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Home , April 1921, Cincinnati riots of 2001, Daily World (Opelousas), Descendents, Dick Rowland, Down Town

Tulsa Race Riot

A Re port by the Com mis sion to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921

Febru ary 28, 2001

i Feb ru ary 21, 2001

Hon or able Frank Keating Hon or able Su san Savage Gover nor of Oklahoma Mayor of Tulsa , Oklahoma 73105 Tulsa, Oklahoma 74119

Hon or able Larry Adair Members of the City Coun cil Speaker of the House of Repre sen ta tives City of Tulsa Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73105 Tulsa, Oklahoma 74119

Hon or able Stratton Tay lor Pres i dent Pro Tem pore of the Senate Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73105

Dear Sir or Madam:

Pursu ant to House Joint Res o tion 1035 (1997), as amended, I have the honor to trans mit here with the Final Re port of Find ings and Rec om men da tions of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Com mis sion. The re port in - cludes the com mis sion’s find ings on each specific item as signed it by statute, and it also explains the meth ods and processes that led to those findings. In addi tion, the commis sion has ex er cised the op tion, granted it by law, to make rec om men da tions con cern ing repa ra tions re lated to the trag edy.

This Com mis sion fully un der stands that it is nei ther judge nor jury. We have no bind ing le g al author ity to assign culpa bil ity, to deter mine dam ages, to estab lish a rem edy, or to order either resti tu tion or rep a ra - tions. How ever, in our interim report in Feb ru ary, 2000 the ma jor ity of Com mis sioners declared that rep- a ra tions to the his toric Greenwood commu nity in real and tan gi ble form would be good pub lic pol icy and do much to repair the emo tional and phys i cal scars of this ter ri ble inci dent in our shared past. We listed several rec om mended courses of action in clud ing di rect payments to riot sur vi vors and de scen dants; a schol ar ship fund avail able to stu dents af fected by the riot; es tab lish ment of an eco nomic de vel op ment en- ter prise zone in the his toric Green wood district; a me mo rial for the riot victims.

In the fi nal re port is sued to day, the ma jor ity of Com mis sioners con tinue to sup port these recom men da - tions. While each Commis sioner has their own opin ion about the type of rep a ra tions that they would ad- vo cate, the major ity has no question about the ap pro pri ate ness of repa ra tions. The recom men da tions are not intended to be all inclu sive, but rather to give pol icy makers a sense of the Commis sion ’s feel ings about rep a ra tions and a start ing place for the cre ation of their own ideas.

ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Prologue State Repre sen ta tive Don Ross

Fi nal Re port of the Oklahoma Com mis sion to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 1 Com piled by Dr. Danney Goble (Uni ver sity of Oklahoma)

History Knows No Fences: An Overview 21 Dr. John Hope Frank lin (James B. Duke Profes sor Emer i tus, Duke Uni ver sity) Dr. Scott Ellsworth (Con sul tant to the Com mis sion)

The Tulsa Race Riot 37 Dr. Scott Ellsworth

Airplanes and the Riot 103 Richard Warner (Tulsa Histor i cal So ci ety)

Confirmed Deaths: A Prelim i nary Re port 109 Dr. Clyde Snow (Con sul tant to the Oklahoma State Medi cal Exam iner)

The In ves ti ga tion of Po ten tial Mass Grave Lo ca tions for the Tulsa Race Riot 123 Dr. Brooks (State Archae ol o gist) Dr. Alan H. Witten (Uni ver sity of Oklahoma)

History Uncovered: Skele tal Re mains As a Ve hi cle to the Past 133 Dr. Lesley Rankin-Hill (Uni ver sity of Oklahoma) Phoebe Stubblefield (Uni ver sity of )

Riot Prop erty Loss 143 Larry O’Dell (Oklahoma Histor i cal So ci ety)

Asessing State and City Culpa bil ity: The Riot and the Law 153 Al fred Brophy (Oklahoma City Uni ver sity)

Notes on Con trib u tors 175

Ep i logue State Sena tor Maxine Horner

Chro no log i cal Maps of the Tulsa Race Riot

iii Pro logue By State Repre sen ta tive Don Ross

Per sonal be long ings and house hold goods had “Oklahoma, you’re O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A, been removed from many homes and piled in the Oklahoma OK.” Hope fully with this re port, the feel ing of the streets. On the steps of the few houses that re- state will be quick ened, the con science of the mained sat feeble and gray Negro men and women bru tal city will be ig nited, the hypoc risy of the and occa sion ally a small child. The look in their na tion will be ex posed, and the crimes against God and man denounced. Oklahoma can set eyes was one of de jec tion and suppli ca tion. such an exam ple. It was Ab o li tion ist Fred er ick Judging from their at ti tude, it was not of mate rial Douglass who re minded a callous nation that conse quence to them whether they lived or died. “[A] govern ment that can give lib erty in its Con- stitu tion ought to have the power to pro tect lib - Harm less them selves, they appar ently could not erty, and impose civ i lized behav ior in its con ceive the bru tal ity and fiendish ness of men who admin is tra tion.” would de lib er ately set fire to the homes of their Tulsa’s Race Re la tions Are Cere mo nial friends and neighbors and just as delib er ately In the 80 years hence, sur vi vor, de scen dants, shoot them down in their tracks. and a be reaved commu nity seeks that ad min is - tration in some action akin to jus tice. Tulsa’s Tulsa , , 1921 race rela tions are more cere mo nial — liken to a bad marriage, with spouses liv ing in the same A mob destroyed 35-square-blocks of the quarters but housed in dif fer ent rooms, each es- Afri can Amer i can Commu nity dur ing the eve- caping one an other by per pet u at ing a sep a rate - ning of , through the af ter noon of June ness of si lence. The French polit i cal his to rian 1, 1921. It was a tragic, in fa mous mo ment in Alexis d’Tocqueville noted, “Once the ma jor ity Oklahoma and the na tion’s his tory. The worse has irre vo ca bly de cided a ques tion, it is no lon - civil distur bance since the Civil War. In the af- ger discussed. This is be cause the major ity is a termath of the death and de struc tion the people power that does not re spond well to crit i cism.” of our state suf fered from a fa tigue of faith — I first learn about the riot when I was about 15 some still search for a statue of limi ta tion on from . Wash ing ton High School moral ity, ing to for get the lon gev ity of teacher and riot survi vor W.D. Williams. In his the res i due of in jus tice that at best can leave lit- slow, la bor ing voice Mr. W.D. as he was fondly tle room for the heal ing of the heart. Perhaps known, said on the eve ning of May 31, 1921, this re port, and sub se quent hu man i tar ian re - his school gradu a tion, and prom were can celed. covery events by the govern ments and the , who had dropped out of high good peo ple of the state will ex tract us from the school a few years before to become rich in the guilt and con firm the com mand ment of a good lucra tive trade of shin ing shoes, was in jail, ac - and just God — leav ing the deadly deeds of cused of rap ing a woman Sarah Page, “on 1921 bur ied in the call for redemp tion, his tor i - a public el e va tor in broad day light.” Af ter cal cor rect ness, and re pair. Then we can Rowland was arrested, angry white vigi lan tes proudly sing together: gathered at the courthouse in tent on lynch ing “We know we be long to this land. the shine boy. Armed blacks in te grated the mob “And the land we belong to is grand, to pro tect him. There was a scuf fle between a and when we say, ay yippy yi ki yea, black and a white man, a shot rang out. The “We’re only saying, you’re doing fine crowd scattered. It was about 10:00 a.m. A race Oklahoma.” riot had bro ken out. He said blacks de fended

iv their com mu nity for awhile, “but then the air- Treaties were sign with the tribes pro tect ing planes came dropping bombs.” All of the black their right to hold their lands. The treaties were com mu nity was burned to the ground and 300 ig nore by the co lo nial gov er nors. The colo nies peo ple died.” also soon discov ered that rum and slaves were More annoyed than bored, I leaped from my prof it able commod i ties. One of the most enter - chair and spoke: “Greenwood was never pris ing — if unsa vory — trad ing prac tices of the burned. Ain’t no 300 people dead. We’re too time was the so-called “tri an gu lar trade.” Mer - old for fairy tales.” Call ing a teacher a liar was chants and shippers would pur chase slaves off a capi tal of fense Mr. W.D. snorted with a the coast of Africa for New Eng land rum, then that framed his face with an ger. He ignored my sell the slaves in the West Indies where they obsti nacy and re turned to his hyper bole. He would buy mo las ses to bring home for sale to finished his tale and dis missed the class. The the local rum pro duc ers. In debt after the French next day he asked me to re main af ter class, and and In dian War, Eng land be gan to the col o- passed over a photo with picture and nies to pay for occu pa tion. The measure was re- post cards of Mount Zion Bap tist Church on sisted, and the colo nies be gan to pre pare its fire, the land The ater in sham bles, Decla ra tion of In de pend ence. In an early draft, with guns stand ing over dead bodies, Thomas Jeffer son wrote: blacks be ing marched to con cen tra tion camps with white mobs jeer ing, trucks loaded with He (King George) has waged cruel war against caskets, and a yel low ing news pa per ar ti cle ac- human na ture it self, vi o lat ing its most sacred rights count ing block af ter block of de struc tion – “30, of life and lib erty in the persons of a dis tant people 75 even 300 dead.” Ev ery thing was just as he who never offended him, capti vat ing and car ry ing had de scribed it. I was to learn later that them into slav ery in another hemisphere, or to in cur Rowland was as signed a lawyer who was a mis er a ble death in their transpor ta tion thither. This promi nent member of the . pi rat i cal war fare, the op pro brium of INFIDEL pow- “What you think, fat mouth?” Mr. W.D. asked ers, is the war fare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great his aston ished stu dent. Britain. De ter mined to keep open a mar ket where Af ter hav ing talked to more than 300 riot MEN should be bought and sold, he has prosti tuted sur vi vors over the years, I have pon dered that his nega tive for suppress ing ev ery legis la tive at- question for 45 years. The report raises the tempt to prohibit or to re strain this exe cra ble com - same question Mr. W.D. asked me. I now ask merce. And that this assem blage of hor rors might the Oklahoma Legis la ture, the City and want no fact of dis tin guished die, he is now ex cit ing County of Tulsa: “What do you think?” To un- those very people to rise in arms among us, and to der stand the full con text of Mr. W.D.’s ques - pur chase that lib erty of which he has de prived them, tion is a trav el ogue of Afri can Ameri can by ing the people on whom he also obtruded his tory, Oklahoma blacks in partic u lar. It in - them: thus paying off former crimes com mit ted cludes, Year War and the birth of against the LIBERTIES of one peo ple, with crimes the na tion, the infa mous Trail of Tears, the which he urges them to commit against the LIVES of Civil War, the al lot ment of In dian Ter ri tory, an other. statehood, seg re ga tion, black towns, and the [This ver sion was removed from the Decla ra tion of In de pend- Afri can Ameri can on Greenwood Ave nue. ence af ter pro from southern col o nies, and planted the seed Each was a prepon der ance of the fuel that ig - of the Civil War to come.] The Rev o lu tion ary War was fought and a nited the 1921 race war in Tulsa. con sti tu tion was pre sented and approved by the A bit of Ameri can his tory with an colo nies. It would sanction slavery and human Af ri can-American per spec tive bondage as the law of the land. Bro ken trea ties During the Seven Year War, Indi ans in the and genocide slowly moved In di ans for the Val ley sided with the French against Ohio Val ley, while other treaties settled them in Great Britain in a los ing ef fort. and the rich farm lands of the south. The south ern other terri to ries were ceded to the Brit ish. tribes held slaves, but also of fered the runaway

v sanc tu ary, in some case tribal mem ber ship and pears the divi sion was self-imposed. “In the rights. Dur ing the admin is tra tion of Andrew end,” At tor ney Franklin wrote, “Tulsa became Jackson, a direct as sault on In dian lands was one of the most sharply seg re gated cities in the launched. Phony trea ties cor rupts chiefs and coun try.” One of the pos si ble errors I find in the intra-tribal ri valry would lead to warring fac - re port is that Gurley lost $65,000 in the riot. In - tions, assas si na tions and di vide the tribal lead- deed, he is listed in City Commis sion re ports of ers, in sti gat ing their removal from their hav ing lost $157,783. To day his for tune would south ern home lands. This odys sey, dur ing the be worth more than $1 mil lion. 1830s and before, the lives of blacks and Na - J.B. Stradford, would later join Gurley on tive Amer i cans would be linked on the infa - Greenwood, and build the finest ho tel in the mous, cruel “Trail of Tears.” On long marches city, val ued at $75,000. Before statehood, the under extreme du ress and hard ship, the trail led ter ri tory had been seen by blacks as not only the to present-day Oklahoma, Kansas and Ne- Prom ised Land more no ta bly as ’s first braska. In dian Terri tory would be split by the all-black state, E.P. McCabe was the leading ad vo- creation of the Kansas and Ne braska ter ri to ries cate of all-black towns and had migrated from Kan- and after the Civil War abolished in 1907 with sas and founded Langston, Oklahoma. A for mer the en trance of Oklahoma as a state. Pressed by Kan sas au di tor active in Re pub li can poli tics, ri val chiefs many of the tribes of fi cially sided McCabe had also become the as sis tant au di tor of with the Con fed er acy. Af ter ward, many for - Oklahoma. He would lead a crusade to press Pres i- mer black slaves, Free men, were reg is tered as dent Benjamin Har ri son into bring ing “In dian Ter ri- mem bers of the tribes and of fered sections of tory” into the un ion as an all-black state. Against that the In dian land allot ments. Af ter the govern - back drop, Gur ley viewed his acres as a nat u ral ur ban ment opened Oklahoma for set tle ment more evolu tion from the rural trend of or ga niz ing black blacks came seek ing freedom from south ern towns. White Dem o crats pre pared for the State Con- op pres sion and for new op por tu ni ties in the stitu tional Con ven tion by using the black statehood Prom ised Land. Of the more than 50 all black is sues and racist attacks against their Re pub li can towns, more than 20 were lo cated in the new “Nigger loving oppo nents.” Both Demo crats and state, the more pros per ous were Boley and Re pub li cans would dis en fran chise blacks during the Langston. ballot ing for control of the conven tion. The Demo - Oklahoma his tory re-recorded crats won and sometimes with the Ku Klux Klan as At tor ney B.C. Frank lin, one of the genu ine al lies maintains polit i cal control of the state into the in the af ter math of the race war heeded millen nium. After state hood the first bill passed by the call to set tle into In dian Terri tory. He was the Oklahoma Leg is la ture was the infa mous ‘Senate the father of his to rian Dr. John Hope Frank lin, Bill One’ that tightly segre gated the state. who served as consul tant scholars for this re - Stradford, and his friend A.J. Smitherman, pub - port and an ear lier inspi ra tion in my inquiry of lisher of the Tulsa Star news pa per, were brave te na- the riot. In his memoirs at tor ney Frank lin cious advo cates on be half of their race. After wrote of two men, whom he called “very rich Stradford was ac quit ted for vi o lat ing Oklahoma Jim Negroes” and the “great est leaders” — O.W. Crow laws, in 1912, the ho tel owner filed a lawsuit Gurley and J.B. Stradford. In 1908, Gurley, in the State Su preme Court su ing the Mid land Val ley constructed the first build ing, a room ing house Rail road for false im pris on ment. In a narrowly in - and later the home of Vernon A.M.E. Church, ter preted deci sion the court opined the uncon sti tu - on a muddy trail that would be come the Black tion al ity of the Jim Crow law did not af fect the right Wall Street of Amer ica. Accord ing to B.C. of the conduc tor to rely upon it. Simi larly, the court Franklin, Gurley bought 30 or 40 acres, plot ted rested upon a case filed by E.P. McCabe challeng ing them and had them sold to “Ne groes only.” At- Oklahoma’s seg re ga tion dis miss ing the McCabe ar- tor ney Frank lin’s account of the set tle ment of gu ment as irrel e vant to the case. Four years later Greenwood, shat tered ear lier notions of blacks Stradford peti tioned the Tulsa City Com mis sion being forced in a section of town. It now ap - against its seg re ga tion ist ordi nance that “such a law

vi is to cast a stigma upon the colored race in the eyes welfare com mit tee; Cyrus Avery, trea surer of of the world; and to sap the spirit of hope for justice the re lief com mit tee who raised funds to house be fore the law from the race it self.” The Tulsa City and feed the black ref u gees; Maurice Willow, Ordi nance would re main on the books until the the Red Cross direc tor whose work saved many civil rights move ment of the . From his lives and through his effort food, shelter, med i - unpub lished mem oirs, Stradford was accused cal and hos pi tal care was pro vided; Frank lin, as be ing an in sti ga tor of the riot, but con tended Stradford, Gur ley, and Smitherman, aforemen - he was not pres ent. He said initially the sher iff tioned in his re port. con tacted him and other black leaders for their From my Mem ories of early oral histo ries of assis tance in pro tect ing Rowland. However, blue suits and Klan sheets when they ar rived the sher iff said he could “I teach U.S. History and those de ci sions that han dle it and would call them when needed. brought us to the riot,” Sey mour Williams my Thus, the men left. The courthouse mob grew high school his tory profes sor said to me 45 and there was no call to them for as sis tance. years ago. He and W.D. Williams (no re la tions) Armed and filled with moon shine, the men re - for many years tu tored me on their expe ri ence turned to the court house. Ac cord ing to and prod ded others of their gener a tion to tell me Stradford a white man attempted in take a gun the story. “The riot is n’t known much by young from one of the blacks “our boys shot into the teachers. Many were af ter the riot and it crowd and a number were killed and wounded. was banned by book pub lish ers, as much as U.S. Under the threat of lynch ing, Stradford es- his tory about blacks and slavery. I could teach a caped to In de pend ence, Kansas and from there course on just what has been left out of history.” to Chi cago, where his descen dants reside to Why the si lence in our commu nity? The old this day. man then in tro duced this stu dent to his assess - A.J. Smitherman wrote passion ately about ment. “Blacks lost every thing. They were afraid the rights of blacks from the daily news pa per it could hap pen again and there was no way to col umns. In 1917, the brave and fearless pub - tell the story. The two Ne gro newspa pers were lisher trav eled to Dewey, Oklahoma in the bombed. With the un kept prom ises, they were mid dle of a race riot where a white mob had too busy just try ing to make it.” He added, pulled the accused from the jail, lynched him, There were a lot of big shot rednecks at that and burned the homes and busi nesses in the courthouse who ran the city and still do. Sinclair black sec tion. His in ves ti ga tion led to the ar rest Oil Com pany owned one of the air planes used to of 36 white men in clud ing the mayor. In 1918, drop fire bombs on peo ple and build ings.” Po lite he stood with black farm ers and local law offi - white peo ple want to ex cuse what hap pen as be- cers in Bristow avert ing a lynch ing of an in no- ing caused by trouble-making blacks and white cent black man accused of rap ing a white trash ruf fi ans. “Nope,” he said, not ing that woman. Smitherman was involved in sim i lar blacks did not like to talk about the riot. “The inci dents in Beggs, Okmulgee, Haskell, and killers were still run ning loose and they’re wear- Muskogee, Oklahoma. He and Stradford were ing blue suits as well as Klan sheets.” Dur ing among the lead ing black cit i zens arrested for that time, whites seek ing op por tu nity could not caus ing the riot. Both fled. Smitherman died in cir cu late among the rich and pow er ful with out Buffalo, after pub lish ing news pa- Klan cre den tials. “Hell, Rob ert Hud son, the pers there and in Spring field, Mas sa chu setts. law yer as signed to Rowland was a char ter mem- His descen dants now live in Florida and North ber of the Klan. In the after math of the riot, Carolina. From my view there were black and where could Ne groes find justice?” He fur ther whites that stood gal lantly in face of a hostile noted, “Lot of peo ple were killed. Many, many com mu nity. Among those were Judge L. J. Ne groes.” I only vividly remem ber the stories Mar tin who called for rep a ra tions and set out to of Profes sor and Mr. W.D. The other 300 or raise $500,000 from the city’s wealthy elite, more voices have blended in to one essay. Still I only to be ousted by the mayor from the city’s hold all their col lec tive anger, fear, and hope.

vii Repa ra tion? de mands a closure as it did with Jap a nese Amer- Repa ra tions: It hap pened. There was mur - i cans and Holo caust vic tims of . It is a der, false im pris on ment, forced la bor, a moral ob li ga tion. Tulsa was likely the first city cover-up, and local prece dence for res ti tu tion. in the to be bombed from the air. There was a While the offi cial damage was es ti mated at pre ce dent of pay ments to at least two whites vic- $1.5 mil lion, the black commu nity filed more tims of the riot. The issue to day is what govern - than $4 million in claims. All were de nied. ment en tity should pro vide fi nan cial repair to How ever, the city commis sion did ap proved the survi vors and the con demned commu nity two claims exceed ing $5,000 “for guns and that suffered under vigi lante vio lence? The Re - ammu ni tion taken dur ing the racial distur - port tells the story, let jus tice point the fin ger bance of .” In his mem oirs Stradford re- and be gin the recon cil i a tion! called the guards acted like wild men. “The And Finally mili tia had been or dered to take charge, but in- Vigi lantes un der depu tized and un der the stead they joined the rioter.” His view is sup - color of law, destroyed the Black Wall Street of ported by action of the gov er nor in a concerted America. Some known victims were in un- effort to rid the Na tional Guard of the Ku Klux marked graves in a city owned cem e tery and Klan in 1922. The prepon der ance of the infor - others were hauled off to un known places in full ma tion de mands what was prom ised. Whether view of the Na tional Guard. The mob torched it was Ku Klux Klan in sti gated, land specu la - the soul of the city, an evil from which nei ther tor’s con spir acy, inspired by yel low journal - whites nor blacks have fully re cov ered. ism, or ran dom acts, it hap pened. Justice

viii (Cour tesy McFarlin Library, Uni ver sity of Tulsa). Final Report of the Oklahoma Commission to Study The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 Compiled by Danney Goble The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Com mis sion orig i- A series of papers accom pa nies the report. nated in 1997 with House Joint Res o lu tion No. Some are written by schol ars of na tional stat ure, 1035. The act twice since has been amended, first others by experts of in ter na tional acclaim. Each in 1998, and again two years later. The final re - addresses at length and in depth is sues of ex - writing passed each leg is la tive chamber in pressed legis la tive in ter est and mat ters of enor- March and be came law with Gover nor Frank mous public conse quence. As a group, they Keating’s signa ture on , 2000. com prise a uniquely spe cial and a uniquely signif - In that form, the State of Oklahoma ex- icant con tri bu tion that must be at tached to this re - tended the com mis sion’s au thor ity be yond that port and must be studied carefully along with it. origi nally sched uled, to Feb ru ary 28, 2001. Nonethe less, the support ing docu ments are The statute also charged the commis sion to not the re port, itself. The scholars’ es says have produce, on that date, “a fi nal report of its find- their pur poses; this com mis sion’s report has an- ings and rec om men da tions” and to submit that other. Its purpose is contained in the statutes that report “in writ ing to the Gov er nor, the Speaker first cre ated this com mis sion, that later ex tended of the House of Rep re sen ta tives, the Presi dent its life, and that each time gave it the same set of Pro Tem pore of the Senate, and the Mayor and man dates. That is why this re port is an account - each member of the City Coun cil of the City of ing, pre sented of fi cially and offered publicly, of Tulsa, Oklahoma.” how Oklahoma’s 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Com - This is that re port. It ac counts for and com- mis sion has con ducted its business and ad- pletes the work of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot dressed its statu tory obli ga tions. Com mis sion. Its duties were many, and each pre sented im - posing challenges. Not least was the chal lenge

