Photo courtesy Tulsa Historical Society and Museum: African-American man being detained during the Tulsa Race Riot. The man is standing next to railroad tracks and is holding his hands in the air as if being arrested. Several white men watch from the other side of the tracks.
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In 1921, Tulsa, then known as the Oil Capitol of the World, was home to what became known as “Black Wall Street.” Prosperity was high, and black citizens of Tulsa, subject to segregation laws of patronizing only other black-owned businesses, created a flourishing and rich community filled with everything from barbershops, to grocery stores, to movie theaters, to independent newspapers, to hospitals and churches and even a boutique hotel.
Educated professionals were plentiful, including well regarded lawyers, physicians, dentists and realtors. Mini-mansions were built and life was good. The community, also known as the Greenwood District, spanned a 35-block area.
On May 30, 1921, 19-year old Dick Rowland, a black shoe shiner, entered an elevator in downtown Tulsa operated by a white 17-year old woman by the name of Sarah Page. A scream was heard, and when the elevator opened, Rowland ran from the scene. Another man coming upon the scene made the assumption that Page had been assaulted.
To this day, it is not known what actually happened, but Rowland may have simply tripped and fallen against Page as the elevator was jerky. Page was questioned but it appears no account of what she reported has survived. However, misinformation and gossip spread quickly implying that Page may have been raped. The following day, May 31, Tulsa police located a fearful Rowland and took him downtown for questioning.
To complicate the already exaggerated rumors circulating amongst the townspeople, The Tulsa Tribune, an evening newspaper, printed an account that exacerbated the situation. The headline read, “Nab Negro for Attacking Girl in an Elevator.” Some witnesses remembered an editorial in the same edition of the Tribune that made reference to a possible lynching, though no record of this editorial has even been found.
The suggestion of a lynching sent both blacks and whites to the jailhouse where Rowland was being held. Tulsa Police, receiving credible threats on Rowland’s life, attempted to protect Rowland by moving him to a safe place within the building. Armed mobs of both blacks and whites began to assemble around the jail, with whites far outnumbering blacks. Eventually, in the confusion, gunfire erupted.
The night was filled with mobs dispersing, reforming, loading up on more guns and becoming more and more out of control. Sometime in the early morning hours of June 1st, white mobs entered the Greenwood District and burned to the ground all 35 blocks of the beautiful black-owned homes and businesses.
Greenwood District on fire. Stamp on back of photo reads, “Exhibit 2, Case No. 16013.” This was the Race Riot of 1921. Lower left corner gone (Tulsa Historical Society and Museum)
Burned out brick buildings. Rail tracks in foreground. Along the bottom edge “Negro Town.” This is a scrapback black paper with images on both sides. the other side has NON riot. images –Virgil Eby, VIrgil or Ward Eby W.W.I Medical Corp. (Tulsa Historical Society and Museum)
In 2001, the Tulsa Race Riot Commission was formed to piece together the verifiable facts of this horrible event. Their conclusions are the following:
Courtesy Tulsa Historical Society and Museum:
“Historical Facts as Determined by the Tulsa Race Riot Commission:
Black Tulsans had every reason to believe that Dick Rowland would be lynched after his arrest. His charges were later dismissed and highly suspect from the start.
They had cause to believe that his personal safety, like the defense of themselves and their community, depended on them alone.
As hostile groups gathered and their confrontation worsened, municipal and county authorities failed to take actions to calm or contain the situation.
At the eruption of violence, civil officials selected many men, all of them white and some of them participants in that violence, and made those men their agents as deputies.
In that capacity, deputies did not stem the violence but added to it, often through overt acts that were themselves illegal.
Public officials provided fire arms and ammunition to individuals, again all of them white. Units of the Oklahoma National Guard participated in the mass arrests of all or nearly all of Greenwood’s residents. They removed them to other parts of the city, and detained them in holding centers.
Entering the Greenwood district, people stole, damaged, or destroyed personal property left behind in homes and businesses.
People, some of them agents of government, also deliberately burned or otherwise destroyed homes credibly estimated to have numbered 1,256, along with virtually every other structure — including churches, schools, businesses, even a hospital and library — in the Greenwood district.
Despite duties to preserve order and to protect property, no government at any level offered adequate resistance, if any at all, to what amounted to the destruction of the Greenwood neighborhood
Although the exact total can never be determined, credible evidence makes it probable that many people, likely numbering between 100-300, were killed during the riot.
Not one of these criminal acts was then or ever has been prosecuted or punished by government at any level: municipal, county, state, or federal.
