Details are difficult to gather, because many survivors of the massacre fled the city. 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. This article is available for unedited republication, free of charge, using the following credit: Originally published as The 1921 Tulsa Massacre: What Happened to Black Wall Streetin the Winter 2021issue ofHumanitiesmagazine, a publication of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Please notify us atpublications@neh.govif you are republishing it or have any questions. 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. The father of John Hope Franklin, he represented many victims claims in lawsuits seeking compensation for damage to property and business. Related . I had everything a child could need, Viola Ford Fletcher, 107, told the committee. However, no legislative action was ever taken on the recommendation, and the commission had no power to force legislation. In 2010 John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park was opened in the Greenwood District to memorialize the massacre. Oklahoma Historical Society via Gateway to History. June 3, 1921June 10, 1921June 17, 1921June 24, 1921, The Morning Tulsa Daily WorldJune 1, 1921, extra editionJune 1, 1921, second extra editionJune 1, 1921, final edition, The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, Oklahoma Heritage Preservation Grant Program, View the Tulsa Race Riot Commission Collection finding aid. Smithermans Tulsa Star promoted the idea of the New Negro, independent and assertive. O.W. This time, the police, fearing a lynching, moved Rowland from the regular jail to the top floor of the Tulsa County Courthouse for safekeeping. But the sheriff told the group to leave and they complied. 1,229 pages. The commissions final report was published on February 28, 2001. Her research and teaching focuses on archaeological sites of African heritage in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands and Oklahoma. A Mississippi native who had come to Tulsa via Rochester, Parrish has disappeared from the record. Some survivors even claimed that people in airplanes dropped incendiary bombs. Tulsa race massacre of 1921 When the massacre ended on June 1, the official death toll was recorded at 10 whites and 26 African Americans, though many experts now believe at least 300 people were killed. DuBois had already warned the Black veterans of World War I, in the May 1919 issue of the Crisis, that they would be cowards and jackasses if now that the war is over, we do not marshal every ounce of our brain and brawn to fight a sterner, longer, more unbending battle against the forces of hell in our own land.. North Greenwood Ave. in Tulsa, Okla., prior to the 1921 Tulsa massacre. Benjamin Pap Singleton organized Exodusters and founded Nicodemus, Rattle Bone Hollow, Hoggstown, and many other towns in Kansas. So, promises broken. Tape 1 (1999.069.01) - introduction by Eddie Faye Gates, and interviews with George Monroe, Lola Streeter-Jackson, Veneice Dunn-Simms, Kenny Booker, Edward Lett, and Ernestine Gibbs Tape (1999.069.02) - interviews with Ernestine Gibbs, Ruby McCormick, Wes Young, Otis Clark, and Joe Burns When the massacre ended on June 1, the official death toll was recorded at 10 whites and 26 African Americans, though many experts now believe at least 300 people were killed. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Tulsa's Greenwood district rebuilt after the massacre 100 years ago. Little, N. Hare, and J. Hare; The Burning: Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 by Tim Madigan; Events of the Tulsa Disaster by Mary E. Jones Parrish; The Tulsa Lynching of 1921: A Hidden Story (TV movie); The Victory of Greenwood: Horace Peg Leg Taylor, September 20, 2020, by Carlos Moreno, Tulsa Star; Tulsa Race MassacreOklahoma Digital Prairie: Documents, Images and Information., SUBSCRIBE FOR HUMANITIES MAGAZINE PRINT EDITION Browse all issuesSign up for HUMANITIES Magazine newsletter, The brief success of Harlem's own record company, Scam Advisory: Recent reports indicate that individuals are posing as the NEH on email and social media. This site uses cookies. Hannibal Johnson, author of Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsas Historic Greenwood District, said the area thrived as an ancillary economy that kept money within the community. In its preliminary recommendations, the commission suggested that the state of Oklahoma pay $33 million in restitution, some of it to the 121 surviving victims who had been located. Smitherman had chastised Blacks for allowing the lynching of Claude Chandler the year before in Oklahoma City, and he urged the men in the room to protect Rowland and themselves. The legacy of the Tulsa Race Massacre and Tulsa's path forward. It is totally true. 1 online resource (pages cm. B. Mann, a WWI veteran and veritable giant, led a valiant fight by sniping the rioters from Mt. When he heard of the Glenn Pool oil strike, Gurley saw opportunity and moved to Tulsa in 1906. But the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre is an example of the inability to transfer wealth intergenerationally because of disruptors some of these wealthy Black men, their wealth was lost in the massacre, and it was not restored.. She is a native Tulsan, co-creator of the Tulsa Syllabus and the archaeology project "Mapping Historical Trauma in Tulsa from 1921-2021." . Every Negro was afforded the same treatment, regardless of his education or advantages. Mary E. Jones Parrish, who rana typewriting school in Greenwood, became one of the first historians of the destruction. To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool's free podcasts, check out our podcast center . I was told we had to leave and that was it. Take me. Dont shoot him! By the 1880s, under the leadership of African-American attorney Edwin P. McCabe, a former clerk for the United States Treasury Department, Blacks formed Oklahoma clubs and worked to make Oklahoma an all-Black state. . These materials include historical accounts, text, and photographs, which may include offensive language, negative stereotypes, and descriptions of traumatic events. Journal of American Ethnic History 1 January 2021; 40 (3): 130132. These do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the Oklahoma Historical Society. In, This time, the police, fearing a lynching, moved Rowland from the regular jail to the top floor of the Tulsa County Courthouse for safekeeping. Late in the battle as gunfire was sporadic, Jackson walked back to his home, after attending to victims, with his hands up. Tulsa police officers were identified by eyewitnesses as setting fire to Black homes, shooting residents and stealing. 