1 of pre par ing this re port. Law makers scheduled neth Kendricks re placed her as OHRC’s interim its dead line and de fined its pur pose, and this direc tor and its repre sen ta tive to the commis - re port meets their re quire ments. At the same sion. Blake Wade di rected the his tor i cal so ci ety time, four years of in tense study and personal until Dr. Bob Blackburn suc ceeded him in 1999. sac ri fice surely en ti tle com mis sion mem bers to Blackburn had been Wade’s desig nated rep re - add their own expec ta tions. Com pletely rea - senta tive to the commis sion anyway. In fact, the sonable and en tirely appro pri ate, their de sires commis sion had made him its chairman, a posi - deserve a place in their report as well. tion he would hold un til June 2000. Together, then, both the law’s re quire ments Gover nor Frank Keating’s six ap point ees in - and the com mis sion ers’ resolves guide this re - cluded two leg is la tors, each from a dif fer ent port. Designed to be both concise and com - cham ber, each from an oppo site party, each a plete, this is the report that law requires the for mer his tory teacher. Demo crat Abe 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Commis sion to submit Deutschendorf’s par tic i pa tion in the de bate over to those who rep re sent the peo ple. De signed to the orig i nal house res o lu tion ech oed his linger - be both com pel ling and convinc ing, this also is ing inter est in his tory and foretold his future de - the report that the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Com- votion to this in quiry. As a his tory teacher, mission chooses to of fer the peo ple whom both Rob ert Milacek had in cluded Tulsa’s race riot in lawmak ers and the com mis sion ers serve. his classes. Lit tle did he know that he, him self, w w w would contrib ute to that history as a Re pub li can The Com mis sion shall con sist of eleven leg is la tor, but he has. (11) mem bers . . . . Gover nor Keating turned to met ro pol i tan The leg is la tive formula for com mis sion Tulsa for two ap point ees. T. D. “Pete” member ship as sured it ap pro pri ate if unusual Churchwell’s fa ther serviced Af ri can-American compo si tion. As an offi cial state in quiry, the businesses in the Greenwood dis trict, and state’s in ter est was repre sented through the ex- Churchwell has main tained con cern for that com- ec u tive, leg is la tive, and admin is tra tive mu nity and with the 1921 riot that nearly de- branches. The gov er nor was to appoint six stroyed it. He was Blackburn’s re place ment as members, three from names sub mit ted by the chair man during the com mis sion’s closing Speaker of the House, three from nom i nees months. Although born in Oklahoma City, Jim pro vided by the Senate Pres i dent Pro Tem pore. Lloyd and his family moved to Turley (the com - Two state offi cials — the direc tors of the mu nity just north of Green wood) when he was Oklahoma Hu man Rights Commis sion three. Raised in Tulsa, he gradu ated from Nathan (OHRC) and of the Oklahoma His tor i cal So ci- Hale and the Uni ver sity of Tulsa’s Col lege of ety (OHS) — also were to serve as ex officio Law. He now practices law in Sand Springs and members, either person ally or through their lives in Tulsa. designees. The gover nor’s other ap point ees en tered the Reflecting Tulsa’s obvi ous inter est, the res- inquiry less with geograph ical than with profes - o lu tion di rected the city’s mayor to se lect the sional con nec tions to Tulsa and its his tory. Cur - com mis sion’s final three mem bers. Sim i lar to rie Ballard lives in Coyle and serves the gu ber na to rial ap point ments, they were to neigh bor ing Langston Univer sity as his to- come from names proposed by Tulsa’s City rian-in-residence. Holding a gradu ate de gree in Com mis sion. One of the mayor’s ap point ees his tory, Jimmie White teaches it and heads the had to be “a survi vor of the 1921 Tulsa Race so cial science divi sion for Connors State Col - Riot inci dent”; two had to be current resi dents lege. of the his toric Green wood com mu nity, the area Tulsa Mayor Susan Savage ap pointed the once devas tated by the “in ci dent.” commis sion’s fi nal three mem bers. If only five in The commis sion be gan with two ex officio 1921, Joe Burns met the law’s require ment that mem bers and ended with two oth ers. After one may oral appointee be a survi vor of the 1921 Gracie Monson resigned in March 2000, Ken- “in ci dent.” He brought the commis sion not faint

2 childhood mem o ries but sea soned wis dom his advice for another. Dr. Scott Ellsworth, a na- rooted in eight de cades of life in the Green wood tive Tulsan now liv ing in Ore gon, was a Duke com mu nity and with Green wood’s people. gradu ate who al ready had written a highly re - As the res o lu tion spec i fied, Mayor Sav age’s garded study of the riot. Ellsworth be came the other two appoint ees live in con tem po rary sec ond con sul tant cho sen; he there af ter Green wood, but nei ther took a direct route to emerged first in im por tance. get there. Eddie Faye Gates’s path be gan in As its work grew steadily more exact ing and Pres ton, Oklahoma, passed through Al a bama’s steadily more special ized, the commis sion Tuskegee In sti tute, and criss two con ti - turned to more experts. Le gal scholars, nents before it reached Tulsa in 1968. She archeologists, anthro pol o gists, fo ren sic spe cial - spent the next twenty-four years teach ing its ists, geo phys i cists — all of these and more youngsters and has devoted years since re - blessed this commis sion with tech ni cal exper - search ing and writ ing her own mem oirs and tise impos si ble to match and un imag in able oth- her com mu nity’s his tory. Vivian erwise. As a research group, they brought a Clark-Adams’s route took nearly as many breadth of vi sion and a depth of train ing that twists and turns, pass ing through one mil i tary made Oklahoma’s commis sion a model of state base after an other un til her father re tired and inquiry. the fam ily came to Oklahoma in 1961. Trained Ten con sul tants even tu ally provided them ex- at the Univer sity of Tulsa, Dr. Vivian pert ad vice, but the com mis sion ers al ways ex - Clark-Adams serves Tulsa Commu nity Col- pected to depend mostly on their own resources, lege as chair of the lib eral arts divi sion for its maybe with just a lit tle help from just a few of south east cam pus. their friends. In ter ested OHS em ploy ees were a In the Novem ber 1997, or ga niz ing meet ing, likely source. Sure enough, a half-dozen or so com mis sion ers voted to hire cler i cal assis tants pitched in to search the agency’s li brary and ar - and expert consul tants through the OHS. (The chives for riot-related mate ri als. leg is la ture had added $50,000 to the agency’s That was help appre ci ated, if not en tirely un- base ap pro pri a tions for just such pur poses.) expected. What was sur pris ing — stunning, re - They then sched uled their sec ond meet ing for ally — was something else that happened in Decem ber 5 to accom mo date the most appro - Oklahoma City. As the com mis sion’s work at - priate and most em i nent of all pos si ble au thor i- tracted in ter est and gath ered mo men tum, Bob ties. Blackburn no ticed something odd: an un usual John Hope Frank lin is the son of Green wood num ber of people were vol un teer ing to work at at tor ney B. C. Franklin, a gradu ate of Tulsa’s the his tor i cal soci ety. Plain, or di nary citi zens, Booker T. Wash ing ton High School (Fisk and maybe forty or fifty of them, had asked to help Har vard, too), and James B. Duke Pro fes sor of the commis sion as un paid re search ers in the His tory Emer i tus at Duke Univer sity. Re cip i- OHS collec tions. ent of scores of ac a demic and lit er ary awards, At about that time, Dick Warner de cided that not to mention more than a hun dred hon or ary he had better start mak ing notes on the phone doc tor ates, Frank lin came back for an other calls he was field ing for the Tulsa County His- honor. He received the Peggy V. Helmerich tor i cal Soci ety. People were call ing in, want ing Dis tin guished Author Award on De cem ber 4 to contrib ute to the in quiry, and they just kept and stayed to meet and help the commis sion on calling. After two months, his log listed entries the fifth. for 148 local calls. Meanwhile, Scott Ellsworth Commis sioners were de lighted to learn that was back in Ore gon, writ ing down infor ma tion Franklin was anxious to serve, even if he con- vol un teered by some of the three hun dred call ers fessed the contri bu tions lim ited by age (he was who had reached him by long dis tance. eighty-two at the time) and other ob li ga tions. Most commis sion meetings were in Tulsa, They en thu si as ti cally made John Hope Frank- each open to any and all. Oklahoma’s Open lin their first con sul tant, and they in stantly took Meet ings Law re quired no less, but this com -

3 mis sion’s spe cial nature yielded much more. It cen trated on a few short hours of a mid-sized seemed that every time the com mis sion ers met city’s his tory? at least one person (usually several) greeted As the intro duc tory paper by Drs. Frank lin them with at least some thing (usu ally a lot) that and Ellsworth re counts, the Tulsa disas ter went the commis sion needed. largely un ac knowl edged for a half-century or Included were re cords and pa pers long pre - more. After a while, it was largely forgot ten. sumed lost, if their exis tence had been known Even tually it be came largely un known. So at all. Some were offi cial docu ments, pulled hushed was mention of the sub ject that many to gether and packed away years ear lier. Un - pro nounced it the final victim of a conspir acy, covered and ex am ined, they took the commis - this a con spir acy of silence. sion back in time, back to the years just before That si lence is shattered, ut terly and perma - and just af ter 1921. Some were musty legal re- nently shattered. What ever else this com mis sion cords saved from the shred ders. Briefs filed, has achieved or will achieve, it al ready has made dockets set, law suits de cided — each opened that possi ble. Regional, na tional, and in ter na - an ave nue into an other corner of his tory. Pages tional media made it cer tain. The Morn - after pages laid open the city com mis sion’s de- ing News, the Los An geles Times, the New York lib er a tions and de ci sions as they af fected , National Public Ra dio (NPR), ev ery Green wood area. Overlooked re cords from the Ameri can broad cast televi sion network, ca ble Na tional Guard offered overlooked perspec - out lets deliv er ing Cinemax and the History tives and il lu mi nated them with misplaced cor- Chan nel to North America, the Brit ish Broad - respon dence, lost after-action re ports, ob scure casting Cor po ra tion — this merely be gins the field man u als, and self-typed ac counts from atten tion that the media focused upon this com- men who were on duty at the riot. Maybe there mission and its in quiry. Many approached it in was a fam ily’s trea sured col lec tion of yel lowed depth (NPR twice has made it the fea tured daily newspa per clip pings; an enve lope of faded broad cast). Most returned to it re peat edly (the pho to graphs; a few care fully folded letters, all New York Times had carried at least ten ar ti cles handwrit ten, each dated 1921. as of Feb ru ary 2000). All con sid ered it vi tal One mean ing of all of this is obvi ous, so ob- pub lic in for ma tion. vious that this re port pauses to af firm it. Some — in clud ing some commis sion mem - Many have questioned why or even if any - bers — thought at least some of the cov er age one would be inter ested now in events that was at least somewhat un bal anced. They may happened in one city, one time, one day, long have had a point, but that is not the point. ago. What busi ness did to day’s state lawmak - Here is the point: The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot ers have in something so old, so local, and so Commis sion is pleased to report that this past deservedly for got ten? Surely no one cares, not trag edy has been exten sively aired, that it is now any more. re mem bered, and that it will never again be un - An answer comes from hun dreds and hun - known. dreds of voices. They tell us that what hap - W w w pened in 1921 in Tulsa is as alive to day as it The Com mis sion shall under take a study to was back then. What happened in Tulsa stays [in clude] the iden ti fi ca tion of persons. . . . as impor tant and re mains as un re solved to day No one is cer tain how many par tic i pated in as in 1921. What happened there still ex erts its the 1921 riot. No one is certain how many suf - power over people who never lived in Tulsa at fered how much for how long. Cer tainty is re - all. served for a single quan ti fi able fact. Every year How else can one ex plain the thousands of there re main fewer and fewer who expe ri enced hours volun teered by hun dreds of people, all to it person ally. get this story told and get it told right? How Legis la tion autho riz ing this commis sion di - else can one ex plain the regional, na tional, rected that it seek and locate those survi vors. even in ter na tional at ten tion that has been con- Specifically, it was to iden tify any per son able to

4 “pro vide ad e quate to the Com mis sion” (pa pers like the Defender and the that he or she was an “ac tual resi dent” of “the Pitts burgh Cou rier), ap peal ing pub licly for sur- ‘Green wood’ area or commu nity” at the time vi vors or to any one who might know of one. The of the riot. The commis sion was also to iden - com mis sion’s website, cre ated and maintained tify any per son who other wise “sustained an by the Oklahoma His tor i cal Soci ety, prom i - iden ti fi able loss . . . re sult ing from the . . . 1921 nently de clared a de ter mi na tion to iden tify and Tulsa Race Riot.” reg is ter every sur vi vor, every where. For affir - Some consid ered this the com mis sion’s mation, it posted the offi cial forms used as the most dif fi as sign ment, some its most im - sub com mit tee’s re cords, in clud ing in struc tions por tant duty, some its most com pel ling pur - for their com ple tion and sub mis sion. pose. They all were right, and had Eddie Faye An old-fashioned, intensely per sonal web Gates not as sumed personal and ex pe ri enced turned out to be more pro duc tive than the thor - re spon si bil ity for that man date, this commis - oughly modern, entirely electronic . sion might have lit tle to re port. Be cause she Like his tor i cal commu ni ties every where, mod - did, however, it prin ci pally re ports what she ern Green wood main tains a rich, if infor mal, so- and those who worked with her were able to cial network. Sometimes di rectly, sometimes ac com plish in the com mis sion’s name. distantly, it connects Greenwood’s people, Commis sioner Gates’s pres ence gave this sometimes young, sometimes old. An choring its com mis sion a consid er able and welcomed in ter stices are the commu nity’s longest res i- head start. She al ready had included several dents, its most ac tive cit i zens, and its most riot vic tims among the early pio neers whom promi nent lead ers. she had in ter viewed for They Came Searching: One quality or an other would describe some How Blacks Sought the Prom ised Land in mem bers of this com mis sion. Af ter all, these are Tulsa. The book fin ished, she had an infor mal the very qual i fi ca tions that law mak ers required list of survi vors, but kept chang ing. for their ap point ments. Others share those same Death erased one name af ter another. Oth ers qual i ties and a passion for their commu nity’s ap peared. Many were of old people who had history as well. Curtis Law son, Rob ert left Oklahoma years, even de cades, ago; but Littlejohn, Hannibal Johnson, Dr. Charles she heard about them and patiently tracked Chris to pher, Mable Rice, Keith Jemison, Rob ert them down. As law mak ers were au tho riz ing and Blanchie Mayes — all are active in the this in quiry, the count stood at thir teen, nine - North Tulsa His tor i cal Soci ety, all are some of teen if all the leads even tu ally panned out. No the commu nity’s most re spected citi zens, and one pre sumed that even nineteen was close to all are among this com mis sion’s most valu able fi nal, but no one knew what the ac cu rate to tal assets. might be ei ther. The initial pub lished no tices had early re sults. At its very first or ga niz ing meet ing on No - Slowly they be gan to com pound upon them- vem ber 14, 1997, this commis sion es tab lished selves. The first sto ries in the na tional and inter - a “subcom mit tee on survi vors,” headed by na tional media intro duced a multi ply ing fac tor. Commis sioner Gates and in clud ing Commis - There af ter, each burst of press at ten tion seemed sioner Burns and Dr. Clark-Adams. From that to in crease what was happen ing geomet ri cally. moment on ward, that subcom mit tee has ag - Peo ple were con tact ing commis sion ers, some gressively and cre atively pur sued every possi - com ing forward as survi vors, more suggest ing ble av e nue to iden tify ev ery pos si ble sur vi vor. where or how they might be found. Names came Letters sent over Dr. Ellsworth’s sig na ture in, first a light sprin kle, next a shower, then a to Jet and Ebony maga zines urged readers to down pour, fi nally a flood. con tact the commis sion if they knew of any Old city direc to ries, cen sus reports, and other possi bil i ties. From Gale’s Di rec tory of Pub li- re cords ver i fied some claims, but they could ca tions, Com mis sioner Gates tar geted the na - confirm only so much. After all, these peo ple tion’s lead ing Afri can-American newspa pers had been chil dren, some of them in fants, back in

5 1921. Af ter eighty years, could any one re mem- All of that work is complete. As the commis - ber the kind of de tails — addresses, telephone sion sub mits its re port, 118 per sons have been numbers, property descrip tions, rental agree - identi fied, contacted, and reg is tered as liv ing ments, business loca tions — someone else sur vi vors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot. (An other could verify with offi cial docu ments? Not 176 per sons also have been reg is tered as de scen- likely. In fact, these were ex actly the kind of dants of riot vic tims.) people most likely to have been ignored or lost The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Commis sion in every pub lic re cord. Offi cially, they might thereby has discharged the man date regard ing have never ex isted. the identi fi ca tion of persons. Except that they did, and one who looked W long enough and hard enough and pa tiently The Com mis sion shall . . . gather infor ma tion, enough could con firm it — that is, if one knew iden tify and inter view witnesses . . . , pre serve where to look and whom to ask. tes ti mony and records obtained, [and] exam ine That is what hap pened. Name-by-name, and copy docu ments . . . hav ing his tor i cal signif - some one found some body who ac tu ally knew icance. each person. In fact, that is how many names What ever else this commis sion al ready has sur faced: a credi ble figure in the com mu nity achieved or soon will inspire, one accom plish - knew how to find older rel a tives, for mer neigh- ment will re main in def i nitely. Un til re cently, the bors, or de parted friends. Others could be con- Tulsa race riot has been the most impor tant least firmed with equal au thor ity. Maybe someone known event in the state’s entire his tory. Even knew the claim ant’s fam ily or knew someone the most re source ful of scholars stum bled as that did. If a per son claimed to be kin to some- they neared it for it was dimly lit by evi dence one or offered some small detail, surely some- and the evi den tiary re cord faded more with ev - one else knew that rel a tive or re mem bered the ery pass ing year. same de tail as well. Some of those de tails That is and never will be true again. might even be ver i fied through offi cial docu - These few hours — from start to finish, the ac - ments. tual riot con sumed less than sixteen hours — It was a nec es sary pro cess but slow and del i- may now com prise the most thor oughly doc u - cate, too. As of June 1998, twenty-nine sur vi- mented mo ments ever to have occurred in vors had been identi fied, contacted, and Oklahoma. This com mis sion’s work and the regis tered. (The number did not in clude six - doc u men tary re cord it leaves behind shines teen iden ti fied as descen dants of riot victims.) upon them a light too bright to ig nore. It took an other four teen months for the to tal to The Oklahoma His tor i cal So ci ety was search- reach sixty-one. It would have been higher, ex- ing its ex ist ing ma te ri als and aggres sively pur - cept that three of the first twenty-nine had died su ing more before this com mis sion ever in those months. This dead line had an omi nous assem bled. By the Novem ber 1997, or ga niz ing and com pel ling mean ing. meeting, Bob Blackburn was ready to an nounce Work imme di ately shifted through higher that the so ci ety al ready had or dered prints from gears. In March 2000, the iden ti fi ca tion pro - ev ery known source of every known pho to graph cess finished for forty-one survi vors then liv - taken of the riot. He was con tact ing every ma jor ing in or near Tulsa. Just a few more still archi val depos i tory and re search li brary in the needed to be contacted. The real work re main- country to request copies of any riot-related ma- ing, how ever, involved a remark able number teri als they might hold themselves. Expe ri enced of sur vi vors who had turned up out side of OHS profes sion als were set to research im por- Oklahoma. Fol low ing a recent flurry of media tant but here to fore ne glected court and munic i - atten tion, more than sixty out-of-state sur vi- pal records. vors had been lo cated. They lived ev ery where This was news welcomed by com mis sion from Cal i for nia to Florida, one in , members. It as sured early mo men tum for ! ahead, and it comple mented work that some of

6 them were al ready doing. Eddie Faye Gates, Lloyd uncov ered and saved them, they were for one, had pulled out every transcript of ev - scheduled for rou tine shred ding. ery in ter view that she had made with a riot wit- The commis sion gath ered the most private of ness, and she was anxious to make more. Jim docu ments as well. Every form reg is ter ing ev - Lloyd was an other. Lloyd al ready had found ery survi vor bears notes re cord ing infor ma tion and copied transcripts from ear lier in ter views, taken from every one of 118 persons. With includ ing some with Tulsa po lice of fi cers pres- Kavin Ross oper at ing the cam era, Eddie Faye ent at the riot. He also had a hunch that a fel low Gates video taped in ter views with about half of who knew his way around a courthouse just the survi vors. Each is available on one of nine might turn up all sorts of infor ma tion. cassettes pre served by the commis sion; full That is how it be gan, but that was just the be- transcripts are be ing completed for all. Sym pa- gin ning. In the months ahead, Larry O’Dell thetic col lec tors turned over transcripts of an - and other OHS em ploy ees patiently ex ca vated other fifty or more. Some had been packed away moun tains of in for ma tion, one pebble at a for twenty, even thirty years. time, as it were. They then pieced together tiny Others, in clud ing sev eral re source ful am a teur bits of fact, care fully fitting one to an other. histo ri ans, repro duced and gave the commis sion One by one, completed puzzles emerged. Ar - what amounted to com plete doc u men tary col - ranged in dif fer ent di men sions, they made lections. There were sets of mu nic i pal re cords, magic: a vi sion of Green wood long since van- files from state agen cies, re ports kept by so cial ished. services, press clippings care fully bound, pri - Master maps, both of the commu nity on the vately owned pho to graphs never pub licly seen. eve of the riot and of the post-riot res i due, iden- Peo ple who had devoted years to the study of ti fied every single piece of prop erty. For each one or more as pects of the riot sup plied ev i - par cel, a map dis played any structure pres ent, dence they had found and pre sented conclu sions its owner and its use. If commer cial, what they had reached. Beryl Ford followed the com- firms were there, who owned them, what busi- mis sion’s work as a Tulsan leg end ary for his de- nesses they were in. If resi den tial, whether it votion to his city and its history. Wil liam was rented or owned. If the for mer, the land - O’Brien at tended nearly ev ery commis sion lord’s name. If the latter, whether it was mort- meeting, sometimes to ask ques tions, some- gaged (if so, to whom and encum bered by what times to answer them, once to de liver his own debt.) For both, lists iden ti fied each of its oc cu- full report on the riot. Rob ert Norris pre pared pants by name. smaller, oc ca sional re ports on mil i tary top ics. It was not magic; it was more. Larry O’Dell He also dug up and turned over files from Na - had rebuilt Greenwood from re cords he and tional Guard records. Others lo cated af fi da vits other re search ers had exam ined and collected filed with the State Supreme Court. The mil i tary for the commis sion. Ev ery build ing permit reports usu ally had been pre sumed lost; the le - granted, every war ranty deed recorded, ev ery gal pa pers al ways had been assumed unim por - prop erty appraisal ordered, every damage tant. claim filed, every death cer tif i cate is sued, ev - Commis sioners were surprised to re ceive so ery burial record maintained — the commis - much new evi dence and pleased to see that it sion had copies of every single re cord re lated contrib uted so much. They were de lighted to to Green wood at the time of the riot. note that so much came from black sources, that Some it had only be cause Jim Lloyd was it doc u mented black expe ri ences and re corded right. Able to nav i gate a court house, he ran black obser va tions. across com plete re cords for some 150 civil It had not al ways been that way. Too many suits filed af ter the race riot. No one re mem- early journal ists and his to ri ans had dis missed bered that they even existed; they had been black sources as un re li able. Too few early li - misplaced for thirty-five years. When Jim brar i ans and ar chi vists had preserved black sources as impor tant. Both thereby con demned

