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Tulsa pastors honor 'holy ground' 100 years after massacre

Tulsa Massacre
Posted at 6:50 PM, May 30, 2021
and last updated 2021-05-30 18:50:04-04

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Congregations in Tulsa, Oklahoma, paused to remember the city's race massacre 100 years ago and to honor the Black churches that carried on in its aftermath.

The First Baptist Church of North Tulsa throbbed Sunday with high-decibel worship as six congregations gathered to mark the anniversary. The event was designed to commemorate the persistence of the Black church tradition in the Greenwood neighborhood.

That's where white attackers destroyed at least a half-dozen churches while burning and leveling a 35-square-block area. It was one of the nation’s deadliest spasms of racist violence. The Rev. John Faison of Nashville, Tennessee, says Greenwood is “holy ground.”