100 years after a massacre

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By Lily Rothman

Assistant Managing Editor, Magazine

In the coming days, the city of Tulsa, Okla.—and people across the world—will mark the centennial anniversary of the devastating massacre that took place there in 1921, when a white mob destroyed the city’s prosperous “Black Wall Street” district. Even now, 100 years later, the search for victims’ remains is ongoing. TIME’s Olivia B. Waxman spoke to Phoebe Stubblefield, a forensic anthropologist involved in that search, about how researchers hope to find some long-overdue answers. Click here to read more, and visit time.com/history this weekend for more on Tulsa.

In other news, this will be the last regular edition of the TIME History newsletter that I’ll be writing. You can still expect this email in your inbox every Thursday—but, starting next week, you’ll hear instead from Olivia, whose work is well known to readers of this newsletter. I’m looking forward to reading along with her, and I hope you are too.

Here’s more of the history that made news this week:

HISTORY ON TIME.COM

Eight Women's Names Are Among the Thousands on the Vietnam Memorial Wall. Here's What to Know About Them

By Francine Uenuma

Even when Americans pause to remember those who have been killed in combat, the sacrifices of women service members have often been obscured

The Documentary Final Account Is a Rare Trove of Unfiltered Interviews With Former Nazis

By Olivia B. Waxman

Final Account, a rare look at how former Nazis feel today about their roles in the Holocaust, will be released May 21

Princes William and Harry Have Slammed the BBC Over a 1995 Interview With Princess Diana. Here’s Why

By Dan Stewart

An official inquiry found a 1995 BBC interview with Princess Diana had been obtained deceitfully and unethically

Column: Let's Make 143 Day a Holiday to Honor Mr. Rogers' Legacy

By Gregg Behr and Ryan Rydzewski

After a year marked by misery and loss we're calling for a new national holiday, one designed to bring Mister Rogers into our civic lives

8 Questions with Theoretical Physicist Carlo Rovelli—Including Quantum and Cats

By Jeffrey Kluger

Nothing is what it seems

FROM THE TIME VAULT

Today in 2003: Shrinking Paychecks

“The numbers are grim. For the 500,000 workers laid off since January, the average job search has stretched to a 19-year high of nearly five months—about twice the duration of the typical severance package. According to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, 17% of those who do find work—nearly double the historical percentage—are settling for less pay. The net result of the various pressures on pay: in the first three months of 2003, median weekly earnings adjusted for inflation fell 1.5%, according to the U.S. Labor Department. " (May 26, 2003)

Today in 1997: Ready for Summer

“Let's admit one thing right off the bat: summer has changed, and not just because we're no longer 11 years old and looking forward to three months' worth of unadulterated goofing off, give or take a summer-school session or a stint at an overly rigorous sleep-away camp making lanyards for The Man. Once upon a time, for kids and adults alike, the season's operative word was languor; today it's grosses. Because summer itself, like the movies to which the season lends its name as adjective, has got bigger, hypier, noisier, more aggressive. Formerly an interregnum, it is now an event, a three-month-long national happening with increasing numbers of people, places and things bidding for our attention and, more to the point, our income. ” (May 26, 1997)

Today in 1958: France and Algeria

“Insurrection broke out first in Algiers, when 30,000 French colons , fearful that a new French government might abandon Algeria, rioted in the streets, sacked the Government Building, and were calmed only when Paratroop General Jacques Massu announced that he had taken power in Algiers in defiance of Paris. That left it up to Paris: to the National Assembly to capitulate or fight back; to the mobs in the street to enlist for or against the battered, precarious Fourth Republic. In the Paris streets loudspeakers rasped out the orders of tough Maurice Papon, recently brought from Algeria to become police prefect of Paris: ‘Use your clubs! Use your clubs!’ His men complied.” (May 26, 1958)

HIGHLIGHTS FROM AROUND THE WEB

Time Travel Also marking the anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, a team at the New York Times has put together an impressive interactive feature that allows readers to tour Tulsa's Greenwood neighborhood before its destruction in 1921.

Presidential Predecessors Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin talked to Sam Sanders at NPR about which past President can best be compared to President Biden.

Interior Life For the Tampa Bay Times, Christopher Spata goes inside the historic Kellogg Mansion, a century-old home that may not be around much longer.

Making Things Right Melinda C. Miller writes at the Washington Post about how Cherokee history offers a model of how reparations can work.

Teachable Moment Amid an ongoing controversy over the University of North Carolina’s decision not to offer tenure yet to Nikole Hannah-Jones of the 1619 Project, who has a gig in the university’s journalism school, the Raleigh News & Observer has thorough coverage of the story—including this update from Kate Murphy, about an open letter in support of Hannah-Jones.