7 later writers and scholars to a never ending 1982. He cites that new evi dence at least 148 game of hide-and-go-seek, the rules rigged so times. He had infor ma tion from black sources no one could win. acces si ble now be cause of this com mis sion. This com mis sion’s work changes That knowledge con trib uted to Scott for ever. Every fu ture scholar will have ac cess Ellsworth’s cita tions from black news pa pers, to ev ery thing ev ery one ever had when the orig- black inter views, or black writings. He cites i nal source was white. In fact, they will have a black sources at least 272 times. lot more of it. They also will have more from No wonder the two are differ ent. From now sources few had before when the origi nal on, ev ery thing can be differ ent. They almost source was black. have to be. Because they will, the commu nity future Before there was this com mis sion, much was schol ars will be hold and the property they will known about the Tulsa race riot. More was un - describe was a commu nity of black peo ple, oc- known. It was bur ied some where, lost some - cupied by black peo ple. The pub lic records where, or some where un dis cov ered. No longer. they will exam ine involved black peo ple and Old re cords have been re opened, miss ing files af fected black peo ple. Ob jects they will touch have been re cov ered, new sources have been came from black peo ple. In ter views they will found. Still be ing as sem bled and processed by hear and transcripts they will read were re - the Oklahoma His tor i cal Soci ety, their to tal vol- corded from black peo ple. The evi dence they ume passed ten thou sand pages some time ago will ex plore re veals ex pe ri ences of black peo- and well may reach twenty thousand by the time ple. ev ery thing is done. Con sider what so much new in for ma tion The di men sions of twenty thou sand pages can and what so many new sources can mean for be mea sured physi cally. Placed side-by-side, fu ture histo ri ans. Con sider what it al ready has they would reach across at least ten yards of li - meant for one. brary shelving, fill ing every inch with new in - Read closely Scott Ellsworth’s ac com pa ny- for ma tion. The sig nif i cance of these twenty ing essay, “The Tulsa Riot,” a rather simple ti- thou sand pages has to be gauged ver ti cally and tle, as ti tles go. Much more sophis ti cated is the meta phor i cally though. Stacked high, they ti tle he gave the book he wrote in 1982, Death amount to a tower of new knowl . Ris ing to in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of reach a new perspec tive, they of fer vi sions 1921. never seen be fore. It is fair that they have differ ent ti tles. They The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Commis sion tell some what dif fer ent sto ries in somewhat thereby has dis charged the man date to gather dif fer ent ways. The chief differ ence is that the and pre serve a re cord of his tor i cal sig nif i cance. one titled so sim ply tells a tale much more so- w w w phis ti cated. The Com mis sion shall . . . de velop a his tor i cal For one thing, it is longer. The report at- record of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot . . . . tached here filled 115 typed pages in the tell - The com mis sion’s first sub stan tive deci sion ing; the com pa ra ble por tion of the book prints was to greet this obli ga tion with a se ries of ques- en tirely in 25 pages. The re port has to be lon ger tions, and there was com pel ling rea son why. be cause it has more to re port, sto ries not told in Eighty years af ter the fact, al most as many un re - the first telling. It of fers more be cause it draws solved questions surround the race riot as did in upon more ev i dence. The report packs 205 1921 — maybe even more. Com mis sioners foot notes with cita tions for its story; 50 did the knew that no “his tor i cal re cord” would be com- job for the first one. plete unless it answered the most en dur ing of Within that last differ ence is the differ ence those questions — or ex plain why not. That was that causes every other differ ence. To write rea son enough for a sec ond deci sion: Commis - this re port, Scott Ellsworth used evi dence he sioners agreed to seek con sul tants, re spected did not have — no one had it — as recently as

8 scholars, and other ex perts to inves ti gate those claims; many have never even heard them. In a questions and of fer an swers. sense, it is a black-or-white ques tion, but Rich - Their findings fol low im me di ately, all with- ard S. Warner dem on strates that it has no out change or comment, each just as the com- black-or-white an swer. mis sion received it. Ac com panying papers He proves it abso lutely false that mil i tary pres ent what scholars and others con sider the planes could have em ployed mil i tary weap ons on best answers to hard ques tions. The re ports de- Greenwood. He also proves it ab so lutely true that fine their ques tions, either directly or im plic - civil ian air craft did fly over the riot area. Some itly, and usu ally explain why they need were there for police recon nais sance, some for answers. The au thors give an swers, but they pho tog ra phy, some for other le git i mate pur poses. pres ent them with only the con fi dence and ex- He also thinks it rea son able to believe that oth ers actly the preci sion they can jus tify. Most re - had less inno cent use. It is proba ble that shots trace the route they followed to reach their were fired and that incen di ary de vices were po si tions. All ad vance their po si tions openly. dropped, and these would have contrib uted to If they sense themselves in hostile ter ri tory, riot-related deaths or de struc tion. How much? No some stake their ground and defend it. one will ever know: History per mits no The com mis sion ers har bor no illu sion that black-or-white answer. ev ery reader will accept their every answer to Can modern sci ence bring light to old, dark ev ery ques tion. They know better. Why should ru mors about a mass grave, at least one, prob a - every one else? None of them do. All eleven bly more, some where in Tulsa? Could those ru - have res er va tions, some here, some there. mors be true? If true, where is one? Rob ert L. Some dis pute this point; some deny that one. Brooks and Alan H. Witten have answers. Yes, Some suggest other pos si bil i ties. Some in sist sci ence can ad dress those rumors. Yes, there are upon po si tions squarely op po site the schol ars’. many rea sons to be lieve that mass graves ex ist. None of that matters. How ever they divide Where? They can point pre cisely to the sin gle over specif ics, they also are united on prin ci - most likely . They can ex plain why sci en- ples. Should any be in need, they en dorse and tists set tle on that one — ex plain it clearly rec om mend the route they took to reach their enough and com pletely enough to con vince own con sen sus. The way around an en raged non-scientists, too. With out mak ing a scratch on show down and the short est path to a re spon si - the ground, they can measure how deep it has to ble so lu tion is the line that passes through be, how thick, how wide, how long. Were the points ahead. Each point marks a big ques tion site to be ex humed and were it to yield human and an impor tant an swer. Study them care - re mains, what would any one learn? Quite a bit if fully. Lesley Rankin-Hill and Phoebe Stubblefield What was the to tal value of property de - were to exam ine them. stroyed in the Tulsa race riot, both in 1921’s How many peo ple were killed, any way? At dol lars and in today’s? Larry O’Dell has the the time, care ful calcu la tions varied almost as numbers. Any one of them could be a lit tle off, much as did pure guesses — forty, fifty, one prob a bly none by very much. Could a lawyer hun dred, two hun dred, three hun dred, maybe ar gue, and might a judge decree, that citi zens more. After a while, it be came hard to distin - liv ing now had a duty to make that good, had to guish the calcu la tions from the guesses. By re pay those losses, all be cause of something now, the re cord has become so mud died that that hap pened eighty years ago? Al fred Brophy even the most care ful and thor ough sci en tific in- can make the case, and he does. vesti ga tion can offer no more than a pre lim i nary Over eight de cades, some Tulsans (mostly possi ble an swer. black Tulsans) have in sisted that whites at- Clyde Col lins Snow’s inquiry is just as care - tacked Greenwood from the air, even bombed ful and just as thor ough as one might ex pect it from mil i tary air planes. Other Tulsans from this fo ren sic anthro pol o gist of in ter na- (mostly white Tulsans)have denied those tional rep u ta tion, and prelim i nary is the word

9 An In vis i ble Em pire rally at Belle Isle, Oklahoma City in 1923. Dur ing the , the Ku Klux Klan flourished across Oklahoma, claim ing tens of thou sands mem bers (Cour tesy Oklahoma His tor i cal So ci ety). that he in sists upon for his findings. By the sonal statements — things said to have been most conser va tive of all pos si ble methods, he seen, heard, or other wise observed — raises an can iden tify thirty-eight riot victims, and he entire set of questions in it self. Surely some pro vides the cause of death and the burial site statements are more cred i ble than others, but for each of them. He even gives us the names of how credi ble is that? Most evi dence is incom - all but the four burned be yond rec og ni tion. plete; it may be sugges tive but is it dispositive? That last fact is their de fin ing el e ment. Evi dence often in spires infer ence, but is the in - Thirty-eight is only the number of dead that ference rea son able or even pos si ble? Evi dence Snow can identify indi vid u ally. It says nothing is usu ally am big u ous, does it mean this or does it of those who lost their lives in the vicious riot mean that? Almost every piece of evi dence re - and lost their personal iden ti ties in records quires an inter pre ta tion, but is only one inter pre - never kept or later de stroyed. An ac cu rate ta tion pos si ble? Respon si bil ities will be death count would just be gin at thirty-eight; it as signed, deci sions will be evalu ated, judg - might end well into the hun dreds. Snow ex - ments will be offered — on what ba sis? plains why as many as 150 might have to be These are not idle ac a demic musings. On the added for one reason, 18 more for an other rea - con trary: This small set of questions explains son. What nei ther he nor any one can ever know why so many specific questions re main open. is how many to add for how many rea sons. They ex plain how people — rea son able, That is why there will never be a better answer fair-minded, well-intended people — can dis - to the question of how many died than this: agree so often about so much. How many? Too many. Con sider a question as old as the riot it self. At For some questions there will never be an - the time, many said that this was no spon ta ne ous swers even that precise. Open for eighty years erup tion of the rabble; it was planned and ex e- and open now, they will re main open for ever cuted by the elite. Quite a few people — in clud - be cause they are too large to be filled by the ev- ing some members of this commis sion — have i dence at hand. since stud ied the ques tion and are per suaded that Some of the hardest questions surround the this is so, that the Tulsa race riot was the result evi dence, it self. Evi dence amount ing to per - of a con spir acy. This is a se ri ous po si tion and a

10 prov able po si tion — if one looks at certain ev i - ques tions will have two, quite a few even more. dence in cer tain ways. Some answers will never be proven. Some will Oth ers — again, includ ing members of this never be disproved. Ac cept it: Some things can com mis sion — have studied the same question never be known. and ex am ined the same ev i dence, but they have That is why the complete record of what be gan looked at it in dif fer ent ways. They see there no in the late eve ning of May 31 and contin ued proof of conspir acy. Self ish desires surely. Aw - through the morn ing of June 1 will never quite es- ful effects certainly. But not a con spir acy. Both cape those hours, them selves. They for ever are sides have ev i dence that they consider con vinc- darkened by night or en shrouded by day. ing, but neither side can convince the other. But history has a record of things certain for Another nag ging question in volves the role of the hours between one day’s twilight and the the Ku Klux Klan. Ev ery one who has studied the next day’s after noon. These things: riot agrees that the Klan was present in Tulsa at • Black Tulsans had ev ery reason to believe that the time of the riot and that it had been for some Dick Rowland would be lynched af ter his ar rest time. Ev ery one agrees that within months of the on charges later dis missed and highly suspect riot Tulsa’s Klan chap ter had become one of the from the start. na tion’s largest and most pow er ful, able to dic - • They had cause to believe that his personal tate its will with the ballot as well as the whip. safety, like the defense of themselves and their Ev ery one agrees that many of the city’s most commu nity, de pended on them alone. prom i nent men were klans men in the early 1920s and that some re mained klans men through out the • As hostile groups gath ered and their con fron ta- de cade. Ev ery one agrees that Tulsa’s atmo - tion worsened, mu nic i pal and county au thor i- sphere reeked with a Klan-like stench that oozed ties failed to take actions to calm or contain the through the robes of the Hooded Or der. sit u a tion. Does this mean that the Klan helped plan the • At the erup tion of vi o lence, civil of fi cials se - riot? Does it mean that the Klan helped ex e cute lected many men, all of them white and some of it? Does it mean that the Klan, as an them par tic i pants in that vi o lence, and made organization, had any role at all? those men their agents as depu ties. Or does it mean that any time thou sands of • In that ca pac ity, dep u ties did not stem the vi o- whites assem bled — es pe cially if they as sem bled lence but added to it, often through overt acts to as sault blacks — that odds were there would be them selves ille gal. quite a few klansmen in the mix? Does the pres - • Pub lic of fi cials pro vided fire arms and am mu ni - ence of those indi vid u als mean that the insti tu tion tion to indi vid u als, again all of them white. may have been an insti ga tor or the agent of a plot? Maybe both? Maybe neither? Maybe noth ing at all? Not ev ery one agrees on that. Nor will they ever. Both the con spir acy and the Klan questions re main what they always have been and prob a bly what they al ways will be. Both are ex am ples of nearly every problem in her ent to his tor i cal ev i dence. How reli able is this oral tra di tion? What conclu sions does that ev i dence permit? Are these infer ences rea son- able? How many ways can this be in ter preted? And so it must go on. Some questions will always be disputed be cause other questions block the path to their answers. That does not Af ter loot ing black homes, the white ri ot ers set them on fire. Here, mean there will be no answers, just that there Thomas and Lottie Gen try’s home at 537 N. —the third will not be one answer per one ques tion. Many house from the left—bursts into flame (Courtesy Depart ment of Spe cial Col lec tions, McFarlin Li brary, Uni ver sity of Tulsa).

11 By the time the ad di tional Na tional Guard units from Oklahoma City ar rived in Tulsa the riot had pretty much run its course. Some con tem po rary eyewit nesses, how ever, were criti cal of the time that it took for the State Troops to de ploy out side of the down town business district (Cour tesy Oklahoma His tor i cal So ci ety).

• Units of the Oklahoma Na tional Guard partic i - tle Africa” and politely as the “Negro pated in the mass arrests of all or nearly all of quarter.” Green wood’s res i dents, re moved them to • Al though the ex act total can never be de ter - other parts of the city, and detained them in mined, cred i ble ev i dence makes it proba ble that holding centers. many people, likely num ber ing be tween one • Entering the Greenwood dis trict, people stole, damaged or de stroyed personal prop - erty left behind in homes and busi nesses. • People, some of them agents of govern ment, also de lib er ately burned or other wise de - stroyed homes credi bly es ti mated to have num bered 1,256, along with vir tu ally ev ery other struc ture — in clud ing churches, schools, businesses, even a hos pi tal and li - brary — in the Green wood district. • Despite du ties to pre serve order and to pro - tect property, no govern ment at any level of - fered ade quate re sis tance, if any at all, to what amounted to the destruc tion of the Greenwood District prior to the riot (Courtesy Green wood neighbor hood referred to com monly as “Lit - Cultural Center).

12 Despite being numer i cally at a disad van tage, black Tulsans fought valiantly to protect their homes, their businesses, and their commu nity. But in the end, the city’s Afri can-American popu la tion was simply outnum bered by the white invad ers (Cour tesy Depart ment of Special Collec tions, McFarlin Li- brary, Uni ver sity of Tulsa).

Identi fi ca tion (Courtesy Bob Hower).

(Cour tesy Green wood Cul tural Cen ter).

and three hundred, were killed during the riot. • Not one of these crimi nal acts was then or ever has been prose cuted or punished by gov - ernment at any level, munic i pal, county, state, or federal. • Even after the res to ra tion of order it was offi - cial policy to re lease a black de tainee only upon the appli ca tion of a white person, and then only if that white person agreed to ac cept re spon si bil ity for that detainee’s subse quent be hav ior. • As pri vate citi zens, many whites in Tulsa and neighbor ing commu ni ties did ex tend in valu - able as sis tance to the riot’s victims, and the re- lief ef forts of the Amer i can Red Cross in par tic u lar provided a model of human behav - ior at its best. • Al though city and county govern ment bore much of the cost for Red Cross relief, nei ther contrib uted sub stan tially to Greenwood’s re -

13 Re building af ter the destruc tion (Cour - tesy Green wood Cul tural Cen ter).

building; in fact, mu nic i pal author i ties acted • In the end, the res to ra tion of Green wood after ini tially to impede rebuild ing. its system atic de struc tion was left to the vic - tims of that de struc tion.

Maurice Wil lows Hos pi tal. While Tulsa of fi cials turned away some of fers of out side aid, a num ber of in di vid ual white Tulsans pro - vided as sis tance to the city’s now vir tu ally home less black pop u la tion. But it was the Amer i can Red Cross, which re mained in Tulsa for months fol low ing the riot, pro vided the most sustained relief ef fort. Maurice Wil lows, the compas sion ate direc tor of the Red Cross re lief, kept a his tory of the events. (Cour tesy Bob Hower).

14 Af ter math of the riot (Cour tesy Green wood Cul tural Cen ter).

These things are not myths, not rumors, not Case, rep a ra tions — the words, themselves, specu la tions, not questioned. They are the his- seem to summon images of lawyers and court - tori cal re cord. rooms, along with other words, words like cul - The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Com mis sion pa bil ity, dam ages, rem e dies, resti tu tion. Each is thereby has discharged the mandate to develop a term used in law, with strict legal meaning. a his tor i cal re cord of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot. Some times com mis sion ers use those words, too, w w w and sev eral agree — firmly agree — that those The fi nal re port of the Com mis sion’s words de scribe accu rately what happened in find ings and recom men da tions . . . may con- 1921 and fit ex actly what should hap pen now. tain spe cific rec om men da tions about Those, however, are their personal opinions, whether or not repa ra tions can or should be and the com mis sion ers who hold them do so as made and the appro pri ate methods . . . . private citi zens. Even the most res o lute of its Unlike those quoted before, these words mem bers rec og nizes that this commis sion has a give this commis sion not an obli ga tion but an very differ ent role. This commis sion is nei ther oppor tu nity. Nearly every com mis sioner in - court nor judge, and its members are not a jury. tends to seize it. The commis sion has no bind ing le gal author ity A short let ter sent toGovernor Frank Keating to as sign culpa bil ity, to deter mine dam ages, to as a prelim i nary re port in Feb ru ary, 2000 de - estab lish a remedy, or to order either resti tu tion clared the ma jor ity’s view that rep a ra tions could or rep a ra tions. In fact, it has no judi cial author - and should be made. “Good pub lic policy,” that ity what so ever. letter said, re quired no less. This re port main tains It also has no reason or need for such author - the same, and this re port makes the case. ity. Any judgments that it might of fer would be without effect and meaning. Its words would as

15 well be cast to the winds. Any recom men da - one. For both, the mo tive was not to in jure tions that it might of fer neither have nor need hun dreds of peo ple, nearly all un seen, al most all ju di cial sta tus at all. Statutes this com - un known. The in tent was to in tim i date one com- mission its author ity to make recom men da - munity, to let it be known and let it be seen. tions and the choice of how — or even if — to Those who pulled the trig gers, those who struck exer cise that author ity. the matches — they alone were lawbreak ers. The com mis sion’s ma jor ity is de ter mined to Those who shouted en cour age ment and those exer cise its discre tion and to de clare boldly and who stood si lently by — they were re spon si ble. di rectly their purpose: to recom mend, in de - These are the qual i ties that place what hap - pendent of what law allows, what these com - pened in Tulsa outside the realm of law — and mis sion ers be lieve is the right thing to do. They not just in Tulsa, ei ther. Lexington, Sapulpa, propose to do that in a di men sion equal to their Norman, Shawnee, Lawton, Claremore, Perry; purpose. Courts have other purposes, and law Waurika, Dewey, and Mar shall — ear lier oper ates in a differ ent di men sion. Mistake one purges in ev ery one al ready had tar geted en tire for the other — let this commis sion assume black com mu ni ties, mark ing ev ery child, what rightly belongs to law — does worse than woman, and man for exile. miss the point. It ru ins it. There is no count of how many those peo ple Think of the differ ence this way. We will numbered, but there is no need to know that. never know ex actly how many were killed dur- Know that there, too, some thing more than a bad ing the Tulsa race riot, but take at ran dom any guy had com mit ted some thing more than a twenty-five from that un known total. What we crime against something more than a per son. say of those we might say for every one of the Not some one made mad by lust, not a per son others, too. gripped by rage, not a heartbro ken party of ro - Considering the twenty-five to be homi - cides, the law would approach those as twenty-five acts performed by twenty-five people (or thereabouts) who, with twenty-five mo tives, com mit ted twenty-five crimes against twenty-five per sons. That they oc- curred within hours and within a few blocks of each other is irrel e vant. It would not matter even if the same per son com mit ted two, three, ten of the on the same spot, moments apart. Each was a sepa rate act, and each (were the law to do its duty) mer its a sepa rate conse - quence. Law can ap pre hend it no other way. Is there no other way to un der stand that? Of course there is. There is a far better way. Were these twenty-five crimes or one? Did each have a sep a rate mo tive, or was there a sin- gle in tent? Were twenty-five in di vid u als re - sponsi ble, those and no one else? The burning of 1,256 homes — if we un der stand these as 1,256 acts of ar son com mit ted by 1,256 crim i- nals driven by 1,256 de sires, if we un der stand it that way, do we un der stand anything at all? These were not any number of mul ti ple acts of ho mi cide; this was one act of horror. If we believed to be at Mannford, Oklahoma (Cour tesy must name the fires, call it out rage, for it was Oklahoma Histor i cal Sociery).

16 Although Oklahoma had been plagued by lynch ings since the ter ri to rial days, with the com ing of state hood, more and more of the victims were Afri can Ameri can. Of the thirty-three lynch ings that occurred in Oklahoma betw een 1907 and 1920, in clud ing this one, which occurred at Okemah, fully twenty-seven of the vic tims were black (Cour tesy of Cur rie Ballard). mance gone sour, not one or any number of in- sons from vot ing. Lengthen that list to the indef - di vid u als but a col lec tive body — acting as one i nite, write down names to the in fi nite — one body — had coldly and de lib er ately and sys - still will not reach the point. For that, one line, tem at i cally assaulted one vic tim, a whole com- one word is enough. The point was to keep a mu nity, intend ing to elim i nate it as a race, as a race, away from the polls. com mu nity. If other black commu ni ties heard — the seg re ga tion commands about it and learned their lessons, too, so much of Oklahoma’s statutes and of its consti tu tion — the better; a lit tle in tim i da tion went a long way. worked that way, too. Their ob ject was not to All of this happened years be fore, most fif teen keep some exhausted mother and her two young or twenty years be fore Dick Rowland landed in chil dren out of a “white car” on a train headed jail, but they re mained vivid in the re cent mem- some where like Checotah and send them walk - o ries of Green wood’s younger adults. ing six miles home. (Even if This, or some thing quite like it, was al most al - could re call that about his own mother and sister ways what happened when the sub ject was race. and him self as he ac cepted the Helmerich Here was nothing as amor phous as rac ism. Here Award some three-quarters of a century after - were dis crete acts — one act, one town — each wards.) No, the one pur pose was to keep one consciously calcu lated to have a collec tive ef fect race “in its place.” not against a per son but against a people. When Laura Nel son was lynched years ear lier And is that not also the way of Oklahoma’s in Okemah, it was not to pun ish her by death. It vot ing laws at the time? The state had amended was to ter rify the living. Why else would the its consti tu tion and crafted its laws not to keep lynch ers have taken (and printed and copied and this person or that person or a whole list of per- posted and dis trib uted) that photo graph of her

17 (Courtesy Oklahoma Histor i cal Soci ety). hanging from the bridge, her lit tle boy dan - early use: as a postcard. People must have gling beside her? thought it a nice way to send a mes sage. The lynchers knew the purpose; the pho tog- It still sends a mes sage, too big to be jot ted rapher just helped it along. The purpose had down in a few lines; but, then, this message is not changed much by 1921, when an other pho- not es pe cially nice ei ther. The mes sage is that tog ra pher snapped an other pic ture, a long shot here is an im age of more than a sin gle vic tim of a show ing Greenwood’s ruin, smoke ris ing from single epi sode in a sin gle city. This image pre - fires blaz ing in the back ground. “RUNING serves the sym bol of a story, preserves it in the THE NEGRO OUT OF TULSA” someone same way that the story was told: in wrote across it, can dor aton ing for mis spell ing. black-and-white. No doubt there. No shame ei ther. Another pho to graph prob a bly was snapped the same day but from closer range. It showed what just days before must have been a human being, maybe one who had spent a warm day in late May work ing and talk ing and laugh ing. On this day, though, it was only a gro tesque, black ened form, a thing, re ally, its only sign of hu man ity the charred remains of arms and hands for ever raised, as if in useless sup pli ca - tion. Shot hori zon tally, that par tic u lar photo still turns up from time to time in the form of an (Cour tesy Depart ment of Special Collec tions, McFarlin Li- brary, Uni ver sity of Tulsa).

