9 Things You Should Know About the Tulsa Race Massacre

[Michie]

Monday marks the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, in which during an 18-hour period from May 31 to June 1 a mob of white citizens attacked black residents, and destroyed homes and businesses in the predominantly African American neighborhood of Greenwood. For decades, the oft-forgotten event was known as the Tulsa Race Riot.

“[F]or a number of observers through the years, the term ‘riot’ itself seems somehow inadequate to describe the violence and conflagration that took place,” say historians John Hope Franklin and Scott Ellsworth. “For some, what occurred in Tulsa on May 31 and June 1, 1921, was a massacre, a pogrom, or, to use a more modern term, an ethnic cleansing.”

Here is what you should know about one of the worst incidents of racial violence in U.S. history.

1. Newspapers inflamed a racially charged incident into an attempted lynching.

On May 30, a black teenager named Dick Rowland entered an elevator operated by a young white woman named Sarah Page. What happened in the elevator remains unclear, but Page screamed, and Rowland fled the scene. No record exists of what Page told the police, but Rowland was arrested the next morning. Newspaper reporting of the incident claimed that Rowland sexually assaulted Pate. The reporting inflamed white residents of Tulsa, and a crowd gathered in front of the Tulsa County Courthouse where Rowland was being held. The crowd demanded he be turned over, but the mob was rebuffed by the sheriff. By 9:30 p.m. the mob had grown to nearly 2,000 people. An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 white citizens would eventually participate in the riot.

2. The riot began with an attack on a black World War I veteran.

Continued below.
9 Things You Should Know About the Tulsa Race Massacre

 

[Hvizsgyak]

Monday marks the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, in which during an 18-hour period from May 31 to June 1 a mob of white citizens attacked black residents, and destroyed homes and businesses in the predominantly African American neighborhood of Greenwood. For decades, the oft-forgotten event was known as the Tulsa Race Riot.

“[F]or a number of observers through the years, the term ‘riot’ itself seems somehow inadequate to describe the violence and conflagration that took place,” say historians John Hope Franklin and Scott Ellsworth. “For some, what occurred in Tulsa on May 31 and June 1, 1921, was a massacre, a pogrom, or, to use a more modern term, an ethnic cleansing.”

Here is what you should know about one of the worst incidents of racial violence in U.S. history.

1. Newspapers inflamed a racially charged incident into an attempted lynching.

On May 30, a black teenager named Dick Rowland entered an elevator operated by a young white woman named Sarah Page. What happened in the elevator remains unclear, but Page screamed, and Rowland fled the scene. No record exists of what Page told the police, but Rowland was arrested the next morning. Newspaper reporting of the incident claimed that Rowland sexually assaulted Pate. The reporting inflamed white residents of Tulsa, and a crowd gathered in front of the Tulsa County Courthouse where Rowland was being held. The crowd demanded he be turned over, but the mob was rebuffed by the sheriff. By 9:30 p.m. the mob had grown to nearly 2,000 people. An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 white citizens would eventually participate in the riot.

2. The riot began with an attack on a black World War I veteran.

Continued below.
9 Things You Should Know About the Tulsa Race Massacre

Thank you for that piece on the massacre of African Americans in Tulsa, OK. I pray that nothing like that will ever happen again to any minority in this country especially to our fellow African Americans. It is truly disgusting, sickening to see what my fellow white Americans did to an African American community just trying to make a living in this country. And unfortunately this sickening behavior occurred in other states as well:

Monroe & Florence Work Today - Explore the map of Mob Violence (plaintalkhistory.com)

As followers of Christ, we must know that EVERY person on this planet is a child of God. He gave life to that individual person, unique as they are. Dear Lord teach us to care for one another and love one another as you love us.

 

[Sophrosyne]

Funny they never called it a massacre till recently.
Tulsa Race Massacre: For years it was called a riot. Not anymore. Here's how it changed.

 

[CatsRule2020]

Hardly any of this is true. It is propaganda manufactured overseas.

The Britannica Encyclopedia says that many of the downtown stores were destroyed. But that those residents were so resilient that they had the downtown rebuilt within 2 years. That downtown was so successful that it thrived even through the Great Depression! It only started to deteriorate during the late 1950s.

This is the real story of the Tulsa riot and we see how different it looks from the foreign propaganda that has been all over the tv.

 

[HARK!]

MOD HAT ON

There was need for a small cleanup. All is well.

