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SURVIVORS
Feat:  Sapphire & Vincent Bates
 

Written by:  Barry P. Foley
Copyright © 29 Aug 2021

I live through the massacre, each and every day
Said 107-year-old Viola Fletcher, to Congress back in May
Painful memories of a bright young school girl
Woken up in a panic, shaken from her dreamy world

I still smell smoke, I still see fire
I still black men getting shot, dead bodies lying here and there
I still hear the airplanes flying over my head
I still hear the screams, late at night in my bed

Dr. Olivia Hooker, was 86, when she gave a riveting speech so bold
Said, picture with me the trauma, a child of six-years-old
Hearing things hitting our house, going ‘bang, bang, bang
My mother let me peep through the blinds covering the window pane

She said, ‘that thing up there, on the stand with a big American flag on top
That’s a machine gun, it never has to stop’
Those are bullets, hitting our house, some even coming through.
That means that your country is shooting at you

Our country may forget this history I will not
Darkness can hide so much but the nightmare never stopped

This is only two accounts, that has survived the ages
For the history books of Tulsa, their stores never made the pages
It is well past the time for all leaders to show remorse
Compensate the descendants, whose lives were shaped by force



What happened in 1921 on May 31st through June 1st, was 18 hours of sheer terror.  35 city blocks were wiped out, looked like Hiroshima.  We don’t know who fired the first shot, but that began a bloodbath.  African American’s are attacked in their homes, they were machine gunned down in the street.  They woke up to the sound of bullets hitting their homes.  Smoke and flames were everywhere.  They set fire to the curtains, so the houses will burn.  Airplanes, the morning of June 1st were flying over the city and dropping turpentine bombs.
 

The first time America was attacked by air, wasn’t Pearl Harbor, No sir…it was right here in Tulsa in 1921.  They got away with Murder…Murder

 

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