HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Tulsa race massacre, also known as the Tulsa race riot or the Black Wall Street massacre, was a two-day-long
massacre A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...
that took place between May 31 – June 1, 1921, when mobs of white residents, some of whom had been appointed as deputies and armed by city officials, attacked black residents and destroyed homes and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The event is considered one of "the single worst incident of racial violence in American history" and has been described as one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the history of the United States. The attackers burned and destroyed more than 35 square blocks of the neighborhood—at the time one of the wealthiest black communities in the United States, colloquially known as "Black Wall Street." More than 800 people were admitted to hospitals, and as many as 6,000 black residents of Tulsa were interned in large facilities, many of them for several days. The Oklahoma Bureau of Vital Statistics officially recorded 36 dead. The 2001 Tulsa Reparations Coalition examination of events identified 39 dead, 26 black and 13 white, based on contemporary autopsy reports, death certificates, and other records. The commission gave several estimates ranging from 75 to 300 dead. The massacre began during
Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who have fought and died while serving in the United States armed forces. It is observed on the last Monda ...
Weekend after 19-year-old
Dick Rowland Dick Rowland or Roland (aka "Diamond Dick Rowland", born c. 1902 — 1960s?) was an African-American teenage shoeshiner whose arrest for assault in May 1921 was the impetus for the Tulsa race massacre. Rowland was 19 years old at the time. The a ...
, a black
shoeshiner Shoeshiner or boot polisher is an occupation in which a person cleans and buffs shoes and then applies a waxy paste to give a shiny appearance and a protective coating. They are often known as shoeshine boys because the job was traditionally d ...
, was accused of assaulting Sarah Page, a white 17-year-old elevator operator in the nearby Drexel Building. He was arrested and rumors that he was to be
lynched Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...
were spread throughout the city, where a white man named
Roy Belton Roy Belton (1900 or 1901 August 28, 1920) was a 19-year-old white man arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma with a female accomplice for the August 21, 1920 hijacking and shooting of a white man, local taxi driver Homer Nida. He was taken from the county ...
had been lynched the previous year. Upon hearing reports that a mob of hundreds of white men had gathered around the jail where Rowland was being held, a group of 75 black men, some armed, arrived at the jail to protect Rowland. The sheriff persuaded the group to leave the jail, assuring them that he had the situation under control. The most widely reported and corroborated inciting incident occurred as the group of black men left, when an elderly white man approached O. B. Mann, a black man, and demanded that he hand over his pistol. Mann refused, and the old man attempted to disarm him. A gunshot went off, and then, according to the sheriff's reports, "all hell broke loose." At the end of the exchange of gunfire, 12 people were dead, 10 white and 2 black. Subsequently, the group reportedly fled back into Greenwood, shooting as they went. Alternatively, another eyewitness account was that the shooting began "down the street from the Courthouse" when black business owners came to the defense of a lone black man being attacked by a group of around six white men. It is possible that the eyewitness did not recognize the fact that this incident was occurring as a part of a rolling gunfight which was already underway. In either case, as news of the violence spread throughout the city, mob violence exploded. White rioters invaded Greenwood that night and the next morning, killing men and burning and
looting Looting is the act of stealing, or the taking of goods by force, typically in the midst of a military, political, or other social crisis, such as war, natural disasters (where law and civil enforcement are temporarily ineffective), or rioting. ...
stores and homes. Around noon on June 1, the Oklahoma National Guard imposed
martial law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Martia ...
, ending the massacre. About 10,000 black people were left homeless, and the cost of the property damage amounted to more than $1.5 million in real estate and $750,000 in personal property (equivalent to $ million in ). By the end of 1922, largely, the residents' homes had been rebuilt, but the city and real estate companies refused to compensate them. Many survivors left Tulsa, while residents who chose to stay in the city, regardless of race, largely kept silent about the terror, violence, and resulting losses for decades. The massacre was largely omitted from local, state, and national histories. In 1996, 75 years after the massacre, a bipartisan group in the
state legislature A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United Sta ...
authorized the formation of the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. The commission's final report, published in 2001, states that the city had conspired with the racist mob; it recommended a program of
reparations Reparation(s) may refer to: Christianity * Restitution (theology), the Christian doctrine calling for reparation * Acts of reparation, prayers for repairing the damages of sin History *War reparations **World War I reparations, made from ...
to survivors and their descendants. The state passed legislation to establish scholarships for the descendants of survivors, encourage the economic development of Greenwood, and develop a park in memory of the victims of the massacre in Tulsa. The park was dedicated in 2010. Schools in Oklahoma have been required to teach students about the massacre since 2002, and in 2020, the massacre officially became a part of the Oklahoma school curriculum.


Background

In 1921, Oklahoma had a racially, socially, and politically tense atmosphere. The territory of northern Oklahoma had been established for the forced resettlement of Native Americans from the
southeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
, some of whom had owned slaves. The "first Black inhabitants of Indian Territory were those who came as enslaved people with their native owners." Other areas had received many settlers from the
South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...
whose families had been slaveholders before the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...
. Oklahoma was admitted as a state on November 16, 1907. The newly created state legislature passed
racial segregation Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crime against humanity under the Statute of the Intern ...
laws, commonly known as
Jim Crow laws The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the S ...
, as its first order of business. The 1907 Oklahoma Constitution did not call for strict segregation; delegates feared that, should they include such restrictions, U.S. President
Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
would veto the document. Still, the first law passed by the new legislature segregated all rail travel, and voter registration rules effectively disenfranchised non-whites. This meant that they were also barred from either serving on juries or serving in local public offices. These laws were enforced until they were ruled unconstitutional after the passage of the federal
Voting Rights Act of 1965 The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights m ...
. Major cities passed laws that imposed additional restrictions. On August 4, 1916, Tulsa passed an ordinance that mandated residential segregation by forbidding members of either race from residing on any block where three-fourths or more of the residents were members of the other race. Although the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
declared such an ordinance unconstitutional the following year, Tulsa and many other cities continued to establish and enforce segregation for the next three decades. Many servicemen returned to Tulsa following the end of the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
in 1918, and as they tried to re-enter the labor force, social tensions and white supremacist sentiment increased in cities where job competition was fierce. An economic slump in Northeastern Oklahoma increased the level of unemployment. The
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
, which ended in 1865, was still in living memory;
civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...
for
African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
were lacking. The
Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Cat ...
was resurgent (influenced by the popular 1915 film ''
The Birth of a Nation ''The Birth of a Nation'', originally called ''The Clansman'', is a 1915 American silent epic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel and play ''The Clan ...
''). Since 1915, the Ku Klux Klan had been growing in urban chapters across the country. Its first significant appearance in Oklahoma occurred on August 12, 1921. By the end of 1921, 3,200 of Tulsa's 72,000 residents were Klan members, according to one estimate. In the early 20th century, lynchings were common in Oklahoma as part of a continuing effort to assert and maintain
white supremacy White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White ...
. By 1921, at least 31 people, mostly men and boys, had been lynched in the newly formed state; 26 were black. At the same time, black veterans pushed to have their civil rights enforced, believing that they had earned full citizenship as the result of their military service. In what became known as the " Red Summer" of 1919, industrial cities across the
Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...
and
Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...
experienced severe race riots in which whites attacked black communities, sometimes with the assistance of local authorities. As a booming oil city, Tulsa also supported a large number of affluent, educated, and professional African-American residents. Greenwood was a district in Tulsa that was organized in 1906 following
Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...
's 1905 tour of
Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...
,
Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...
, and Oklahoma. It was a namesake of the Greenwood District which Washington had established as his own district in
Tuskegee, Alabama Tuskegee () is a city in Macon County, Alabama, United States. It was founded and laid out in 1833 by General Thomas Simpson Woodward, a Creek War veteran under Andrew Jackson, and made the county seat that year. It was incorporated in 1843. ...
, five years earlier. Greenwood became so prosperous that it came to be known as "the Negro Wall Street" (now commonly referred to as "the Black Wall Street").. Currie Ballard silent film of African-American towns in Oklahoma, 1920s. Rev. S. S. Jones for the National Baptist Convention. ''American Heritage'' magazine, 2006; Retrieved September 18, 2006 Most black people lived together in the district. Black Americans had created their own businesses and services in this enclave, including several grocers, two newspapers, two movie theaters, nightclubs, and numerous churches. Black professionals, including doctors, dentists, lawyers, and clergy, served the community. During his trip to Tulsa in 1905, Washington encouraged the cooperation, economic independence, and excellence being demonstrated there. Greenwood residents selected their own leaders and raised capital there to support economic growth. In the surrounding areas of northeastern Oklahoma, they also enjoyed relative prosperity and participated in the oil boom.


Monday, May 30 (Memorial Day)


Encounter in the elevator

On May 30, 1921, 19-year-old
Dick Rowland Dick Rowland or Roland (aka "Diamond Dick Rowland", born c. 1902 — 1960s?) was an African-American teenage shoeshiner whose arrest for assault in May 1921 was the impetus for the Tulsa race massacre. Rowland was 19 years old at the time. The a ...
, a black shoeshiner who was employed at a Main Street shine parlor, entered the only elevator in the nearby Drexel Building at 319 South Main Street in order to use the top-floor "colored" restroom, which his employer had arranged for use by his black employees. There, he encountered Sarah Page, the 17-year-old white elevator operator who was on duty. Whether—and to what extent—Rowland and Page knew each other has long been a matter of speculation. The two likely knew each other at least by sight because Rowland would have regularly ridden in Page's elevator on his way to and from the restroom. A clerk at Renberg's, a clothing store on the first floor of the Drexel, heard what sounded like a woman's scream and saw a young black man rushing from the building. The clerk went to the elevator and found Page in a distraught state. Thinking that she had been sexually assaulted, he summoned the authorities. Apart from the clerk's interpretation that Rowland had attempted to rape Page, many explanations have been given for the incident, with the most common explanation being that Rowland tripped as he got onto the elevator, and as he tried to catch his fall, he grabbed onto the arm of Page, who then screamed. Others suggested that Rowland and Page had a lover's quarrel. The 2001 Oklahoma Commission Final Report notes that it was unusual for both Rowland and Page to be working downtown on Memorial Day when most stores and businesses were closed, but it has also been speculated that Rowland was there because the shine parlor which he worked at may have been open, to draw in some of the parade traffic, while Page had been required to work in order to transport Drexel Building employees and their families to choice parade viewing spots on the building's upper floors.


Brief investigation

Although the police questioned Page, no written account of her statement has been found, but apparently, she told the police that Rowland had grabbed her arm and nothing more, and would not press charges. The police determined that what happened between the two teenagers was less than an assault, and conducted a low-key investigation rather than launching a man-hunt for her alleged assailant. Regardless of whether or not assault had occurred, Rowland had reason to be fearful, as African American men accused of raping white women were often prime targets for lynch mobs. Realizing the gravity of the situation, Rowland fled to his mother's house in the Greenwood neighborhood.


