Houston coffee shop vows to educate customers on Tulsa Race Massacre

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Brothers and owners of Day 6 Coffee Co. in downtown Houston are hoping customers can catch a lesson while catching hot brew this week.

On a specially-designed coffee cup that is being offered to customers who purchase a hot drink you'll notice there's art work symbolizing the devastation, violence and murders that took place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 100 years ago.

Damage lingers 100 years after Tulsa Race Massacre

1994 home video shows Ernestine Gibbs, a survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre, remember the day a white mob stormed the city's Greenwood District, known as Black Wall Street.

"I never heard about it until after college," said co-owner RJ Wilson. "After college, as I started educating myself, then I started to look into it."

Now, RJ and his brother, Ian, are hoping to share the self-taught American history to others.

READ ALSO: Tulsa Race Massacre: Story behind Black Wall Street, racist mob that burned it to the ground

"The schools aren't educating us on it so what can we do to educate on it?" said RJ.

What happened in the prosperous Greenwood District of Tulsa was a racist-fueled attack on hundreds of innocent Black people who were finally beginning to thrive in America. The community was dubbed the "Black Wall Street."

Viola Fletcher, 107, and Hughes "Uncle Red" Vann Ellis, 100, both survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre, are calling for justice and acknowledgment of a painful past.

On May 31, 1921, a white mob stormed the neighborhood, and over a 14-hour period destroyed black homes, looted and burned Black-owned businesses and murdered at least 300 people.

"We're hoping there's really like a renaissance of Black-owned companies like the Black Wall Street," said RJ. "Tulsa was a Black Wall Street that was destroyed."

The Wilson brothers hope the education will inspire black entrepreneurs to keep pursuing their passion.

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