Episode 81: A Tale of Adaptation

On May 31 and June 1, 1921, white residents of Tulsa, Oklahoma descended on the Greenwood District of Tulsa. This district, colloquially referred to as Black Wall Street, was a prosperous district populated by mostly black residents due to Tulsa's harsh segregation laws. The massacre was instigated by the alleged assault on a white woman by 19 year old Dick Rowland, and by the end, an as-yet-unnamed number of people were killed. Original death reports numbered 36; it is likely hundreds of people were killed in the mob violence.

The Tulsa Massacre is also the opening sequence of the 2019 HBO series Watchmen, a sequel to the 1986 comic series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, originally adapted to film in 2009 by Zach Snyder. Pete and Martha get into all three stories, touching on Watchmen's original thesis statements and how Damon Lindelof has made it particularly resonant to us today.