Tuesday, May 31


Arrest of Rowland

On the morning after the incident, Henry Carmichael, a white detective, and Henry C. Pack, a black patrolman, located Rowland on Greenwood Avenue and detained him. Pack was one of two black officers on the city's police force of about 45 officers. Rowland was initially taken to the Tulsa city jail at the corner of First Street and Main Street. Late that day, Police Commissioner J. M. Adkison said he had received an anonymous telephone call threatening Rowland's life. He ordered Rowland transferred to the more secure jail on the top floor of the Tulsa County Courthouse. Rowland was well-known among attorneys and other legal professionals within the city, many of whom knew him through his work as a shoeshiner. Some witnesses later recounted hearing several attorneys defend Rowland in their conversations with one another. One of the men said, "Why, I know that boy, and have known him a good while. That's not in him."


Newspaper coverage

The ''
Tulsa Tribune The ''Tulsa Tribune'' was an afternoon daily newspaper published in Tulsa, Oklahoma from 1919 to 1992. Owned and run by three generations of the Jones family, the ''Tribune'' closed in 1992 after the termination of its joint operating agreement w ...
'', owned, published, and edited by
Richard Lloyd Jones Richard Lloyd Jones (April 14, 1873 – December 4, 1963) was an American journalist who was the long-time editor and publisher of the now defunct '' Tulsa Tribune''. He was noted for his controversial positions on political issues. The son of a ...
, and one of two white-owned papers which were published in Tulsa, broke the story in that afternoon's edition with the headline: "Nab Negro for Attacking Girl In an Elevator," describing the alleged incident. According to some witnesses, the same edition of the ''Tribune'' included an editorial warning of a potential lynching of Rowland, titled "To Lynch Negro Tonight." The paper was known at the time to have a "
sensationalist In journalism and mass media, sensationalism is a type of editorial tactic. Events and topics in news stories are selected and worded to excite the greatest number of readers and viewers. This style of news reporting encourages biased or emo ...
" style of news writing. Allegedly all original copies of that issue of the paper have apparently been destroyed, and the relevant page is missing from the
microfilm Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the original document size. ...
copy. The Tulsa Race Riot Commission in 1997 offered a reward for a copy of the editorial, which went unclaimed. A copy of the "Tulsa Tribune" of 1 June 1921 was found: on the front page was an article headlined "Nab Negro for attacking girl in an Elevator" ight The editorial page was also found: it did not have an article headlined "To Lynch A Negro Tonight". Other newspapers of the time like '' The Black Dispatch'' and the ''
Tulsa World The ''Tulsa World'' is the daily newspaper for the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and primary newspaper for the northeastern and eastern portions of Oklahoma. Tulsa World Media Company is part of Lee Enterprises. The new owners announced in January 20 ...
'' did not call attention to any such editorial after the event. So the exact content of the column – and whether or not it existed at all – remains in dispute. However, Chief of Detectives James Patton attributed the cause of the riots entirely to the newspaper account and stated, "If the facts in the story as told the police had only been printed I do not think there would have been any riot whatsoever."


Stand-off at the courthouse

The afternoon edition of the ''Tribune'' hit the streets shortly after 3 p.m., and soon news spread of a potential lynching. By 4 p.m., local authorities were on alert. White residents began congregating at and near the Tulsa County Courthouse. By sunset around 7:30 p.m., the several hundred white residents assembled outside the courthouse appeared to have the makings of a lynch mob. Willard M. McCullough, the newly-elected
sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...
of
Tulsa County Tulsa County is located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 669,279, making it the second-most populous county in Oklahoma, behind only Oklahoma County. Its county seat and largest city is Tulsa, the secon ...
, was determined to avoid events such as the 1920 lynching of white murder suspect
Roy Belton Roy Belton (1900 or 1901 August 28, 1920) was a 19-year-old white man arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma with a female accomplice for the August 21, 1920 hijacking and shooting of a white man, local taxi driver Homer Nida. He was taken from the county ...
in Tulsa, which had occurred during the term of his predecessor. The sheriff took steps to ensure the safety of Rowland. McCullough organized his deputies into a defensive formation around Rowland, who was terrified. The ''Guthrie Daily Leader'' reported that Rowland had been taken to the county jail before crowds started to gather. The sheriff positioned six of his men, armed with rifles and shotguns, on the roof of the courthouse. He disabled the building's elevator and had his remaining men barricade themselves at the top of the stairs with orders to shoot any intruders on sight. The sheriff went outside and tried to talk the crowd into going home but to no avail. According to an account by Scott Ellsworth, the sheriff was "hooted down". At about 8:20 p.m., three white men entered the courthouse, demanding that Rowland be turned over to them. Although vastly outnumbered by the growing crowd out on the street, Sheriff McCullough turned the men away. A few blocks away on Greenwood Avenue, members of the black community gathered to discuss the situation at Gurley's Hotel. ''Oklahoma Digital Prairie''. July 18, 2006. Given the recent lynching of Belton, a white man accused of murder, they believed that Rowland was greatly at risk. Many black residents were determined to prevent the crowd from lynching Rowland, but they were divided about tactics. Young World War I veterans prepared for a battle by collecting guns and ammunition. Older, more prosperous men feared a destructive confrontation that likely would cost them dearly. O. W. Gurley stated that he had tried to convince the men that there would be no lynching, but the crowd responded that Sheriff McCullough had personally told them their presence was required. About 9:30 p.m., a group of approximately 50–60 black men, armed with rifles and shotguns, arrived at the jail to support the sheriff and his deputies in defending Rowland from the mob. Corroborated by ten witnesses, attorney James Luther submitted to the grand jury that they were following the orders of Sheriff McCullough who publicly denied he gave any orders:


Taking up arms

Having seen the armed black men, some of the more than 1,000 whites who had been at the courthouse went home for their own guns. Others headed for the National Guard armory at the corner of Sixth Street and Norfolk Avenue, where they planned to arm themselves. The armory contained a supply of small arms and ammunition. Major James Bell of the 180th Infantry Regiment learned of the mounting situation downtown and the possibility of a break-in, and he consequently took measures to prevent it. He called the commanders of the three National Guard units in Tulsa, who ordered all the Guard members to put on their uniforms and report quickly to the armory. When a group of whites arrived and began pulling at the grating over a window, Bell went outside to confront the crowd of 300 to 400 men. Bell told them that the Guard members inside were armed and prepared to shoot anyone who tried to enter. After this show of force, the crowd withdrew from the armory. At the courthouse, the crowd had swollen to nearly 2,000, many of them now armed. Several local leaders, including Reverend Charles W. Kerr, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, tried to dissuade mob action. Chief of Police John A. Gustafson later claimed that he tried to talk the crowd into going home. Anxiety on Greenwood Avenue was rising. Many black residents worried about the safety of Rowland. Small groups of armed black men ventured toward the courthouse in automobiles, partly for reconnaissance and to demonstrate they were prepared to take necessary action to protect Rowland. Many white men interpreted these actions as a "Negro uprising" and became concerned. Eyewitnesses reported gunshots, presumably fired into the air, increasing in frequency during the evening. In Greenwood, rumors began to fly – in particular, a report that whites were storming the courthouse. Shortly after 10 p.m., a second, larger group of approximately 75 armed black men decided to go to the courthouse. They offered their support to the sheriff, who declined their help. There are conflicting reports about the exact time and nature of the incident, or incidents, that immediately precipitated the massacre. According to the 2001 Commission, "As the black men were leaving, a white man attempted to disarm a tall, African American World War I veteran. A struggle ensued, and a shot rang out." Then, according to the sheriff, "all hell broke loose." At the end of the exchange of gunfire, 12 people were dead, 10 white and two black. Another firsthand account originates from Eloise Taylor Butler - the daughter of the famed "Peg Leg" Taylor - who was nineteen years old and in Greenwood on that day. According to Eloise's great-granddaughter, who passed on the story that Eloise told her, while "the initial story was that it started at the Courthouse," in fact, "It escalated ''to'' the Courthouse. It started like down the street from the Courthouse." This key inciting incident reportedly occurred when a group of around six white men approached and beat down a lone black man. Black store owners reportedly then came out of nearby shops to help defend the black man, and "once they started defending him, they ended up having to shoot." The account further notes, " he black store ownersfought back the best they could. But... he white mobstarted on that end of town, where the black people started fighting, he white mobset those initial shops on fire at the very beginning." The 2001 Commission itself does note that "African American homes and businesses along Archer were the first targets" of the white mob's arson. These could possibly be the same shops "down the street from the Courthouse" where this inciting incident reportedly took place, and it establishes an immediate motive for those particular shops being targeted first. Of course, it may simply be the case that they were targeted first only out of convenience - Archer being the first street on Greenwood's side of the Frisco Tracks. Moreover, while the Taylor account seems adamant that this incident occurred before the initial gunfight at the Courthouse (and then "escalated ''to'' the Courthouse"), it's still possible that the incident Taylor witnessed was itself simply a product of the rolling gunfight that is known to have ensued across the streets of Tulsa following that first widely-reported exchange of gunfire.


Violent outbreaks

The gunshots triggered an almost immediate response, with both sides firing on the other. The first "battle" was said to last a few seconds or so, but took a toll, as ten whites and two black men lay dead or dying in the street. The black men who had offered to provide security retreated toward Greenwood. A rolling gunfight ensued. The armed white mob pursued the black contingent toward Greenwood, with many stopping to loot local stores for additional weapons and ammunition. Along the way, bystanders, many of whom were leaving a movie theater after a show, were caught off guard by the mobs and fled. Panic set in as the white mob began firing on any black people in the crowd. The white mob also shot and killed at least one white man in the confusion. According to the Oklahoma Historical Society some in the mob were deputized by police and instructed to "get a gun and get a nigger". At around 11 p.m., members of the National Guard unit began to assemble at the armory to organize a plan to subdue the rioters. Several groups were deployed downtown to set up guard at the courthouse, police station, and other public facilities. Members of the local chapter of the
American Legion The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is a non-profit organization of U.S. war veterans headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. It is made up of state, U.S. territory, and overseas departments, and these are in turn made up of ...
joined in on patrols of the streets. The forces appeared to have been deployed to protect the white districts adjacent to Greenwood. The National Guard rounded up numerous black people and took them to the Convention Hall on Brady Street for detention. At around midnight, a small crowd of whites assembled outside the courthouse. Members of the crowd were heard yelling expletives and calling for Rowland to be lynched, but ultimately did not storm the courthouse.


