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BET.com: What motivated you to make this movie?
Nailah Jefferson: Rework Movies approached me about making this movie as a result of there’s tales that I like to inform as a documentary filmmaker, tales about Black historical past, notably tales inside Black historical past that haven’t been amplified and uplifted. I really feel like that has been the case with the story of Black Wall Avenue. There’s been an extended custom of what I name disappearing Black contributions, Black tales, Black values, Black pleasure and American historical past. And so each time I am given a possibility to uplift and amplify these tales, and provides them their justice, I discover nice pleasure in it and, and I am actually impressed to inform them.
Then I really feel like there have been numerous Black Wall Streets all through the nation and so we hear so many tales of desperation in regards to the Black neighborhood and other people say we won’t do and this and that, however I believe Black Wall Avenue is an ideal instance of what we are able to do when left alone, when allowed to totally thrive and meet our potential.
RELATED: Survivors of 1921 Tulsa Massacre Testify in Congress, Reliving Their Horrific Ordeal
BET.com: This movie in some methods looks like a multi-dimensional time machine. I can look a century into the previous however on the similar time look squarely at present. Was that what you have been making an attempt to convey?
Nailah Jefferson: Completely, we undoubtedly wished to attract a line from 1921 to 2021. As a result of the Tulsa race bloodbath occurred, after which what? What occurred to those households? What occurred to those companies? I do not suppose that query has been answered, as folks inform the story of Black Wall Avenue and the Tulsa race bloodbath. So the individuals who have these solutions are the descendants.
So, it is sort of a time machine the place they’re in a position to return to 1921, after which convey us by these 100 years. We realized that it was the Tulsa race massacre, then after that, sure insurance policies and practices have been put into place that suppressed the black neighborhood and did not make it obtainable for them to construct one other Black Wall Avenue. By way of these years, households, misplaced companies, they misplaced land, they misplaced their legacy. So completely, the ability of movie can transport you thru house and time. So why not use it as a time machine proper to inform the story and inform the complete story?
BET.com: You checked out two households on this movie and it appears as if over time there was an erasure of their legacies as wealth constructing folks. How have been you capable of finding this out?
Nailah Jefferson: I believe this was that query: What occurred? Clearly, Black folks can do that however why hasn’t it been reclaimed? Why have not they been capable of rebuild? Between 1921 and 2021, there’s 100 years that it looks like we might have been capable of rebuild Black Wall Avenue. I believe these households can reply the query, so we had to return to them. And so they have been capable of, They informed us what was put in place, the practices and insurance policies that stopped them from persevering with with their household companies.
However not solely that, should you have a look at the Williams household, Byron [Williams, a descendant] talks in regards to the trauma that his great-great grandmother endured because of the Tulsa race bloodbath and having her dream, Williams Dreamland Theatre, destroyed and unable to construct it again. He additionally talks about how that sort of steered everybody from being entrepreneurs in his household. It broke not solely companies however, I believe a sure spirit inside them too.
BET.com: In your analysis, which did you discover broken the Black neighborhood extra, the precise violence or the redistricting and rezoning of the Greenwood district within the years after?
Nailah Jefferson: What was fascinating is that inside a yr Black Wall Street was rebuilt. In fact, you recognize, we misplaced lives, there nonetheless is not an official depend of what number of lives we misplaced. However inside that yr, with out insurance coverage, folks rebuilt — and I do not wish to reduce the impression of the Tulsa race bloodbath, however they have been capable of overcome that, at the very least by the rebuilding of property.
However then after that…their property was taken illegally, after which it was taken legally. Then after that, I believe white folks simply stated if we go sure legal guidelines, if we goal this neighborhood again and again, and make it unlawful for them to rebuild, and thrive, then they will not. And that is what occurred. It is simply been frequently stifling, and concentrating on this neighborhood, and never permitting them to achieve their full potential. It is actually unhappy and sobering to consider.
BET.com: The oldest dwelling survivors lately testified to Congress that reparations are as a result of households of survivors of the bloodbath. How would that assist folks in Tulsa as we speak?
Nailah Jefferson: How would it not not? I believe regardless of if the difficulty occurred 100 years in the past, whether or not it occurred 10 or 20 years in the past, it’s a must to attempt to reconcile what was carried out prior to now. Whenever you have a look at these households, numerous them for years would not speak about what occurred throughout the Tulsa race bloodbath. Byron talks a few little bit of disgrace that he even feels as we speak when studying about what occurred to his household.
You must begin someplace and I believe making an attempt to make folks complete, as a result of…they have been by no means given something from town and all of them, their insurance coverage claims have been denied. If you can begin reconciliation there, and really acknowledge the unsuitable that was carried out and say that it was a bloodbath, it wasn’t on either side. It wasn’t Black and white. This was an egregious act that occurred in opposition to the Black neighborhood. If you can begin there, then I believe we are able to start the method of therapeutic, however reparations for me are part of acknowledging and attending to reconciliation, which Tulsa wants so badly.