18 See those two pho tos and un der stand that Oklahoma. Govern ment was, how ever, always the Tulsa race riot was the worst event in that its poten tial in stru ment. Hav ing ac cess to gov - city’s history — an event with out equal and ern ment, how ever employed, if employed at all with out ex cuse. Un der stand, too, that it was the — just hav ing it — de fined this Oklahoma and worst explo sion of vio lence in this state’s his- was the es sence of its power. tory — an ep i sode late to be ac knowl edged and The acts recounted here reveal that power in still to be re paired. But un der stand also that it one form or another, often sev eral. The Tulsa was part of a message usu ally announced not race riot is one exam ple, but only an exam ple vi o lently at all, but calmly and quietly and de - and only one. Put alongside it earlier, less pub li- lib er ately. cized — for that is what they were — Who sent the mes sage? Not one per son but in at least ten other Oklahoma towns. In clude many act ing as one. Not a “mob;” it took forms the sys tem atic disfran chise ment of the black too cal cu lated and ra tio nal for that word. Not elec tor ate through con sti tu tional amend ment in “soci ety;” that word is only a to conceal 1910, reaf firmed through state statute in 1916. re spon si bil ity within a fog of impre ci sion. Not Add to that the con sti tu tion’s seg re ga tion of “whites,” be cause this never spoke for all Oklahoma’s pub lic schools, the First Leg is la- whites; sometimes it spoke for only a few. Not ture’s seg re ga tion of its pub lic transpor ta tion, “America,” be cause the federal gov ern ment lo cal seg re ga tion of Oklahoma neigh bor hoods was, at best, indif fer ent to its black citi zens through mu nic i pal ordi nances in Tulsa and else- and, at worse, obliv i ous of them. Fifty years or where, even the state wide seg re ga tion of pub lic so af ter the Civil War, Uncle Sam was too tele phones by order of the cor po ra tion commis - com pla cent to crusade for black rights and too sion. Do not for get to in clude the of cal lous to care. Let the states handle that — twenty-three Afri can-Americans in twelve states like Oklahoma. Oklahoma towns dur ing the ten years leading to Except that it re ally was not “Oklahoma” ei- 1921. Stand back and look at those deeds now. ther. At least, it was not all of Oklahoma. It was In some govern ment par tic i pated in the deed. just one Oklahoma, one Oklahoma that is dis- In some govern ment per formed the deed. tin guish able from an other Oklahoma partly by In none did govern ment pre vent the deed. purpose. This Oklahoma had the pur pose of In none did govern ment pun ish the deed. keeping the other Oklahoma in its place, and And that, in the end, is what this inquiry and that place was subor di nate. That, af ter all, was what these rec om men da tions are all about. the ob ject of suf frage re quire ments and segre - Make no mis take about it: There are mem bers of gation laws. No less was it the in tent behind ri- this commis sion who are con vinced that there is ots and lynchings, too. One Oklahoma was a com pel ling ar gu ment in law to order that pres- putt ing the other Oklahoma in its place. ent gov ern ments make mon e tary pay ment for One Oklahoma also had the power to effect past govern ments’ un law ful acts. Pro fes sor Al - its pur pose, and that power had no need to rely fred Brophy presses one form of that argu ment; on oc ca sional explo sions of rage. Sim ple vio - there doubtless are oth ers. lence is, after all, the weapon of simple peo ple, This is not that le gal ar gu ment but an other peo ple with access to no other in stru ments of one alto gether. This is a moral ar gu ment. It power at all. This Oklahoma had access to holds that there are moral respon si bil i ties here power more sub tle, more reg u lar, and more and that those moral respon si bil i ties re quire for mal than that. In deed, its ready ac cess to moral re sponses now. such forms of power partially de fined that It gets down to this: The 1921 riot is, at once, Oklahoma. a repre sen ta tive his tor i cal exam ple and a unique No, that Oklahoma is not the same as gov - his tor i cal event. It has many par al lels in the pat - ern ment, used here as a rhe tor i cal trick to make tern of past events, but it has no equal for its vi o- one account able for the acts of the other. Gov- lence and its complete ness. It sym bol izes so ernment was never the essence of that much endured by so many for so long. It does it,

19 Shock and despair accom pany the after math of the Tulsa Race Riot (Cour tesy Bob Hower). (Cour tesy of of Con gress). how ever, in one way that no other can: in the That is why the Tulsa race riot can be about living flesh and blood of some who did en dure some thing else. It can be about mak ing two it. Oklahomas one — but only if we un der stand These para doxes hold answers to questions that this is what repa ra tion is all about. Because of ten asked: Why does the state of Oklahoma the riot is both sym bolic and sin gu lar, rep a ra - or the city of Tulsa owe anything to anybody? tions become both sin gu lar and sym bolic, too. Why should any indi vid ual toler ate now Com pelled not le gally by courts but ex tended spend ing one cent of one tax dollar over what freely by choice, they say that indi vid ual acts of happened so long ago? rep a ra tion will stand as sym bols that fully ac - The answer is that these are not even the knowledge and fi nally discharge a col lec tive re - questions. This is not about in di vid u als at all sponsi bil ity. — not any more than the race riot or anything Because we must face it: There is no way but like it was about indi vid u als. by govern ment to rep re sent the collec tive, and This is about Oklahoma — or, rather, it is there is no way but by repa ra tions to make real about two Oklahomas. It must be about that be- the respon si bil ity. cause that is what the Tulsa race riot was all Does this commis sion have specific recom - about, too. That riot proclaimed that there were menda tions about whether or not repa ra tions two Oklahomas; that one claimed the right to can or should be made and the ap pro pri ate meth- push down, push out, and push under the other; ods? Yes, it surely does. and that it had the power to do that. When com mis sion ers went look ing to do the That is what the Tulsa race riot has been all right thing, that is what nearly all of them found about for so long after wards, why it has lin - and what they rec om mended in last year’s pre - gered not as a past event but lived as a pres ent lim i nary re port. To be sure they had found the en tity. It kept on say ing that there re mained right thing, they have used this formal re port to two Oklahomas; that one claimed the right to ex plore once more the distant terrain of the be dis miss ive of, ig no rant of, and oblivi ous to Tulsa race riot and the for bid ding terri tory in the other; and that it had the power to do that. which it lies. Now, they are cer tain. Repa ra tions are the right thing to do. What else is there to do? What else is there to find?

20 Febru ary 7, 2000

The Honor able Frank Keating Gover nor of the State of build ing Oklahoma City, OK 73105

Dear Gov er nor Keating:

The Tulsa Race Riot Com mis sion, estab lished by House Joint Res o lu tion No. 1035, is pleased to sub mit the fol low ing pre lim i nary re port.

The primary goal of col lect ing his tor i cal doc u men ta tion on the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 has been achieved. At tach ment A is a sum mary list ing of the re cord groups that have been gath ered and stored at the Oklahoma His tor i cal Soci ety. Also included are sum ma ries of some re ports and the full text of se lected docu ments to il lus trate the breadth and scope of the col lect ing pro cess. How - ever, the Commis sion has not yet voted on his tor i cal findings, so these ma te ri als do not nec es sar- ily rep re sent conclu sions of the Com mis sion.

At the last meeting, held Feb ru ary 4, 2000, the Commis sion voted on three ac tions. They are:

1) The Is sue of Res ti tu tion

Whereas, the process of histor i cal analy sis by this Commis sion is not yet complete, And Whereas, the ar che o log i cal in ves ti ga tion into ca su al ties and mass burials is not yet com - plete, And Whereas, we have seen a con tin u ous pattern of his tor i cal evi dence that the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 was the vi o lent conse quence of ra cial hatred insti tu tion al ized and tol er ated by of fi cial fed eral, state, county, and city pol icy, And Whereas, govern ment at all levels has the moral and eth i cal respon si bil ity of foster ing a sense of commu nity that bridges divides of eth nic ity and race, And Whereas, by stat ute we are to make rec om men da tions re gard ing whether or not repa ra tio ns can or should be made to the Oklahoma Leg is la ture, the Gov er nor of the State of Oklahoma, and the Mayor and City Coun cil of Tulsa, That, we, the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Com mis sion, rec om mend that res ti tu tion to the his toric Green wood Com mu nity, in real and tan gi ble form, would be good pub lic policy and do much to re pair the emo tional as well as phys i cal scars of this most ter ri ble inci dent in our shared past.

2) The Issue of Sug gested Forms of Res ti tu tion in Pri or ity Order

The Commis sion recom mends 1) Di rect pay ment of rep a ra tions to survi vors of the Tulsa Race Riot. 2) Di rect pay ment of rep a ra tions to descen dants of the survi vors of the Tulsa Race Riot. 3) A scholar ship fund available to students af fected by the Tulsa Race Riot. 4) Es tab lish ment of an eco nomic de vel op ment en ter prise zone in the his toric area of the Green wood Dis trict. 5) A me mo rial for the re burial of any human remains found in for unmarked graves of riot victims.

3) The Issue of an Exten sion of the Tulsa Race Riot Commis sion

The Commis sion hereby en dorses and sup ports House Bill 2468, which extends the life of the Commis sion in order to fin ish the his tor i cal report on the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.

We, the members of the Tulsa Race Riot Com mis sion, re spect fully submit these find ings for your consid er ation. (Courtesy Special Collec tions Depart ment, McFarlin Li brary, Uni ver sity of Tulsa). History Knows No Fences: An Overview By John Hope Franklin and Scott Ellsworth As the cen ten nial of Oklahoma statehood tion, tum bling oil prices and truck loads of Okies draws near, it is not dif fi cult to look upon the streaming west. But through it all, there are two his tory of our state with anything short of awe twen ti eth cen tury trage dies which, sadly enough, and won der. In ninety-three short years, whole stand head and shoulders above the others. towns and cities have sprouted upon the prai - For many Oklaho mans, there has never been ries, great cul tural and edu ca tional in sti tu tions a darker day than , 1995. At two min - have risen among the blackjacks, and the utes past nine o’clock that morning, when the state’s agri cul tural and in dus trial output has far north ern face of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal sur passed even the wildest dreams of the Build ing in downtown Oklahoma City was Boom ers. In less than a cen tury, Oklahoma has blown inward by the dead li est act of terror ism transformed it self from a rawboned terri tory ever to take place on Amer i can soil, lives were more at home in the nineteenth cen tury, into shat tered, lives were lost, and the history of the now, as a new millen nium dawns about us, a state would never again be the same. shin ing exam ple of both the promise and the One-hundred-sixty-eight Oklaho mans died real ity of the Ameri can dream. In look ing back that day. They were black and white, Native upon our past, we have much to take pride in. Ameri can and His panic, young and old. And But we have also known heart aches as well. during the weeks that fol lowed, we began to As any honest history text book will tell you, learn a lit tle about who they were. We learned the first century of Oklahoma state hood has about Colton and Chase Smith, brothers aged also fea tured dust storms and a Great De- two and three, and how they loved their pression, po lit i cal scan dals and Jim Crow leg is la- playmates at the daycare center. We learned about

21 Per haps more than any thing else, what shocked most ob serv ers was the scope of the de struc tion in Tulsa. Prac ti cally the en tire Af ri can Amer i can dis trict, stretch ing for more than a mile from Ar cher Street to the sec tion line, had been re duced toa waste land of burned out build ings, empty lots, and black ened trees (Cour tesy De part ment of Spe cial Col lec tions, McFarlin Li brary, Uni ver sity of Tulsa).

Captain Randy Guzman, U.S.M.C., and how he seventy-three years before the Murrah Build ing had com manded troops dur ing Op er a tion Desert was bombed, the city of Tulsa erupted into a Storm, and we learned about Wanda Lee Howell, fire storm of hatred and vio lence that is per haps who always kept a Bible in her purse. And we unequaled in the peacetime history of the learned about Cartney Jean McRaven, a nine - . teen-year-old Air Force enlistee who had been For those hearing about the 1921 Tulsa race mar ried only four days ear lier. riot for the first time, the event seems almost im- The Murrah Build ing bomb ing is, without possi ble to be lieve. Dur ing the course of eigh - any ques tion, one of the great trag e dies of teen ter ri ble hours, more than one thousand Oklahoma his tory. And well before the last homes were burned to the ground. Practi cally me mo rial ser vice was held for the last vic tim, over night, en tire neigh bor hoods where fam i lies thou sands of Okla ho mans made it clear that had raised their children, vis ited with their they wanted what happened on that dark day to neighbors, and hung their wash out on the line to be re mem bered. For upon the chain-link fence dry, had been suddenly reduced to ashes. And as surround ing the bomb site there soon appeared the homes burned, so did their contents, in clud- a make shift me mo rial of the heart — of teddy ing fur ni ture and family Bibles, rag dolls and bears and handwrit ten children’s prayers, key hand-me-down quilts, cribs and photo graph al - rings and dreamcatchers, flowers and flags. bums. In less than twenty-four hours, nearly all Now, with the construc tion and ded i ca tion of of Tulsa’s Af ri can Ameri can res i den tial district the Oklahoma City Na tional Me mo rial, there — some forty-square-blocks in all — had been is no doubt but that both the vic tims and the laid to waste, leav ing nearly nine-thousand peo- les sons of April 19, 1995 will not be for got ten. ple home less. But what would have come as a sur prise to Gone, too, was the city’s Af ri can Amer i can most of the state’s cit i zens dur ing the sad com mer cial district, a thriv ing area lo cated spring of 1995 was that there were, among along Green wood Ave nue which boasted some them, other Okla ho mans who carried within of the finest black-owned busi nesses in the en - their hearts the painful mem o ries of an equally tire South west. The Stradford Hotel, a mod ern dark, though long ignored, day in our past. For fifty-four room brick es tab lish ment which

22 suggest that at least seventy-five to one-hundred peo ple, both black and white, were killed dur ing the riot. It should be added, how - ever, that at least one credi ble source from the pe riod — Maurice Willows, who di rected the re lief op er a tions of the Ameri can Red Cross in Tulsa fol low ing the riot — in di cated in his offi - cial report that the to tal number of riot fatal i ties may have ran as high as three-hundred.1 We also know a little, at least, about who some of the vic tims were. Reu ben Everett, who was black, was a la borer who lived with his wife Jane in a home along Ar cher Street. Killed by a The Gurley Building prior to the riot (Courtesy Greenwood Cultural Center). gunshot wound on the morn ing of June 1, 1921, he is buried in Oaklawn Ceme tery. George housed a drug store, barber shop, res tau rant Wal ter Daggs, who was white, may have died as and banquet hall, had been burned to the much as twelve hours earlier. The man ager of ground. So had the Gurley Hotel, the Red Wing the Tulsa office of the Pierce Oil Company, he Hotel, and the Midway Ho tel. Li terally doz ens of fam ily-run busi nesses—from ca fes and mom-and-pop gro cery stores, to the Dream land The ater, the Y.M.C.A. Cleaners, the East End Feed Store, and Osborne Monroe’s roller skat ing rink — had also gone up in flames, taking with them the live li hoods, and in many cases the life sav ings, of liter ally hun dreds of people. The of fices of two news pa pers — the Tulsa Star and the Oklahoma Sun — had also been de- stroyed, as were the of fices of more than a dozen doctors, den tists, lawyers, realtors, and other pro fes sion als. A United States Post Office sub - sta tion was burned, as was the all-black Frissell Me mo rial Hos pi tal. The brand new Booker T. Washing ton High School build ing es caped the torches of the riot ers, but Dunbar Ele men tary School did not. Nei ther did more than a half-dozen Afri can Amer i can churches, in clud - ing the newly con structed Mount Zion Bap tist Church, an im pres sive brick taber na cle which had been ded i cated only seven weeks ear lier. Harsher still was the human loss. While we will prob a bly never know the exact number of (Cour tesy of Green wood Cul tural Cen ter). peo ple who lost their lives dur ing the Tulsa race riot, even the most con ser va tive esti mates was shot in the back of the head as he fled from are ap pall ing. While we know that the the initial gunplay of the riot that out in so-called “offi cial” esti mate of nine whites and front of the Tulsa County Courthouse on the twenty-six blacks is too low, it is also true that evening of May 31. More over, Dr. A. C. Jack - some of the higher esti mates are equally du bi- son, a re nowned Af ri can Ameri can phy si cian, ous. All told, consid er able evi dence exists to was fa tally wounded in his front yard after he

23 The destruc tion affected the Afri can Amer i can busi ness section and the resi den tial neighbor hoods in North Tulsa (Cour tesy West ern His tory Col lec tions, Uni ver sity of Oklahoma Li braries). had surren dered to a group of whites. Shot in Like the Murrah Build ing bombing, the Tulsa the stom ach, he later died at riot would for ever al ter life in Oklahoma. No - Guard Armory. But for every riot victim’s where, per haps, was this more starkly appar ent story that we know, there are others — like the than in the mat ter of lynch ing. Like sev eral other “un iden ti fied Negroes” whose buri als are re - states and terri to ries dur ing the early years of the corded in the now yellowed pages of old fu - twen ti eth cen tury, the sad spec ta cle of lynch ing neral home ledgers — whose names and life was not un com mon in Oklahoma. In her 1942 stories are, at least for now, still lost. mas ter’s thesis at the Uni ver sity of Oklahoma, By any stan dard, the Tulsa race riot of 1921 Mary Eliz a beth Estes de ter mined that between is one of the great trag e dies of Oklahoma his- the dec la ra tion of state hood on Novem ber 16, tory. Walter White, one of the na tion’s fore - 1907, and the Tulsa race riot some thir teen years most ex perts on ra cial vio lence, who visited later, thirty-two in di vid u als — twenty-six of Tulsa during the week af ter the riot, was whom were black — were lynched in shocked by what had taken place. “I am able to Oklahoma. But dur ing the twenty years follow - state,” he said, “that the Tulsa riot, in sheer bru- ing the riot, the number of lynchings state wide tality and willful de struc tion of life and prop- fell to two. Al though they paid a ter ri ble price erty, stands with out par al lel in America.” 2 for their ef forts, there is lit tle doubt except by Indeed, for a num ber of observ ers through their ac tions on May 31, 1921, that black the years, the term “riot” itself seems some - Tulsans helped to bring the bar baric prac tice of how in ad e quate to de scribe the vio lence and lynch ing in Oklahoma to an end. con fla gra tion that took place. For some, what But unlike the , oc curred in Tulsa on May 31 and June 1, 1921 which has, to this day, re mained a high pro file was a massa cre, a , or, to use a more event, for many years the Tulsa race riot prac ti - mod ern term, an eth nic cleans ing. For oth ers, it cally dis ap peared from view. For de cades after - was noth ing short of a race war. But what ever wards, Oklahoma newspa pers rarely mentioned term is used, one thing is cer tain: when it was the riot, the state’s histor i cal es tab lish ment es - all over, Tulsa’s Af ri can Amer i can dis trict had sen tially ignored it, and en tire gen er a tions of been turned into a scorched waste land of va - Oklahoma school chil dren were taught lit tle or cant lots, crumbling store fronts, burned nothing about what had hap pened. To be sure, churches, and black ened, leafless trees. the riot was still a topic of conver sa tion, partic u -

24 larly in Tulsa. But these discus sions — the riot. Indeed, the riot was even news overseas, whether among fam ily or friends, in barber “FIERCE OUTBREAK IN OKLAHOMA” de - shops or on the front porch — were pri vate af- clared The Times of .5 fairs. And once the riot slipped from the head- But something else happened as well. For in lines, its pub lic mem ory also be gan to fade. the days and weeks that followed the riot, edi to - Of course, any one who lived through the riot rial writ ers from coast-to-coast un leashed a tor - could never forget what had taken place. And rent of sting ing condem na tions of what had in Tulsa’s Af ri can Amer i can neighbor hoods, taken place. “The bloody scenes at Tulsa, the phys i cal, psycho log i cal, and spir i tual dam- Oklahoma,” de clared the Phila del phia Bul le tin, age caused by the riot re mained highly appar - “are hardly conceiv able as happen ing in Amer i- ent for years. In deed, even to day there are can civi li za tion of the pres ent day.” For the Ken- places in the city where the scars of the riot can tucky State Jour nal, the riot was noth ing short of still be ob served. In North Tulsa, the riot was “An Oklahoma Disgrace,” while the Kan sas never for got ten — be cause it could not be. City Jour nal was re volted at what it called the But in other sections of the city, and else - “Tulsa Horror.” From both big-city dai lies and where through out the state, the riot slipped fur- small town newspa pers — from the Hous ton ther and further from view. And as the years Post and Nashville Tennes sean to the tiny Times passed and, partic u larly after World War II, as of Glouces ter, Mas sa chu setts — came a chorus more and more fam i lies moved to Oklahoma of criti cism. The Christian Recorder even went from out-of-state, more and more of the state’s so far as to de clare that “Tulsa has become a cit i zens had sim ply never heard of the riot. In- name of shame upon America.” 6 deed, the riot was discussed so little, and for so For many Oklaho mans, and partic u larly for long, even in Tulsa, that in 1996, Tulsa County whites in posi tions of civic respon si bil ity, such Dis trict At tor ney Bill LaFortune could tell a sen ti ments were most un wel come. For re gard- reporter, “I was born and raised here, and I had less of what they felt person ally about the riot, never heard of the riot.”4 in a young state where at tract ing new busi nesses How could this have happened? How could and new set tlers was a top pri or ity, it soon be - a disas ter the size and scope of the Tulsa race came ev i dent that the riot was a pub lic rela tions riot become, some how, forgot ten? How could night mare. No where was this felt more acutely such a major event in Oklahoma history be - than in Tulsa. “I sup pose Tulsa will get a lot of come so lit tle known? un pleas ant pub lic ity from this affair,” wrote one Some observ ers have claimed that the lack Tulsa-based pe tro leum geol o gist to fam ily of at ten tion given to the riot over the years was mem bers back East. Rev er end Charles W. Kerr, the di rect re sult of noth ing less than a “con spir- of the city’s all-white First Pres by te rian Church, acy of si lence.” And while it is cer tainly true added his own as sess ment. “For 22 years I have that a number of impor tant docu ments relat ing been boosting Tulsa," he said, “and we have all to the riot have turned up missing, and that been boosters and boasters about our buildings, some in di vid u als are, to this day, still re luc tant bank ac counts and other as sets, but the events of to talk about what hap pened, the shroud of si - the past week will put a stop to the bragging for a lence that de scended over the Tulsa race riot while.”7 For some, and partic u larly for Tulsa’s can also be accounted for with out re sort ing to white busi ness and polit i cal lead ers, the riot con spir acy theo ries. But one must start at the soon be came something best to be forgot ten, be gin ning. some thing to be swept well be neath his tory’s The riot, when it hap pened, was front-page car pet. news across Amer ica. “85 WHITES AND What is remark able, in ret ro spect, is the de - NEGROES DIE IN TULSA RIOTS” ran the gree to which this nearly hap pened. For within a head line in the June 2, 1921 edition of the New after it had hap pened, the Tulsa race riot York Times, while dozens of other news pa pers went from being a front-page, na tional calam ity, across the country published lead sto ries about to be ing an inci dent portrayed as an unfor tu nate,

25 which had happened in Tulsa on the same date fif teen years earlier, in clud ing local news sto - ries, polit i cal tid bits, and so ci ety . But when the fifteenth an ni ver sary of the race riot arrived in early June, 1936, the Tri bune ignored it com pletely — and in stead ran the follow ing: FIFTEEN YEARS AGO Miss Caro lyn Skelly was a charming young host ess of the past week, hav ing en- ter tained at a luncheon and the ater party for Miss Kathleen Sinclair and her guest, Miss Julia Morley of Saginaw, Mich. Corsage Despite the aid given by the Red Cross, black Tulsans faced a gar gan tuan task in the re build ing of Green wood. Li terally thou- bou quets of Cecil roses and sweet peas sands were forced to spend the win ter of 1921-22 liv ing in tents were pre sented to the guests, who were (Courtesy Oklahoma Histor i cal Soci ety). Misses Claudine Miller, Sharpe, Eliz a beth Cook, Jane Robin son, Pauline but not really very sig nif i cant, event in the state’s Wood, Ma rie Constantin, Irene Buel, past. Oklahoma his tory text books pub lished dur- Thelma Kennedy, Ann Kennedy, Na omi ing the 1920s did not mention the riot at all — Brown, Jane Wallace and Edith Smith. nor did ones pub lished in the 1930s. Finally, in 1941, the riot was mentioned in the Oklahoma Mrs. O.H.P. Thomas will enter tain for her vol ume in the in flu en tial Amer i can Guide Series daughter, Eliza beth, who has been attend ing — but only in one brief para graph.8 Randolph Macon school in Lynchburg, Va. Nowhere was this his tor i cal am ne sia more Central high school’s crown ing so cial startling than in Tulsa it self, es pe cially in the event of the term just closed was the se nior city’s white neighbor hoods. “For a while,” prom in the gymna sium with about 200 noted for mer Tulsa oilman Osborn Camp bell, guests in at ten dance. The grand march was “pic ture post cards of the vic tims in awful led by Miss Sara Lit tle and Seth Hughes. poses were sold on the streets," while more Miss Vera Gwynne will leave next week than one white ex-rioter “boasted about how for Chicago to enter the Uni ver sity of Chi - many notches he had on his gun.” But the riot, cago where she will take a course in kinder - which some whites saw as a source of local gar ten study. pride, in time more gener ally came to be re - garded as a local em bar rass ment. Even tually, Mr. And Mrs. E.W. Hance have as their Osborn added, “the talk stopped.”9 guests Mr. L.G. Kellenneyer of St. Mary’s, So too, ap par ently did the news stories. For Ohio. while it is highly question able whether — as it Mrs. C.B. Hough and her son, Ralph, left has been al leged — any Tulsa news pa per ac tu- last night for a three-months trip through ally discour aged its report ers from writing the west and north west. They will re turn about the riot, for years and years on end the home via Dal las, , where they will 11 riot does not ap pear to have been men tioned in visit Mrs. Hough’s homefolk. the local press. And at least one lo cal paper Ten years later, in 1946, by which time the seems to have gone well out of its way, at Tribune had added a “Twenty-Five Years Ago” times, to avoid the sub ject alto gether. fea ture, the news pa per once again avoided men- Dur ing the mid-1930s, the Tulsa Tri bune — tion ing the riot. It was as if the great est ca tas tro - the city’s af ter noon daily news pa per — ran a phe in the city’s his tory sim ply had not regu lar feature on its ed i to rial page called “Fif- happened at all.12 teen Years Ago.” Drawn from back is sues of That there would be some reluc tance to ward the news pa per, the col umn high lighted events dis cuss ing the riot is hardly sur pris ing. Cities