Wednesday, June 1

Throughout the early morning hours, groups of armed white and black men squared off in gunfights. The fighting was concentrated along sections of the Frisco tracks, a dividing line between the black and white commercial districts. A rumor circulated that more black people were coming by train from Muskogee to help with an invasion of Tulsa. At one point, passengers on an incoming train were forced to take cover on the floor of the train cars, as they had arrived in the midst of crossfire, with the train taking hits on both sides. Small groups of whites made brief forays by car into Greenwood, indiscriminately firing into businesses and residences. They often received return fire. Meanwhile, white rioters threw lighted oil rags into several buildings along Archer Street, igniting them. As unrest spread to other parts of the city, many
middle class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. C ...
white families who employed black people in their homes as live-in cooks and servants were accosted by white rioters. They demanded the families turn over their employees to be taken to detention centers around the city. Many white families complied, but those who refused were subjected to attacks and vandalism in turn.


Fires begin

At around 1 a.m., the white mob began setting fires, mainly in businesses on commercial Archer Street at the southern edge of the Greenwood district. As news traveled among Greenwood residents in the early morning hours, many began to take up arms in defense of their neighborhood, while others began a mass exodus from the city. Throughout the night both sides continued fighting, sometimes only sporadically. As crews from the Tulsa Fire Department arrived to put out fires, they were turned away at gunpoint. Scott Elsworth makes the same claim, but his reference makes no mention of firefighters. Mary E. Jones Parrish, a survivor of the massacre, gave only praise for the National Guard. Another reference Elsworth gives to support the claim of holding firefighters at gunpoint is only a summary of events in which they suppressed the firing of guns by the rioters and disarmed them of their firearms. Yet another of his references states that they were fired upon by the white mob, "It would mean a fireman's life to turn a stream of water on one of those negro buildings. They shot at us all morning when we were trying to do something but none of my men was hit. There is not a chance in the world to get through that mob into the negro district." By 4 a.m., an estimated two dozen black-owned businesses had been set ablaze. Tulsa co-founder and Ku Klux Klan member
W. Tate Brady Wyatt Tate Brady (January 20, 1870 – August 29, 1925) was an American merchant, politician, former Ku Klux Klan member, and a founder of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Early life Brady was born in Forest City, Missouri, in 1870. His family moved to Ne ...
participated in the riot as a night watchman. ''
This Land Press This Land Press is a media and merchandising company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that produces and sells Oklahoma-themed apparel and gifts, produces a quarterly print magazine, publishes books, and operates a retail store. It was founded by Michae ...
'' reported that previously, Brady led the
Tulsa Outrage The Tulsa Outrage was an act of vigilante violence perpetrated by the Knights of Liberty — a group understood at the time to be a contemporaneous incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan — against members of the Industrial Workers of the World on Nove ...
, the November 7, 1917
tarring and feathering Tarring and feathering is a form of public torture and punishment used to enforce unofficial justice or revenge. It was used in feudal Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, as well as the early American frontier, mostly as a ty ...
of members of the
Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines general ...
— an incident understood to be economically and politically, rather than racially, motivated. Previous reports regarding Brady's character seem favorable, and he hired black employees in his businesses, as reported by his great-grandson.'


Daybreak

Upon sunrise, around 5 a.m., a train whistle sounded (Hirsch said it was a siren). Some rioters believed this sound to be a signal for the rioters to launch an all-out assault on Greenwood. A white man stepped out from behind the Frisco depot and was fatally shot by a sniper in Greenwood. Crowds of rioters poured from their shelter, on foot, and by car, into the streets of the neighborhood. Five white men in a car led the charge but were killed by a fusillade of gunfire before they had traveled one block. Overwhelmed by the sheer number of attackers, black residents retreated north on Greenwood Avenue to the edge of town. Chaos ensued as terrified residents fled. The rioters shot indiscriminately and killed many along the way. Splitting into small groups, they began breaking into houses and buildings, looting. Several residents later testified the rioters broke into occupied homes and ordered the residents out to the street, where they could be driven or forced to walk to detention centers. A rumor spread among the rioters that the new Mount Zion Baptist Church was being used as a fortress and armory. Purportedly twenty caskets full of rifles had been delivered to the church, though no evidence was found.


Attack by air

Numerous eyewitnesses described airplanes carrying white assailants, who fired rifles and dropped firebombs on buildings, homes, and fleeing families. The privately owned aircraft had been dispatched from the nearby Curtiss-Southwest Field outside Tulsa.Madigan, Tim. 2001. ''The Burning: Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921''. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 4, 131–32, 144, 159, 164, 183–184, 249. Law enforcement officials later said that the planes were to provide reconnaissance and protect against a "Negro uprising". Law enforcement personnel were thought to be aboard at least some flights. Eyewitness accounts, such as testimony from the survivors during Commission hearings and a manuscript by eyewitness and attorney Buck Colbert Franklin, discovered in 2015, said that on the morning of June 1, at least "a dozen or more" planes circled the neighborhood and dropped "burning
turpentine Turpentine (which is also called spirit of turpentine, oil of turpentine, terebenthene, terebinthine and (colloquially) turps) is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin harvested from living trees, mainly pines. Mainly used as a special ...
balls" on an office building, a hotel, a filling station, and multiple other buildings. Men also fired rifles at black residents, gunning them down in the street. Richard S. Warner concluded in his submission to The Oklahoma Commission that contrary to later reports by claimed eyewitnesses of seeing explosions, there was no reliable evidence to support such attacks. Warner noted that while a number of newspapers targeted at black readers heavily reported the use of
nitroglycerin Nitroglycerin (NG), (alternative spelling of nitroglycerine) also known as trinitroglycerin (TNG), nitro, glyceryl trinitrate (GTN), or 1,2,3-trinitroxypropane, is a dense, colorless, oily, explosive liquid most commonly produced by nitrating g ...
, turpentine, and rifles from the planes, many cited anonymous sources or second-hand accounts. Beryl Ford, one of the pre-eminent historians of the disaster, concluded from his large collection of photographs that there was no evidence of any building damaged by explosions. Danney Goble commended Warner on his efforts and supported his conclusions. State representative Don Ross (born in Tulsa in 1941), however, dissented from the evidence presented in the report concluding that bombs were in fact dropped from planes during the violence. In 2015, a previously unknown written eyewitness account of the events of May 31, 1921, was discovered and subsequently obtained by the Smithsonian
National Museum of African American History and Culture The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) is a Smithsonian Institution museum located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was established in December 2003 and opened its permanent home in ...
. The 10-page typewritten letter was authored by
Buck Colbert Franklin Buck Colbert Franklin (May 6, 1879September 24, 1960) was an African American lawyer best known for defending survivors of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. Early life and education Buck Colbert Franklin was born on May 6, 1879, near Homer, in wou ...
, noted Oklahoma attorney and father of
John Hope Franklin John Hope Franklin (January 2, 1915 – March 25, 2009) was an American historian of the United States and former president of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Southern Histo ...
. Notable quotes include: Franklin reports seeing multiple machine guns firing at night and hearing "thousands and thousands of guns" being fired simultaneously from all directions. He states that he was arrested by "a thousand boys, it seemed,...firing their guns every step they took."


Arrival of National Guard troops

Adjutant General Charles Barrett of the Oklahoma National Guard arrived by special train at about 9:15 a.m., with 109 troops from Oklahoma City. Ordered in by the governor, he could not legally act until he had contacted all the appropriate local authorities, including Mayor T. D. Evans, the sheriff, and the police chief. Meanwhile, his troops paused to eat breakfast. Barrett summoned reinforcements from several other Oklahoma cities. Barrett declared
martial law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Martia ...
at 11:49 a.m., and by noon the troops had managed to suppress most of the remaining violence. Thousands of black residents had fled the city; another 4,000 people had been rounded up and detained at various centers. Under martial law, the detainees were required to carry identification cards. As many as 6,000 Greenwood residents were interned at three local facilities: Convention Hall (now known as the Tulsa Theater), the Tulsa County Fairgrounds (then located about a mile northeast of Greenwood) and McNulty Park (a baseball stadium at Tenth Street and Elgin Avenue). A 1921 letter from an officer of the Service Company, Third Infantry, Oklahoma National Guard, who arrived on May 31, 1921, reported numerous events related to the suppression of the riot: * taking about 30–40 black residents into custody; * putting a machine gun on a truck and taking it on patrol, although it was not functioning and much less useful than "an ordinary rifle"; * being fired on by black snipers from the "church" and returning fire; * being fired on by white men; * turning the prisoners over to deputies to take them to police headquarters; * being fired upon again by armed black residents and having two
NCOs A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is a military officer who has not pursued a commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority by promotion through the enlisted ranks. (Non-officers, which includes most or all enli ...
slightly wounded; * searching for black snipers and firearms; * detailing an NCO to take 170 black residents to the civil authorities; and * delivering an additional 150 black residents to the Convention Hall. Captain John W. McCune reported that stockpiled ammunition within the burning structures began to explode which might have further contributed to casualties. Martial law was withdrawn on June 4, under Field Order No. 7.


