The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921

Kate Frey
Opening paragraph
Although the US's first black president, Barack Obama during his 2008 campaign declared his belief
that the battles against racial oppression have been won and belong to the past and that the US is now a
post racial society, events over the past few decades as well as more recently lead to a different
conclusion. The mass incarceration of African-Americans, which Michelle Alexander called The New
Jim Crow,a system which gives the US one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, police
killings of literally hundreds of African-Americans over the past few years amid escalating police
brutality, protests against these killings in Ferguson, Missouri, Baltimore and other places themselves
being met with police repression and brutality show how deeply engrained racism remains in US
society. To understand the dynamics of today's society it is important to understand the history of black
oppression, not just under slavery but in the post-Reconstruction era when blacks had full citizenship
rights in theory but whose communities were subjected to racist terrorism and destruction. The Tulsa
Race Riot of 1921 epitomizes this.
The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 occurred during a 14 hour period from May 31 to June 1, 1921. It was the
worst of a series of white riots against African-American communities of that timevolatile period.

//Timeline The two main accounts I used were a bit vague about some details of the timeline. The
riot began with shooting near the Tulsa County Courthouse around 10pm on May 31. The Oklahoma
National Guard arrived in Tulsa around 930 am on June 1 and martial law was declared at 11 am. Order
was restored by mid afternoon of June 1.
The opening line of the Tulsaworld article One of the worst race riots in the nations history occurred
in Tulsa over a 14-hour period on May 31- June 1, 1921. Dozens of people were killed, hundreds were
injured and thousands were left homeless. Most of the segregated black district, known as Greenwood,
was destroyed. Although the riot itself lasted only a few hours, its repercussions are still felt today.

The Tulsa Race RiotIt began with an incident between Dick Rowland, a 19 year old African-American
who worked as a shoeshinershined shoes in front of the Drexel Building, located on Tulsas South Main
Street, and Sarah Page, a 17 year old white woman who worked as the buildings elevator operator. On
May 30, Memorial Day, while Rowland was leaving the elevator, Page let out a scream. A clerk from
Renberg's, a clothing store on the first floor of the Drexel Building, heard the scream and wentrushed to
the elevator to investigate. He reported that he sawclaimed to have seen Page in a distraught state and a
black man running. Assuming Page had been assaulted, the clerk contacted the authorities.
After an inflammatory newspaper article boosted the rumors already circulating, hundreds surrounded
the Tulsa County Courthouse, where Rowland was being held on the top floor. Sheriff Willard

McCullough, wishing to avoid a lynching, increased security at the courthouse, but the crowd only
grew increasingly agitated. When rumors reached Greenwood, a nearby town inhabited nearly
exclusively by African-Americans, that a white mob had stormed the jail, 30 armed men headed for the
courthouse. The white mob, nearly 400 strong at this point, continued the escalation by attempting to
seize weapons from the citys National Guard armory.
Before the night was over, the two sides were openly shooting at one another. The white mob chased
the black defenders back toward Greenwood, stealing all the guns they could find along the way. The
National Guard was deployed, but coordination between the Guard, the municipal police, and the
sheriffs department was at best incoherent; at worst, it was nonexistent.
All the while, other groups of whites continued to try and breach the security of the courthouse to lynch
Rowland. With black fighters successfully forced back into Greenwood, the town itself was under
attack. Gunfights erupted across Tulsa and Greenwood with no end in sight as night turned to day.
Residents of Greenwood were killed indiscriminately. The violence was so extreme that the town was
eventually more or less emptied. It wasnt until martial law was declared around noon that Wednesday
that the melee ceased.
The number of killed and injured remains unknown to this day. Estimates range from dozens to several
hundred. James Hirsch in Riot and Remembrance:The Tulsa Race War and Its Legacy recounts
Maurice Williams, a Red Cross social worker, reporting that at least 300 blacks were killed and that, in
a rush to bury bodies, few records of burials were kept.(. Approximately 800 people had been admitted
to local hospitals during the rioting. They are believed to have been mostly white, although Mmentions
that blacks were brought to white hospitals and a National Guard medical provided care for blacks
This citation should be Hirsch, James in Riot and Rememberance

The business district of Tulsa was completely destroyed. This included 191 businesses, several
churches, a hospital, and a junior high school. The Red Cross estimated that 1,256 houses were burned
and 215 were looted. Estimates put the real estate and personal property damage at property damage at
$30 million in 2015 dollars. Most insurance claims were denied.10,000 were left homeless,
A grand jury convened the second week of June blamed armed blacks at the courthouse as the main
cause of the riot. Agitation for social equality, which was then taken to mean racial intermarriage, and
lax law enforcement were blamed as indirect causes (of course). Eighty eight indictments were served,
mostly to blacks, bur few seemed to have been served.
In another trial in July, the Police Chief, John Gustafson was found guilty of neglect of duty,
corruption, and conspiring to free He was removed from office. Gustafson continued hisHe went on to
run a lucrative private detective practice.
According to I cannot find where I saw this, I think that's why I unintentionally left it blank last time.
Maybe omit or put According to some accounts. Dick Rowland was kept in the county prison until
the day after the riot, when the police secretly transported him out of town. The case against him was

dropped in September following a letter from Sarah Page saying she did not wish to press charges.
Little is known about his life afterwards. The whereabouts of Sarah Page after the riot is also unknown.