26 Dedi ca tion of the black wallstreet me mo rial in 1996 at tended by Rob ert Fairchild (Cour tesy Greenwood Cul tural Center). and states — just like in di vid u als — do not, as tact with Robert Fairchild, a rec re ation special ist a gen eral rule, like to dwell upon their past who was also one of Tulsa’s hand ful of Afri can short com ings. For years and years, for exam - Amer i can munic i pal em ploy ees. A riot sur vi vor, ple, Oklahoma school children were taught Fairchild told Feldman of his ex pe ri ences during only the most sani tized versions of the story of the di sas ter, which made a deep impres sion on the Trail of Tears, while the history of slav ery the young so ci ol o gist, who decided to share her in Oklahoma was more or less ignored al to - dis cov ery with her stu dents.13 gether. More over, dur ing the World War II But as it turned out, Feldman also soon years, when the nation was engaged in a life or learned something else, namely, that learn ing death strug gle against the Axis, history text - about the riot, and teach ing about it, were two books quite un der stand ably stressed themes of en tirely dif fer ent prop o si tions. “Dur ing my first national unity and con sen sus. The Tulsa race months at TU,” she later re called: riot, needless to say, did not qualify. I mentioned the race riot in class one day But in Tulsa itself, the riot had af fected far and was surprised at the uni ver sal sur prise too many fami lies, on both sides of the tracks, among my students. No one in this all- ever to sink en tirely from view. But as the white class room of both vet er ans, who were years passed and the riot grew ever more dis - older, and stan dard 18-year-old fresh men, tant, a mindset devel oped which held that the had ever heard of it, and some stoutly de - riot was one part of the city’s past that might nied it and questioned my facts. best be for got ten al to gether. Remark ably enough, that is ex actly what began to happen. I invited Mr. Fairchild to come to class and When Nancy Feldman moved to Tulsa dur - tell of his ex pe ri ence, walking along the rail - ing the spring of 1946, she had never heard of road tracks to Turley with his broth ers and sis- the Tulsa race riot. A Chica goan, and a new ter. Again, there was stout denial and, even bride, she accepted a po si tion teaching soci ol - more sur pris ing, many stu dents asked their ogy at the Univer sity of Tulsa. But trained in so- parents and were told, no, there was no race cial work, she also be gan working with the City riot at all. I was called to the Dean’s of fice and Health De part ment, where she came into con - ad vised to drop the whole sub ject.

27 The next se mes ter, I invited Mr. ter viewed eye wit nesses, wrote about their find - Fairchild to come to class. Sev eral times ings, and tried, as best as they could, to ensure that the Dean warned me about this. I do not be- the riot was not erased from history. lieve I ever suffered from this ex er cise of None, per haps, suc ceeded as spectac u larly as my freedom of speech . . . but as a very Mary E. Jones Parrish, a young Af ri can Amer i - young and new instruc tor, I certainly felt can teacher and journal ist. Parrish had moved to threat ened. Tulsa from Roch es ter, New York in 1919 or For Feldman, such behav ior amounted to 1920, and had found work teach ing typ ing and noth ing less than “Pur pose ful blindness and shorthand at the all-black Hunton Branch of the mem ory block ing.” Moreover, she dis cov ered, it Y.M.C.A.. With her young daugh ter, Florence was not lim ited to the class room. “When I would Mary, she lived at the Woods Build ing in the men tion the riot to my white friends, few would heart of the Af ri can Amer i can busi ness dis trict. talk about it. And they cer tainly didn’t want to.”14 But when the riot broke out, both mother and While per haps surpris ing in ret ro spect, daughter were forced to abandon their apart - ment and flee for their lives, run ning north along Feldman’s ex pe ri ences were by no means 17 unique. When Nancy Dodson, a Kan sas native Green wood Ave nue amid a hail of bul lets. who later taught at Tulsa Junior College, Im me di ately fol low ing the riot, Parrish was moved to Tulsa in 1950, she too dis cov ered hired by the Inter-Racial Commis sion to “do that, at least in some parts of the white commu - some re port ing” on what had hap pened. nity, the riot was a taboo sub ject. “I was ad - Throwing her self into her work with her char ac - mon ished not to mention the riot almost upon ter is tic verve — and, one imag ines, a borrowed our ar rival,” she later recalled, “Be cause of typewriter — Parrish inter viewed several eye - shame, I thought. But the ex pla na tion was wit nesses and tran scribed the testi mo ni als of ‘you don’t want to start an other.’”15 survi vors. She also wrote an account of her own The riot did not fare much better in lo cal his- har row ing ex pe ri ences dur ing the riot and, to - tory ef forts. While Angie Debo did make men- gether with pho to graphs of the dev as ta tion and a tion of the riot in her 1943 his tory, Tulsa: From par tial roster of property losses in the Af ri can Creek Town to Oil Capi tal , her account was Ameri can com mu nity, Parrish published all of both brief and super fi cial. And fourteen years the above in a book called Events of the Tulsa later, dur ing the sum mer of 1957, when the Di sas ter. And while only a handful of copies ap- city cel e brated its “Tulsarama” – a week-long pear to have been printed, Parrish’s was fes ti val com mem o rat ing the semi-centennial not only the first book pub lished about the riot, of Oklahoma state hood — the riot was, once and a pi o neer ing work of journal ism by an Afri - can Ameri can woman, but remains, to this day, again, ignored. Some thirty-five years after it 18 had taken the lives of dozens of inno cent peo - an in valu able con tem po rary account. ple, destroyed a neighbor hood nearly It took an other twenty-five years, how ever, one-square-mile in size in a firestorm which until the first gen eral his tory of the riot was writ- sent columns of black smoke bil low ing hun - ten. In 1946, a white World War II vet eran dreds of feet into the air, and brought the nor - named Loren L. Gill was at tend ing the mal life of the city to a com plete stand still, the Uni ver sity of Tulsa. In trigued by lin ger ing sto- Tulsa race riot was fast be com ing lit tle more ries of the race riot, and armed with both consid er - than a histor i cal incon ve nience, something, able energy and es ti ma ble research skills, Gill de cided to make the riot the sub ject of his master’s per haps, that ought not be discussed at all. 19 Despite such of fi cial neg li gence, how ever, thesis. there were al ways Tulsans through the years who The end re sult, “The Tulsa Race Riot,” was, helped make it certain that the riot was not for - all told, an excep tional piece of work, Gill got ten. Both black and white, some times work - worked dil i gently to un cover the causes of the ing alone but more often working together, they riot, and to trace its path of vi o lence and de - col lected ev i dence, pre served pho to graphs, in - struction, by scour ing old news pa per and mag a -

28 zine ar ti cles, Red Cross records, and lost both her home and her beauty shop dur ing gov ern ment docu ments. More over, Gill in ter - the con fla gra tion, and E.L. Goodwin, Sr., the viewed more than a dozen local cit i zens, in - pub lisher of the Oklahoma Eagle , the city’s clud ing po lice and city offi cials, about the riot. black news pa per. Al though the audi ence at the And re mark ably for the mid-1940’s, Gill also cer e mony — which included a handful of in ter viewed a num ber of Af ri can Amer i can riot whites — was not large, the event repre sented sur vi vors, in clud ing Rev er end Charles Lanier the first pub lic acknowl edg ment of the riot in Netherland, Mrs. Dimple L. Bush, and the decades. 22 noted attor ney, Amos T. Hall. And while a But an other epi sode that same spring also re - number of Gill’s conclu sions about the riot vealed just how far that Tulsa, when it came to have not withstood subse quent his tor i cal scru- own ing up to the race riot, still had to go. The tiny, few have matched his de ter mi na tion to pre vi ous autumn, Larry Silvey, the pub li ca tions un cover .20 manager at the Tulsa Chamber of Com merce, Yet de spite Gill’s accom plish ment, the riot decided that on the fif ti eth an ni ver sary of the remained well-buried in the city’s his tor i cal riot, the cham ber’s mag a zine should run a story closet. Riot survi vors, par tic i pants, and ob - on what had hap pened. Silvey then contacted serv ers, to be cer tain, still told sto ries of their Ed Wheeler, the host of ‘The Gilcrease Story," a ex pe ri ences to family and friends. And at pop u lar his tory pro gram which aired on lo cal ra- Tulsa’s Booker T. Wash ing ton High School, a dio. Wheeler — who, like Silvey, was white — hand ful of teachers made cer tain that their stu- agreed to research and write the arti cle. Thus, dents — many of whose fam i lies had moved to during the winter of 1970-71, Wheeler went to Tulsa after 1921 — learned at least a lit tle work, in ter view ing dozens of el derly black and about what had hap pened. But the fact re mains white riot eyewit nesses, and search ing through that for nearly a quarter of a century after archives in both Tulsa and Oklahoma City for Loren Gill completed his master’s thesis, the docu ments per tain ing to the riot.23 Tulsa race riot remained well out of the pub lic But something else happened as well. For on spotlight. 21 two sepa rate oc ca sions that winter, Wheeler But be neath the surface, change was afoot. was approached by white men, un known to him, For as the na tional debate over race rela tions who warned him, “Don’t write that story.” Not inten si fied with the emer gence of the modern long thereaf ter, Wheeler’s home telephone be - civil rights move ment of the 1950s and 1960s, gan ring ing at all hours of the day and night, and Tulsa’s own racial cus toms were far from one morn ing he awoke to find that some one had static. As the city be gan to ad dress is sues aris- taken a bar of soap and scrawled across the front ing out of school de seg re ga tion, sit-ins, job windshield of his car, “Best check un der your bias, hous ing discrim i na tion, ur ban re newal, hood from now on.” and white flight, there were those who believed But Ed Wheeler was a poor candi date for that Tulsa’s ra cial past — and partic u larly the such scare tac tics. A for mer United States Army race riot — needed to be openly con fronted. infan try offi cer, the inci dents only an gered him. Few felt this as strongly as those who had More over, he was now deep into try ing to piece sur vived the trag edy it self, and on the eve ning to gether the history of the riot, and was not of June 1, 1971, doz ens of Af ri can Amer i can about to be deterred. But to be on the safe side, riot sur vi vors gath ered at Mount Zion Baptist he sent his wife and young son to live with his Church for a program com mem o rat ing the fif- mother-in-law. 24 ti eth an ni ver sary of the riot. Led by W.D. Wil- De spite the ha rass ment, Wheeler completed liams, a longtime Booker T. Wash ing ton High his ar ti cle and Larry Silvey was pleased with School history teacher, whose family had suf- the results. How ever, when Silvey be gan to lay fered immense property loss dur ing the vio - out the story — com plete with never-before- lence, the other speak ers that eve ning in cluded pub lished pho to graphs of both the riot and its af- fellow riot sur vi vors Mable B. Little, who had termath cham ber of com merce manage ment

29 Rep re sen ta tive Don Ross at Greenwood and Archer (Courtesy Green wood Cul tural Center). killed the arti cle. Silvey appealed to the cham- Tulsans — and hardly any whites — even knew ber’s board of direc tors, but they, too, refused of its exis tence. 25 to al low the story to be pub lished. One of the few who did was Ruth Sigler De ter mined that his ef forts should not have Avery, a white Tulsa woman with a passion for been in vain, Wheeler then tried to take his his tory. A young girl at the time of the riot, story to Tulsa’s two daily news pa pers, but was Avery had been haunted by her mem o ries of the re buffed. In the end, his ar ti cle — called “Pro- smoke and flames ris ing up over the Af ri can file of a Race Riot” — was pub lished in Impact Ameri can dis trict, and by the two trucks carry - Mag a zine, a new, black-oriented publi ca tion ing the bodies of riot vic tims that had passed in edited by a young Af ri can Ameri can journal ist front of her home on East 8th Street. named Don Ross. De ter mined that the his tory of the riot needed “Profile of a Race Riot” was a hand-biting, to be pre served, Avery be gin in ter view ing riot path-breaking story, easily the best piece of survi vors, col lect ing riot pho to graphs, and serv- writ ing pub lished about the riot in de cades. But ing as a one-woman research bu reau for any one is was also a story whose im pact was both lim- in ter ested in study ing what had hap pened. Con- ited and far from citywide. For while it has vinced that the riot had been delib er ately cov - been reported that the issue con tain ing ered-up, Avery em barked upon what turned out Wheeler’s story sold out “vir tu ally overnight,” to be a de cades-long personal cru sade to see the maga zine’s reader ship, which was not that the true story of the riot was fi nally told.26 large to be gin with, was al most ex clu sively Af - Along the way, Avery met some kindred spir- ri can Amer i can. Ulti mately, “Pro file of a Race its — and none more impor tant that Mozella Riot” marked a turn ing point in how the riot Frank lin Jones. The daughter of riot survi vor would be writ ten about in the years to come, and prom i nent Af ri can Amer i can at tor ney Buck but at the time that it was published, few Colbert Franklin, Jones had long endeav ored to raise aware ness of the riot partic u larly outside

30 of Tulsa’s black com mu nity. While she was of - In 1975, Northeast ern State Uni ver sity his to- ten deeply frustrated by white re sis tance to con - rian Rudia M. Halliburton, Jr. pub lished The front ing the riot, her accom plish ments were far Tulsa Race War of 1921. Adapted from an ar ti - from incon se quen tial. Along with Henry C. cle he had published three years ear lier in the Whit low, Jr., a his tory teacher at Booker T. Jour nal of Black Studies, Halliburton’s book Washing ton High School, Jones had not only featured a remark able col lec tion of riot pho to- helped to deseg re gate the Tulsa His tor i cal So ci - graphs, many of which he had collected from his ety, but had mounted the first-ever ma jor exhi bi - students. Is sued by a small ac a demic press in tion on the his tory of Afri can Ameri cans in Cali for nia, Halliburton’s book received lit tle at- Tulsa. Moreover, she had also created, at the ten tion outside of schol arly cir cles. None the - Tulsa His tor i cal Soci ety, the first col lec tion of less, as the first book about the riot pub lished in riot pho to graphs available to the pub lic.27 more than a half-century, it was an other im por - None of these activ i ties, how ever, was by it- tant step toward un lock ing the riot’s his tory.31 self any match for the cul ture of si lence which In the end, it would still take several years — had long hov ered over the riot, and for years to and other books, and other in di vid u als — to lift come, dis cus sions of the riot were often cur - the veil of si lence fully which had long hov ered tailed. Taken to gether, the fif ti eth anni ver sary over the riot. How ever, by the end of the 1970s, cere mony, “Profile of a Race Riot," and the ef forts were un der way that, once and for all, work of Ruth Avery and Mozella Jones had would fi nally bring out into the open the history nudged the riot if not into the spotlight, then at of the tragic events of the spring of 1921.32 least out of the back reaches of the city’s his - 28 To day, the Tulsa race riot is any thing but tori cal closet. unknown. Moreover, these local ef forts mir rored some Dur ing the past two years, both the riot it self, larger trends in Ameri can soci ety. Nation - and the ef forts of Okla ho mans to come to terms wide, the de cade of the 1970s witnessed a vir- with the trag edy, have been the sub ject of doz - tual explo sion of inter est in the Afri can ens of mag a zine and news pa per arti cles, ra dio Ameri can ex pe ri ence. Millions of televi sion talk shows, and tele vi sion doc u men ta ries. In an viewers watched , the miniseries adap ta - un prec e dented and contin u ing explo sion of tion of Alex Haley’s chron i cle of one family’s press at ten tion, jour nal ists and film crews from tortu ous jour ney through slavery, while books as far away as Paris, France and London, Eng - by black au thors climbed to the top of the land have journeyed to Oklahoma to in ter view bestseller lists. Black studies programs and de- riot sur vi vors and eyewit nesses, search through part ments were cre ated at col leges from archives for docu ments and photo graphs, and coast-to-coast, while at both the high school walk the ground where the killings and burn ing and uni ver sity level, teaching ma te ri als be gan of May 31 and June 1, 1921 took place. to more fully ad dress is sues of race. As schol- Af ter years of neglect, sto ries and ar ti cles ars started to re-examine the long and tur bu lent about the riot have ap peared not only in his tory of race rela tions in America — in clud - Oklahoma mag a zines and newspa pers, but also ing ra cial vio lence — the Tulsa riot be gan to 29 in the pages of the Dallas Morn ing News, The re ceive some lim ited na tional expo sure . Econ o mist, the Kansas City Star, the London Sim i lar activ i ties took place in Oklahoma. Daily Telegraph , the Los An geles Times, the Kay M. Teall’s Black His tory in Oklahoma, an Na tional Post of Canada , , im pres sive col lec tion of histor i cal doc u ments Newsday, the Phila del phia In quirer, US. News pub lished in 1971, helped to make the his tory of and World Re port, USA Today , and the Wash- black Oklaho mans far more ac ces si ble to teach - ing ton Post. The riot has also been the sub ject of ers across the state. Teall’s book paid sig nif i cant wire sto ries is sued by the As so ci ated Press and at ten tion to the story of the riot, as did Ar thur Reuter’s. In addi tion, news sto ries and tele vi- Tolson’s The Black Okla ho mans: A His tory 30 sion doc u men ta ries about the riot have been pro- 1541-1972, which came out one year later. duced by ABC News Nightline , Aus tra lian

31 Broad cast ing, the BBC, CBS News’ 60 Min - riot survi vors, as well as the son of a white eye- utes II, CNN, Cinemax, The His tory Chan nel, witness. We are his to ri ans and archae ol o gists, NBC News, Na tional Pub lic Ra dio, Nor we- foren sic scien tists and legal schol ars, uni ver sity gian Broadcast ing, South Af ri can Broadcast - professors and retir ees. ing, and Swed ish Broadcast ing, as well as by a For the edi tors of this report, the riot also bears num ber of in-state televi sion and ra dio sta- con sid er able personal mean ing. Tulsa is our tions. Var i ous web sites and Internet chat hometown, and we are both gradu ates of the Tulsa rooms have also fea tured the riot, while in nu- Pub lic Schools. And al though we grew up in dif - merous high school and college class rooms fer ent eras, and in dif fer ent parts of town — and across Amer ica, the riot has become a sub ject heard about the riot, as it were, from differ ent of study. All told, for the first time in nearly sides of the fence — both of our lives have been eighty years, the Tulsa race riot of 1921 has indel i bly shaped by what hap pened in 1921. once again become front-page news.33 His tory knows no fences. While the stories What has not made the headlines, however, that black Okla ho mans tell about the riot of ten is that for the past two-and-one-half years, an dif fer from those of their white coun ter parts, it is inten sive ef fort has been qui etly un der way to the job of the his to rian to locate the truth wher- in ves ti gate, doc u ment, an a lyze, and better un - ever it may lie. There are, of course, many le git i- der stand the history of the riot. Ar chives have mate areas of dis pute about the riot — and will been searched through, old newspa pers and be, with out a doubt, for years to come. But far govern ment re cords have been studied, and so- more sig nif i cant is the tremen dous amount of phis ti cated, state-of-the-art scien tific equip- infor ma tion that we now know about the trag - ment has been utilized to help reveal the edy — about how it started and how it ended, poten tial loca tion of the unmarked burial sites about its ter ri ble and its mur der ous vi o- of riot victims. While liter ally doz ens of what lence, about the commu nity it devas tated and ap peared to be prom is ing leads for re li able new the lives it shattered. Neither myth nor “confu - in for ma tion about the riot turned out to be lit tle sion,” the riot was an ac tual, defin able, and de - more than dead ends, a sig nif i cant amount of scribable event. In Oklahoma his tory, the previ ously un avail able evi dence — includ ing central truths of which can, and must, be told. long-forgotten docu ments and pho to graphs — That won’t al ways be easy. For de spite the has been dis cov ered. many acts of courage, hero ism, and self less ness None of this, it must be added, could have that occurred on May 31 and June 1, 1921 — been possi ble without the gener ous as sis tance of some of which are de scribed in the pages that Okla ho mans from all walks of life. Scores of se- follow — the story of the Tulsa race riot is a nior citi zens — includ ing riot survi vors and ob - chroni cle of hatred and fear, of burn ing houses serv ers, as well as the sons and daugh ters of and shots fired in an ger, of jus tice de nied and po lice men, Na tional Guards men, and riot par tic- dreams de ferred. Like the bomb ing of the ipants have helped us to gain a much clearer pic- Murrah Fed eral Build ing some seventy-three ture of what happened in Tulsa dur ing the spring years later, there is sim ply no deny ing the fact of 1921. All told, liter ally hun dreds of Okla ho- that the riot was a true Oklahoma trag edy, per - mans, of all races, have given of their time, their haps our great est. mem o ries, and their ex per tise to help us all gain a But, like the bombing, the riot can also be a better un der stand ing of this great trag edy. bearer of les sons — about not only who we are, but This report is a prod uct of these combined also about who we would like to be. For only by ef forts. The schol ars who have writ ten it are all look ing to the past can we see not only where we Okla ho mans — either by birth, up bring ing, have been, but also where we are go ing. And as the res i dency, or fam ily heri tage. Young and first one-hundred years of Oklahoma state hood not-so-young, black and white, men and draws to a close, and a new cen tury be gins, we can women, we in clude within our ranks both the best honor that past not by bury ing it, but by fac ing grand niece and the son of Af ri can Amer i can it squarely, hon estly, and, above all, openly.