Aftermath


Casualties

The massacre was covered by national newspapers, and the reported number of deaths varies widely. On June 1, 1921, the ''
Tulsa Tribune The ''Tulsa Tribune'' was an afternoon daily newspaper published in Tulsa, Oklahoma from 1919 to 1992. Owned and run by three generations of the Jones family, the ''Tribune'' closed in 1992 after the termination of its joint operating agreement w ...
'' reported that nine white people and 68 black people had died in the riot, but shortly afterwards it changed that number to a total of 176 dead. The next day, the same paper reported the count as nine white people and 21 black people. The '' Los Angeles Express'' headline said "175 Killed, Many Wounded". The ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' said that 77 people had been killed, including 68 black people, but it later lowered the total to 33. The ''
Richmond Times Dispatch The ''Richmond Times-Dispatch'' (''RTD'' or ''TD'' for short) is the primary daily newspaper in Richmond, Virginia, Richmond, the capital of Virginia, and the primary newspaper of record for the state of Virginia. Circulation The ''Times-Dispatc ...
'' of Virginia reported that 85 people (including 25 white people) were killed; it also reported that the police chief had reported to Governor Robertson that the total was 75; and that a police major put the figure at 175. The Oklahoma Department of Vital Statistics put the number of deaths at 36 (26 black and 10 white). Very few people, if any, died as a direct result of the fire. Official state records show five deaths by conflagration for the entire state in 1921.
Walter Francis White Walter Francis White (July 1, 1893 – March 21, 1955) was an American civil rights activist who led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for a quarter of a century, 1929–1955, after joining the organi ...
of the
NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&n ...
traveled to Tulsa from New York and reported that, although officials and undertakers said that the fatalities numbered 10 white and 21 black, he estimated the number of the dead to be 50 whites and between 150 and 200 blacks; he also reported that 10 white men were killed on Tuesday; six white men drove into the black section and never came out, and 13 whites were killed on Wednesday; he reported that Major O.T. Johnson of the
Salvation Army Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its ...
in Tulsa, said that 37 blacks were employed as gravediggers to bury 120 blacks in individual graves without coffins on Friday and Saturday. The Oklahoma Commission described Johnson's statement being that his crew was over three dozen grave diggers who dug "about" 150 graves.
Ground-penetrating radar Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is a Geophysics, geophysical method that uses radar pulses to Geophysical imaging, image the subsurface. It is a non-intrusive method of surveying the sub-surface to investigate underground utilities such as concrete, ...
was used to investigate the sites purported to contain these mass graves. Multiple eyewitness reports and "oral histories" suggested the graves could have been dug at three different cemeteries across the city. The sites were examined, and no evidence of ground disturbance indicative of mass graves was found. However, at one site, the ground disturbance was found in a five-meter square area, but cemetery records indicate that three graves had been dug and bodies buried within this envelope before the riot. Oklahoma's 2001 Commission into the riot provides multiple contradicting estimates. Goble estimates 100–300 deaths, and Franklin and Ellsworth estimate 75–100 deaths and describe some of the higher estimates as dubious as the low estimates. C. Snow was able to confirm 39 casualties, all listed as male although four were unidentifiable; 26 were black and 13 were white. The 13 white fatalities were all taken to hospitals. Eleven of them had come from outside of Oklahoma, and possibly as many as half were petroleum industry workers. Only eight of the confirmed 26 black fatalities were brought to hospitals, and as hospitals were segregated, and with the Black Frissell Memorial Hospital having burned down, the only place where the injured blacks were treated was at the basement of Morningside Hospital. Several hundred were injured. The
Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...
, in their preliminary overview, mentioned wide-ranging external estimates of 55 to 300 dead; however, because of the hurried nature of undocumented burials, they declined to submit an official estimate, stating, "The number of dead is a matter of conjecture." The Red Cross registered 8,624 persons; 183 people were hospitalized, mostly for gunshot wounds or burns (they are differentiated in their records on the basis of
triage In medicine, triage () is a practice invoked when acute care cannot be provided for lack of resources. The process rations care towards those who are most in need of immediate care, and who benefit most from it. More generally it refers to prio ...
category not the type of wound), while a further 531 required first aid or surgical treatment; eight miscarriages were attributed to be a result of the tragedy; 19 died in care between June 1 and December 30, 1921. The nearly 100,000 people in Greenwood who were affected relied, in large part, on the relief efforts of the Red Cross. Important for the future survival of this district, they worked to create "a large-scale plan in order to provide security, food, shelter, job training and placement, health coverage, and legal support for all of them he survivors" The Red Cross was working in the aftermath of a tragedy, the victims of which "had all the characteristics of prisoners of war: homeless and helpless, abandoned by their home country, confined in specific areas, denied basic human rights, treated without respect and deprived of their possessions." In less than a year of being in Tulsa, the Red Cross had set up a hospital for black patients, which was the first in Oklahoma's history; performed mass vaccinations for illnesses that could have been easily spread in the camps where survivors found themselves, as well as built infrastructure to provide fresh water, adequate food, and sufficient housing for those who no longer had a place of residence. Because of their work, the Red Cross saved lives of those injured, as well as helped to keep thousands of black Tulsans in the city who would have otherwise had to leave. File:Negro Slain in Tulsa Riot, June-1-1921 (14389395391).jpg, "Negro Slain in Tulsa Riot" "June-1-1921" File:Chared (sic) Negro - Killed in Tulsa Riot, 6-1-1921 (14391369732).jpg, "Charred Negro" "Killed in Tulsa Riot" "6-1-1921" File:Truck Being Used to Gather up Colored Victims - During Tulsa Race Riot, 6-1-21 (14206580148).jpg, "Truck Being Used to Gather Up Colored Victims – During Tulsa Race Riot – 6-1-21" File:Captured Negros on Way to Convention Hall - During Tulsa Race Riot, June 1st, 1921 (14412915233).jpg, "Captured Negros on Way to Convention Hall – During Tulsa Race Riot June 1st, 1921" File:Tulsa Race Riot, June 1st, 1921, Scene at Convention Hall (14206298337).jpg, "Scene at Convention Hall – June 1st, 1921" File:All That Was Left of His Home after the Tulsa Race Riot, 6-1-21 (Ag2013.0002).jpg, "All That Was Left of His Home after Tulsa Race Riot – 6-1-1921"


Property losses

The commercial section of Greenwood was destroyed. Losses included 191 businesses, a junior high school, several churches, and the only hospital in the district. The Red Cross reported that 1,256 houses were burned and another 215 were looted but not burned. The Tulsa Real Estate Exchange estimated property losses amounted to US$1.5 million in real estate and $750,000 in personal property (equivalent to a total of $ million in ). The Red Cross report in December 1921 estimated that 10,000 people were made homeless by the destruction. Over the next year, local citizens filed more than US$1.8 million (equivalent to $ million in ) in riot-related claims against the city.


Identities of the African-American victims

On June 3, the '' Morning Tulsa Daily World'' reported major points of their interview with Deputy Sheriff Barney Cleaver concerning the events leading up to the Tulsa riot. Cleaver was a deputy sheriff for Okmulgee County and not under the supervision of the city police department; his duties mainly involved enforcing the law among the "colored people" of Greenwood, but he also operated a business as a private investigator. He had previously been dismissed as a city police investigator for assisting county officers with a drug raid at Gurley's Hotel but not reporting his involvement to his superiors. He had considerable land holdings and suffered tremendous financial damages as a result of the riot. Among his holdings were several residential properties and Cleaver Hall, a large community gathering place and function hall. He reported personally evicting a number of armed criminals who had taken to barricading themselves within properties he owned. Upon eviction, they merely moved to Cleaver Hall. Cleaver reported that the majority of violence started at Cleaver Hall along with the rioters barricaded inside.
Charles Page Charles Page (June 2, 1860 – December 27, 1926) was a businessman and important philanthropist in the early history of Tulsa, Oklahoma. After his father died when Page was an 11-year-old boy in Wisconsin, he left school early to try to help sup ...
offered to build him a new home. The ''Morning Tulsa Daily World'' stated, "Cleaver named Will Robinson, a dope peddler and all-around bad negro, as the leader of the armed blacks. He has also the names of three others who were in the armed gang at the courthouse. The rest of the negroes participating in the fight, he says, were former servicemen who had an exaggerated idea of their own importance... They did not belong here, had no regular employment, and were simply a floating element with seemingly no ambition in life but to foment trouble." O.W. Gurley, owner of Gurley's Hotel, identified the following men by name as arming themselves and gathering in his hotel: Will Robinson, Peg Leg Taylor, Bud Bassett, Henry Van Dyke, Chester Ross, Jake Mayes, O. B. Mann, John Suplesox, Fatty, Jack Scott, Lee Mable, John Bowman and W. S. Weaver.


Public Safety Committee

By June 6, the
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. new ...
reported that a citizens' Public Safety Committee had been established, made up of 250 white men who vowed to protect the city and put down any more disturbance. A white man was shot and killed that day after he failed to stop as ordered by a National Guardsman.


Rebuilding

Governor James B. A. Robertson had gone to Tulsa during the riot to ensure order was restored. Before returning to the capital, he ordered an inquiry into events, especially of the City and Sheriff's Office. He called for a
Grand Jury A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a p ...
to be empaneled, and Judge Valjean Biddison said that its investigation would begin June 8. The jury was selected by June 9. Judge Biddison expected that the
state attorney general The state attorney general in each of the 50 U.S. states, of the federal district, or of any of the territories is the chief legal advisor to the state government and the state's chief law enforcement officer. In some states, the attorney gener ...
would call numerous witnesses, both black and white, given the large scale of the riot. State Attorney General S.P. Freeling initiated the investigation, and witnesses were heard over 12 days. In the end, the all-white jury attributed the riot to the black mobs, while noting that law enforcement officials had failed in preventing the riot. A total of 27 cases were brought before the court, and the jury indicted more than 85 individuals. In the end, no one was convicted of charges for the deaths, injuries or property damage. On June 3, a group of over 1,000 businessmen and civic leaders met, resolving to form a committee to raise funds and aid in rebuilding Greenwood. Judge J. Martin, a former mayor of Tulsa, was chosen as the chairman of the group. He said at the mass meeting: Many black families spent the winter of 1921–1922 in tents as they worked to rebuild. Charles Page was commended for his philanthropic efforts in the wake of the riot in the assistance of 'destitute blacks'. A group of influential white developers persuaded the city to pass a fire ordinance that would have prohibited many black people from rebuilding in Greenwood. Their intention was to redevelop Greenwood for more business and industrial use and force black people further to the edge of the city for residences. The case was litigated and appealed to the
Oklahoma Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Oklahoma is a court of appeal for non-criminal cases, one of the two highest judicial bodies in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, and leads the judiciary of Oklahoma, the judicial branch of the government of Oklahoma.
by Buck Colbert Franklin, where the ordinance was ruled unconstitutional. Most of the promised funding was never raised for the black residents, and they struggled to rebuild after the violence. Willows, the regional director of the Red Cross, noted this in his report, explaining his slow initial progress to facilitate the rehabilitation of the refugees. The fire code was officially intended to prevent another tragedy by banning wooden frame construction houses in place of previously burnt homes. A concession was granted to allow temporary wooden frame dwellings while a new building, which would meet the more restrictive fire code, was being constructed. This was quickly halted as residents within two weeks had started to erect full-sized wooden frame dwellings in contravention of the agreement. It took a further two-month delay to secure the court decision to reinstate the previous fire code. Willows heavily criticized the Tulsa city officials for interfering with his efforts, for their role in the Public Welfare Committee which first sought to rezone the "burned area" as industrial, and for constructing a union station in its place with no consideration for the refugees. Then he criticized them again for the dissolution of the Public Welfare Committee in favor of the formation of the Reconstruction Committee which failed to formulate a single plan, leaving the displaced residents prohibited from beginning reconstruction efforts for several months.


