The Nation Must Awake: My Witness to the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921

On May 31, 1921, Mary Parrish was reacting at home with her daughter in Tulsa's affluent Greenwood district, known nationally as Black Wall Street. "Mother, I see men with guns," her daughter proclaimed from the window. Joined by thousands of others, the two were forced to flee into a night of mob violence and raging fires. In subsequent days Parrish took it upon herself to document the epic destruction of life and property. The Nation Must Awake, now widely available for the first time, is Parrish's first-person account-along with reports from others in her community-of what has become known as the Tulsa race massacre. While she shows the magnitude of loss at the hands of white vigilantes, her account of an incident more than a hundred years old remains relevant as America continues its struggle for equality and social justice.