32 Endnotes 1For the so-called “offi cial” esti mate, see: Memo ran dum from Major Paul R. Brown, Sur geon, 3rd In fan try, Oklahoma National Guard, to the Adju tant General of Oklahoma, , 1921, lo cated in the At tor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Record Group 1-2, Case 1062, State Archives Di vi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. For the Maurice Wil lows es ti mates, see: “Di sas ter Re lief Re port, Race Riot, ,” p. 6, re printed in Rob ert N. Hower, “An gels of Mercy”: The Amer i can Red Cross and the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot (Tulsa: Home stead Press, 1993). 2New York Call, , 1921. 3Mary Eliz a beth Estes, “An Histor i cal Sur vey of Lynchings in Oklahoma and Texas” (M.A. thes is, Uni ver sity of Oklahoma, 1942), pp. 132-134 4Jona than Z. Larsen, “Tulsa Burning,” Civi li za tion , IV, I (Feb ru ary/March 1997), p. 46. 5New York Times, June 2, 1921, p. 1. [London, England] The Times, June 2, 1921, p. 10. 6Phila del phia Bul le tin, , 1921. [Frank fort] Ken tucky State Jour nal, , 1921. “Mob Fury and Race Ha tred as a Na tional Dis grace,” Lit er ary Di gest, , 1921, pp. 7-9. R.R. Wright, Jr., “Tulsa,” Chris tian Re corder, , 1921. 7The ge ol o gist, Rob ert F. Truex, was quoted in the Roch es ter [New York] Herald , June 4, 1921. The Kerr quote is from “Causes of Riots Discussed in Pulpits of Tulsa Sunday,” an unattributed , 1921 arti cle located in the Tuskegee Insti tute News Clip ping File, micro film edi tion, Series 1, “1921 — Riots, Tulsa, Oklahoma, ” Reel 14, p. 754. 8 Jo seph P. Thoburn and Muriel H. Wright, Oklahoma: A History of the State and Its Peo ple (New York: Lewis His tor i cal Pub lishing, 1929). Muriel H. Wright, The Story of Oklahoma (Oklahoma City: Webb Pub lishing Com pany, 1929-30). Ed ward Everett Dale and Jesse Lee Rader, Read ings in Oklahoma History (Evanston, Il li nois: Row, Pe ter son and Company, 1930). Victor E. Harlow, Oklahoma: Its Or i gins and Devel op ment (Oklahoma City: Harlow Publishing Com pany, 1935). Muriel H. Wright, Our Oklahoma (Guthrie: Co-operative Pub lishing Com pany, 1939). [Oklahoma Writers’ Pro ject] Oklahoma: A Guide to the Sooner State (Nor man: Uni ver sity of Oklahoma Press, 1941), pp. 208-209. 9Osborn Camp bell, Let Freedom Ring (To kyo: Inter-Nation Company, 1954), p. 175. 10In 197 1, a Tulsa Tri bune re porter wrote that, “For 50 years The Tri bune did not re hash the story [of the riot].” See: “Murder ous Race Riot Wrote Red Page in Tulsa History 50 Years Ago,” Tulsa Tri bune, June 2, 1971, p. 7A. A very brief ac count of the riot that not only gave the wrong dates for the con flict, but also claimed that “No one knew then or remem bers how the shooting began—ap peared in the on No vem ber 7, 1949. On the re luc tance of the lo cal press to write about the riot, see: Brent Sta pes, “Un earthing a Riot” New York Times Mag a zine, De cem ber 19, 1999, p. 69; and, oral his tory in ter view with Ed Wheeler, Tulsa, Feb ru ary 27, 1998, by Scott Ellsworth. 11Tulsa Tri bune, June 2, 1936, p. 16 12Ibid., May 31, 1946, p. 8; and June 2, 1946, p. 8. The Tulsa World, to its credit, did men tion the riot in its “Just 30 Years Ago” col umns in 1951. Tulsa World. June 1, 1951, p. 20; June 2, 1951, p. 4; and June 4, 1951, p. 6. 13 Tele phone in ter view with Nancy Feldman, Tulsa, , 2000. Let ter from Nancy G. Feldman, Tulsa, , 2000, to Dr. Bob Blackburn, Oklahoma City. On Rob ert Fairchild see: Oral History In ter view with Rob ert Fairchild, Tulsa, , 1978, by Scott Ellsworth, a copy of which can be found in the Special Col lec tions De part ment, McFarlin Li brary, Uni versity of Tulsa; and, Eddie Faye Gates, They Came Searching: How Blacks Sought the Prom ised Land in Tulsa (Austin: Eakin Press, 1997), pp. 69-72. 14 Feldman letter, op cit. 15Let ter from Nancy Dodson, Tulsa, June 4, 2000, to John Hope Franklin, Durham, . 16 Angie Debo, Tulsa: From Creek Town to Oil Cap i tal (Norman: Uni ver sity of Oklahoma Press, 1943). On the “Tulsarama,” see: Bill But ler, ed., “Tulsarama! Histor i cal Souve nir Pro gram,” and Quentin Peters, “Tulsa, I.T.,” two circa-1957 pamphlets located in the Tulsa his tory verti cal subject files at the Oklahoma Histor i cal Soci ety library, Oklahoma City. 17 Mary E. Jones Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter (N.p., n.p., n.d.). in 1998. A reprint edi tion of Parrish’s book was published by Out on a Limb Pub lishing in Tulsa. Tulsa City Di rec tory, 1921 (Tulsa: Polk-Hoffhine Direc tory Com pany, 1921).

33 18 Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Di sas ter (rpt. ed.; Tulsa: Out on a Limb Pub lishing, 1998), pp. 27, 31-77, 115-126. Prior to the pub li ca tion of Parrish’s book, how ever, a “book let about the riot was is sued by the Black Dis patch Press of Oklahoma City in July, 1921. Written by Martin Brown, the book let was ti tled, ”Is Tulsa Sane?" At present, no copies are known to exist. 19 Loren L. Gill, “The Tulsa Race Riot” (M.A. the sis, Univer sity of Tulsa, 1946). 20 Ibid. Ac cord ing to his thesis ad viser, Wil liam A. Settle, Jr., Gill was later highly criti cal of some of his origi nal inter pre ta tions. During a visit to Tulsa during the late 1960s, af ter he had served as a Peace Corps volun teer, Gill told Settle that he bad been “too hard” on black Tulsans. 21 Scott Ellsworth, Death in a Prom ised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 (Baton Rouge: Lou i si ana State Univer sity Press, 1982), pp. 104-107. Gina Henderson and Marlene L. Johnson, “Black Wall Street,” Emerge, ) 4 (Feb ru ary, 2000), p. 71. The lack of pub lic rec og ni tion given to the riot during this period was not limited to Tulsa’s white commu nity. A survey of back issues of the Oklahoma Eagle — long the city’s flag ship Afri can Ameri can news pa per — re vealed neither any arti cles about the riot, nor any mention of any commem o ra tive cer e mo nies, at the time of the twenty-fifth anni ver sary of the riot in 1946. The same also ap plied to the thirti eth and forti eth an niver sa ries in 1951 and 1961. 22Oklahoma Eagle , June 2, 197 1, pp. 1, 10. Tulsa Tri bune, June 2, 197 1, p. 7A. Sam Howe Verhovek, “75 Years Later, Tulsa Confronts Its Race Riot," New York Times, May 31, 1996, p. 12A. In ter view with E.L. Goodwin, Sr., Tulsa, No vem ber 21, 1976, in Ruth Sigler Avery, Fear: The Fifth Horse man — A Doc u men tary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, un pub lished manuscript. See also: Mable B. Little, Fire on Mount Zion: My Life and History as a Black Woman in Ameri can (Langston, OK: The Black Think Tank, 1990); Beth Macklin, “’Home’ Im por tant in Tulsan’s Life,” Tulsa World, No vem ber 30, 1975, p. 3H; and Mable B. Lit tle, “A His tory of the Blacks of North Tulsa and My Life (A True Story),” type script dated , 1971. 23 Telephone in ter view with Larry Silvey, Tulsa, Au gust 5, 1999. Oral his tory in ter view with Ed Wheeler, Tulsa, Feb ru ary 27, 1998, by Scott Ellsworth. See also: Brent Sta pes, “Un earthing a Riot, ” New York Times Mag a zine, Decem ber 19, 1999, p. 69. 24 Ed Wheeler inter view. 25Ibid. Larry Silvey in ter view. Ed Wheeler, “Profile of a Race Riot,” Im pact Mag a zine, IV (June-July 197 1). Sta ples, “Un earthing a Riot,” p. 69. 26 Avery, Fear: The Fifth Horseman . Wil liam A. Settle, Jr. and Ruth S. Avery, “Report of De cem ber 1978 on the Tulsa County His tor i cal So ci ety’s Oral His tory Pro gram,” type script lo cated at the Tulsa His tor i cal So ci ety. Tele phone in ter view with Ruth Sigler Avery, Tulsa, Septem ber 14, 2000. 27 Mozella Jones Collec tion, Tulsa His tor i cal So ci ety. John Hope Frank lin and John Whit tington Frank lin, eds., My Life and An Era: The Au to bi og ra phy of Buck Colbert Frank lin (Ba ton Rouge: Lou i si ana State Uni ver sity Press, 1997). John Hope Frank lin, “Tulsa: Prospects for a New Mil len nium,” re marks given at Mount Zion Baptist Church, Tulsa, June 4, 2000. Whit low also was an author ity on the history of Tulsa’s Afri can Amer i can com mu nity. See: Henry C. Whit low, Jr., “A His tory of the Green wood Era in Tulsa,” a pa per presented to the Tulsa Histor i cal Soci ety, March 29, 1973. 28Dur ing this same pe riod, a num ber of other Tulsans also en deav ored to bring the story of the riot out into the open. James Ault, who taught so ci ol ogy at the Uni ver sity of Tulsa during the late 1960s, in ter viewed a num ber of riot survi vors and eye wit nesses. So did Bruce Hartnitt, who directed the eve ning pro grams at Tulsa Ju nior College during the early 1970s. Harnitt’s father, who had man aged the truck fleet at a West Tulsa re fin ery at the time of the riot, later told his son that he had been or dered to help trans port the bodies of riot victims. Telephone in ter view with James T. Ault, Omaha, Ne braska, Febru ary 22, 1999. Oral history in ter view with Bruce Hartnitt, Tulsa, , 1998, by Scott Ellsworth. 29John Hope Franklin and Al fred A. Moss, Jr., From Slavery to Freedom: A His tory of Af ri can Amer i cans, 7th edi tion (New York: Al fred A. Knopf, 1994), p. 476. Rich ard Maxwell Brown, Strain of Vi o lence: His tor i cal Studies of Ameri can Vi o lence and (New York: Ox ford Uni ver sity Press, 1975). Lee E. Wil liams and Lee. E. Wil liams 11, Anatomy of Four Race Riots: Racial Conflict in Knoxville, Elaine (Ar kan sas), Tulsa and Chic ago, 1919-1921 (Hattiesburg: Uni ver sity and Col lege Press of Missis sippi, 1972). 30Kay M.Teall, ed., Black His tory in Oklahoma: A Re source Book (Oklahoma City: Oklahoma City Pub lic Schools, 1971). Ar thur Tolson, The Black Oklaho mans: A History, 1541-1972 (New Or leans: Edwards Printing Com pany, 1972). 31Rudia M. Halliburton, Jr., The Tulsa Race War of 1921 (: R and E Re search Asso ci ates, 1975).

34 32Fol low ing the pub li ca tion of Scott Ellsworth’s Death in a Prom ised Land in 1982, a num ber of books have been pub lished which deal ei ther di rectly or in di rectly with the riot. Among them are: Mabel B. Little, Fire on Mount Zion (1990); Rob ert N. Hower, “An gels of Mercy”: The Ameri can Red Cross and the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot (Tulsa: Home stead Press, 1993); Eddie Faye Gates, They Came Searching (1997); Doro thy Mo ses DeWitty, Tulsa: A Tale of Two Cities (Langston, OK: Melvin B. Tolson Black Heri tage Center, 1997); Danney Goble, Tulsa!: Biog ra phy of the Ameri can City (Tulsa: Coun cil Oak Books, 1997); and, Hannibal B. John son, Black Wall Street: From Riot to Re nais sance in Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood Dis trict (Austin: Eakin Press, 1998). The riot has inspired some fiction al ized treat ments as well, includ ing: Ron Wallace and J.J. Johnson, Black Wall Street. A Lost Dream (Tulsa: Black Wall Street Pub lishing, 1992); Jewell Parker Rhodes, Magic City (New York: Harper Collings, 1997); a chil dren’s book, Hannibal B. Johnson and Clay Portis, Up From the Ashes: A Story About Building Com mu nity (Austin: Eakin Press, 2000); and a mu si cal, “A Song of Green wood,” book and music by Tim Long and Jerome Johnson, which premiered at the Green wood Cultural Cen ter in Tulsa on , 1998. And more books, it should be added, are on the way. For as of the summer of 2000, at least two journal ists were un der con tract with na tional pub lish ers to re search and write books about the riot and its leg acy. Fur ther more, a num ber of Tulsans are also said to be involved with book projects about the riot. 33Oklahoma news pa pers have, not surpris ingly, provided the most ex pan sive cov er age of recen t riot-related news. In par tic u lar, see: the report ing of Melissa Nelson and Christy Watson in the Daily Okla ho man; the nu mer ous non-bylined stories in the Oklahoma Ea gle; and the exten sive cov er age by Julie Bryant, Rik Espinosa, Brian Ford, Randy Krehbiel, Ashley Parrish, Jimmy Pride, Rita Sherrow, Rob ert S. Walters, and Heath Weaver in the Tulsa World. For exam ples of national and in ter na tional cov er age, see: Kelly Kurt’s wire stories for the As so ci ated Press (e.g., “Sur vi vors of 1921 Race Riot Hear Their Hor ror Re told,” Un ion-Tribune, Au gust 10, 1999, p A6); V. Dion Haynes, “Panel Digs Into Long-Buried Facts About Tulsa Race Riot,” , , 1999, Sec. 1, p. 6-, Fred er ick Bur ger “The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot: A Holo caust America Wanted to For get,” The Crisis , CVII, 6 (No vem ber-December 1999), pp. 14-18; Ar nold Ham il ton, “Panel Urges Rep a ra tions in Tulsa Riot,” Dallas Morn ing News, Febru ary 5, 2000, pp. IA, 22A; “The Riot That Never Was,” The Econ o mist, , 1999, p. 29; Tim Madigan, “Tulsa’s Terri ble Secret,” Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Janu ary 30, 2000, pp. 1G, 6-7G; Rick Montgom ery, “Tulsa Looking for the Sparks That Ignited Deadly Race Riot”, Kan sas City Star, Septem ber 8, 1999, pp. Al, A10; James Langton, “Mass Graves Hold the Se crets of Amer i can Race Massa cre, ” Lon don Daily Tele graph, March 29, 1999; Claudia Kolker, “A City’s Buried Shame,” Times, Octo ber 23, 1999, pp. Al, A16; Jim Yardley, “Panel Recom mends Rep a ra tions in Long-Ignored Tulsa Race Riot,” New York Times, Febru ary 5, 2000, pp. Al, A10; Martin Ev ans, “A Costly Legacy,” Newsday, No vem ber 1, 1999; Gwen Florio, “Oklahoma Recalls Deadliest Race Riot,” Phila del phia Inquirer , May 31, 1999, pp. Al, A9; Ben Fenwick, “Search for Race Riot Answers Leads to Graves,” Reuter’s wire story #13830, Sep tem ber 1999; Warren Cohen, “Dig ging Up an Ugly Past,” U.S. News and World Re port, Janu ary 31, 2000, p. 26; Tom Kenworthy, “Oklahoma Starts to Face Up to ‘21 Mas sa cre,” USA To day, Feb ru ary 18, 2000, p. 4A; and Lois Romano, “Tulsa Airs a Race Riot’s Leg acy,” Wash ing ton Post, Jan u ary 19, 2000, p. A3. The riot has also been the subject of a num ber of tele vi sion and radio news stories, doc u m en ta ries, and talk shows during the past two years. The more com pre hen sive docu men ta ries in clude: “The Night Tulsa Burned,” The His tory Chan nel, Feb ru ary 19, 1999; “Tulsa Burning,” 60 Min utes II, No vem ber 9, 1999; and, ‘The Tulsa Lynching of 1921: A Hid den Story", Cinemax, May 31, 2000.

35

(Cour tesy De part ment of Spe cial Col lec tions, McFarlin Li brary, Uni ver sity of Tulsa).

The Tulsa Race Riot By Scott Ellsworth His tory does not take place in a vac uum. Of all the qual i ties that im pressed His tor i cal events, be they great or small, do out-of-town vis i tors about Tulsa in the days be - not exist in iso la tion, but are a product of the fore the race riot, one of them was just how new age dur ing which they oc curred. Often times, and up-to-date ev ery thing seemed. From the the rea sons why a par tic u lar his tor i cal in ci dent mod ern of fice buildings that were ris ing up out turned out the way it did can be readily lo cated, of downtown, to the electric trolleys that rum - while for others, the causes may be more diffi - bled back and forth along Main Street, to the cult to lo cate. In both cases, one rule still holds rows of freshly painted houses that kept push - true: that the events of the past can not be sep a - ing the city limits further and further into the rated from the era when they oc curred. surround ing country side, com pared to other cit - The same applies to the Tulsa race riot as ies, Tulsa was noth ing short of an over night sen- well. To un der stand the riot, one cannot be gin sa tion. In deed, Tulsa had grown so much and so with the first shot that was fired, nor even with fast — in a now-you-don’t-see-it, now-you-do the seemingly in sig nif i cant chain of events that kind of fash ion — that local boosters called it led to the first signs of real trouble. Rather, we the Magic City. must be gin with the spirit of the times. Only see- The elixir which had fu eled this remark able ing the world as Tulsans did in 1921, and by growth was, of course, oil. The dis cov ery of the grasping both their passions and their fears, can nearby Glenn Pool — reputed to be the “richest we compre hend not only how this great trag edy small oil field in the world” — in 1905, and by could oc cur, but why, in the end, that it did. the far sight ed ness of local lead ers to build a bridge across the Ar kan sas River one year ear -

37 A birds eye view of Tulsa in 1918 (Cour tesy Mark Adkinson). lier, the sleepy ru ral cross roads known as rea son it was al ready be ing re ferred to as the Oil Tulsa, Indian Terri tory was suddenly cat a- Capi tal of the World. pulted into the ur ban age. Despite its youth, Tulsa also had acquired, by By 1910, thanks to the forest of der ricks 1921, prac ti cally all of the trappings of older, which had risen up over the nearby oil fields, more estab lished Ameri can cit ies. Four dif fer- Tulsa had mushroomed into a rau cous boom - ent rail roads — the Frisco, the Santa Fe, the town of more than 10,000. Aston ish ingly, its Katy, and the Mid land Val ley — served the city, real growth was only be gin ning. As the word as did two sepa rate inter-urban train lines. A began to spread about Tulsa — as a place new, all-purpose bridge spanned the Arkan sas where fortunes could be made, lives could be River near Elev enth Street, while street re pair, re built, and a fresh start could be had — peo ple owing to the ever-increasing numbers of au to- liter ally be gan to pour in from all over the mobiles, was practi cally con stant. By 1919, country. Re mark ably enough, by 1920, the Tulsa also could boast of having its own com - pop u la tion of greater Tulsa had skyrock eted to mer cial air port. more than 100,000. A new city hall had been built in 1917, a new The city that these new com ers had built was, federal building in 1915, and a new county in many ways, equally remark able. An chored courthouse in 1912. New schools and parks also by the oil indus try, and by its new role as the had been ded i cated, and in 1914, the city hub of the vast Mid-Continent Field, by 1921 erected a mag nif i cent new audi to rium, the 3,500 Tulsa was home to not only the offices of more seat Con ven tion Hall. Tulsa had grown so than four-hundred dif fer ent oil and gas com pa- quickly,in fact, that even the old city cem e tery nies, but also to a score of oil field sup ply com- had to be closed to new buri als. In its place, the panies, tank man u fac tur ers, pipe line city had des ig nated Oaklawn Ceme tery, lo cated com pa nies, and re fin er ies. While the city also at Elev enth Street and Peoria Av e nue, as the enjoyed its role as a regional com mer cial cen- new city ceme tery. 2 ter, serving nearby farms and ranches, for good

38 In 1921, Tulsa could lay claim to two daily and Irving Heights were built year af ter year. newspa pers the Tulsa World, a morn ing pa per, Some f the new homes were so pa la tial that they and a newly renamed after noon daily, the were reg u larly fea tured on picture post cards, Tulsa Tri bune plus a hand ful of week lies. Ra - cham ber of com merce pamphlets, and other dio had not ar rived yet, but the city was con - publi ca tions extol ling the vir tues of life in nected to the larger world through four Tulsa.4 differ ent telegraph compa nies. Telephone ser - So too, not sur pris ingly, was down town. With vice also ex isted — with some ten-thousand its modern office buildings, its graceful stone phones in use by 1918 — al though churches, and its busy night life, it is easy to see long-distance service was still in its infancy. why Tulsans — partic u larly those who worked, While the city was linked both to nearby towns played, or worshiped down town — were so and to the state capi tal at Oklahoma City by a proud of the city’s ever- grow ing sky line. What net work of roads, rail travel was by far the fast- the pamphlets and the picture post cards did not est and most reli able mode of transpor ta tion in re veal was that, de spite its im pres sive new ar - and out of town. chitec ture and its increas ingly urbane af fec ta - Seven dif fer ent banks, some of which were tions, Tulsa was a deeply trou bled town. As capi tal ized at more than one-million dollars 1920 turned into 1921, the city would soon face each, were lo cated downtown, as were the of - a cross roads that, in the end, would change it fices of dozens of insur ance agen cies, in vest- for ever. ment advis ers, ac count ing firms, stock and How ever, chamber of com merce pamphlets bond bro ker ages, real es tate agen cies, and loan and the pic ture post cards did not reveal every - compa nies. By 1921, more than two-hundred thing. Tulsa was, in some ways, not one city but attor neys were prac tic ing in Tulsa, as were two. Prac ti cally in the shadow of downtown, more than one-hundred-fifty doctors and sixty there sat a commu nity that was no less re mark - dentists. able than Tulsa itself. Some whites dis par ag- Frequently awash in , the cit i zens of ingly referred to it as “Lit tle Af rica,” or worse, Tulsa had plenty of places to spend it from fur- but it has become known in later years sim ply as ni ture stores, jewelry shops, and cloth ing Greenwood. 5 In the early months of 1921, it was stores to res tau rants and cafes, mo tion picture the home of nearly ten-thousand Af ri can Amer i - the aters, bil liard , and speakeas ies. Those can men, women, and chil dren. who could af ford it could find just about any - Many had ties to the region that stretched thing in Tulsa, from the latest in fash ion to the back for gen er a tions. Some were the de scen- most modern home ap pli ances, in clud ing vac- dants of Af ri can Amer i can slaves, who had ac - uum cleaners, electric washing machines and compa nied the Creeks, Chero kees, and Victrolas. For those whose luck had run dry, Choc taws on the Trail of Tears. Others were the the city had its share of pawnshops and sec - chil dren and grand chil dren of run away slaves ond-hand stores.3 who had fled to the In dian nations in the years Many Tulsans were es pe cially proud of the prior to and dur ing the Civil War. A few el derly city’s res i den tial neigh bor hoods — and with resi dents, some of whom were later inter viewed good reason. From the work ing man’s cas tles by WPA workers dur ing the 1930s, had been that offered elec tric lighting, indoor plumb ing, born into slav ery.6 and spacious front porches, to the real cas tles How ever, most of Tulsa’s Af ri can Amer i can that were be ing built by the oil barons, the city resi dents had come to Oklahoma, like their could boast of block after block of handsome, white neigh bors, in the great boom years just be- modern homes. While Tulsa was by no means fore and after statehood. Some had come from with out its dreary room ing houses and pov erty Mis sis sippi, some from , and oth ers stricken side streets, brand new neigh bor hoods had journeyed all the way from Geor gia. For with names like Ma ple Ridge, Sunset Park, many, Oklahoma repre sented not only a chance Glen Acres, Col lege Addi tion, Gurley Hill, to es cape the harsher ra cial re al i ties of life in the