Tulsa Union Depot

Despite the Red Cross's best efforts to assist with the reconstruction of Greenwood's residential area, the considerably altered present-day layout of the district and its surrounding neighborhoods, as well as the extensive redevelopment of Greenwood by people unaffiliated with the neighborhood prior to the riot, stand as proof that the Red Cross relief efforts had limited success. Tulsa's main industries at the time of the riot were banking (
BOK Financial Corporation BOK Financial Corporation — pronounced as letters, "B-O-K" — is a financial services holding company headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Offering a full complement of retail and commercial banking products and services across the American Midw ...
), administrative (
PennWell Endeavor Business Media is an American business-to-business media company founded by Chris Ferrell and others in December 2017. The company is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a l ...
, Oklahoma Natural Gas Company), and petroleum engineering services (
Skelly Oil Skelly Oil Company was a medium-sized oil company founded in 1919 by William Grove (Bill) Skelly, Chesley Coleman Herndon and Frederick A. Pielsticker in Tulsa, Oklahoma. J. Paul Getty acquired control of the company during the 1930s. It b ...
), earning Tulsa the title of "
Oil Capital of the World The title of "Oil Capital of the World" is often used to refer to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Houston, Texas, the current center of the oil industry, more frequently uses the sobriquet “ The Energy Capital of the World.” History In mid-19th century, ...
". Joshua Cosden is also regarded as a founder of the city, having constructed the tallest building in Tulsa, the Cosden Building. The construction of the Cosden Building and Union Depot was overseen by the
Manhattan Construction Company The Manhattan Construction Company is an American-owned construction company founded by Laurence H. Rooney in Chandler in Oklahoma Territory in 1896. Today, the firm operates under its parent company, Manhattan Construction Group with affiliate ...
, which was based in Tulsa. Francis Rooney is the great-grandson and beneficiary of the estate of Laurence H. Rooney, founder of the Manhattan Construction Company. City planners immediately saw the fire that destroyed homes and businesses across Greenwood as a fortunate event for advancing their objectives, meanwhile showing a disregard for the welfare of affected residents. Plans were made to rezone 'The Burned Area' for industrial use. The ''Tulsa Daily World'' reported that the mayor and city commissioners expressed that, "a large industrial section will be found desirable in causing a wider separation between negroes and whites." The reconstruction committee organized a forum to discuss their proposal with community leaders and stakeholders. Naming, among others, O.W. Gurley, Rev. H.T.F. Johnson, and Barney Cleaver as participants in the forum, it was reported that all members were in agreement with the plan to redevelop the burned district as an industrial section and agreed that the proposed union station project was desirable. "...not a note of dissension was expressed." The article states that these community leaders would again meet at the First Baptist Church in the following days. ''The Black Dispatch'' describes the content of the following meeting at the First Baptist Church. The reconstruction committee had intended to have the black landholders sign over their property to a holding company managed by black representatives on behalf of the city. The properties were then to be turned over to a white appraisal committee which would pay residents for the residentially zoned land at the lower industrial zoned value in advance of the rezoning. Professor J.W. Hughes addressed the white reconstruction committee members in opposition to their proposition, coining a slogan that would come to galvanize the community, "I'm going to hold what I have until I get What I've lost." Construction of the
Tulsa Union Depot The Tulsa Union Depot (also known as the Tulsa Union Station) is the former central railway station for Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has since been turned into an office building. The Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame is currently headquartered in the former Dep ...
, a large central rail hub connecting three major railroads, began in Greenwood less than two years after the riot. Prior to the riot, construction had already been underway for a smaller rail hub nearby. However, in the aftermath of the riot, land on which homes and businesses had been destroyed by the fires suddenly became available, allowing for a larger train depot near the heart of the city to be built in Greenwood instead.


1921 grand jury investigation


Allegations of corruption

The Tulsa Police Department, in the words of Chief Chuck Jordan, "did not do their job then, y'know, they just didn't." Parrish, an African-American citizen of Tulsa, summarized the lawlessness in Oklahoma as a contributing factor in 1922 as, "if...it were not for the profitable alliance of politics and vice or professional crime, the tiny spark which is the beginning of all these outrages would be promptly extinguished." Clark, a prominent Oklahoma historian and law professor, completed his doctoral dissertation in law on the subject of lawlessness in Oklahoma specifically on this period of time and how lawlessness had led to the rise of the second KKK, in order to illustrate the need for effective law enforcement and a functional judiciary.


John A. Gustafson

Chief of Police John A. Gustafson was the subject of an investigation. Official proceedings began on June 6, 1921. He was prosecuted on multiple counts: refusing to enforce prohibition, refusing to enforce anti-prostitution laws; operating a stolen automobile-laundering racket and allowing known automobile thieves to escape justice, for the purpose of extorting the citizens of Tulsa for rewards relating to their return; repurposing vehicles for his own use or sale; operating a fake detective agency for the purpose of billing the city of Tulsa for investigative duties he was already being paid for as chief of police; failing to enforce gun laws; and failure to take action during the riots. The attorney general of Oklahoma received numerous letters alleging members of the police force had conspired with members of the justice system to threaten witnesses in corruption trials stemming from the Grand Jury investigations. In the letters, various members of the public requested the presence of the state attorney general at the trial. An assistant of the attorney general replied to one such letter by stating that their budget was too stretched to respond and recommending instead that the citizens of Tulsa simply vote for new officers. Gustafson was found to have a long history of fraud pre-dating his membership in the Tulsa Police Department. His previous partner in his detective agency, Phil Kirk, had been convicted of blackmail. Gustafson's fake detective agency ran up high billings on the police account. Investigators noted that many blackmail letters had been sent to members of the community from the agency. One particularly disturbing case involved the frequent rape, by her father, of an 11-year-old girl who had since become pregnant. Instead of prosecuting, they sent a " Blackhand letter." On July 30, 1921, out of five counts of an indictment, Gustafson was found guilty of two counts: negligence for failing to stop the riot (which resulted in dismissal from police force), and conspiracy for freeing automobile thieves and collecting rewards (which resulted in a jail sentence).


Breaking the silence

Three days after the massacre, President Warren G. Harding spoke at the all-black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He declared, "Despite the demagogues, the idea of our oneness as Americans has risen superior to every appeal to mere class and group. And so, I wish it might be in this matter of our national problem of races." Speaking directly about the events in Tulsa, he said, "God grant that, in the soberness, the fairness, and the justice of this country, we never see another spectacle like it." There were no convictions for any of the charges related to violence. There were decades of silence about the terror, violence, and losses of this event. The riot was largely omitted from local, state, and national histories: "The Tulsa race riot of 1921 was rarely mentioned in history books, classrooms, or even in private. Black and white people alike grew into middle age, unaware of what had taken place". It was not recognized in the ''Tulsa Tribune'' feature of "Fifteen Years Ago Today" or "Twenty-five Years Ago Today". A 2017 report detailing the history of the Tulsa Fire Department from 1897 until the date of publication makes no mention of the 1921 massacre. Several people tried to document the events, gather photographs, and record the names of the dead and injured. Mary E. Jones Parrish, a young black teacher and journalist from
Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...
, was hired by the Inter-racial Commission to write an account of the riot. Parrish was a survivor, and she wrote about her experiences, collected other accounts, gathered photographs and compiled "a partial roster of property losses in the African American community." She published these in ''Events of the Tulsa Disaster'', in 1922. It was the first book to be published about the riot. The first academic account was a master's thesis written in 1946 by Loren L. Gill, a veteran of World War II, but the thesis did not circulate beyond the University of Tulsa. In 1971, a small group of survivors gathered for a memorial service at Mount Zion Baptist Church with black and white people in attendance. That same year, the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce decided to commemorate the riot, but when they read the accounts and saw photos gathered by Ed Wheeler, host of a radio history program, detailing the specifics of the riot, they refused to publish them. He then took his information to the two major newspapers in Tulsa, both of which also refused to run his story. His article, "Profile of a Race Riot" was published in ''Impact Magazine'', a publication aimed at black audiences, but most of Tulsa's white residents never knew about it. In the early 1970s, along with Henry C. Whitlow, Jr., a history teacher at Booker T. Washington High School, Mozella Franklin Jones helped to desegregate the Tulsa Historical Society by mounting the first major exhibition on the history of African Americans in Tulsa. Jones also created, at the Tulsa Historical Society, the first collection of massacre photographs available to the public. While researching and sharing the history of the riot, Jones collaborated with a white woman named Ruth Sigler Avery, who was also trying to publicize accounts of the riot. The two women, however, encountered pressure, particularly among whites, to keep silent.


Survivors

The Tulsa Massacre claimed an estimated 150–300 lives; over 800 people were seriously injured, and many more are estimated to have had their lives drastically changed forever. Tulsa Jewish Community helped save African Americans during the riot.


Olivia Hooker

Olivia Hooker Olivia Juliette Hooker (February 12, 1915 – November 21, 2018) was an American psychologist and professor. She was one of the last known survivors of the Tulsa race massacre of 1921, and the first African-American woman to enter the U.S. Coast ...
was born on February 12, 1915, in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Her family was one of the many families affected by the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 when she was only six years old. Her family's home in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma was broken into by a group of white men with torches and was torn apart. Many of her family's belongings were destroyed. One item that Hooker recalled was her sister's piano. She remembered hearing a group of white men whacking into the piano as she and her four other siblings hid under the dining room table which their mother covered with a tablecloth. Her father owned a store in Tulsa which she recalled was absolutely destroyed and only one safe was left standing. The only reason it was left standing was that it was too big and heavy to be destroyed or stolen. Hooker also remembered vividly her schoolhouse being destroyed and blown up with dynamite. After the massacre, Hooker and her family moved to Topeka, Kansas to rebuild their lives. Hooker recalled her mother telling her, "don't spend your time agonizing over the past." With a new fresh start in Topeka, Kansas, Hooker was the first African American woman to join the
Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...
(in February 1945). After leaving the Coast Guard, Hooker went on to earn her Master's degree in psychology from Teacher's College, Columbia University. She earned her doctorate in clinical psychology at the
University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The University of ...
. Hooker went on to have multiple jobs with her degree in psychology, mostly basing her work on the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. Olivia Hooker retired from work at the age of 87. She died at the age of 103 on November 21, 2018, peacefully, in her home in New York.


Eldoris McCondichie

Eldoris McCondichie was born on September 1, 1911, in Tyler, Texas. She was four years old when she and her family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma in the Greenwood district. Her family was part of the working class. Her father had worked in a field and her mother did housework. On May 31, 1921, McCondichie was nine years old. She remembered being frantically awakened by her mother. She remembered her mother saying, "the white people are killing the colored people." McCondichie and her family evacuated their Tulsa home to find refuge up north from the massacre. McCondichie described how "airplanes were raining down bullets," and how no one had enough time to even put clothes on and evacuate their homes. She recalled seeing women walking on the railroad track with no shoes in their nightgowns. She remembered finding shelter in a chicken coop during the riots to protect herself from machine gun fire. After McCondichie and her family evacuated Tulsa, they found refuge in a farmer's home overnight. Her family traveled to
Pawhuska, Oklahoma Pawhuska ( osa, 𐓄𐓘𐓢𐓶𐓮𐓤𐓘 / hpahúska, ''meaning: "White Hair"'', iow, Paháhga) is a city in and the county seat of Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. It was named after the 19th-century Osage chief, ''Paw-Hiu-Skah'', w ...
, where they stayed for about 2–3 days until they knew it was safe to return home. Upon returning to Tulsa, Eldoris described what was left of the Greenwood district as "war-torn." She recalled many businesses and homes were burnt to the ground. Her family slowly rebuilt their lives in Tulsa and never left, referring to it as their "forever home." Eldoris was married to Arthur McCodichie for 67 years and had four children; two sons and two daughters. She died on September 12, 2010, several days after celebrating her 99th birthday. Her final resting place is in the Crownhill Cemetery in Tulsa, Oklahoma.