Even after the restoration of order it was official policy to release a black detainee only upon the application of a white person, and then only if that white person agreed to accept responsibility for that detainee’s subsequent behavior.
As private citizens, many whites in Tulsa and neighboring communities did extend invaluable assistance to the riot’s victims, and the relief efforts of the American Red Cross in particular provided a model of human behavior at its best.
Although city and county government bore much of the cost for Red Cross relief, neither contributed substantially to Greenwood’s rebuilding, in fact, municipal authorities acted initially to impede rebuilding.
Despite being numerically at a disadvantage, black Tulsans fought valiantly to protect their homes, their businesses, and their community. But in the end, the city’s African-American population was simply outnumbered by the white invaders
In the end, the restoration of Greenwood after its systematic destruction was left to the victims of that destruction.
While Tulsa officials turned away some offers of outside aid, a number of individual white Tulsans provided assistance to the city’s now virtually homeless black population. But it was the American Red Cross, which remained in Tulsa for months following the riot, that provided the most sustained relief effort. Maurice Willows, the compassionate director of the Red Cross relief, kept a history of the event.”
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Curriculum resources for teachers include a 1-day lesson plan and a 5-day lesson plan and are adjusted for age, particularly since many of the photos are extremely graphic.
This 6-minute video is recommended by the Commission as an excellent introduction and includes the testimony of survivors:
TULSA RACE RIOT OR TULSA RACE MASSACRE?
Excerpted from the 1-day lesson plan:
Lesson Starter: What is the difference between a riot and a massacre? (Discuss, write answers on the board)
Define the terms, connecting them with modern national or local events that the students are familiar with. After a quick discussion, tell them there was an incident in Oklahoma state history; in 1921 in a Tulsa neighborhood. It is known to most as the Tulsa Race Riot, but the survivors refer to it as a massacre.
Why is this important?
According to the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum, the designation of the event as a “riot” was crucial because insurance companies were exempted from paying claims.
An example of a standard property and casualty insurance policy clause at the time in history reads:
“This company shall not be liable for loss caused directly or indirectly by invasion, insurrection, riot, civil war or commotion, or military or usurped power, or by order of any civil authority; or by theft; or by neglect of the insured to use all reasonable means to save and preserve the property at and after a fire or when the property is endangered by fire in neighboring premises; or (unless fire insures, and, in that event, for the damage by fire only) by explosion of any kind or lightning; but liability for direct damage by lightning may be assumed by specific agreement hereon.”
Interestingly, this is where my family intersected with The Tulsa Race Riot/Massacre. My great-grandfather opened the first insurance agency in Tulsa in 1903 (prior to statehood). In 2001, when The Tulsa Race Riot Commission was hard at work determining the facts of the event, I asked my grandmother what she remembered about the riot. She was born in 1913, and was only 7 years old when the riot occurred. She had virtually no memories of those days but said she wondered if her father had left their home that night. She said it just wasn’t talked about as far as she could recollect. However, when she married my grandfather in 1933, she learned that The Kramer Company, the family insurance business, had held the insurance on many black-owned businesses and homes at the time of the riot. The Kramer Company was a brokerage, not an actual insurance company—in other words, they brokered with various major property and casual companies to find the best deals for their clients. She told me that The Kramer Company was heartbroken that they could not negotiate settlements for their black customers because of the riot clause. Based on the documentation I have read, I believe this memory to be accurate.
Courtesy Tulsa Historical Society and Museum:
“What’s in a Name? Riot vs. Massacre
In recent years there has been ongoing discussion about what to call the event that happened in 1921. Historically, it has been called the Tulsa Race Riot. Some say it was given that name at the time for insurance purposes. Designating it a riot prevented insurance companies from having to pay benefits to the people of Greenwood whose homes and businesses were destroyed. It also was common at the time for any large-scale clash between different racial or ethnic groups to be categorized a race riot.
What do YOU think?
Definition of RIOT: a tumultuous disturbance of the public peace by three or more persons assembled together and acting with common intent.
Definition of MASSACRE: the act or an instance of killing a number of usually helpless or unresisting human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty.”
The full Tulsa Race Riot/Tulsa Race Massacre curriculum and resources may be found here:
https://www.tulsa2021.org/resources/
Photograph taken during the 1921 Race Riot. Dead man lying in the street. Written on reverse: “Race riot casualty Tulsa June 1, 1921.” (Tulsa Historical Society and Museum)
Photograph taken during the 1921 Race Riot. Armed white man standing by railroad tracks. Written on reverse: “Sir Galahad ‘Where our cause is just.’ A white hope. June 1, 1921. Tulsa Race Riot.” (Tulsa Historical Society and Museum)
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