***
In order to properly understand these events, one must carefully examine the conditions of Oklahoma at
the time the details of which many today may find surprising.
During the First World War, wages rates and working conditions dramatically improved for many
American workers. and tThe Federal federal government enforced a labor truce after labor battles of
the late 19th and early 20th centuries which were oftenthe at times extremely violent labor battles of the
late 19th and early 20th centuries. While there was a relative boom as with wages increased increasing
during the war, labor unrest rose in the immediate post-war periodaftermath as employers attempted to
return wages rates and working conditions to pre-war levels. Troops returning from Europe were
rapidly demobilized with no plan for reintegration into the civilian economy. In northern cities white
working class people feared economic competition and insecurity in the wake of the Great Migration
when over half a million black people migrated to northern cities during the war. Increasing tension
resulted from African-Americans workers often being used as strikebreakers. Ironically, these post-war
tensions dovetailed with the anti-Communist Red Scare in the wake of the Russian Revolution, with
fears spread by Justice Department spokesmen that returning black soldiers would disseminate
Bolshevik ideas to radicalized communities.

In 1919, during what became The Tulsa Riot was prefigured in what became known as the Red
Summer, of 1919 when social tensions exploded. and wWhite mobs attacked black communities in
more than three dozen US cities during the summer and early autumn of that year. The worst of these
appears to have been inIn one Chicago riot, where at least 38 people died and 500 were injured. High
death tolls also occurred in rioting in Washington, DC and Elaine, Arkansas. In some citiesinstances,
notably Chicago, black people heroically fought back and attempted to defended themselves, their
homes, and property.

Tulsa, Oklahoma was originally settled by the Creek and Lochapoka tribes in 1836 in what was then
Indian Territory. In the later 19th century, Indian land was expropriated in several waves and white
settlement increased. In several Land land Runs runs, much of the land was auctioned to white settlers.
Tulsa itself was incorporated in January 18, 1898 and , nearly a decade before Oklahoma became a
state in 1907.
Most Oklahoma settlers came from Southern states and carried with them a legacy of racism. Jim Crow
segregations was enforced as the law of the land.Like much of the Southern US Oklahoma and Tulsa
enforced Jim Crow segregation. The 1907 Oklahoma State constitution Constitution effectively
disenfranchised most blacks, prohibiting them from sitting on juries, or holding local elective office. In

1916 Tulsa passed an ordinance prohibiting blacks and whites from residing on any block where threefourths or more of the residents were of the other race, mandating racial segregation. Although the US
Supreme Court declared this unconstitutional in 1917, the ordinance remained on the books. mentions
thatIn fact, just three weeks before the riot, a middle aged black couple was arrested and fined the then
sizable sum of $10 for refusing to sit in the back of a streetcar.

The Ku Klux Klan began a revival in 1915 and became a major presence in Oklahoma in 1921.It has
been estimated that Tulsa had 3,200 residents in the Klan in 1921 out of a population of about 72,000.
As elsewhere in the Southern US lynching was common. Between Oklahoma's declaration of statehood
in 1907 and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 31 people were lynched, 26 of whom were black. One famous
significant Oklahoma lynching was that of a mother and son, Laura and L.D. Nelson, who were
lynched in 1911 in the town of Okemah. Charley Guthrie, the father of folksinger Woody Guthrie, was
a participant. In Tulsa, in 1920 a mob lynched a white man, Roy Belton, who was accused of hijacking
and shooting a taxi driver.