George Monroe

George Monroe was five years old during the attack on the Greenwood district. He claimed some images could never leave his mind. He remembered seeing people getting shot and his own curtains being set on fire by a mob of white men. He also recalled hiding under a bed with his older sister, when a rioter stepped on his finger, causing his sister to throw her hand over his mouth to prevent the men from hearing his screams. George Monroe lived out the rest of his life in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He became a musician, owner of a Tulsa nightclub, and the first black man in Tulsa to sell Coca-Cola. George Monroe died in 2001.


Mary E. Jones Parrish

Mary Elizabeth Jones Parrish (1892–1972) was born in 1892 in Yazoo City, Mississippi. She moved to Tulsa around 1919 and worked teaching typing and shorthand at a branch of the YMCA. Parrish was reading in her home when the Tulsa race massacre began on the evening of May 31, 1921. Parrish's daughter, Florence Mary, called the young journalist and teacher to the window. "Mother," she said, "I see men with guns." The two eventually fled into the night under a hail of bullets Mary Parrish wrote a first-person account and collected eye-witness statements from dozens of others and published them immediately following the tragedy under the title ''The Events of the Tulsa Disaster''. Parrish documented the magnitude of the loss of human life and property at the hands of white vigilantes. Parrish hoped that her book would "open the eyes of the thinking people to the impending danger of letting such conditions exist and in the 'Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.' A new edition was published in 2021 by Trinity University Press under the title, ''The Nation Must Awake: My Witness to the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.''The new edition includes a new afterword by Anneliese M. Bruner, Parrish's great-granddaughter. ''The New York Times'' called Parrish's "a story of survival... remains relevant a century later" while ''The New Yorker'' called it "The first and most visceral long-form account of how Greenwood residents experienced the massacre."


Lessie Benningfield ("Mother Randle")

Lessie Benningfield, also known as Mother Randle, was born in Morris, Oklahoma on November 10, 1914. Her parents were farmers; she had three sisters and a brother. Benningfield does not recall much due to her young age during the massacre. She remembers a mob of white men barging into her home and then destroying her family's house. She has memories of feelings of intense fear while trying to evacuate her home and get somewhere safe with her family. She spent the rest of her childhood and young adulthood in Tulsa and graduated from Booker T. Washington High School. Benningfield is now a part of an active lawsuit with the Greenwood Advocates, which is a team of human and civil rights lawyers fighting for justice for victims and their families. Benningfield claims she still has nightmares of seeing the piles of dead bodies she saw during the massacre. For her 106th birthday which took place in 2020, the community raised thousands of dollars for her to remodel her home. Since then, she has been interviewed several times and remained in the public eye during the 2021 centennial anniversary of the massacre at the age of 107.


Hal Singer

Hal Singer was born on October 8, 1919, in Tulsa, Oklahoma to two working-class parents. His mother worked in a wealthy white resident's home as a cook and his father worked producing oil rigging tools. Singer was 18 months old when the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 took place. A white woman, for whom his mother worked, put his family on a train to Kansas City during the massacre so the Singer family would have a safe place to wait it out. Up to the day of his passing, Singer recalled how forever grateful he was for the woman's kindness. When his family returned to their home, it was burnt to the ground. They had to rebuild their whole lives again from scratch. However, they stayed in Tulsa in the Greenwood district all through his childhood. As a young boy, Singer hung out by the rail tracks and invited
jazz band A jazz band (jazz ensemble or jazz combo) is a musical ensemble that plays jazz music. Jazz bands vary in the quantity of its members and the style of jazz that they play but it is common to find a jazz band made up of a rhythm section and a h ...
s to come over and have some of his mother's cooking. This helped him in the long run as he became an iconic saxophonist of his generation. Singer went on to play with and for
Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was bas ...
,
Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...
, and
Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop s ...
. He was married for over 50 years to his wife Arlette Singer. On August 18, 2020, just months before his 101st birthday, he died in
Chatou Chatou () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Chatou is a part of the affluent suburbs of western Paris and is on the northwest side of the Seine river about from the city's center. ...
, a suburb of
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
,
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
.


Essie Lee Johnson Beck

Essie Johnson (1916-2006) was five years old when the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 took place. Her family evacuated their Tulsa home in the early hours of May 31. Beck remembers her parents making her and her siblings stay away from the windows because there were active shooters targeting the windows of homes. She describes the feelings of fright and confusion. Her family had to evacuate their home since almost all homes were being burnt to the ground in her neighborhood. Her mother took Beck and her four other siblings and started running to find shelter elsewhere. Beck recalls watching airplanes above her dropping bombs onto the roof of houses causing them to catch on fire. Her mother was trying to get her and her siblings to Golden Gate Park. Beck's father stayed behind to help as much as possible and to assist injured people. Beck recalls once they got to Golden Gate Park, they hid behind trees. Beck and her family soon after that found shelter in churches and school basements for the remaining days. Once they were cleared to go back, their home was burnt to the ground. Beck recalls having to live in a tent on the dirt waiting for their house to be rebuilt. She describes the whole experience to be awful.


Vernice Simms

Vernice Simms was seventeen years old when the Massacre took place. She lived in the Greenwood district with her family as she attended Booker T. Washington High School, where she was preparing for her prom. Simms remembers vividly being in her backyard when bullets started raining down and everyone was cautioned to get into the house as quickly as possible. As the riots and massacre progressed, Simms and her family found refuge at a white family's home, where they were safe from the massacre. When they returned to their Greenwood home, everything was burnt to the ground. Simms and her family had to live in a tent. She recalls Booker T. Washington High School being turned into a hospital for the wounded. Simms volunteered at the hospital where she fed and gave water to people who were injured during the massacre. While her house was being rebuilt by her father, she finished high school in Oklahoma City. Afterward, Simms studied at
Langston University Langston University (LU) is a public land-grant historically black university in Langston, Oklahoma. It is the only historically black college in the state. Though located in a rural setting east of Guthrie, Langston also serves an urban mis ...
. After she graduated from university, she came home to see her house finally rebuilt. She recalls never getting any money from insurance or the government to help. Simms described the events as devastating and scary.


Lena Eloise Taylor Butler

Eloise Taylor was nineteen years old and she lived in Greenwood when the Massacre took place. She was the daughter of the famed Horace Greeley Beecher Taylor, better known as "Peg Leg" Taylor. According to Taylor's great-granddaughter, who has passed on Eloise's story, Eloise witnessed some of the very first gunfighting of the Massacre. She recounts how Peg Leg Taylor "fought his way to" Eloise and helped her escape into the woods north of the city, where they then lay and hid while White rioters continued to hunt down and kill other survivors around them. "...they found some of the people that were out there in the woods laying on their stomach – Lord help these people! – and they just shot 'em. Right there on the ground where they lay. I'm talking about kids...women. They didn't care. Old people. People who had breastfed them. They didn't give a damn. They killed 'em right there on the ground..." Eloise was reportedly so terrified that when "...finally her daddy told her to 'get up...get up and c'mon,' she said n orderfor them to move, he had to hurt her. She said he had to hurt her to make her stand up." Eloise and her father then walked several miles to a nearby town, where they "got help, got warm, got clothes, got food, and moved on," and where they also "decided that they would never talk about it again." Eloise finally opened up to her great-granddaughters about her experience in 1997, only a few short years before she died in 2000 at the age of 98.


Tulsa Race Massacre Commission

In 1996, as the riot's 75th anniversary neared, the state legislature authorized an Oklahoma Commission to investigate the Tulsa Race Riot, by appointing individuals to study and prepare a report detailing a historical account of the riot. Authorization of the study "enjoyed strong support from members of both political parties and all political persuasions". The commission had originally been called the "Tulsa Race Riot Commission", but in November 2018, the name was changed to "Tulsa Race Massacre Commission. The commission conducted interviews and heard testimony in order to thoroughly document the causes and damages. The commission delivered its final report on February 21, 2001. The report recommended actions for substantial restitution to the black residents, listed below in order of priority:


Post-commission actions


Search for mass graves

The Tulsa Race Massacre Commission arranged for archaeological, non-invasive ground surveys of Newblock Park, Oaklawn Cemetery, and Booker T. Washington Cemetery, which were identified as possible locations for
mass grave A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of execution, although an exact ...
s of black victims of the violence.
Oral histories Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...
, other sources and timing suggested that whites would have buried blacks at the first two locations; black people were said to have buried black victims at the third location after the riot was over. The people who were buried at Washington Cemetery, which is reserved for black people, were probably thought to be those victims who had died of their wounds after the riot had ended, since it was the most distant suspected burial location from downtown. Investigations of the three potential mass grave sites were performed in 1997 and 1998. Even though the total area of all three of these locations could not be surveyed, preliminary data suggested that they contained no mass graves. In 1999, an eyewitness who had seen whites burying black victims at Oaklawn Cemetery was found. A team investigated the potential area with more equipment. In the end, searches for mass graves were made with the aid of technology which included
ground-penetrating radar Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is a Geophysics, geophysical method that uses radar pulses to Geophysical imaging, image the subsurface. It is a non-intrusive method of surveying the sub-surface to investigate underground utilities such as concrete, ...
, followed by
core sampling A core sample is a cylindrical section of (usually) a naturally-occurring substance. Most core samples are obtained by drilling with special drills into the substance, such as sediment or rock, with a hollow steel tube, called a core drill. The h ...
. The experts' report, presented to the Commission in December 2000, could not substantiate claims of mass graves in Oaklawn Cemetery, Washington Cemetery, or Newblock Park. A promising spot in Washington Cemetery had turned out to be a layer of clay, and another promising spot in Newblock Park had turned out to be an old basement. The suggestion that the bodies had been burned in the city
incinerator Incineration is a waste treatment process that involves the combustion of substances contained in waste materials. Industrial plants for waste incineration are commonly referred to as waste-to-energy facilities. Incineration and other high ...
was also considered unfeasible and discounted, given the incinerator's capacity and logistical considerations. In preparation for the 100th anniversary of the massacre, state archaeologists, using ground-penetrating radar, probed Oaklawn Cemetery for "long-rumored" mass graves. Mayor
G. T. Bynum George Theron Bynum IV (born August 28, 1977) is an American politician and lobbyist from the state of Oklahoma. A member of the Republican Party, Bynum is the 40th mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Prior to becoming mayor, he served as a city council ...
calls it "a murder investigation." After input from the public, officials from the Oklahoma Archeological Survey used three subsurface scanning techniques to survey Newblock Park, Oaklawn Cemetery, and an area known as The Canes along the
Arkansas River The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United ...
. The Oklahoma Archeological Survey subsequently announced that they were discontinuing search efforts at Newblock Park after not finding any evidence of graves. On December 17, 2019, the team of forensic archaeologists announced that they had found anomalies which are consistent with that of human-dug pits beneath the ground at Oaklawn Cemetery and the ground where the
Interstate 244 Interstate 244 (I-244), also known as the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Expressway (in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.) since 1984, the Crosstown Expressway, and the Red Fork Expressway, is a east–west Interstate Highway bypass route ...
bridge crosses the Arkansas River. They announced that the anomalies are likely candidates for mass graves, but further radar surveys and physical excavations of the sites are needed. Researchers secured permission to perform "limited excavations" from the city and as a result, they will be able to determine what the contents of these sites are, beginning in April 2020, and while they do not expect to dig up any human remains, they asserted that if they find any human remains in the course of their excavations, they will treat them with the proper respect. An initial dig at a suspected area of the Oaklawn Cemetery in July 2020 found no human remains. On October 21, 2020, a forensic team said that it had unearthed 11 coffins in Oaklawn Cemetery; records and research suggested that as many as 18 victims would be found. The forensic team will need to do more work in order to determine if the coffins contain the remains of massacre victims. As stated by Kary Stackelbeck, a state archaeologist, the remains will not be moved until they can be properly exhumed because their deterioration needs to be prevented. She also stated that the site where the remains were discovered "constitutes a mass grave...We have a high degree of confidence that this is one of the locations we were looking for. But we have to remain cautious because we have not done anything to expose the human remains beyond those that have been encountered." The team planned to exhume the remains in June 2021. Forensic anthropologist Phoebe Stubblefield later planned to analyze the remains in order to determine if they are the remains of people who were killed in the 1921 massacre. In June 2021, after scientists resumed work at the site, 35 coffins were recovered from the mass grave. The remains of 19 people were taken to an on-site science lab. Officials stated that they have completed a preliminary analysis of nine of those human remains.


