re: On this day in history: The wealthiest black community in the US was destroyed

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Numerous witness accounts described airplanes carrying white assailants, who fired rifles and dropped firebombs on buildings, homes, and fleeing families. The planes, six biplane two-seater trainers left over from World War I, were dispatched from the nearby Curtiss-Southwest Field (now defunct) outside Tulsa.[20] White law enforcement officials later stated the planes were to provide reconnaissance and protect whites against a "Negro uprising".[20] Eyewitness accounts and testimony from the survivors maintained that on the morning of June 1, the planes dropped incendiary bombs and fired rifles at black residents on the ground.[20]

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