Despite this hostile environment due partly to the efforts of Edwin McCabe, Oklahoma did came to
have many thriving black towns, populated by settlers from Kansas and other states, especially
neighboring Kansas. McCabe, was an African-American lawyer and politician, who encouraged black
migration to Oklahoma and attempted to gain support for a project to make Oklahoma an all black
state. From 1900 to 1906 the black population of the territory doubled.
Founded by O.W. Gurley, an African-American landowner from Arkansas, Greenwood was one such
black enclave, its population 11,000 sufficient for it to be known as Little Africa. It was a 36 block
area on the north side of Tulsa, separated from white Tulsa by the Frisco rail line. The district had 21
churches, 212 restaurants, 2 movie theaters, several nightclubs, and 400 businesses. The Tulsa Star,
which promoted black unity and achievement, was published in Greenwood. The Stratford Hotel in
Greenwood was the largest black owned hotel in the US. The prosperous commercial area along
Greenwood Avenue became known as the Negro Wall Street (today known instead as Black Wall
Street). While the majority of Greenwood residents worked as servants or domestic help for white
Tulsa families the district It was home to lawyers, doctors and other professionals, which included
several multi-millionaires. According to an article by
This was from the TulsaWorld.com article Its schools, though poorly funded, were exceptional. The
Tulsa Star, a lively weekly newspaper edited by A.J. Smitherman, promoted independence and unity,
and exhorted blacks to stand up for their rights.

Greenwood schools, although poorly funded were of high quality.

Its difficult to find out what Gurley was appointed to. It seems to have been a position in the US Post
Office.
http://www.okreadsok.org/sixpack/firstsixpack/burning/theburningexcerpt.html
Gurley, the founder, resigned from a presidential appointment under Grover Cleveland and participated
in the Oklahoma Land Run of 1889. Later, in 1907 he bought 40 acres in Tulsa, specifying that it was
only to be resold to black people. J.B. Stradford, an African-American businessman who later built the
aforementioned namesake hotel, also contributed greatly to the development of Greenwood, believing
that African-Americans should collectively pool their resources and cooperate economically. In 1899,
he moved to Tulsa, buying large tracts of real estate in what became Greenwood, reselling exclusively
to African-Americans.

In the midst of all of this dynamism, its worth noting Tulsa was in the center of the Oklahoma oil
region. Oil strikes in the area in the early 1900s remade the city. An oil strike at Glen Pool in 1905, the
largest oil discovery at the time, caused global oil prices to plummet and made Oklahoma the world
center of oil exploration. By 1909 there were 126 oil companies based in Tulsa, causing the population
to rise. The population of Tulsa rose from 7,298 in 1907 to 72,000 in 1920.The city was called the Oil
Capital of the World and became a major financial center;. A a boomtown atmosphere prevailed.

Racial tensions in Tulsa were intertwined with a morass of corruption in the city. According to The
Eruption of Tulsa by Walter White (NAACP official)
in the early 20th century Tulsa was controlled by a corrupt vice ring which allowed bordellos, illegal
gambling, whiskey (during the early days of Prohibition) and the almost open robbery of stores and
banks, with only a thin chance of conviction or arrest of the criminals. According to The Eruption of
Tulsa an article by William White, an NAACP official reporting on the Tulsa riot, published in the
Nation in the summer of 1921,6 out of 100 citizens of Tulsa were under indictment for a crime at the
time of the 1921 riot, with little likelihood of ever being brought to trial. White and other writers
mention that, because of the get rich quick mentality prevalent among more law abiding citizens,
there was widespread apathy towards politics and political corruption.

Greenwood was a prosperous African-American enclave of 11,000 in an era of severe racial

oppression, in the early 20th century known as Little Africa. It was a 36 block area in the north side
of Tulsa surrounding Greenwood Avenue and bordered by Pine Street to the North, Cincinnati and
Lansing Streets to the west and east and separated from white Tulsa in the south by the Frisco rail line.
The district had 21 churches, 212 restaurants, 2 movie theaters, several nightclubs,and 400 businesses.
The Tulsa Star, which promoted black unity and achievement, was published in Greenwood. The
Stratford Hotel in Greenwood was the largest black owned hotel in the US. Detroit Avenue was an area
of expensive homes where the area's doctors, lawyers, and businessman lived. The prosperous

commercial area along Greenwood Avenue became known as the Negro Wall Street (today called the
Black Wall Street). It was home to lawyers, doctors and other professionals, which included several
multi-millionaires. In 1921 fifteen highly regarded doctors lived in the district, including A.C. Jackson,
a nationally renown surgeon. Jackson was killed during the rioting. According to an article by
Greenwood schools, although poorly funded were of high quality.

Greenwood was founded by O.W. Gurley, an African-American landowner from Arkansas. Gurley
resigned from a presidential appointment under Grover Cleveland and participated in the Oklahoma
Land Run of 1889. Later, in 1907 he bought 40 acres in Tulsa which he specified was only to be resold
to black people, at a time when black land ownership was rare. J.B. Stradford, an African-American
businessman, also contributed to the development of Greenwood. Stradford believed that AfricanAmericans should collectively pool their resources and help one another's businesses. In 1899 he
moved to Tulsa and bought large tracts of real estate in northeast Tulsa which he resold to AfricanAmericans. Stradford later built the Stradford Hotel.