Reconciliation

In March 2001, each of the 118 known survivors of the riot still alive at the time, the youngest of whom was 85, was given a gold-plated medal bearing the state seal, as had been approved by bi-partisan state leaders. The Tulsa Reparations Coalition, sponsored by the Center for Racial Justice, Inc., was formed on April 7, 2001, to obtain
restitution The law of restitution is the law of gains-based recovery, in which a court orders the defendant to ''give up'' their gains to the claimant. It should be contrasted with the law of compensation, the law of loss-based recovery, in which a court ...
for the damages suffered by Tulsa's black community, as recommended by the Oklahoma Commission. Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor held a "celebration of conscience" at which she apologized to survivors and gave medals to those who could be located. On June 1, 2001, Governor
Frank Keating Francis Anthony Keating II (initially born as David Rowland Keating) (born February 10, 1944) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 25th governor of Oklahoma from 1995 to 2003. , Keating is one of only five governors in Okl ...
signed the ''1921 Tulsa Race Riot Reconciliation Act'' into law. The act acknowledged that the event occurred but failed to deliver any substantial
reparations Reparation(s) may refer to: Christianity * Restitution (theology), the Christian doctrine calling for reparation * Acts of reparation, prayers for repairing the damages of sin History *War reparations **World War I reparations, made from ...
to the victims or their descendants. In spite of the commission's recommendation for reparations in their report on the riot, the Oklahoma state legislature did not agree that reparations were appropriate and thus did not include them in the reconciliation act. The act provided for the following: * More than 300 college scholarships for descendants of Greenwood residents; * Creation of a memorial to those who died in the riot. A park with statues was dedicated as
John Hope Franklin John Hope Franklin (January 2, 1915 – March 25, 2009) was an American historian of the United States and former president of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Southern Histo ...
Reconciliation Park on October 27, 2010, named in honor of the notable African-American historian from Tulsa; and * Economic development in Greenwood.


Survivors' lawsuit

Five survivors, represented by a legal team that included Johnnie Cochran and Charles Ogletree, filed suit against the city of Tulsa and the state of Oklahoma (''Alexander, et al. v. Oklahoma, et al.'') in February 2003, based on the findings of the 2001 report. Ogletree said the state and city should compensate the victims and their families "to honor their admitted obligations as detailed in the commission's report." The federal district and
appellate court A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of ...
s dismissed the suit on the grounds that a recommendation was not an "admitted obligation" and noting the
statute of limitations A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In ...
had been exceeded on the 80-year-old case. The state requires that civil rights cases be filed within two years of the event. For that reason, the court did not rule on the issues. The
Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. Federal tribunals in the United States, federal court cases, and over Stat ...
declined to hear the appeal. In April 2007, Ogletree appealed to the U.S. Congress to pass a bill extending the statute of limitations for the case, given the state and city's accountability for the destruction and the long suppression of material about it. The bill was introduced by
John Conyers John James Conyers Jr. (May 16, 1929October 27, 2019) was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as a U.S. representative from Michigan from 1965 to 2017. The districts he represented always included part of western Detroit ...
of Michigan and heard by the Judiciary Committee of the House but it did not pass, because of concerns about ex post facto legislation. Conyers re-introduced the bill in 2009 as the John Hope Franklin Tulsa-Greenwood Race Riot Claims Accountability Act of 2009 (H.R. 1843), and in 2012.


John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park

A park was developed in 2010 in the Greenwood area as a memorial to victims of the riot. In October 2010, the park was named for noted historian
John Hope Franklin John Hope Franklin (January 2, 1915 – March 25, 2009) was an American historian of the United States and former president of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Southern Histo ...
, who was born and raised in Tulsa. He became known as a historian of the South. The park includes three statues of figures by sculptor
Ed Dwight Edward Joseph (Ed) Dwight Jr. (born September 9, 1933) is an American sculptor, author, and former test pilot. He is the first African American to have entered the Air Force training program from which NASA selected astronauts. He was controve ...
, representing ''Hostility'', ''Humiliation'' and ''Hope''.


Renewed calls for restitution

An extensive curriculum on the event was provided to Oklahoma school districts in 2020. On May 29, 2020, the eve of the 99th anniversary of the event and the onset of the
George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internat ...
,
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human ...
released a report titled "The Case for Reparations in Tulsa, Oklahoma: A Human Rights Argument", demanding reparations for survivors and descendants of the violence because the economic impact of the massacre is still visible as illustrated by the high poverty rates and lower life expectancies in north Tulsa. Several documentary projects were also announced at this time with plans to release them on the 100th anniversary of the event, including ''Black Wall Street'' by
Dream Hampton Dream Hampton (stylized as dream hampton) is an American filmmaker, producer, and writer. Her work includes the 2019 Lifetime documentary series ''Surviving R. Kelly'', which she executive produced, and the 2012 '' An Oversimplification of Her B ...
, and another documentary by Salima Koroma. In September 2020, a 105-year old survivor of the massacre filed a lawsuit against the city for reparations caused by damages to the city's black businesses. In 2021, Oklahoma librarians were finally able to get the Library of Congress to change the official subject headings, which place limits on the terms which people are allowed to use whenever they conduct searches for some of the information, for the event from "riot" to "massacre." On May 19, 2021, a 107-year old survivor, Viola Fletcher, her 100-year-old brother, Hughes Vann Ellis, and a 106-year old survivor, Lessie Benningfield Randle, testified about their experiences during the massacre and their reparations lawsuit before a House Judiciary subcommittee. Their testimony coincides with pending resolutions before the U.S. House and Senate Judiciary Committees which propose federal recognition of the centennial of the massacre on May 31 and June 1.


President Biden's visit

On June 1, 2021, the 100th anniversary of the massacre, President Joe Biden visited the area, the first sitting president to do so, and during his visit, he made a speech in which he stated, "Some injustices are so heinous, so horrific, so grievous, they cannot be buried, no matter how hard people try." Biden toured the Greenwood Cultural Center and met with survivors Viola Fletcher, Hughes Van Ellis, and Lessie Benningfield Randle.


Tulsa Historical Society and Museum

The Tulsa Historical Society and Museum offer a virtual exhibit of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 that is open at all times during the day and is free of charge to the public. This online exhibit offers many photos, audio recordings, documents, and resources that cannot be found anywhere else. It also offers a traveling exhibit consisting of 4 panels regarding the Tulsa Race Massacre that are allowed to travel to locations within the Tulsa Metropolitan Area. The main goal of the panels is to educate the community.


Present-day Black Wall Street

Black Wall Street can still be found today under the Historical Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, it took about 10 years to rebuild the district. The historical Vernon AME Church is the only building standing today which is a part of the last remaining structure of the 1921 massacre. The residents of the Greenwood district try to keep the memory of the Tulsa Race Massacre prominent within the community. Today, many memorials stand out of respect for the memory of what was once Black Wall Street. Many investigations are still underway in the Greenwood District in the hope that more unmarked graves can be found and more victims of the Massacre can be identified.


In popular culture


Literature

*''The Nation Must Awake: My Witness to the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921'' (2021
Trinity University Press
) by Mary E. Jones Parrish, previously titled ''The Events of the Tulsa Disaster'' (1923, self-published), eyewitness accounts which were compiled by a woman who survived the massacre. *''Magic City'' (1998;
HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News C ...
: ), presents a fictionalized account of the massacre. *''Fire in Beulah'' (2001;
Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Rilla Askew Rilla Askew (born 1951) is an American novelist and short story writer who was born in Poteau, in the Sans Bois Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma, and grew up in the town of Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Early life and education Askew graduated f ...
, is set during the riot. *''The Burning: Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921'' (2001; St. Martin's Press: ), a nonfiction account of the massacre by Tim Madigan. *''If We Must Die'' (2002; TCU Press: ), a novel about Tulsa's 1921 Greenwood Riot by Pat Carr. A poem with the same name was published by
Claude McKay Festus Claudius "Claude" McKay Order of Jamaica, OJ (September 15, 1890See Wayne F. Cooper, ''Claude McKay, Rebel Sojourner In The Harlem Renaissance (New York, Schocken, 1987) p. 377 n. 19. As Cooper's authoritative biography explains, McKay's ...
in 1919 and it is about the Red Summer race riots. *''Tulsa Burning'' (2002), a book by Anna Myers, is a novel for middle-grade readers which is set during the riot. *''Riot and Remembrance: The Tulsa Race War and Its Legacy'' (2003; )
Mariner Books Mariner Books, originally an imprint of HMH Books, was established in 1997 as a publisher of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry in trade paperback. Mariner is also the publisher of the Harvest backlist, formerly published by Harcourt Brace/Harcou ...
. ), a nonfiction account of the massacre by James S. Hirsch *''Big Mama Speaks'' (2011), Hannibal B. Johnson's one-woman play which features Vanessa Harris-Adams, features remembrances and reminiscences of the Black Wall Street. *"The Case for Reparations" (2014) in ''
The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
''. an article by Ta-Nehisi Coates which brought more attention to the riots. *''Dreamland Burning'' (2017;
Little, Brown and Company Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...
: ), a novel by Jennifer Latham which interweaves the events in Tulsa in 1921 with their modern consequences. *The Tulsa Massacre gives the backstory for '' Bitter Root'', an
Eisner Award The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are List of Eisner Award winners, prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books, sometimes referred to as the comics industry's equivalent of the Acad ...
winning comic series by David F. Walker, Chuck Brown, and Sanford Greene. *'' Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre'' (2021; Carolrhoda Books ) with text by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrations by Floyd Cooper was awarded the 2022 Caldecott Medal.


