump supporters, leading to some heated confrontations that remained largely peaceful.

At around 9:15 p.m., just after the Trump rally ended, police fired pepper balls at crowds near the BOK Center blocking the streets, leading many of the protesters to disperse.

Meanwhile, in Greenwood, about one mile away from the BOK Center, crowds of people started dancing in the streets at a block party.

It was a continued celebration of Juneteenth, Greenwood, Tulsa, and its vibrant Black community. Over the weekend, much of the world’s attention was focused on Tulsa and the Trump rally, but the story of Tulsa’s 1921 Race Massacre needs to be told. It’s well past time the calls to action from Greenwood leaders like Dr. Tiffany Crutcher, Greg Robinson, and Rev. Robert Turner are heeded. Reparations are due to survivors and descendants of the massacre and changes are needed to address structural racism and racial inequalities. This includes diverting resources spent on using the police to solve many societal problems, like homelessness, poverty, problematic drug use, and mental health issues, into appropriate services to address these issues outside a policing context. It also requires investing in improving access to job, health, education, and economic opportunities for Black people – in Tulsa and across the nation.