Race Riots, Grand Theft Auto, The Gap Band And A Lawsuit

Some interesting connections picked up through reading for another blog. I didn't know The Gap Band was named for a 1921 Tulsa race riot. Or that Tuck Andress, of Tuck and Patti fame was an original member. There's currently a lawsuit seeking restitution for the damages and deaths in the 1921 riot making its way through the Federal Court system.

The group is from Tulsa, Okla., where in 1921 white vigilantes looted and burned America’s most prosperous black community. More than 300 people were killed, 1,200 homes and businesses destroyed, and 10,000 citizens displaced.

As my friend Harvard Law Prof. Charles A. Ogletree Jr. likes to tell audiences, the band’s name memorializes the site of the race riot.

Ogletree is the lead counsel in a lawsuit to get reparations for the survivors, who include 105-year-old Otis Clark and Dr. John Hope Franklin. Dr. Franklin’s father’s law office was burned down by the white mob.

As for the Grand Theft Auto connection, one of their hits was featured in the video game. Curious world we live in.

"You Dropped a Bomb on Me" was featured in the hit videogame Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, playing on funk radio station Bounce FM.

Comments

[Scrapiron]

1921 will pale when 2010 wraps up. Hungry people on the rampage all over the world. Obambi will hide in the attic.

[chris]

Good thing you have that genius niece to fall back on. Spend those 3 monthly checks wisely!!

[seekeronos]

"--- 1921 will pale when 2010 wraps up. Hungry people on the rampage all over the world. ---"

I would not be entirely surprised to see the USA broken up and balkanized into three or four smaller nations (Aztlan in the SW, The Republic of Texas, The West Coast Ecotopia with northern CA, WA, OR and possibly part of ID as satellite states, the Black Belt states of the deep south, and the remaining states as the rump of a shattered and deeply civil warring USA.

At best, we will be like post-Soviet Russia, and at worst... we'll be exactly where Obama and the rest of the New World Order types want this continent: not much better off than Africa.

The Hottentots will be running amok, and enjoying ever last minute of it, especialy the killing fields of the SoCAL, NYC metro area, and most other built up urban areas as people scrap over the last remaining amounts of gasoline and food.

[KevinNYC]

It was not "a 1921 Tulsa race riot," it was THE 1921 race riot. It's estimated to be the worst race riot in American history, worse even than the NYC Draft Riots during the Civil War.

[chris]

Only Chuck Baldwin and King Jeebus can save us from those Hottentots!!

[templar knight]

Hehehe. My AK-47 makes short work of Hottentots and other like-minded riff-raff.

[scottmclellan]

I hardly think that the uh, 'hottentots' have any interest in your low-rent hovel or your mail-order bride. There are far greener pastures than yours. Sleep well with that knowledge.

[seekeronos]

"--- I hardly think that the uh, 'hottentots' have any interest in your low-rent hovel or your mail-order bride. There are far greener pastures than yours. Sleep well with that knowledge. ---"

And thanks for the tip-off, chris/BobinStamford/scottmclellan for your new handle, you useless trool*.

*trool = tool + troll.

[seekeronos]

"--- Hehehe. My AK-47 makes short work of Hottentots and other like-minded riff-raff. ---"

Amen for that. Although I can't say that I would take great pleasure in seeing to the death, if not the dissuadance of the wicked, any such riff-raff that comes to the way of my family with evil intent shall face well-aimed rounds from an AR-15 or a 30.06 or a .308, among other things.

[jeff m]

I am from Tulsa and you are just race baiting assh*le racist. GAP stands for Greenwood, Archer and Pine - the main intersection in the North Tulsa Black community. That is where the members of the GAP band were from. I went to school with the Wilson brothers. There was no race riot, unless you call the white community's burning down of the Greenwood commercial district, murdering and lynching. Thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed and only recently has anyone even acknowledged what has happened. There have been no demands for reparations, only a desire to make things right by the entire Tulsa community - black and white.

By the way, get used to saying "President Obama".

[Lala]

Why don't you click on Dan's link? The link says the group was named in honor of the race riot that occurred.

Reading is fun.

[seekeronos]

"--- There was no race riot, unless you call the white community's burning down of the Greenwood commercial district, murdering and lynching. ---"

Well, duh! You sure win tonight's "Genius Post" award, Jeff M. from Tulsa!

It WAS a race riot. A whole bunch of white-sheeted, pointy-hatted people in a particularly perfidious men's club known for agitating for race hatred stirred up a large group of white folks to burn down the black part of town: it was a race riot.

Just because the initiators of a riot aren't of a particular race does not make the event any less of a race riot.

And if Dan's link doesn't help to ed-ja-mah-cate you any, here's another nut for your squirrelly mind to nosh on:

http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/departments/hpolscrv/VdeLaOliva.html

[Dan Riehl]

Dear Jeff M,

Please take the "short bus" off of my blog, as I must assume you rode in on one, given your absolutdly stupid comment.

[bobInStamford]

Jeff,

The local patriots here aren't big on reading comprehension (or winning wars or some other things) but are BIG on slogans and lapel pins along with being very defensive and belligerent. So while you appear to be entirely correct in pointing out that the GAP Band wasn't named after a 1921 riot don't expect these heroes to admit their mistake.

Consider your visit here like going to Colonial WIlliamsburg and marveling at how people churned butter and used spinning wheels. All very quaint and entertaining.

[seekeronos]

"--- The name was chosen to honor the tragic but affirming memory of the streets (Greenwood Ave., Archer St., Pine St.) that formed the African American business district of Tulsa, Oklahoma also called Black Wall Street.[1] 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. ---"

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gap_Band

So yes, the band was named after the aforementioned streets, but these streets would have no other significance to most people were it not for that 1921 riot.