The Tulsa Race Riot began with an incident between Dick Rowland, a 19 year old African-American
who worked as a shoeshiner in front of the Drexel Building, located on South Main Street, and Sarah
Page, a 17 year old white woman who worked as the elevator operator. On May 30, Memorial Day,
while Rowland was leaving the elevator, Page let out a scream. A clerk from Renberg's, a clothing store
on the first floor of the Drexel Building, heard the scream and went to the elevator to investigate. He
reported that he saw Page in a distraught state and a black man running. Assuming Page had been
assaulted, the clerk contacted the authorities.
***
The details of the incident are not knownwhat transpired between Rowland and Page are not
conclusively known. It has been suggestedSome suggest that Rowland tripped and grabbed Page's arm
in an attempt to steady himself or that Rowland stepped on Page's toe.

Several writers have considered the fact that both Rowland and Page were working on Memorial Day
to be unusual, then as now a holiday, to be unusual. It is also believed that they had probablySome
believe it likely they had known each other-. Rowland worked near the Drexel Building and tThe only
bathroom available to Rowland while shining shoes outside the Drexel Building he could use was at the
top of the Drexel Building, necessitating him to frequently use the elevator which Page operated. It has
been claimed by a relative of Rowland that Rowland and Page had some sort of romantic or sexual
history, which would have been very dangerous for them during that era, although no evidence of this
has appeared.

The full identities of both Dick Rowland and Sarah PageEven their full identities are unknown to this
day. Rowland, believed to have been the son of a couple who owned a boarding house on East Archer
Street, seems to have been fairly well known at the time of the elevator incident and was , believed to
have been the son of a couple who owned a boarding house on East Archer Street, although there is
disagreement about his actual age and the identity of his birth parents. Rowland was well known
andAccounts describe him as well- liked by members of the Tulsa legal community, who were often
Rowland'soften his customers. Page was reportedly at the time to have been an orphan working her
way through business college, but this is disputed. there There is evidence to suggest that she was
actually 15, originally from Kansas City, and was waiting for a divorce to be finalized.

The police probably questioned Page, but no surviving transcript of their interview or report has
survived. According to James Hirsch in his book Riot and Remembrance: The Tulsa Race War and Its
Legacy, Page told the police that she would not press charges. (In light of the charges ultimately being
later dropped for this very reason, this seems quite possible.)
It was the following morning that Rowland was arrested the following morning by Detective Henry
Carmichael and Henry Pack, himself one of two black policeman on Tulsa's 45 man force. He was
initially and placed in the Tulsa city City jail Jailat First and Main. Given the intense racism of the
period and fear of black male sexuality Rowland was in an extremely dangerous situation.

After word spread of the incidentAt this point, local news papers quickly picked up the story. The Tulsa
Tribune, one of two white -owned papers in Tulsa, and known for its sensationalism, broke the story on
the that afternoon of Rowland's arrest with the headline, Nab Negro for Attacking Girl In an
Elevator. The article claimed Rowland scratched Page, tore her clothes, and that he was now wanted
for assault. ,An article by Rev. James Jaynes on the website the918.org, 8 Things You Need To Know
About The Tulsa Race Riot by Rev. James Jaynes, and The Questions Which Remain, an article on
Tulsaworld.com the term assault was a well -known and commonly used code wordeuphemism for
rape and had been incendiarythat had played a role in triggering riots against black communities
through out the US. According to the The Questions Which Remain, there are accounts that that
evening'sthat the evining edition of the Tribune ran an editorial entitled "To Lynch Negro Tonight",
warning of a potential lynching of Rowland. All hard copies of that edition have been destroyed and the
existence of this editorial is disputed.

The afternoonIn any case, that edition of the Tulsa TribuneTribune came out at 3 pm. At 4 pm, an
anonymous caller told Police Commissioner J.M. Adkinson that Rowland would be lynched. After this
threat he wasThis prompted authorities to move him moved to a the more secure facility on the top
floor of the Tulsa County Courthouse, which was near the border of the Greenwood districtwhich was,

not insignificantly, closer to Greenwood.

Hundreds gatheredof people began gathering around outisde the courthouse. By sundown at 7:30 pm
the crowd , according to some accounts now numbering about two thousand, appeared to have the
makings of a lynch mob. Adkinson and Police Chief John Gustafson wanted the newly elected sheriff
of Tulsa County, Sheriff Willard McCullough, to take Rowland outside of town, a tactic which had
been successfully used elsewhere to disperse lynch mobs.