39 Frank lin’s ex pe ri ences, how ever, were hardly unique, and scat tered about Green wood were other busi ness men and busi ness women who had first tried their luck in smaller commu ni ties. In the end, how ever, their ear lier diffi cul ties of ten proved to be an as set in their new home. Full of en ergy and well-schooled in en tre pre- neurialism, these new set tlers brought con sid er - able business skills to Tulsa. Aided by the buoyant local economy, they went to work on building busi ness en ter prises that rested upon stur dier economic foun da tions. By early 1921, the commu nity that they built was, by na tional stan dards, in many ways quite remark able. 8 Run ning north out of the down town com mer - cial dis trict — and shaped, more or less, like an elongated jig saw puzzle piece — Green wood was bor dered by the Frisco railroad yards to the south, by Lan sing Street and the Mid land Val ley B. C. Frank lin (Cour tesy John Hope Frank lin). tracks to the east, and by Standpipe and Sunset Hills to the west. The section line, now known as Pine Street, had for many years been the north ern most boundary of the Af ri can Amer i - for mer states of the Old South, but was liter ally can settle ment, but as Tulsa had grown, so had a land of hope, a place worth sac ri fic ing for, a Greenwood. By 1921, new all-black hous ing de- place to start anew. And come they did, in wag- velop ments — such as the Booker T. Wash ing- ons and on horse back, by train and on foot. ton and Dunbar Ad di tions — now reached past While some of the new set tlers came di rectly to Pine and into the open coun try side north of the Tulsa, many others had first lived in smaller city. com mu ni ties — many of which were all-black, The back bone of the com mu nity, how ever, or nearly so — scat tered throughout the state. was Green wood Av e nue. Running north for B.C. Frank lin was one. Born in a small more than a mile — from Archer Street and the country cross roads about twenty miles south - Frisco yards all the way past Pine — it was not west of Pauls Val ley, Frank lin’s family had only black Tulsa’s primary thor ough fare, but roots in Oklahoma that stretched back to the also pos sessed consid er able sym bolic mean ing days of the old Chicka saw Nation dur ing the as well. Unlike other streets and ave nues in Civil War. An in tel li gent and de ter mined Tulsa, which criss crossed both white and black young man, Frank lin had attended college in neighbor hoods, Greenwood Ave nue was es sen - Ten nes see and Geor gia, but re turned to Indian tially con fined to the Af ri can Amer i can com mu- Ter ri tory to open up a law prac tice. He even tu - nity.9 ally set tled in Rentiesville, an all-black town The southern end of Green wood Av e nue, and located be tween Muskogee and Checotah, adja cent side streets, was the home of the Afri - where he became not only the sole lawyer in can Ameri can com mer cial dis trict. Nick named town, but also its postmas ter, its jus tice of the “Deep Green wood,” this sev eral block stretch of peace, and one of its lead ing business men. hand some one, two, and three-story red brick How ever, as his son John Hope Frank lin later build ings housed doz ens of black-owned and wrote, “there was not a decent living in all oper ated businesses, in clud ing gro cery stores those ac tiv i ties.” Thus, in Feb ru ary 1921, B.C. and meat mar kets, cloth ing and dry good stores, Frank lin moved to Tulsa in the hopes of setting bil liard halls, beauty parlors and barber shops, up a more lucra tive practice. 7

40 Cen tered along busy Green wood Av e nue, Tulsa’s Af ri can-American com mer cial dis trict was a bona fide Amer i can suc cess story. Home to lit er ally doz ens of black-owned and op er ated busi nesses in the days be fore the riot, “Deep Green wood” could also lay claim to a pub lic li brary, a postal sub sta tion, a Y. M. C. A. branch, and the of fices of two news pa pers (Cour tesy Don Ross). as well as the Economy Drug Company, Wil - For a commu nity of its size, the Green wood liam An der son’s jewelry store, Henry Lilly’s busi ness dis trict could boast of a number of im- up hol stery shop, and A.S. Newkirk’s pho tog- pres sive com mer cial structures. John and Loula raphy studio. A suit of clothes purchased at Wil liams, who owned the three-story Williams Elliott & Hooker’s cloth ing empo rium at 124 Building at the north west corner of Green wood N. Greenwood, could be fit ted across the street Av e nue and Ar cher Street, also op er ated the at H.L. Byars’ tailor shop at 105 N. Green - seven-hundred-fifty seat Dream land Theater, wood, and then cleaned around the corner at that of fered live mu si cal and theat ri cal re vues as Hope Watson’s cleaners at 322 E. Ar cher. well as silent movies accom pa nied by a There were plenty of places to eat includ ing player. Across the street from the Dreamland late night sand wich shops and bar be cue joints sat the white-owned Dixie Theater with seat ing to Doc’s Bean ery and Hamburger Kelly’s for one-thousand, which made it the sec ond place. Lilly Johnson’s Liberty Cafe, recalled larg est the ater in town. In nearby build ings were Mabel Little, who owned a beauty shop in the of fices of nearly all of Tulsa’s black law yers, Green wood at the time of the riot, served realtors, and other profes sion als. Most im pres - home-cooked meals at all hours, while at the sively, there were fif teen Afri can Ameri can nearby Lit tle Cafe, “peo ple lined up waiting physi cians in Tulsa at the time of the riot, in - for their specialty — chicken or smothered clud ing Dr. A.C. Jackson, who had been de - steak with rice and brown gravy.” A scribed by one of the Mayo brothers as the Coca-Cola, a sar sa pa rilla, or a soda could be “most able Ne gro surgeon in America”. 11 bought at Rolly and Ada Huff’s con fec tion ery The over all in tel lec tual life of Green wood on Ar cher between De troit and . Al- was, for a commu nity of its size, quite striking. though both the nation and Oklahoma were There was not one black news pa per but two - the nom i nally dry, there were also places where a Tulsa Star and the Oklahoma Sun. Af ri can man or a woman could pur chase a shot of Ameri cans were discour aged from uti liz ing the boot leg whis key or a milky-colored glass of new Car ne gie li brary downtown, but a smaller, Choctaw .10 all-black branch li brary had been opened on Ar-

41 cher Street. Na tionally rec og nized Af ri can a tan gi ble sym bol, of the fact that Af ri can Amer- Ameri can lead ers, such as W.E.B. DuBois, had icans had also shared, to some degree, in lectured in Tulsa before the riot. More over, Tulsa’s great eco nomic boom. While modest in Green wood was also home to a lo cal business com par i son with the fortunes be ing amassed by league, var i ous frater nal or ders, a Y.M.C.A. the city’s white million aires, Greenwood was branch, and a number of women’s clubs, the home to some highly success ful busi ness entre - last of which were of ten led by the more than pre neurs. O.W. Gur ley, a black real es tate de vel- thirty teachers who taught in the city’s sep a - oper and the owner of the Gurley Hotel, rate — and, as far as facil i ties were concerned, report edly suf fered some $65,000 in losses dur - decid edly un equal — Af ri can Ameri can pub- ing the riot. Even more im pres sive was the busi- lic schools. ness re sume of J.B. Stradford, whose as sets The polit i cal is sues of the day also at tracted were said to be nearly twice as large. Stradford, consid er able in ter est. The Tulsa Star, in par tic- a highly success ful owner of rental prop erty, ular, not only provided ex ten sive cov er age of had borrowed $20,000 in order to construct his na tional, state, and local polit i cal cam paigns own ho tel. Opened on June 1, 1918, the and elec tion results, but also devoted sig nif i - Stradford Hotel, a mod ern fifty-four room cant column space for re cord ing the activ i ties structure, instantly became not only one of the of the local all-black Demo cratic and Repub li - true jewels of Green wood Av e nue, but was also can clubs. More over, also paid atten - one of the largest black-owned busi nesses in tion to a number of quasi-political movements Oklahoma.14 as well, in clud ing ’s Uni ver sal Most of the black-owned busi nesses in Tulsa Ne gro Im prove ment As so ci a tion, differ ent were, of course, much more modest af fairs. back-to-Africa movements, and vari ous na - tional ist or ga ni za tions. One such group, the Afri can Blood Brother hood, later claimed to have had a chapter in Green wood prior to the riot.12 When it came to re li gious ac tiv ity, how ever, there was no ques tion at all where Tulsa’s Af ri- can Amer i can com mu nity stood. Church mem - bership in Tulsa ran high. On a per ca pita basis, there were more churches in black Tulsa than there were in the city’s white com mu nity as well as a number of Bi ble study groups, Chris- tian youth or ga ni za tions, and chapters of na - tional re li gious soci et ies. All told, there were One of the Mann Grocery stores of the Greenwood dis trict more than a dozen Af ri can Ameri can churches (Cour tesy Green wood Cul tural Cen ter). in Tulsa at the time of the riot, in clud ing First Bap tist, Vernon A.M.E., Brown’s Cha pel, Scattered about the district were nu mer ous Morning Star, Bethel Sev enth Day Ad ven tist, small stores, from two-seater barber shops to and Par a dise Bap tist, as well as Church of God, fam ily-run gro cery stores, that helped to make Nazarene, and Church of God in Christ congre - pre-riot Green wood, on a per ca pita ba sis, one of gations. Most im pres sive from an ar chi tec tural the most busi ness-laden Af ri can Amer i can com - stand point, per haps, was the beauti ful, brand muni ties in the coun try. Grit, hard work, and de- new home of Mount Zion Baptist Church, ter mi na tion were the main rea sons for this which was ded i cated on , 1921 — less suc cess, as were the entre pre neur ial skills that than eight weeks before the riot.13 were imported to Tulsa from smaller com mu ni - The new Mount Zion Baptist Church build- ties across Oklahoma. ing (con structed of brick and mortar) also was There were other reasons as well. Tulsa’s booming economy was a major fac tor, as was

42 the fact that, on the whole, Greenwood was not chased tour ing cars, and in gen eral sought to only the place where black Tulsans chose to mimic the life styles of their more estab lished shop, but was also practi cally the only place coun ter parts back East, there was a corre spond - that they could. Hemmed in by the city’s res i- ing boom in the market for do mes tic help. Such den tial seg re ga tion or di nance, Af ri can Amer i- po si tions were of ten open to Af ri can Amer i cans cans were gener ally barred from pa tron iz ing as well as whites, and by early 1921, up ward of white-owned stores down town — or ran the two-hundred black Tulsans were re sid ing in oth- risk of in sult, or worse, if they tried. While er wise all-white neighbor hoods, es pe cially on many black Tulsans made a con scious de ci sion the city’s ever grow ing south side. Working as to patron ize Af ri can Ameri can mer chants, the maids, cooks, but lers, and chauffeurs, they lived fact of the mat ter was that they had few oth ers in servant’s quar ters that, more often than not, places to go.15 were attached to ga rages lo cated at the rear of There was no dearth of Af ri can Amer i can their em ployer’s prop erty. consum ers. De spite the grow ing fame of its For the men and women who lived and commer cial dis trict, the vast ma jor ity of worked in these po si tions, a visit to Green wood Green wood’s adults were neither busi ness men — be it to at tend Sunday ser vices, or sim ply to nor business women, but worked long hours, visit with family and friends — was of ten the under try ing con di tions, for white employ ers. highlight of the week. Whether they caught a Largely barred from employ ment in both the picture show at the Dream land or the Dixie, or oil in dus try and from most of Tulsa’s man u fac- merely win dow-shopped along Green wood Av- tur ing fa cil i ties, these men and women toiled at e nue, they, too, could take both pride and own- diffi cult, often dirty, and gener ally me nial jobs ership in what lay before them.18 Its poverty and — the kinds that most whites con sid ered be - lack of ser vices not with stand ing, there was no neath them—as jan i tors and ditch-diggers, ques tion that Green wood was an Amer i can suc- dishwash ers and maids, por ters and day labor - cess story. ers, do mes tics and service work ers. Un sung Yet, de spite its hand some business district and largely forgot ten, it was, never the less, and its brand-new brick church, and the their pay checks that built Greenwood, and rags-to-riches careers of some of its lead ing cit i - their hard work that helped to build Tulsa.16 zens, neither Green wood’s pres ent, nor its fu - Equally for got ten per haps, are the housing ture, was by any means se cure. By the spring of condi tions that these men and women returned 1921, trouble — real trouble — had been brew- to at the end of the day. Al though Greenwood ing in Tulsa for some time. When it came to is- contained some beauti ful, mod ern homes — sues of race — not just in Tulsa or in Oklahoma, par tic u larly those of the doc tors, busi ness own- but all across Amer i can — the problems were n’t ers, and ed u ca tors who lived in the fash ion able sim ply brewing. They had, in fact, al ready ar - 500 block of North De troit Ave nue along the rived. shoul der of Standpipe Hill — most Af ri can In the long and often painful history of race Amer i cans in pre-riot Tulsa lived in far more rela tions in the United States, few pe ri ods were mea ger cir cum stances. Accord ing to a study as turbu lent as the years surround ing World War conducted by the Amer i can Asso ci a tion of So- I, when the country exploded into an era of al - cial Workers of liv ing con di tions in black most un prec e dented ra cial strife. In the year Tulsa shortly be fore the riot, some “95 per cent 1919 alone, more than two dozen differ ent race of the Ne gro res i dents in the black belt lived in ri ots broke out in cities and towns across the na- poorly con structed frame houses, with out con- tion. Un like the racial dis tur bances of the 1960s veniences, and on streets which were unpaved and the 1990s, these ri ots were char ac ter ized by and on which the drain age was all sur face.”17 the spec ter of white mobs in vad ing Af ri can Not all black Tulsans, however, lived in Ameri can neighbor hoods, where they attacked Green wood. As the city boomed and the black men and women and, in some cases, set newly-minted oil tycoons built mansions, pur- their homes and busi nesses on fire.19

43 These ri ots were set off in dif fer ent ways. In Troops were called in to quell the distur bance, Chi cago, long-simmering tensions between but the sol diers — all of whom were white — in- blacks and whites over hous ing, rec re ation, stead in vaded the Af ri can Amer i can dis trict and and jobs were ig nited one Sunday after noon in “shot it up.” In Omaha, Ne braska, a sim i lar sit u - late . A group of teenaged Af ri can a tion rapidly devel oped af ter William Brown, Ameri can boys, hop ing to find some re lief who was black, was ar rested for alleg edly as - from the ris ing temper a tures, climbed aboard a sault ing a young white girl. A mob of an gry home made raft out on Lake Mich i gan. They whites then stormed the court house where ended up drift ing op po site an all-white beach. Brown was be ing held, shot him, hung him The white beach-goers, meanwhile, who were from a nearby lamppost, and then muti lated his al ready an gered by an attempt by a group of body be yond rec og ni tion.22 black men and women to uti lize that beach ear- The savage attack on William Brown bru tally lier that day, began hurling stones at the demon strated just how pas sion ately many white youths, kill ing one, and setting off nearly two Ameri cans felt about situ a tions in volv ing inter - weeks of ra cial terror. In the end, more than racial sexual re la tions. While this sub ject — thirty-eight people — both black and white — which has a long and com pli cated his tory in the were killed in Chi cago, and scores and scores United States — can not be dealt with in a de - of homes were burned to the ground.20 tailed fash ion here, suffice it to say that dur ing A race riot in Washing ton, D.C., which the post- era, and for many years broke out ear lier that sum mer, followed a more typ i cal pat tern. Af ter ru mors had been cir cu lat- ing for weeks that rapists were on the loose, a white woman claimed that she had been sexu - ally assaulted by two young Af ri can Amer i can men. Al though she later ad mit ted that her orig- i nal story was false, the white press built up the in ci dent, and ra cial tensions rose. Then, on July 19, the Washing ton Post pub lished yet an- other story of an al leged assault — “NEGROES ATTACK GIRL” ran the head - line, “WHITE MEN VAINLY PURSUE.” The next day, the na tion’s capi tal erupted into ra - cial vio lence, as groups of white soldiers, sail - ors, and Marines be gan to “mo lest any black person in sight, haul ing them off of street cars and out of res tau rants, chas ing them up al leys, and beat ing them mer ci lessly on street cor - ners.” At least six people were killed and more than a hundred were in jured. Af ter whites threatened to set fire to Af ri can Amer i can neighbor hoods, or der was finally re stored when the sec re tary of war called out some two-thousand fed eral troops to pa trol the streets.21 Alleged sexual as saults played a role in two other race ri ots that broke out that year. In Afri can Amer i cans ral lied sol idly be hind the na tion’s war ef fort Knoxville, Tennes see, a white mob gathered during World War I, and thou sands of black soldiers served in outside the jail where a black male was being France. Upon their re turn to the U. S., how ever, many black vets found that the democ racy that they had fought to protect over- held for sup pos edly at tack ing a white female. seas was often unavail able to them back home (Courtesy Oklahoma Histor i cal Soci ety).

44 be fore and after, per haps no crime was viewed rants and other pub lic estab lish ments, while in as more egregious by many whites than the the class rooms of Ivy League col leges and uni- rape, or attempted rape, of a white woman by a versi ties, a new sci en tific — which held black male.23 that whites from northern Europe were innately Riots, however, were not the only form of su pe rior to all other hu man groups — was all the ex tra le gal vio lence faced by Af ri can Amer i- rage. In Washing ton, the admin is tra tion of Pres- cans dur ing the World War I era. In 1919 i dent Woodrow Wil son proposed dozens of alone, more than seventy-five blacks were laws which man dated discrim i na tory treat ment lynched by white mobs — in clud ing more than against Afri can Ameri cans. And across the a dozen black soldiers, some of whom were country, racist white poli ti cians con stantly mur dered while still in uniform. More over, preyed upon ra cial fear and hostil ity. 26 They many of the so-called lynchings were growing soon had a new ally. ever more barbaric. Dur ing the first year fol - Re-established in At lanta in 1915, the low ing the war, eleven Af ri can Ameri cans so-called sec ond Ku Klux Klan had adopted were burned — alive — at the stake by white both the name and famil iar hooded robes of its mobs.24 nineteenth century prede ces sor, but in many Across the na tion, blacks bit terly resisted ways was a brand new orga ni za tion. Launched these at tacks, which were of ten made worse by the same year that D.W. Grif fith’s anti-black the fact that in many instances, local po lice au- block buster, The Birth of a Na tion, was re leased thori ties were un able or un will ing to dis perse in movie the aters na tion wide, Klan orga niz ers the white mobs. As the vi o lence con tin ued, and fanned out across the country, es tab lish ing the death count rose, more and more Af ri can power ful state orga ni za tions not only in the Ameri can leaders came to the conclu sion that South, but also in places like , In di- noth ing less than the very future of black men ana, and Or e gon. While Afri can Amer i cans and women in America hung in the bal ance. were of ten the recip i ents of the polit i cal in tim i - World War I had done much to clarify their dation, beatings, and other forms of vio lence think ing. In the name of de moc racy, Af ri can meted out by klansmen, they were not the only Amer i cans had solidly supported the war ef - tar gets of the new reign of ter ror. Klan members fort. Black sol diers — who were placed in seg- also reg u larly attacked , Cath o lics, Jap a- re gated units — had fought gal lantly in France, nese Amer i cans, and immi grants from south ern winning the re spect not only of Allied com - Eu rope, as well as suspected boot leg gers, adul- manders, but also of their Ger man foes. Hav ing ter ers, and other al leged crimi nals. 27 risked their lives and shed their blood in Eu - Al though still a young state, many of these rope, many black veter ans felt even more na tional trends were well-represented in strongly that not only was it time that democ - Oklahoma. Like their coun ter parts else where, racy was prac ticed back home, but that it was a black Okla ho mans had rallied strongly be hind long time over due.25 the war ef fort, pur chas ing Liberty Bonds, hold - They re turned home to a nation not only ing pa tri otic rallies and tak ing part in home plagued by race ri ots and lynchings, but also front conser va tion ef forts. More than a few Afri - by a poi son ous racial cli mate that, in many can Ameri can men from Oklahoma — in clud - ways, was only grow ing worse. The very same ing a large number of Tulsans — had en listed in years that saw the emer gence of the United the army. Some, like legend ary Booker T. States as a ma jor world power also witnessed, Wash ing ton High School football coach Sey - back home, the rise of some ag gres sive and in- mour Williams, had fought in France.28 sid i ous new forms of white racism. But when Oklahoma’s black World War I Moreover, the new ra cial climate was far veter ans fi nally re turned to ci vil ian life, they, from lim ited to the South. Less than fifty years too, came home to a state where, sadly enough, af ter the Civil War, a number of northern cities anti-black sen ti ments were alive and well. In began to bar Af ri can Amer i cans from restau - 1911, the Oklahoma state leg is la ture passed the

45 The Ku Klux Klan gripped Oklahoma in the 1920s, this cer e mony was in Lone Grove (Cour tesy West e rn His tory Col lec tion, Uni ver sity of Oklahoma Li braries). in fa mous “Grand fa ther Clause”, which ef fec- twenty-three black Okla ho mans — in clud ing tively ended vot ing by Afri can Amer i cans two women — were lynched by whites in more state wide. While the law was ruled un con sti tu - than a dozen differ ent Oklahoma commu ni ties, tional by a unan i mous vote by the U.S. Su - in clud ing Anadarko, Ardmore, Eufaula, preme Court four years later, other methods Holdenville, Idabel, Lawton, Madill, were soon employed to keep black Okla ho - Mannford, Muldrow, Nor man, Nowata, mans from the polls. Nor did the Jim Crow leg- Okemah, Oklahoma City, Purcell, Shawnee, isla tion stop there. In the end, the state Wag oner, and Wewoka.30 legis la ture passed a number of seg re ga tion The Sooner State also proved to be fer tile stat utes, in clud ing one which made Oklahoma ground for the newly revived Ku Klux Klan. Es- the first state in the Un ion to seg re gate its tele- timates vary, but at the height of its power in the phone booths.29 mid-1920s, it is believed that there were more Racial vi o lence, directed against black than 100,000 klansmen in Oklahoma. Chapters Oklaho mans, also was a grim re al ity during existed statewide, and the orga ni za tion’s mem - this pe riod. In large part ow ing to con di tions of bership rolls in cluded farm ers, ranch ers, min ers, fron tier law less ness, Oklahoma had long been oil field work ers, small town merchants, big city plagued by lynch ings, and dur ing the ter ri to rial business men, minis ters, news pa per ed i tors, po- days, numer ous suspected horse thieves, cat tle licemen, ed u ca tors, law yers, judges, and pol i ti- rus tlers, and out laws, the vast ma jor ity of cians. Most Klan activ i ties — in clud ing cross whom were white, had been lynched by white burn ings, pa rades, night riding, whippings, and mobs. However, from 1911 on ward, all of the other forms of vio lence and in tim i da tion — state’s lynch ing victims, save one, were Afri - tended to be local in na ture, al though at one can Amer i can. And dur ing the next de cade, point the polit i cal clout of the state or ga ni za tion

46 was so great that it managed to launch im- sit ting between them, head ing east in open tour- peach ment pro ceed ings against Gov er nor John ing cars. Suspected bootleg gers, wife-cheaters, C. Walton, who opposed the Klan.31 and auto mo bile thieves were among the most Tulsa, in partic u lar, be came a lively center com mon victims — but they weren’t the only of Klan ac tiv ity. While member ship figures ones. In , black Dep uty sher iff John are few and far between — one esti mate held Henry Smitherman was kidnaped by klans men, that there were some 3,200 mem bers of the who sliced off one of his ears. Fif teen months Tulsa Klan in De cem ber 1921 — per haps as later, Na than Hantaman, a Jew ish movie pro jec- many as six-thousand white Tulsans, at one tion ist, was kidnaped by Klan mem bers, who time or an other, be came mem bers of the Klan nearly beat him to death. The city’s Catho lic includ ing sev eral prom i nent local lead ers. At pop u la tion also was the tar get of consid er able one Klan ini ti a tion cere mony, that took place abuse, as Tulsa klansmen tried to force lo cal in the coun try side south of town dur ing the busi ness men to fire their Cath o lic employ ees. 34 summer of 1922, more than one-thousand new Not all white Tulsans, of course, or even a mem bers were initi ated, caus ing a huge traffic major ity, belonged to the Ku Klux Klan in the jam on the road to Bro ken Ar row. Tulsa also 1920s. Among the city’s white Prot es tants, there was home to a thriv ing chapter of the Women were many who dis dained both the Klan’s tac - of the Ku Klux Klan as well as be ing one of the tics and beliefs. Nonethe less, at least un til the few cit ies in the coun try with an ac tive chapter mid-1920s, and in some ways all the way un til of the orga ni za tion’s offi cial youth affil i ate, the end of the de cade, there is no doubt but that the Ju nior Ku Klux Klan. There were Klan pa- the Ku Klux Klan was a power ful force in the rades, Klan funer als, and Klan fund-raisers in- life of the city.35 clud ing one wildly success ful 1923 ben e fit Less easy to doc u ment, how ever, is whether that netted some $24,000, when 13 Ford au to - the Klan was orga nized in Tulsa prior to the mo biles were raffled off. In time, the Tulsa 1921 race riot. While there have been a num ber Klan grew so sol vent that it built its own brick of alle ga tions over the years claim ing that the au di to rium, Beno Hall — short, it was said, for Klan was directly involved in the riot, the ev i- “Be No Nigger, Be No Jew, Be No Cath o lic” dence is quite scanty — in either direc tion — as — on Main Street just north of downtown. to whether or not the Klan had an ac tual or ga ni - The local Klan also was highly ac tive in pol- zational pres ence in the city prior to August itics in Tulsa. It reg u larly is sued lists of 1921, some two months after the riot. How ever, Klan-approved candi dates for both state and since this is an area of con tin u ing in ter est, it lo cal polit i cal of fices, that were prom i nently may prove help ful to ex am ine this ev i dence a bit displayed in Tulsa news pa pers. Accord ing to more closely. one stu dent of the Klan in Tulsa Country dur- Accord ing to the best available scholar ship, ing the 1920s, “may ors, city com mis sion ers, the first Klan orga niz ers to of fi cially visit sher iffs, dis trict at tor neys, and many other city Oklahoma—George Kimbro, Jr. and George C. and county of fice holders who were ei ther McCarron, both from Hous ton — did not ar rive klansmen or Klan support ers were elected, and until the sum mer of 1920. Setting up head quar- reelected, with reg u lar ity.” In 1923, three of ters in the Balti more Build ing in down town the five members of the Oklahoma House of Oklahoma City, McCarron stayed on in the state Repre sen ta tives from Tulsa Coun try were ad - capi tal, and be gan look ing for future klansmen mit ted klans men.33 among the member ship of the city’s vari ous In ad di tion to cross burnings, Tulsa Klan white frater nal or ders. Accord ing to Carter Blue mem bers also rou tinely engaged in acts of vio - Clark, whose 1976 doc toral dis ser ta tion re mains lence and intim i da tion. Richard Gary, who the stan dard work on the his tory of the Ku Klux lived off Admi ral Boule vard dur ing the early Klan in Oklahoma, McCarron “shortly had 1920s, still has vivid mem o ries of hooded twelve Kleagles [assis tant orga niz ers] work ing klansmen, a soon-to-be horsewhipped victim out of his of fice sell ing mem ber ships through -