Film and television

*''Going back to T-Town'' (1993), a documentary directed by Samuel D. Pollard and Joyce Vaughn, released as Episode 12, Season 5 of
American Experience ''American Experience'' is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in American his ...
, a TV series on PBS *''The Tulsa Lynching of 1921: A Hidden Story'' (2000), a documentary directed by Michael Wilkerson, was first released on
Cinemax Cinemax is an American pay television, cable, and satellite television network owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. Developed as a companion "maxi-pay" service complementing the offerings shown on parent ...
in 2000. *''Before They Die'' (2008), a documentary by Reggie Turner which is endorsed by the Tulsa Project, chronicles the lives of the last survivors of the Tulsa Race Riot and their quest for justice from both the city and the state. *'' Hate Crimes in the Heartland'' (2014), a documentary by Rachel Lyon and Bavand Karim which provides an in-depth examination of the riot. *''
Watchmen ''Watchmen'' is an American comic book maxiseries by the British creative team of writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins. It was published monthly by DC Comics in 1986 and 1987 before being collected in a single-vo ...
'' (2019), a TV series on HBO, based on the characters in the graphic novel with the same name. The producer of the series,
Damon Lindelof Damon Laurence Lindelof (born April 24, 1973) is an American screenwriter, comic book writer, and producer. Among his accolades, he received three Primetime Emmy Awards, from twelve nominations. In 2010, ''Time'' magazine named him one of the ...
, was inspired to open the pilot episode with depictions of the riots and base the series on racial tensions after he read Coates' article about them. Many aspects of the series' plot center on the legacy of the graphic novel and the massacre in an alternate timeline in the present day in Tulsa, where racial conflict remains high. Due to its popularity, ''Watchmen'' was considered the first exposé of the Tulsa race massacre via the
entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousa ...
industry because its history was not widely discussed and it had never been depicted in that way before. *''
Lovecraft Country Lovecraft Country is a term coined for the New England setting used by H. P. Lovecraft in many of his weird fiction stories, which combines real and fictitious locations. This setting has since been elaborated on by other writers working in the ...
'' (2020), a TV series on HBO, based on the 2016 novel with the same title. In episode 9, titled "Rewind 1921", its main characters Atticus "Tic" Freeman, his father Montrose Freeman, and Letitia "Leti" Lewis travel back in time to the night of the massacre in order to retrieve a spell book (which was burned in the fictional reality on that night) and use it to save the life of a family member. * Season 2 Episode 10 of the television 2021 version of The Equalizer tells a fictionalized story of a family whose home was destroyed during the Tulsa Race Massacre and who had a painting of a close family member stolen by a white family that would later become tycoons in the shipping industry. The main character, Robyn McCall, is asked to retrieve the painting for an elderly survivor of the events.


Music and art

*
Graham Nash Graham William Nash (born 2 February 1942) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, photographer, and activist. He is known for his light tenor voice and for his contributions as a member of the Hollies and the supergroups Crosby, Stills ...
's song, "Dirty Little Secret" from his 2002 album '' Songs for Survivors'' is about the Tulsa race massacre. *''Scorched Earth'' (2006), a work of art on canvas by
Mark Bradford Mark Bradford (born November 20, 1961) is an American visual artist. Born in Los Angeles, Bradford studied at the California Institute of the Arts. Recognized for his collaged painting works, which have been shown internationally, his practice al ...
, on display at
The Broad The Broad () is a contemporary art museum on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles. The museum is named for philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad, who financed the $140 million building that houses the Broad art collections. It offers free gener ...
museum *''Race Riot Suite'' (2011), a jazz suite by Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, released by Kinnara Records, was recorded at Tulsa's Church Studio *
Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
's song " Murder Most Foul" on his 2020 album ''
Rough and Rowdy Ways ''Rough and Rowdy Ways'' is the 39th studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on June 19, 2020, through Columbia Records. It is Dylan's first album of original songs since his 2012 album ''Tempest'', following three releas ...
'' has the line "Take me back to Tulsa to the scene of the crime" *
The Gap Band The Gap Band was an American R&B and funk band that rose to fame during the 1970s and 1980s. The band consisted of three brothers: Charlie, Ronnie, and Robert Wilson, along with other members; it was named after streets (Greenwood, Archer, and ...
, which was formed in Tulsa, was named after Greenwood, Archer, and Pine streets in remembrance of the Tulsa race massacre. A long-standing rumor claimed that their 1982 song " You Dropped a Bomb on Me" was inspired by the aerial bombing during the massacre, but this was debunked by frontman and songwriter Charlie Wilson.


See also

*
Atlanta massacre of 1906 Violent attacks by armed mobs of White Americans against African Americans in Atlanta, Georgia, began on the evening of September 22, 1906, and lasted through September 24, 1906. The events were reported by newspapers around the world, includ ...
* Black genocide – the notion that African Americans have been subjected to
genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the ...
*
2022 Buffalo shooting On May 14, 2022, a mass shooting occurred in Buffalo, New York, United States, at a Tops Friendly Markets supermarket in the East Side neighborhood. Ten people, all of whom were Black, were murdered and three were injured. The shooter, identif ...
*
2020–2022 United States racial unrest An ongoing wave of civil unrest in the United States, triggered by the murder of George Floyd during his arrest by Minneapolis police officers on May 25, 2020, has led to riots and protests against systemic racism towards African Americans ...
* East St. Louis riots (May 28 and July 1–3, 1917) *
Elaine massacre The Elaine massacre occurred on September 30–October 2, 1919 at Hoop Spur in the vicinity of Elaine in rural Phillips County, Arkansas. As many as several hundred African Americans and five white men were killed. Estimates of deaths made in ...
(September 30–October 1, 1919) *
Lynching in the United States Lynching was the widespread occurrence of extrajudicial killings which began in the United States' pre–Civil War South in the 1830s and ended during the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Although the victims of lynchings were ...
* False accusations of rape as justifications for lynchings * Mass racial violence in the United States * 1985 MOVE bombing *
Nadir of American race relations The nadir of American race relations was the period in African American history and the history of the United States from the end of Reconstruction in 1877 through the early 20th century when racism in the country, especially racism against ...
* Ocoee massacre (November 2–3, 1920) * Perry massacre (December 6–15, 1922) *
Racism against African Americans In the context of racism in the United States, racism against African Americans dates back to the colonial era, and it continues to be a persistent issue in American society in the 21st century. From the arrival of the first Africans in early ...
*
Racism in the United States Racism in the United States comprises negative attitudes and views on race or ethnicity which are related to each other, are held by various people and groups in the United States, and have been reflected in discriminatory laws, practices and ...
*
Rosewood massacre The Rosewood massacre was a racially motivated massacre of black people and the destruction of a black town that took place during the first week of January 1923 in rural Levy County, Florida, United States. At least six black people and two whit ...
(January 1–7, 1923) *
Terrorism in the United States In the United States, a common definition of terrorism is the systematic or threatened use of violence in order to create a general climate of fear to intimidate a population or government and thereby effect political, religious, or ideo ...
*
Domestic terrorism in the United States Domestic terrorism in the United States consists of incidents which are confirmed to be domestic terrorist acts. These attacks are considered domestic because they occurred within the United States and they were carried out by U.S. citizens an ...
*
Wilmington insurrection of 1898 The Wilmington insurrection of 1898, also known as the Wilmington massacre of 1898 or the Wilmington coup of 1898, was a coup d'état and massacre carried out by white supremacists in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States, on Thursday, Nove ...
* List of ethnic cleansing campaigns * * List of events named massacres *
List of expulsions of African Americans African Americans have been violently expelled from at least 50 towns, cities, and counties in the United States. Most of these expulsions occurred in the 60 years following the Civil War but continued until 1954. The justifications for the expu ...
*
List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States Listed are major episodes of civil unrest in the United States. This list does not include the numerous incidents of destruction and violence associated with various sporting events. 18th century *1783 – Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, June 20. ...
* List of massacres in the United States * Timeline of terrorist attacks in the United States


References


Bibliography

* " he best account of the 1921 Tulsa riot, which drew wide acclaim from historians and others." – * *
Full text.
* * * * Rob Hower, ''1921 Tulsa Race Riot: The American Red Cross – Angels of Mercy.'' Tulsa, OK: Homestead Press, 1993. * Hannibal B. Johnson, ''Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa's Historic Greenwood District.'' Austin, TX: Eakin Press 1998. * Tim Madigan, ''The Burning: Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.'' New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2001. * * * * * * *


Further reading

* * * * * *
"Tulsa Race Riot: A Report".
''The Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.'' February 28, 2001. * * * *


External links


Facts and Links for "The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921"
Subliminal.org
"1921 Tulsa Race Massacre"
Tulsa Historical Society. Archived copy
"Tulsa Race Riot"

"Tulsa Race Riot: Photographs from the Beryl Ford Collection"
Tulsa City County Library: African American Resource Center
Tulsa Race Massacre Collection at Oklahoma State UniversityParrish, Mary E Jones "Events of the Tulsa Disaster"
1922 (PDF File) {{Lynching in the United States 1921 in Oklahoma 1921 riots 1921 murders in the United States Massacres in the United States Massacres in 1921 20th-century mass murder in the United States African-American history in Tulsa, Oklahoma Arson in Oklahoma Arson in the 1920s Attacks on buildings and structures in the 1920s Attacks on buildings and structures in the United States Ethnic cleansing in the United States History of civil rights in the United States African-American segregation in the United States History of racism in Oklahoma History of Tulsa, Oklahoma June 1921 events Ku Klux Klan crimes Deaths by firearm in Oklahoma Lynching deaths in Oklahoma Lynching in the United States Mass murder in Oklahoma Mass murder in 1921 May 1921 events Police brutality in the United States Racially motivated violence against African Americans Riots and civil disorder in Oklahoma White American riots in the United States False allegations of sex crimes Law enforcement in Oklahoma Cover-ups