After a lynching the prior year that some credit with destroying the career of his predecessor, With the
memory of the lynching of Roy Belton the previous year still fresh, an event which The Questions
Which Remain credits with destroying the career of his predecessor, Sheriff Jim Wooley, Sheriff
McCullough did not want to take what he felt were unnecessary risks. Instead he took steps to increase
security around the courthouse. McCullough's He organized his deputies were organized into a
defensive formation with gunmen on the rooftop, . and tThe courthouse elevator was disabled, with
men barricaded at the top of the stairs with orders to shoot intruders on sight. Tulsaworld.com
mentionsAccording to Tulsaworld.com, that there were no police inside the courthouse itself,
suggesting and suggests that bad relations between the sheriff's forces and municipal police
departments may have contributed to the failure to control the escalating situation. Interestingly the cell
where Rowland had been moved to was the same cell from which Belton had been seized by a lynch
mob the previous year.

The Questions Which Remain (TulsaWorld article)describes how at one point Sheriff McCullough
went at one point going outside the building and attempted, attempting to talk the mob into going home
but, a. According to a witness, he was shouted down.. About 8:20 pm, three white men entered the
courthouse, demanding Rowland. McCullough was able to turn themThey were turned away.
McCullough claimed that it was at this point that he ordered his men too disable the elevator and
barricade themselves inside the jail. says that Police Chief Gustafson was less concerned about
dispersing the crowd and more worried about armed blacks. Gustafson at some point TulsaWorld
article (The Questions Which Remain)At some point the police chief appealed to the Oklahoma
National Guard commander for help to clear the streets of negroes, but was told that only the
governor had the authority to call the local guard into service.

At this point, news reachedNews of the Rowland incident and the standoff at the courthouse quickly
reached Greenwood. Militant WW I veterans favored military action, while but older members of the
community feared the consequences of a dangerous confrontation. Two contingents of blacks met with
McCullough and his black deputy, Barney Cleaver, and were givenobtaining reassurances of Rowland's
safety. O.W. Gurley, Greenwoods the founder of Greenwoodfounder, walked to the courthouse and
met with McCulloghthe sheriff and obtained further assurances personally, who assured him there
would be no lynching, before. R returning to Greenwood, Gurley attempted and attempting to calm

residents.

Tensions were further inflamed when A a second lynching threat was called in to a northside movie
theater. Though out the early evening, Greenwood community leaders telephoned offered McCullough
offering help but were told they were not neededassistance, only to be rebuffed each time. Major James
Bell of the 180th Division of the Oklahoma National Guard also called McCullough and was given
reassurances the situation was under control.

Sometime that eveningWhen rumors reached Greenwood that evening that the white mob had stormed
the jail. , Around 7:30 pm a group of about 30 armed men from Greenwood , assembling assembled in
front of the Tulsa Star offices, marched and drove before a march to the courthouse, . They offering
offered to help but were again told to go home by Sheriff McCullough and Deputy Cleaver.

Seeing armed black men, members of the white mob at the courthouse went home to get their own
guns. A group headed for the National Guard armory at Sixth Street and Norfolk Avenue, intending to
get weapons to seize the stockpile of arms held there. Major Bell had previously been informed of the
growing civil unrest in Tulsa and he undertook measures to prevent a break inbreach of the armory. At
that time three National Guard units were stationed in Tulsa-a rifle company, a supply company, and a
medical unit. Other than the medical unit, which later was primarily engaged in caring for wounded and
injured blacks, the units had about 35 men under arms.
A total of around 35 guardsmen were stationed between three units in the city.

All of them, at this time, Tulsa Guard members were ordered to put on their uniforms and assemble at
the armory. A crowd of between 300-400 whites came to the armory. A group attempted, soon
attempting to break in through a window. Major Bell dispersed them with a stern warning,
commanding the Guard, told the crowd that his men inside the armory was were underarmed and had
orders to shoot anyone who tried to enter. The crowd then withdrew.

By late evening, the situation at the courthouse was becoming increasingly tense. Several Tulsa
community and religious leaders, including Rev. Charles Kerr of the First Presbyterian Church, tried to
talk the crowd out of mob action and convince people to go home. Kerr agreed to intervene after being
asked for help from black clergyman and after discussing with his family. Kerr also later allowed
refugees from the rioting to shelter in his church the next day and. He was later acclaimed as the only
Protestant minister recognized for his efforts toto have put forth significant effort to stop the race riot.
He was, overall, and also as one of the few white community leaders to do so. The crowd however, did
not disburse.