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. . From May 31 to June 1 in 1921, the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Okla., "Black Wall Street," was torched. Currently, Stover is working on a PBS documentary about the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. The devil courts said we were too late. This upheaval resulted in the uncontested mob outnumbering the remaining Black people by 20 to 1, the report said. Beginning on June 26, 1921, the Tulsa grand jury findings were published in newspapers. . Special Collections and Archives. Tulsa police commissioner J. M. Adkison and police chief John Gustafson were under pressure to keep law and order in the rough and tumble boomtown. These African-American lawyers filed claims against the city of Tulsa and against its new Fire Ordinance No. While most mob members were not deputized, the general feeling was that they were acting under the protection of the government. 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. After it was published, The Burning , like its subject matter . In other words, when they approached the gate of economic opportunity at the white dominated downtown Tulsa economy, they were turned away. Tulsa Race Riot: A Report by the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, published in 2001 (PDF). A year before the massacre, an association of medical professionals, visiting Tulsa for a conference, lined up for a panoramic photo in front of Williams Dreamland Theatre. 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. 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. 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. As spending multiplied, some Blacks earned nice salariesmore than many white-collar workers. Lesson Plans Black Wall Street The heart of the prosperous African-American district of Greenwood after the massacre. 1,142 pages. The building was demolished in 1924 to expand the First National Bank. The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission "The projects of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission will educate Oklahomans and Americans about the Race Massacre and its impact on the state and nation; remember its victims and survivors; and create an environment conducive to fostering sustainable entrepreneurship and heritage tourism within the Greenwood District . Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Library. Parrish, who miraculously escaped death as she fled through a hail of gunfire with her young daughter, wrote: The Tulsa disaster has taught great lessons to all of us, has dissipated some of our false creeds, and has revealed to us verities of which we were oblivious. He was born in Huntsville, Alabama, on Christmas Day in 1868, and educated in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. On the morning of June 1, 1921, a white mob numbering in the thousands marched across the railroad tracks dividing black from white in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and obliterated a black community then celebrated as one of America's most prosperous. This thriving business district and surrounding residential area was referred to as "Black Wall Street.". The elevator operator was seventeen-year-old Sarah Page, a white girl. It would take the usual suspectsurban renewal, the interstate highway system, and economic integrationto sap the economy and choke the vibrancy of Deep Greenwood. The second building on the right is the Drexel Building, which was a pivotal location in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. 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. Tulsa, 1921 : reporting a massacre / Randy . The other thing that happened post-massacre there are a lot of promises made by local leaders, these are white men, about rebuilding the Greenwood community, and they didn't really materialize. It all began on Memorial Day, May 31, 1921. It also had luxury shops, restaurants, grocery stores, hotels, jewelry and clothing stores, movie theaters, barbershops and salons, pool halls, nightclubs and offices for doctors, lawyers and dentists. In July of 2020, the Greenwood Community Development Corporation in Tulsa, Oklahoma, received an NEH grant to reopen and prepare its historic site for visitors to return. Tulsa is one city, but back then it was two, "Little Africa" is what some . Viola Ford Fletcher, 108 and . Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 archive, 1920-2007 (formerly the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 archive, 1920-2007). In February 2003, more than 200 plaintiffs, comprised of massacre survivors and their descendants, filed a lawsuit against the City of Tulsa, the Tulsa Police Department, and the State of Oklahoma. Relief was sent in from around the country, from the Red Cross, churches, and other philanthropies, though Tulsa city officials attempted to block it. In 1925, Booker T. Washingtons National Negro Business League held its annual meeting in Tulsas partially restored business district. So as Gurley opened a boarding house, grocery stores and sold land to other Black people, they secured their own houses and opened businesses. We didnt have much. As the Magic City grew with the steady influx of white settlers and fortune hunters, it became more like the rest of America, but with less law and order. to this report. NOTES. Oklahoma Historical Society Oral History Collection InterviewsThis list includes interviews from the 1980s with survivors or individuals who recall the Tulsa Race Massacre. The two-day attack led by a White mob resulted in the deaths of as many as 300 . This collection contains newspaper articles, interviews from survivors, death certificates, court cases filed against insurance companies, along with many photographs and statistics documenting the devastation that occurred during the eighteen-hour riot between May 31 and June 1, 1921. The massacre left somewhere between 30 and 300 people dead, mostly African Americans, and destroyed Tulsas prosperous Black neighbourhood of Greenwood, known as the Black Wall Street. More than 1,400 homes and businesses were burned, and nearly 10,000 people were left homeless. What the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Destroyed - The New York Times A century ago, a prosperous Black neighborhood in Tulsa, Okla., perished at the hands of a violent white mob. John the Baptist Stradford bought properties and stores and completed the 54-room Stradford Hotel in 1918. 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