MOD HAT OFF​

 

[Fantine]

Thank you for posting this article.

Early twentieth century Oklahoma was certainly inhospitable to people of color. A few years later, the Osage murders took place in western Oklahoma--murders of Native Americans who had survived the Trail of Tears and been moved to non-arable land and struck oil, becoming very wealthy. In another parallel, the local police officers failed to investigate--resulting in the creation of the FBI.

Martin Scorcese is directing a film about the Osage murders--"Killers of the Flower Moon."

Osage Indian murders - Wikipedia

Oklahoma is far from progressive today, but Tulsa, a city we visit frequently, has a lively cultural scene and a good progressive community. Bartlesville holds an "OK Mozart" festival each year that brings visitors from all over the country.

Isn't it wonderful when states can acknowledge their past mistakes and scandals and still move forward vibrantly into the future?

 

[SimplyMe]

Hardly any of this is true. It is propaganda manufactured overseas.

The Britannica Encyclopedia says that many of the downtown stores were destroyed. But that those residents were so resilient that they had the downtown rebuilt within 2 years. That downtown was so successful that it thrived even through the Great Depression! It only started to deteriorate during the late 1950s.

This is the real story of the Tulsa riot and we see how different it looks from the foreign propaganda that has been all over the tv.

The issue is that it isn't "downtown" where the riots hit, it was an area called "Black Wall Street," or the Greenwood district of the city. Try imagine if your neighborhood was burned down in a riot -- but in the aftermath your insurance refuses to pay, the government won't help you, etc. How long would it take you to rebuild, particularly if you owned a business (or the business you worked at) that was also destroyed, and also got no help to rebuild the business?

The article, about how downtown was quickly rebuilt, was part of the "white washing" that was done, and why it states downtown was rebuilt (which sustained minimal damage compared to the Greenwood area) -- and it is also why it was called a "riot." Oddly, having grown up in Northeast Oklahoma, I never learned about the "Tulsa Riot" or even "Black Wall Street" in my Oklahoma history class -- it was only years after I took Oklahoma history that the "riot" was even being openly researched. Also, having visited Tulsa numerous times growing up, I can recall how poor and blighted the Greenwood area of Tulsa was, even back in the 60s and 70s.

 

[miamited]

Hardly any of this is true. It is propaganda manufactured overseas.

The Britannica Encyclopedia says that many of the downtown stores were destroyed. But that those residents were so resilient that they had the downtown rebuilt within 2 years. That downtown was so successful that it thrived even through the Great Depression! It only started to deteriorate during the late 1950s.

This is the real story of the Tulsa riot and we see how different it looks from the foreign propaganda that has been all over the tv.

Hi CatsRule2020,

So, it's your position that because the people of the community were able to rebuild successfully, the terrible incident that led to the need for that rebuilding couldn't have been as bad as we're being told by 'foreign propaganda'. Let's not let verified facts get in the way of what we believe, eh?

I guess it would then follow that because south Miami-Dade county rebuilt quickly and better than before hurricane Andrew, it must not have been much of a blow, eh? Well, I lived through that one and I can give factual testimony that it was one of the worst hurricanes to hit the area. Homes were severely damaged and many even leveled within a nearly 10 mile swath from Biscayne Bay to the Everglades. Here's a pic of some of the hardest hit areas:

But hey, since they were able to build back pretty quickly, I guess it wasn't nearly as bad as it looks.

Q-anon anyone?

God bless,
Ted

 

[CatsRule2020]

If there were a true massacre that had taken place, coupled with the fact that there was no financial help from the white institutions of the community, there would have been no rebuilding.

 

[Tigger45]

As per the initial part of the article…

*massacre, a pogrom, or, to use a more modern term, an ethnic cleansing.*

Sums up well, yet words can never fully articulate the evil and ugliness perpetrated upon those beloved folks and the extended black community.

 

[miamited]

If there were a true massacre that had taken place, coupled with the fact that there was no financial help from the white institutions of the community, there would have been no rebuilding.

Hi CatsRule2020,

Oh, I see. A massacre event would only have left total destruction that could never have been recovered from. Sometimes I'm just amazed at how some people's minds work. How they think and the things they believe. Of course there couldn't have been a holocaust that killed 6 million people because the world would never have recovered from such a thing. Got it!

(beginning the playing of the Twilight Zone theme)

God bless,
Ted