Around 10 PM, another group of about 75 armed Greenwood residents came toarrived at the
courthouse, offering to help. The sheriff again persuaded them to leave. According to The Questions
Which Remain, as they were complying, a white man, a former county investigator named E.S.
MacQueen, attempted to disarm a black man, , sometimes identified as Johnny Cole, )in front of the
courthouse. As MacQueen and Cole wrestled over the latters gun, it went off. A shot rang out and a
melee ensued. As Sheriff McCullough later said, all hell broke loose, with shots being fired by both
sides.There was a fusillade of shots. McCullough, who had been attempting to address the crowd, ran
for cover to a nearby hotel. (He soon returned to his post.)
The details of ensuing events are hazy.not fully known and accounts are contradictory. The Questions
Which Remain mentions the names of two white bystanders, an oil company executive and a bank
employee, killed in the shooting. A group of whites, which includedincluding members of the city
police, broke into Bardon's Sporting Goods store across the street from the courthouse and began
looting it, taking guns and ammunition. Bardon's was known to have been a frequent supplier of
ammunition to the Tulsa police department.

The white mob began chasing blacks toward Greenwood, looting more stores for weapons on the way.
Panic ensued as the mob began firing on any blacks in the crowd. Blacks fired back. At one point
moviegoers leaving a show were caught off guard by the mob and began fleeing. This initial fighting
may have lasted less than a minute but at least twelve people were killed immediately - in this incident,
ten white and two black. Scattered gun fighting continued in the northern area of the business district
until midnight, when it appeared that all blacks had been pushed into Greenwood.

As the shooting rampage began, Police Chief Gustafson mobilized the entire Tulsa police department,
about 65 men, and Police Commissioner Adkinson commissioned as many as 400 special deputies. At
this time, the Oklahoma National Guard commander, Adjutant General Charles Barrett ordered the
National Guard units in Tulsa to make themselves available to local authorities, although it would be
some time before they could be mobilized to take action. . The small number of National Guard then
already in Tulsa attempted to get between the combatants along the Frisco Railroad tracks and Detroit
Avenue. Col. Rooney,the senior Guard commander, wanted to establish a defense perimeter around
Greenwood but had to give up the idea.

Around 11 pm, additional units of the Oklahoma National Guard assembled at the armory and set in
motion a plan to subdue the rioters. However the Oklahoma National Guard commander Their
commander, however, was notonly able to get the signatures necessary from local authorities to take
action around 1:30 amfor over two hours. The main difficulty the commander faced washad been in
reaching Sheriff the barricaded McCullough, who was then barricaded in the stairwell leading to the

courthouse jail with his men, threatening to shoot anyone who approached. A Tulsa World reporter was
finally able to approach McCullough and apprise him of the situation.

Groups of Guardsmen moved into position towere deployed in downtown Tulsa to guard the
courthouse and police station, and to restore order along the Frisco tracks. They were joined by
American Legion volunteers from Tulsa and surrounding towns. Many accounts describeIt appears that
the National Guard was deployed primarily to protecting white property. There were persistent rumors
though throughout the night and early morning that hundreds of blacks were coming to invade Tulsa
and join in a Negro negro uprising. Groups were sent to guard the city power plant and water works.
Police, Legionnaires, and special deputies roamed the city in squads and rounded up blacks in servant
quarters outside Greenwood and searched forin search of the supposed invaders.

Blacks found outside Greenwood were rounded up and sentsent to the Convention Center (now Brady
Theater) on Brady Street, along with McNulty Park, a minor league baseball stadium, on 10th Avenue
and later at the citys fairgrounds on Admiral Boulevard.

Around midnight, a smaller, but even more determined group of white rioters gathered near the
courthouse, again demanding Rowland be handed over for a lynching. They attempted to storm the
building but were forced back by the sheriff and his deputies.

Though out the early hours of Wednesday morning, the gunfights between groups of whites and blacks
went on. For a time this was , primarly concentrated along the Frisco tracks, the dividing line between
the commercial districts of the white and black areasdividing the white and black areas. In one incident,
passengers on an incoming train were caught in the crossfire and were forced to take cover on the floor
of the train as the train took hits from both sides.

Whites began making forays by car into the Greenwood district, firing into businesses and residences.
Around 1 am, the white mob began setting fires in businesses on Archer Street, in the commercial area
on the edge of Greenwood. Crews from the Tulsa Fire Department were turned back at gunpoint. By 4
am, it was estimated that two dozen black owned businesses had been set on fire. Gun battles continued
though out the early morning, although at a lower level. Greenwood residents fired back to defend their
property.

The Questions That Remain says that later later statements by witnesses claimed that men in uniform - ,
either National Guardsmen or ex-servicemen, - carried oil into Greenwoods and after looting homes,

set fire to them in order to better set fire to the homes after looting them. Tulsa police seemed tomay
have been involved in the mayhem as looters and arsonists themselves. Several witnesses later
identified out of uniform officers among the arsonists. V.B. Bostic, a black deputy sheriff, said he was
led out of hism home by a white traffic officer he recognized, who then proceeded to set fire to his
house.

As news of the rioting spread someWhile Greenwood residents began takingcontinued to take up arms
to defend their community whilein community defense, many others began leaving fleeing the area.

At the 5 am sunrise, according to some reports, either a train whistle or a siren was heard. Many rioters
took this as a signal to launch an all- out assault on Greenwood. After a white man was killed by a
sniper in Greenwood after he stepped out from behind the Frisco train depot a charge was led by five
white men in a car, all of whom were killed by gunfire. Crowds of rioters poured into Greenwood.
Terrified remaining residents fled for their lives as the large mob swept through Greenwood. Rioters
shot indiscriminately, killing many residents and began and looting even more buildings and houses.
Several Greenfield residents later testified that whites broke into homes and ordered residents on were
ordered to the street, where they were at risk forfaced being shot or sent to a detention center.

Dr. A.C. Jackson, the renowned African-American surgeon, was killed after defending his home and
family. After mob attacks on his home Jackson defended it and his familyfrom the mob. He had been
persuaded toJackson was convinced to surrender to a white Guardsman officer whom he knew
personally, accepting assurancesafter he was assured no harm would come to him and he would be
protected. He was sent under guard to Convention Hall. On the way to the convention hall, there
Jackson was shot and killed by a rioter.

At dawn, a force of about 1500 National Guard and others entered Greenwood from the south and the
west with orders to take into custody unarmed blacks and subdue any who resisted. Survivors later
called itsaid this resembled an invading army. Most terrified Greenwood residents , terrified,either fled
or surrendered peacefully, though. However some residents continued armed resistance. The Guard
reported engaging in short skirmishes moving down Standpipe Hill, near the present day Tulsa campus
of the University of
Oklahoma. Rumors spread that the newly built Mount Zion Baptist Church was being used as a
fortress and that twenty caskets of rifles had been delivered to the church, but no evidence of this has
been found. The National Guard reported a long battle at the church in which 50 blacks fought like
tigers.. When the gunmen refused to come outemerge the church, worth the then huge sum of $80,000,
was set on fire, destroying all but the basementburned to the ground. Rev. James Jaynes in 8 Things
You Need To Know About The Tulsa Race Riot relays an alternate account of this event in which white

rioters set up a machine gun emplacement on the top of a hill where it fired down into a the church ,
killing many.

According to Tim Madigan in The Burning: Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921
law enforcement officials, presumably the Oklahoma State Police, dispatched six WW I biplanes from
Curtiss-Southwest Field outside Tulsa. Officials later said the planes were to provide reconnaissance
and protect against a Negro uprising.Eyewitness testimony from survivors however described
attacks from the air, with planes carrying whites firing rifles and dropping incendiary bombs on
buildings, homes, and fleeing families.

By early Wednesday morning, most of Tulsa's black citizens had fled Tulsa in a mass exodus. while
aAn undetermined number of blacks were held at various detention centers though out the city.

Around 9:15, Wednesday morning 109 additional troops from the Oklahoma National Guard
commanded by Adjutant General Charles Barnett arrived in Tulsa by special train. Before legally
taking action to the rioting Bartlett had to again notify local authorities, including the mayor, the
sheriff, and the police chief. While Bartlett contacted the authorities his troops ate breakfast. Bartlett
summoned further reinforcements from other Oklahoma cities. M, and martial law in Tulsa was
declared at 11:49 am. and bBy noon most of the violence had finally been suppressed.
By noon of June 1 Greenwood had been emptied of most of its inhabitantsOf course, Greenwood was
virtually empty by this time. A few blacks hid in downtown churches or with white employees but the
majority had either fled or were being held in detention. Though outThroughout Wednesday afternoon
and Thursday National Guard patrols went into the countryside to pick up fleeing blacks, some who of
whom had made it to neighboring cities. According to Accounts suggest some made it as far as Kansas
City. and aA fair number of former Greenwood residents never returned. At or en route to the detention
centers, blacks were subject to harassment, humiliation, and robbery. Many lived at the fairgrounds
camp, for the next several weeks, which at its height functioned as a refugee camp, housed housing up
to 5,000 ,living like refugees.
The number of killed and injured remains unknown to this day. Estimates range from dozens to several
hundred. James Hirsch in Riot and Remembrance:The Tulsa Race War and Its Legacy recounts
Maurice Williams, a Red Cross social worker, reporting that at least 300 blacks were killed and that, in
a rush to bury bodies, few records of burials were kept.(. Approximately 800 people had been admitted
to local hospitals during the rioting. They are believed to have been mostly white,although Mentions
that blacks were brought to white hospitals and a National Guard medical provided care for blacks
The business district of Tulsa was completely destroyed. This included 191 businesses, several
churches, a hospital, and a junior high school. The Red Cross estimated that 1,256 houses were burned
and 215 were looted. Estimates put the real estate and personal property damage at property damage at

$30 million in 2015 dollars. Most insurance claims were denied.10,000 were left homeless,
A grand jury convened the second week of June blamed armed blacks at the courthouse as the main
cause of the riot. Agitation for social equality, which was then taken to mean racial intermarriage, and
lax law enforcement were blamed as indirect causes. Eighty eight indictments were served, mostly to
blacks, bur few seemed to have been served.
In another trial in July Police Chief Gustafson was found guilty of neglect of duty, corruption, and
conspiring to free He was removed from office. Gustafson continued his private detective practice.
According to Dick Rowland was kept in the county prison until the day after the riot, when the police
secretly transported him out of town. The case against him was dropped in September following a letter
from Sarah Page saying she did not wish to press charges. Little is known about his life afterwards. The
whereabouts of Sarah Page after the riot is also unknown.
***
In the aftermath of what can only be described as an atrocity, A few weeks after the riot a group
appointed by the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce, led by W. Tate Brady, a Tulsa businessmancommunity
leader and business promoter, devised a scheme to make Greenwood prohibitively expensive by means
of new building codes, forcing blacks to move further north from Tulsa, and enabling white
businessmen to buy up land rezoned as commercial or industrial. This The scheme was laterhowever,
was over turned by the Oklahoma Supreme Court, who ruled it unconstitutional, but efforts at
disenfranchisement and segregartion continued.
In April of 1922 the 1,700 members of the Ku Klux Klan held a march through downtown Tulsa. In the
Tulsa city and county elections later that of that year, Klan candidates took every office up for election.
The following In August, of the following year the governor of Oklahoma again declared martial law
in Tulsa County because of Klan activity.
The Tulsa riot gave impetus to organizations like (maybe leave out organizations like)the African
Black Brotherhood who believed that blacks could never achieve full equality under capitalism. The
ABB, formed in 1919, grew in fame and membership in the wake of the Tulsa riot. The ABB, a
revolutionary socialist organization originating in Harlem, shifted from a black nationalist position to
one of more interracial working class solidarity and opposed the Back To Africa movement of Marcus
Garvey. The ABB was absorbed into the US Communist Party. Communist Party members coming
from the ABB advocated a stronger struggle against racism than generally favored by white party
members. The ABB contributed to the radicalization of the Harlem Renaissance and a turn to socialism
among black intellectuals. It was an inspiration for later black radical groups such as the Black Panther
Party.
(I wasn't quite sure what to put for this. Black nationalism was a separate current which started
somewhat earlier. As far as I can tell the ABB didn't have direct influence outside of the CPUSA).
Despite opposition and punitive zoning laws designed to prevent reconstruction, the residents of

Greenwood rebuilt after the riot, much of the district being made whole again after. Within five years
much of the district was rebuilt,. and againIt remained became a vital black community, although it
never fully recovered from the devastation of the riot. By 1942, the community had more than 240
black-owned businesses. The district began, but faced a gradual decline as the early residents died or
moved away. Desegregation in the 1960s led to a major economic decline. as bBlack family familyowned businesses were undermined. In the 1970s much of Greenwood was demolished to make way
for a freeway bisecting the district. The University of Oklahoma Tulsa campus and Langston
University were also built in atop that the area. Today, Greenwood is a depressed community, underserved by supermarkets and other facilities.

For decades the Tulsa riot was little known and rarely mentioned, even by African-Americans living in
Tulsa. A June 19, 2011 New York Times article, As Survivors Dwindle, Tulsa Confronts Pastby C.L
.Sulzberger says current revival of interest in the Tulsa Race Riot is largely due to the efforts of Don
Ross, a magazine publisher and former state representative. In 2001 Ross and Oklahoma State
Representative Maxine Horner introduced legislation to create the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Commission.
Survivors of the riot have received some official recognition but efforts to establish reparations have
failed.

Sulzberger says that since retirement, Ross has distanced himself from efforts for compensation, saying
there was not enough interest from blacks or whites.

Since retiring, Mr. Ross has extracted himself from those efforts, believing that neither blacks nor
whites were committed to the task. He no longer even speaks to the survivors. I cut that connection,
he said. It was too heartbreaking.

Nearly 100 years after the Tulsa Race Riot American society has still not resolved issues of racial
oppression. The dynamics of oppression have changed since the Civil Rights struggles of the 1950s and
60s but a new generation of activists , such as those in the Black Lives Matter movement,is being
forced to confront a structural racism deeply entrenched in US society. The Tulsa Race Riot shows that
while somethings have changed in the 10 years, others, sadly, remain the same.

(I wasn't sure what to write. I thought maybe I should put something about how racism can't be solved
under capitalism but then I'd have to Marxify the rest of the essay.)