Tulsa’s Black Wall Street
In much of the country, the years that followed First World War has seen a rise in racial tensions, including the resurgence of the white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klannumerous lynchings and other acts of racially motivated violence, as well as efforts by African Americans to prevent such attacks against their communities.
In 1921, fueled by oil money, Tulsa was a growing and prosperous city with a population of over 100,000 people. But crime rates were high and vigilantes of all kinds were not uncommon.
Tulsa was also a highly segregated city: Most of the city’s 10,000 black residents lived in a neighborhood called Greenwood, which included a thriving business district sometimes called Black Wall Street.
More History: The Tulsa Race Massacre
What caused the Tulsa race massacre?
On May 30, 1921, a young black teenager named Dick Rowland entered an elevator in the Drexel Building, an office building on South Main Street. At some point after that, the young white elevator operator, Sarah Page, screamed: Rowland fled the scene. The police were called and the next morning they arrested Rowland.
By then, rumors about what allegedly happened in that elevator had circulated throughout the city’s white community. An article on the front page of Tulsa Tribune that afternoon, police had arrested Rowland for sexually assaulting Page.
By nightfall, an angry white mob gathered outside the courthouse, demanding Rowland’s surrender by the sheriff. Sheriff Willard McCullough refused and his men barricaded the top floor to protect the black teenager.
Around 9 p.m., a group of about 25 armed black men, many of them World War I veterans, went to the courthouse to offer their help in guarding Rowland. After the sheriff turned them back, some of the white mob tried in vain to break into the nearby National Guard armory.
As rumors of a possible lynching persisted, a group of about 75 armed black men returned to the courthouse shortly after 10 p.m., where they were met by some 1,500 white men, some of whom also carried weapons.
Greenwood Burns
After shots were fired and chaos erupted, the outnumbered group of black men retreated to Greenwood.
Over the next several hours, groups of white Tulsans – some of whom were deputized and armed by city officials – committed numerous acts of violence against black people, including shooting an unarmed man in a movie theater.
The false belief that a large-scale insurrection among black Tulsans was underway, including reinforcements from neighboring cities with large African-American populations, fueled the growing hysteria.
At dawn on June 1, thousands of white citizens poured into the Greenwood District, looting and burning homes and businesses across a 35-block area. Firefighters who arrived to help put out the fires later said the rioters threatened them with guns and forced them to leave.
According to a posterior Red Cross an estimated 1,256 houses were burned; Another 215 were looted but not burned. Two newspapers, a school, a library, a hospital, churches, hotels, stores, and many other black-owned businesses were among the buildings destroyed or damaged by the fire.
By the time the National Guard arrived and Governor JBA Robertson declared martial law shortly before noon, the riot had effectively ended. Although guardsmen helped put out the fires, they also imprisoned many black Tulsans, and by June 2, some 6,000 people were under armed guard at the local fairgrounds.
Aftermath of the Tulsa race massacre
In the hours following the Tulsa massacre, all charges against Dick Rowland were dropped. Police concluded that Rowland most likely fell on Page or stepped on her foot. Kept safely in the jail during the riot, he left Tulsa the next morning and apparently never returned.
The Oklahoma Bureau of Vital Statistics officially recorded 36 deaths. A review of events by the state commission in 2001 confirmed 36 deaths, 26 black and 10 white. However, historians estimate the death toll could reach 300.
Even by low estimates, the Tulsa Race Massacre remains one of the deadliest riots in U.S. history, second only to the Tulsa Massacre. New York Riot Project of 1863, which killed at least 119 people.
In the years to come, as black Tulsans worked to rebuild their crumbling homes and businesses, segregation in the city only increased and the newly established Oklahoma branch of the KKK reinforced.
Blackout News
For decades, there were no public ceremonies, no memorials for the dead, or any effort to commemorate the events of May 31 to June 1, 1921. Instead, there was a deliberate effort to cover them up.
THE Tulsa Tribune removed from its bound volumes the May 31 front-page story that sparked the chaos, and researchers later discovered that police and state militia records on the riot were also missing. As a result, until recently, the Tulsa Race Massacre was rarely mentioned in history books, taught in schools, or even talked about.
Researchers began delving deeper into the riot’s history in the 1970s, after its 50th anniversary. In 1996, on the 75th anniversary of the riot, a service was held at Mount Zion Baptist Church, which rioters had burned, and a memorial was placed in front of the Greenwood Cultural Center.
Establishment of the Tulsa Race Riot Commission, renamed
The following year, after the establishment of an official state government commission to investigate the Tulsa race riots, scientists and historians began looking into ancient stories, including many of the victims buried in unmarked graves.
In 2001, the Race Riot Commission report concluded that between 100 and 300 people were killed and more than 8,000 people were left homeless during 18 hours in 1921.
An invoice in the Oklahoma The state Senate requiring all Oklahoma high schools to teach about the Tulsa race riot failed to pass in 2012, with opponents saying schools were already teaching their students about the riot.
According to the State Department of Education, this topic has been required in Oklahoma history classes since 2000 and in United States history classes since 2004, and the incident is included in the books of Oklahoma History since 2009.
In November 2018, the 1921 Race Riots Commission was officially renamed the 1921 Race Massacre Commission.
“While dialogue about the reasons and effects of the terms riot or massacre is very important and encouraged,” said Oklahoma State Senator Kevin Matthews said “the feelings and interpretation of those who experienced this devastation as well as current area residents and historical scholars have led us to change more appropriately named the Race Massacre Commission of 1921.”
Sources
James S. Hirsch, Riot and Remembrance: Tulsa’s Race War and Its Legacy (new York: Houghton Mifflin, 2002).
Scott Ellsworth, “Tulsa Race Riot” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.
Tulsa race riot of 1921, Tulsa Historical Society and Museum.
Nour Habib, “Teachers Talk About How Black History Is Taught in Oklahoma Schools Today” Tulsa World (February 24, 2015).
Sam Howe Verhovek, “75 years later, Tulsa faces its race riots” New York Times (May 31, 1996).