Tulsa, Okla.: Neo-Nazis on rampage

Two white supremacists — Alvin Watts, 33, and his roommate, Jake England, 19 — went on a shooting spree in Tulsa, Okla., on April 8, Easter Sunday. The pair went looking for Black men to shoot in Tulsa’s predominantly African-American north side. They have been charged with three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of shooting with intent to kill, and five counts of malicious harassment.

England claimed his actions were revenge for the 2010 shooting death of his father by Pernell Jefferson, an African-American man. Jefferson was not charged in that incident, as investigations showed that he acted in self-defense after being attacked by Carl England.

For many in Tulsa’s Black community, the April 8 killings were a painful reminder of the attempt by racist whites to annihilate the Greenwood neighborhood there in 1921. From May 31 to June 1 of that year, the relatively prosperous area — known as the Black Wall Street — underwent a brutal, sustained assault by racist mobs. Some 800 African Americans were admitted to area hospitals; 6,000 were arrested; 10,000 were made homeless, and 35 blocks with 1,256 homes were burned to the ground. Three hundred Black people were killed.