THE TULSA RACE MASSACRE

Today is the 100th anniversary of one of the worst moments in American History.  I am ashamed to admit I never taught it, because I was not aware of it until I retired.  This is amazing to me because I read many books that covered the 1920’s, the Civil Rights Movement, African-American History, etc.  The people who covered it up and kept it out of the History books were very effective.  But the dam has burst.  Better late than never.  Now we will see which states add it to their American History curricula.

    The Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma was known as “Black Wall Street” going into the 1920’s.  Black businesses had tapped into the oil boom and the crumbs were enough to create unusual prosperity for an African-American community in an area where Jim Crow and the KKK reigned.  On the other side of the tracks, literally, whites were resentful of Greenwood.  The kindling was there for a fire to break out.  The spark came on May 30, 1921 when a black shoe-shiner went to a white building to use the bathroom.  He got onto the elevator, which was run by 17-year-old Sarah Paige.  What happened next is unclear, but most likely a lurch by the elevator caused 19-year-old Dick Rowland to bump into the woman.  She yelled and he fled.  Rumor of a sexual assault spread rapidly and fuel was thrown on the fire by the Tulsa Tribune, which ran an inflammatory front page article under the title “Nab Negro for Attacking Girl on an Elevator”.  Rowland was arrested the next day.  When a white mob gathered at the court house, but Sheriff Willard McCullough refused to give him up to be lynched.  At 9 P.M., 15 armed blacks, including WWI vets in uniform, came to guard the court house.  McCullough convinced them he had the situation under control and convinced them to leave.  One hour later, 75 armed blacks returned as rumors of a lynch mob alerted them.  Sure enough, about 1,500 whites had gathered.  One of them tried to disarm one of the blacks and a shot was fired.  This was followed by fire fight.  The blacks withdrew to Greenwood where they were determined to defend their community.  During the night that defense was successful and things seemed to calm down.  However, in the morning, whites organized to put down what they were told was a black insurrection.  Police deputized members of the mob.  In a military style assault, the mob moved through the area, looting, burning, and killing.  Eyewitnesses reported that planes dropped incendiaries.  1,256 houses were burned and 215 were looted.  Both newspapers were destroyed, and a school, a hospital, churches, and numerous businesses.  It is estimate that between 100-300 people were killed.  (Rowland was not one of them.)  The was second only to the New York Draft Riot.  By the time the National Guard arrived, the riot was over.  The Guard was available to help with the detainment of 6,000 blacks in designated areas.  Eventually, they were freed and most moved away.  No one was held accountable and a cover-up kept the incident from becoming well-known.  It made few history textbooks.

https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/tulsa-race-massacre

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre