View in National Archives Catalog WASHINGTON, May 3, 2021 A century ago this month, the Greenwood District of Tulsa, OK, known as "Black Wall Street," was ablaze. Let the blame for this negro uprising lie right where it belongs on those armed negros and their followers who started this trouble and who instigated it and any persons who seek to put half the blame on the white people are wrong, the Tulsa City Commission wrote in a report issued two weeks after the massacre. Randi Richardson reports for TODAY Digital and NBC BLK from New York. Before May 31, 1921, Tulsa's black business district known as Greenwood flourished in spite of segregation. He was born in Huntsville, Alabama, on Christmas Day in 1868, and educated in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Tulsa is one city, but back then it was two, "Little Africa" is what some . In 2018, Radio Diaries in New York City received a $350,000 grant from NEH to support several episodes of its historical radio program and podcast, one of which, Surviving the Tulsa Race Riot, told the story of the Tulsa Race Massacre through the life and memories of Olivia Hooker, who was just six years old in 1921. In the commentary, the HBO producers mentioned that they lifted the idea of the bi-plane bombings from this book: "The Burning: Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.". The truth. The courts in Oklahoma wouldn't hear us. 1 of 1 copy available at Potter-Tioga Library System. This wasnt the case for us. Justice in America, Randle said, is always so slow or not possible for Black people and we are made to feel crazy just for asking for things to be made right.. On May 31 and June 1, 1921, a white mob set fire to the district, once known as "Black Wall Street," and killed up to 300 Black residents . She is a native Tulsan, co-creator of the Tulsa Syllabus and the archaeology project "Mapping Historical Trauma in Tulsa from 1921-2021." . These materials include historical accounts, text, and photographs, which may include offensive language, negative stereotypes, and descriptions of traumatic events. They were issued identification tags and remained at the camps some for months and could not leave without their tags and permission from white supervisors, the report said. The next day the Tulsa Tribune printed a story saying that Rowland had tried to rape Page, with an accompanying editorial stating that a lynching was planned for that night. Two survivors of the 1921 massacre of black people in the US city of Tulsa have been granted citizenship of Ghana, according to the Justice for Greenwood Foundation. I will never forget the violence of the hate mob when we left our home. Oklahoma State University-Tulsa. B. Mann, a WWI veteran and veritable giant, led a valiant fight by sniping the rioters from Mt. These days, more than 30 percent of North Tulsans live in poverty compared to 13 percent of South Tulsans, the report said. The only African American in the legislature, Currin authored Oklahomas first civil rights bill, which lost ratification by one vote as the territorial government proceeded to disenfranchise Blacks and pass its first Jim Crow laws. After an all-night battle on the Frisco Tracks, many residents of Greenwood were taken by surprise as bullets ripped through the walls of their homes in the predawn hours. The heart of the prosperous African-American district of Greenwood after the massacre. The Tulsa Race. Rowland went inside the building to use the third-floor segregated restroom. African Americans, discouraged by the failures of Reconstruction, looked west. In The Black Oklahomans, Arthur B. Tolson shows that Africans, both Moors and Angolans, free and enslaved, accompanied Coronados expedition, which crossed the Oklahoma panhandle in 1541. Special Collections and Archives. On the morning of May 30, 1921, a brief encounter between a black male and a white female, both teens, sparked a massacre which resulted in the deaths and injuries of hundreds of people and the destruction of a large section of Tulsa. Tulsa's dark chapter . Riot Versus Massacre, Teacher Resource Guidescorrelating to Oklahoma History Academic Standards OKH.5.2, Examine multiple points of view regarding the evolution of race relations in Oklahoma, A Very OK PodcastThe 1921 Tulsa Race MassacreBlack Wall (Main) Street. Omissions? In 1921, one of the nation's worst race massacres destroyed the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of Black Tulsans. These PDFs contain thousands of pages from the Tulsa Race Riot Commission Collection. Smith 1 Izzy Smith Justin Yates ENGL 1113 10 Nov. 2020 Rhetorical Analysis: Tulsa 1921 Randy Krehbiel's book Tulsa 1921: Reporting A Massacre (2019) published by the Uni-versity of Oklahoma Press, states that newspapers can be reliable and unreliable especially dur-ing these times since it was white versus black. These interviews were conducted in the 1990s. Fire was a primary weapon of the Tulsa Massacre. Sheriff McCullough, hunkered down in the County Court House, kept Dick Rowland safe as the mobs fury was aimed at a Negro revolt in Greenwood. Scholars used the accounts of witnesses and ground-piercing radar to locate a potential mass grave just outside Tulsas Oaklawn Cemetery, suggesting the death toll may be much higher than the original records indicate. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. B. Mann, of Mann Brothers Grocery Store, and Black Deputy County Sheriff J. K. Smitherman (A. J.s brother), they offered their assistance to Sheriff Willard McCullough, but he persuaded them to leave. Thats Dr. Jackson, yelled Oliphant. The most significant lesson it has taught me is that the love of race is the deepest feeling rooted in our being. From May 31 to June 1, mobs of white Tulsa residents ransacked, pillaged, bombed, and burned over 1,000 homes, businesses, and churches and murdered scores of African Americans in the Tulsa's Black community of Greenwood. Ruth Powers (H1983.101) Viewers wondered if the events depicted were more fiction than science. A woman walks past a "Black Wall Street" mural during Juneteenth celebrations in the Greenwood district of Tulsa, the site of the 1921 race massacre, on June 19, 2020. . Eyewitnesses saw women being chased from their homes nakedsome with babies in their armsas volleys of shots were fired at them. Members of the commission gathered accounts of survivors who were still alive, documents from individuals who witnessed the massacre but had since died, and other historical evidence. The city's "Black Wall Street" was among the most prosperous neighborhoods in America, and a Black utopia and then it was burned to the ground. . We know that there were several thousand unaccounted for, Mechelle Brown, program coordinator for the Greenwood Cultural Center, told CNN during a 2016 interview. By continuing to use our website, you are agreeing to, https://doi.org/10.5406/jamerethnhist.40.3.0130, These People Have Always Been a Republic: Indigenous Electorates in the U.S.Mexico Borderlands, 15981912, Troublemakers: Students Rights and Racial Justice in the Long 1960s. Black Wall Street did, eventually, rise from the ashes and Greenwood enjoyed another heyday in the 1940s, but integration and urban renewal in the 1960s and the 1970s led to new declines the neighborhood was unable to fully overcome, Johnson said. It happened during one of the worst periods of racially motivated violence against Black Americans, the years immediately following the end of World War I in 1918. Lesson Plans Black Wall Street True deliverance for the people of Greenwood, however, came from within, as documented in their own record of the massacre and its aftermath. The written order, filed on Wednesday . I had everything a child could need, Viola Ford Fletcher, 107, told the committee. In a 1940 Works Progress Administration oral history, an ex-enslaved Creek confirmed this: I was eating out of the same pot with the Indians, . It occurred in Tulsa, Oklahoma, beginning on May 31, 1921, and lasting for two days. Johnson said the inability of Black people to accumulate wealth and transfer it intergenerationally is the root cause. By Victoria Macchi | National Archives News Enlarge An image from the American Red Cross Disaster Relief, Tulsa Chapter, Condensed Report on the events of May 31 and June 1, 1921, known as the Tulsa Race Massacre. This prosperity continued through the years even as racial terrorism around Tulsa grew, the Ku Klux Klan gained power, and Oklahomas Supreme Court regularly upheld voting restrictions such as poll taxes and literacy tests for Black voters. Our country may forget this history, but I cannot.. By 1921, according to historian Scott Ellsworth, a revived Tulsa Ku Klux Klan claimed an active membership of 3,200. At least $1.4 million in damages were claimed after the massacre, or about $25 million in todays dollars, after controlling for inflation and the current economy, but experts say its an underestimation. Follow NBCBLK on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. In 1921 Tulsa's Greenwood District, known then as the nation's "Black Wall Street," was one of the most prosperous African American communities in the United States. Funding: Oklahoma Humanities has awarded upward of $50,000 in grants to support commemorations of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, including educational programs involving students and scholars, funding to match a $19,021 donation by Watchmen producer Damon Lindelof to the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission, a traveling exhibit, and a symposium. It explains, "The 1921 Tulsa race massacre was one of the most serious instances of racial violence in US history. 1,090 pages. In addition to the 24-hour destruction of the Black community by a variety of White Tulsans in . Beginning on June 26, 1921, the Tulsa grand jury findings were published in newspapers. The Bloomberg Philanthropies gave Tulsa $1 million for an expansive public art project called the Greenwood Art Project. Publisher's Summary. Take me. Dont shoot him! Tulsa Race Riot: A Report by the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, published in 2001 (PDF). Search and view more newspapers on The Gateway to Oklahoma History. At the time, Greenwood was very likely the most prosperous Black community in the country, and Tulsa, the Magic City, was one of Americas fastest-growing cities, an oil boomtown, following the 1905 discovery of the Glenn Pool Oil Reserve 15 miles south of town. A Mississippi native who had come to Tulsa via Rochester, Parrish has disappeared from the record. Only in 2020, 99 years after the fact, did the Greenwood massacre become part of the Oklahoma school curriculum! Extent. In the span of about 24 hours between May 31 and June 1, 1921, a white mob descended on Greenwood, a successful black economic hub in Tulsa . Although they had survived one of the deadliest race massacres in U.S. history and their district was demolished, many residents returned. Publication. The lawyer leading the charge was Buck Colbert Franklin, the father of famed historian John Hope Franklin, the late professor emeritus at Duke University. DuBois had visited Tulsa in March as the NAACP protested the gruesome lynching of Henry Lowery in Arkansas. The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in Oklahoma was one of the deadliest events of racist violence in American history. It boasted of several restaurants, theaters, clothing shops and hotels. As city streets throbbed with protests (and what some might call uprisings) during the summer of 2020, two science fiction dramas recalled the massacre of Tulsa, Oklahoma, which took place 100 years ago this spring. James B. As Rowland sat in jail, back at the offices of the Black newspaper, A. J. Smitherman of the Tulsa Star led an impassioned discussion about how to protect him. A. Cargill. Please try again. An unflinching account of America's most horrific racial massacre, The Burning is essential reading as America finally comes to terms with its racial past. Kweku Larry Crowe is an independent researcher from Dayton, Ohio. Tulsa police officers were identified by eyewitnesses as setting fire to Black homes, shooting residents and stealing. This page includes Oklahoma Historical Society resources and collections that chronicle this devastating event in our state's history. Identifier: 1989-004 An artificial collection comprised of research materials from a variety of sources, including recordings, photographs. For decades after the decimation of Greenwood, a "conspiracy of silence" seemed to envelope Tulsa. Tulsa, 1921 : reporting a massacre / Randy . I think some readers are missing the point of this book: it's coverage *of the reporting* of the massacre, just like it says in the subtitle. OHS-204 - Case Dockets #16013-19166, 1921. But the ethos and bond that empowered residents to rebuild the community was strong. Tulsa Race Riot Commission Established, Renamed Sources During the Tulsa Race Massacre, which occurred over 18 hours from May 31 to June 1, 1921, a white mob attacked residents, homes and. For Black people, Greenwood is a reminder of the need to stay vigilant. . Slavery was obviously a huge example of an inability to accumulate wealth uncompensated labor, he said. Turning in the direction of the scream, he saw a young black man running from the building. The Tulsa race massacre was an injustice on multiple levels. The all-white jury indicted more than 85 people, who were mostly Black. Work. OHS-206 - Case Dockets #19221-19275, 1921. From May 31 to June 1 in 1921, the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Okla., "Black Wall Street," was torched. Gurley, a wealthy Black landowner, purchased 40 acres of land in Tulsa in 1906 and named the area Greenwood. 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