47 out the city, and very soon through out the The fact the broth ers ran the ad ver tise ment state.” While Clark concluded that the Klan would seem to suggest that on the eve of the “could not be credited with precip i tat ing the riot, the exis tence of the Ku Klux Klan in Tulsa riot” — a find ing shared by most scholars of was far from com mon knowl edge, perhaps re - the riot — he also de ter mined that Klan or ga- flect ing member ship num bers that were still niz ers had been ac tive in the Tulsa region be - low.40 fore hand. The riot would change all of that. Begin ning The fact that Tulsa would have been an early with what one stu dent of the his tory of the Klan desti na tion for Klan orga niz ers — who, like de scribed as “the first open sign of the Klan’s their coun ter parts else where, were paid on a pres ence in Tulsa” in early , more commis sion basis — is en tirely reason able. than two months after the riot, the Klan liter ally Not only did Tulsa it self offer a large base of ex ploded across the city. On August 10, more poten tial mem bers, but the city was a likely than two-thousand peo ple attended a lecture at jumping-off place for or ga niz ing the nearby oil Con ven tion Hall by a Klan spokesman from At- fields.37 lanta. Three weeks later, on the evening of Au - Other evi dence also points toward there be - gust 31, some three-hundred white Tulsa men ing members of the Klan in Tulsa prior to the were initi ated into the Klan at a cer e mony held riot. In the ser mon he deliv ered on Sunday eve- outside of town. Three days later, masked klans- ning, June 5, 1921 — only four days after the men kid naped an al leged boot leg ger named J.E. riot — Bishop E.D. Mouzon told pa rish io ners Frazier and took him to a re mote spot outside of at Ave nue Method ist Church that, Owasso and whipped him se verely. After the “There may be some of you here tonight who county at tor ney sub se quently an nounced that he are mem bers of the Ku Klux Klan.” Further - would take no action against the klansmen, and more, research con ducted by Ruth Avery in the in ti mated that the victim proba bly got what he 1960s and 1970s also points toward pre-riot deserved, more whippings soon fol lowed. With Klan member ship in Tulsa.38 the at tack on J.E. Frazier, Tulsa’s Klan era be - How ever, other evi dence sug gests that, if gan in ear nest. any thing, the Klan had a very lim ited pres ence Despite the lack of con vinc ing ev i dence link- in Tulsa before the riot. Through out the first ing the Klan to the out break of the riot in the five months of 1921, for exam ple, the Tulsa months that fol lowed, Klan orga niz ers used the Tri bune did not hes i tate to print stories about riot as a re cruit ing tool. The Klan lec turer from Ku Klux Klan activ i ties else where, but gave who vis ited Tulsa in August 1921 de - no hint of there be ing any in Tulsa.39 clared that “the riot was the best thing that ever More over, only one week before the riot, on happened to Tulsa,” while other Klan spokes - , 1921, the Tri bune carried an adver - men preyed upon the heightened emotional tise ment for the May Brothers cloth ing store state of the white commu nity after the riot. which poked fun at the Klan. An nouncing that However was made, it soon became the down town men’s cloth iers had cre ated its abun dantly clear that Tulsa was prime re cruit ing own “Kool Klad Klan,” the ad ver tise ment ter ri tory for the Ku Klux Klan. In deed, it had went on to ex plain that this was a “hot weather been for quite some time.41 so ci ety” whose members would re ceive dis - Despite the fact that seg re ga tion ap peared to counts on their purchases of sum mer cloth ing. be gain ing ground state wide, in the months lead- “Men who join the K.K.K. pay less for their ing up to the riot, more than a few white Tulsans summer clothes and get more out of them,” ran instead feared, at least in Tulsa it self, that the the ad copy, “Palm Beach is the fa vor ite suit of op po site was true. Many were es pe cially in - most mem bers.” What went un spo ken, how - censed when black Tulsans disre garded, or ever, is that the May brothers were Jew ish im- chal lenged, Jim Crow prac tices. Others were mi grants from Rus sia, something that made both en raged at, and jeal ous of, the mate rial them likely can di dates for Klan ha rass ment. suc cess of some of Greenwood’s lead ing cit i -

48 zens — feelings that were no doubt increased new skyscrap ers and im pres sive mansions, its by the sharp drop in the price of crude oil, and booming oil in dus try and its rags-to-riches mil - the subse quent layoffs in the oil fields, that lion aires, some vis i tors — like the federal agent preceded the riot. Indeed, an uniden ti fied who spent five days under cover in Tulsa in late writer for one white Tulsa publi ca tion, the Ex- April, 1921 — saw a far dif fer ent side of lo cal change Bu reau Bul le tin, later listed “niggers life. In his “Report on Vice Con di tions in with money” as one of the so-called causes of Tulsa”, the agent had found that: the catas tro phe. Dur ing the weeks and months Gambling, boot leg ging and pros ti tu tion lead ing up to the riot, there were more than a are very much in evi dence. At the leading few white Tulsans who not only feared that the hotels and room ing houses the bell hops color line was in danger of be ing slowly and por ters are pimp ing for women, and erased, but believed that this was al ready hap- 42 also sell ing booze. Re gard ing vio la tions of pening. the law, these prosti tutes and pimps so licit Adding to these fears was the simple real ity with out any fear of the police, as they will that, at the time, the vast major ity of white invari ably re mind you that you are safe in Tulsans possessed almost no di rect knowl edge these houses. of the Af ri can Ameri can commu nity whatso - The agent concluded, “Vice con di tions in this ever. Al though a handful of whites owned 48 busi nesses in Greenwood, and a few others oc- city are ex tremely bad.” casion ally visited the area for one reason or an- Few Tulsans, in those days, would have been other, most white Tulsans had never set foot in sur prised by the agent’s findings. In ad di tion to the Af ri can Ameri can dis trict, and never the city’s grow ing fame as the Oil Cap i tal, Tulsa would. Liv ing in all-white neigh bor hoods, at - also was gain ing something of a rep u ta tion — tend ing all-white schools and churches, and and not just region ally, but also among New work ing for the most part in all- white work York bankers and insur ance men — as a en vi ron ments, the ma jor ity of white Tulsans in wide-open town, a place where crime and crim i - 1921 had lit tle more than fleet ing con tact with nals were as much a part of the oil boom as well the city’s black pop u la tion. What lit tle they logs and drill ing rigs. knew, or thought they knew, about the Af ri can Most cer tainly, there was plenty of evi dence Ameri can com mu nity was sus cep ti ble not only to sup port such a con clu sion. Well-known gam- to ra cial ste reo types and deeply-ingrained prej- bling dens — like Dutch Weete’s place three udices, but also to rumor, in nu endo, and, as miles east of the fairgrounds, or Puss Hall’s events would soon prove, what was printed in roadhouse along the Turley high way — flour - the news pa per. ished on the outskirts of town, while within the Such con di tions, it turned out, proved help- city, both a for tune in oil royal ties, or a rough - ful to the Klan, and both before and after the neck’s wages, could be gam bled away, night af- riot, Klan orga niz ers ex ploited the ra cial con - ter night, in poker games in any num ber of cerns of white Tulsans as a method of boosting hotels and room ing houses. member ship. However, the or ga niz ers also Dur ing the Prohi bi tion era, both Oklahoma used something else. Race rela tions was not and the nation were sup pos edly dry, al though the only major soci etal issue that weighed one would not know it from a visit to Tulsa. One heavily on the of many Tulsans during well-known local wa ter ing hole flourished in the months that led up to the riot. Rather, they the Boston Building, less that two blocks from were also deeply con cerned about something police headquar ters, while scat tered across the else — something that, in the end, proved to be city were a number of il le gal bars of fer ing corn a gate way to catas tro phe. whiskey, choc beer, or the lat est rage, “Jake" or Of all the vis i tors who came to Tulsa in the gin ger. In Green wood, cus tom ers with a months preced ing the riot, not ev ery one left taste for live music with their whis key might town with a pos i tive image. De spite the city’s frequent Pretty Belle’s place, while on the south side of town, the well-to-do oil set, it was said,

49 pur chased their li quor from a woman living at to do something about the local crime con di - Third and Elgin. Ho tel por ters and bell hops tions. In 1914, the Minis te rial Alli ance had reg u larly deliv ered pints and quarts to their mounted a cam paign against gam bling and other guests, while an active boot leg ging network forms of vice. Five years later, a group of oper ated out of the city’s drug stores and phar- well-known white lead ers formed a “Com mit tee macies. For custom ers who placed a premium of One Hun dred” to combat local crime prob - on discre tion, both boot leg gers and taxi driv- lems. Two years after that, in early 1921, the ers alike would also make regu lar home de liv - group was revived, vow ing to see that a “clean eries. 44 sweep of crim i nals is made here and that the Il le gal drugs were also pres ent. Morphine, laws are en forced.”48 co caine, and opium could all be pur chased in How ever, there was a dark side to lo cal Tulsa, ap par ently with out much diffi culty. In - anti-crime ef forts as well. As young as the city deed, one month before the riot, fed eral nar - of Tulsa was in the spring of 1921, it could al - cot ics of fi cer Charles C. Post, de clared, “Tulsa ready claim a long his tory of vigi lante ac tiv ity. is over run with nar cot ics.”45 In 1894, a white man known as “Dutch John,” Hand-in-hand with this il le gal con sump tion who was sus pected of be ing a cat tle rustler, was came a plen i tude of other crime. Auto mo bile report edly lynched in Tulsa. Ten years later, in was said to be so com mon in Tulsa prior 1904, a mob of whites gath ered outside of the to the riot, it was claimed, that “a number of lo cal jail, in tend ing to lynch an Af ri can Amer i - com pa nies have can celed all pol i cies on cars in can prisoner held in side, but were turned away Tulsa.” Petty crimes, from house break ing to by the mayor, a local banker, and, not the least, traffic vi o la tions, were com mon fodder in the by the city marshall, who had drawn both of his city’s newspa pers dur ing this pe riod — but so guns on the mob.49 were more se ri ous of fenses. In the year pre ced- Al though vio lence had been averted, that was ing the riot, two Tulsa po lice offi cers had been far from the end of vigilantism in Tulsa. In killed on duty, while less than six weeks be fore 1917, after the United States had en tered World the riot, Tulsa po lice offi cers were involved in War I, a se cret so ci ety call ing it self the Knights a spectac u lar shoot-out with armed ban dits at of Liberty un leashed a local campaign of terror an east side room ing house. State As sis tant At- and in tim i da tion against suspected slack ers, tor ney Gen eral George F. Short, who visited Men no nites and other pac i fists, as well as po lit i- Tulsa dur ing this same pe riod, even went so cal rad i cals. The group’s most in fa mous action far as to de scribe the local crime con di tions as — that gained the at ten tion of the na tional press “appar ently grave.”46 — came in Novem ber 1917 when, with the en - While not ev ery one in town would have cour age ment of the white press and the ap par ent agreed with such a bleak as sess ment, there co op er a tion of the local author i ties, masked was no deny ing the fact that, on the eve of the mem bers of the Knights tarred and feath ered race riot, the city had a se ri ous crime problem. more than a dozen local mem bers of the In dus - How ever, it was equally true that, in many trial Workers of the World, a rad i cal un ion ways, this was not only noth ing new, but had move ment, and forced them out of town at gun - more or less been a con stant since the first point.50 heady days of the Glenn Pool and its at ten dant Even though the Knights of Lib erty/I.W.W. land swindles and get-rich-quick schemes. in ci dent had been an all-white af fair, it proved to “Tulsans on the whole have had enough of the be an impor tant step along the road to the race slime and crime that char ac ter ize a new com - riot. Not only did local law enforce ment refuse munity which draws much of the bad with the to ac tively inves ti gate the inci dent, but the se - good in a rich strike,” mused one lo cal ed i to rial cret so ci ety was praised by the white press for writer, “But Tulsa has out grown that stage.”47 tak ing the law into its own hands, an impor tant A number of Tulsans had attempted, seem - pre ce dent for more such activ i ties in the fu- ingly with out a great deal of suc cess, for years ture.51

50 Never the less, it would not be un til nearly County Sheriff Jim Woolley had heard ru mors three years later, dur ing the late sum mer of that if the cab driver died, the courthouse would 1920, that Tulsa would expe ri ence an in ci dent be mobbed and would be lynched.54 that would prove to be the single most impor - Two days later, on Sat ur day, Au gust 28, tant precur sor to the race riot. While all of its 1920, Homer Nida fi nally suc cumbed to his par tic i pants also were white, it, too, would wounds and died. In report ing the news of his have profound re ver ber a tions on both sides of death in that af ter noon’s edi tion, the Tulsa Tri - the color line. bune quoted the driver’s widow as say ing that It be gan on Sat ur day night, Au gust 21, 1920, Belton deserved “to be mobbed, but the other when a Tulsa cab driver named Homer Nida. way is better.”55 was hired by two young men and one young Other Tulsans thought other wise. By 11:00 woman to drive them to a dance in Sapulpa. p.m. that same evening, hun dreds of whites had Along the way, in the coun try side past Red gath ered out side of the court house. Soon, a del e- Fork, one of the men pulled out a re volver and ga tion of men carry ing ri fles and shotguns, forced Nida to pull over. Striking the ter ri fied some with hand ker chiefs cov er ing their faces, cab driver with the pistol, the gunman de- en tered the build ing and demanded of Sheriff manded money. When Nida could not produce Woolley that he turn Belton over to them. The a suf fi cient amount of cash, the gunman shot sher iff later claimed that he tried to dissuade the Nida in the stomach and kicked him out onto intrud ers, but he ap pears to have done lit tle to the highway, as the trio sped off in the stop them. For a lit tle while later, the men ap - now-stolen taxi. A pass ing mo tor ist dis cov ered peared on the courthouse steps with Roy Belton. Nida a short while later, and rushed the se- “We got him boys,” they shouted, “We’ve got verely wounded driver to a hospi tal. 52 him.56 The next day, po lice in Nowata, act ing on a Belton was then placed in Homer Nida’s taxi- tip, arrested an eighteen-year-old one-time cab which had been sto len from the author i ties telephone company employee named Roy — and was driven out past Red Fork, followed Belton, who de nied hav ing had anything to do by a line of au to mo biles “nearly a mile long.” with the affair. Belton was taken to Homer Not far from where Nida had been shot, the pro- Nida’s hos pi tal room in Tulsa, where the cab cession stopped, and Belton was taken from the driver iden ti fied him as his assail ant. Again, cab and in ter ro gated. But when a rumor spread Belton de nied the accu sa tion. that a posse was in hot pur suit, ev ery one re - Two days later, how ever, Roy Belton who turned to their cars and set out along the road to was now be ing held in the jail lo cated on the Jenks. top floor of the Tulsa County Court house The lynch mob had lit tle to fear. Tulsa po lice changed his story. He ad mit ted that he had did not arrive at the courthouse in any ap pre cia- been in the taxicab, and that he and his accom - ble numbers un til af ter Belton had been kid - pli ces had planned on rob bing the driver. He naped and the car a van of cars had left in sisted the shoot ing had been acci den tal. downtown. “We did the best thing,” Po lice Belton claimed that the gun had been damaged Chief John Gustafson later claimed, “[we] when he struck Nida in the head with it, and jumped into cars and followed the ever in creas- that it had gone off acci den tally while he was ing mob.” tying to repair it.53 By the time po lice offi cers fi nally caught up Belton’s dubi ous account, however, only with the lynch ing party, it had reas sem bled added fuel to the al ready inflamed emotions along the Jenks road about three miles south - that many Tulsans already held about the west of Tulsa. Once again, Roy Belton was shooting, a situ a tion made even more tense by taken from the cab, and then led to a spot next to the fact that Homer Nida lay languish ing in a a roadside sign. A rope was pro cured from a Tulsa hos pi tal. Less than forty-eight hours af - nearby farm house, a noose was thrown around ter Belton’s so-called “con fes sion,” Tulsa his neck, and he was lynched. Among the crowd

51 — es ti mated to be in the hun dreds — were black, he would have been lynched just the mem bers of the Tulsa police, who had been in- same, and prob a bly sooner. What about the next structed by Chief Gustafson not to in ter vene. time that an Af ri can Amer i can was charged with “Any dem on stra tion from an offi cer,” he later a se ri ous crime in Tulsa, partic u larly if it in - claimed, “would have started gun play and volved a white vic tim? What would hap pen dozens of inno cent peo ple would have been then? killed and in jured.”57 A.J. Smitherman, the out spo ken edi tor of the In the days that fol lowed, how ever, Tulsa Star, the city’s oldest and most pop u lar Gustafson prac ti cally applauded the lynch ing. Afri can Ameri can news pa per, was ab so lutely While claim ing to be “abso lutely opposed” to reso lute on the matter of lynching. “There is no mob law, the po lice chief also stated “it is my honest opin ion that the lynch ing of Roy Belton will prove of real ben e fit to Tulsa and the vi - cin ity. It was an ob ject les son to the hijack ers and auto thieves.” Sheriff Woolley ech oed the chief, claim ing that the lynch ing showed crim- i nals “that the men of Tulsa mean busi ness.”58 Nor were Tulsa’s top lawmen alone in their sen ti ments. The Tulsa Tri bune, the city’s af - ternoon daily, also claimed to be opposed to mob law, but of fered lit tle criti cism of the ac - tual lynch ing party. The Tulsa World, the morn ing daily, went even fur ther. Call ing the lynch ing a “righteous pro test,” the news pa per added: “There was not a vestige of the mob spirit in the act of Satur day night. It was cit i- zenship, out raged by govern ment inef fi ciency and a too tender regard for the profes sional crim i nal.” The World went on to blast the cur- rent state of the crimi nal jus tice sys tem, om i- nously add ing, “we pre dict that un less W. H. Twine and A. J. Smitherman at Twine’s law office in con di tions are speed ily im proved,” that the Muskogee (Courtesy Western His tory Col lec tion, Uni ver sity of lynch ing of Roy Belton “will not be the last by Oklahoma Li braries). any means.”59 With the death of Roy Belton, Tulsa had not crime, how ever atrocious,” he wrote fol low ing sim ply joined the list of other Oklahoma cities the lynch ing of Roy Belton, “that jus ti fies mob and towns where, sadly enough, a lynch ing had vio lence.” 60 For Smitherman, lynch ing was not occurred. Of equal impor tance was the fact sim ply a crime to be condemned, but was lit er - that, as far as any one could tell, the local law ally a “stain” upon so ci ety.61 en force ment author i ties in Tulsa had done pre- Nor was Smitherman alone in his sen ti ments. cious lit tle to stop the lynch ing. Thus, the ques- If there was one issue which united Af ri can tion arose, if an other mob ever gath ered in Ameri cans all across the na tion, it was oppo si - Tulsa to lynch some one else, who was go ing to tion to mob law. More over, that oppo si tion was stop them? par tic u larly strong in Oklahoma, as many blacks The lynch ing of Roy Belton cast a deep pall had im mi grated to the state in no small mea sure over black Tulsa. For even though Homer to es cape the mob men tal ity that was far from Nida, Roy Belton, and the lynch ing party it self un com mon in some other parts of the coun try. had all been white, there was simply no escap - How ever, both the lynch ing of Roy Belton in ing the conclu sion that if Belton had been Tulsa, and that of a young Af ri can Ameri can in

52 Oklahoma City that same week, brought to the his as sail ants were black, and he provided the sur face some dire prac ti cal is sues. In a sit u a- offi cers with a rather sketchy descrip tion of tion where a black pris oner was be ing threat - each man. “Vio lence is feared,” wrote the Tulsa ened by a white mob, what should Af ri can Demo crat of the shooting, “if the guilty pair is Amer i cans do? Smitherman was quite clear on taken in charge.”65 the answer.As early as 1916, it has been re - Some forty-eight hours later, Tulsa po lice of- ported, “a group of armed blacks pre vented the ficers ar rested not two, but three, Af ri can Amer- lynching of one of their num ber in ican men in con nec tion with the shooting. Muskogee.”62 In a simi lar situ a tion, which Despite proc la ma tions by the po lice that the ac- hap pened only five months prior to the Tulsa cused men would be protected, con cerns for riot, Smitherman had strongly praised a group their safety quickly spread across the black of black men who had first armed themselves, commu nity, and ru mors be gan to circu late that and then set out in pur suit of a white mob that the trio might be in danger of be ing lynched. The was en route to lynch an Af ri can Amer i can ru mors reached a crescendo the day af ter the pris oner at Chan dler. “As to the Colored men iron worker’s fu neral, when a del e ga tion of Af ri- of Shaw nee,” Smitherman wrote, can Amer i can men — some of them armed –led . . . they are the heroes of the story. If by Dr. R.T. Bridgewater, a well-known physi - cian, paid an evening visit to the city jail, where one set of men arm themselves and chase 66 across the country to vi o late the law, cer - the accused men were be ing held. tainly an other set who arm themselves to “We un der stand there is to be some trou ble up hold the su prem acy of the law and pre - here,” Dr. Bridgewater re port edly in formed a vent crime, must stand out prom i nently as police cap tain. the best cit i zens. Therefore, the action of The po lice of fi cer was ada mant that noth ing the Colored men in this case is to be com - of the kind was go ing to oc cur. “There is not go- mended. We need more cit i zens like them ing to be any trou ble here,” the cap tain al leg edly in every com mu nity and of both races.63 replied, “and the best thing you fel lows can do is beat it back and drop arms.” De spite Five months later, when a group of Af ri can his con fi dence, how ever, the offi cer allowed a Amer i cans in the state cap i tal had not gath ered small con tin gent to visit with the pris on ers in until af ter a black youth had been lynched by a their cells. Ap par ently satis fied with the sit u a - white mob, Smitherman was unspar ing in his tion, Dr. Bridgewater and the other Af ri can crit i cism. “It is quite evi dent,” he wrote, “that Ameri can men re turned to Green wood. There the proper time to af ford pro tec tion to any was no lynching. 67 pris oner is BEFORE and dur ing the time he is 64 What ever re lief black Tulsans may have felt being lynched.” follow ing this affair did not last long. With the It also was clear that there were black lynch ing of Roy Belton some seven teen months Tulsans who were pre pared to do just that. A later, the door to mob vi o lence in Tulsa was sud- lit tle more than a year before Roy Belton was denly pushed wide open. If a white could be lynched, an inci dent occurred in Tulsa that — lynched in Tulsa, why would a black not suffer while it received lit tle press cov er age at the the same fate? More over, as edi tor Smitherman time —- gave a clear indi ca tion as to what ac- observed, the Belton lynch ing had also clar i fied tions some black Tulsans would take if they an other matter — one that would prove to be of feared that an Af ri can Ameri can was in danger vi tal impor tance on May 3l, 1921. “The lynch - of be com ing the victim of mob vi o lence. ing of Roy Belton,” Smitherman wrote in the The inci dent be gan on the evening of March Tulsa Star, “explodes the the ory that a pris oner 17, 1919, when a white ironworker was shot is safe on the top of the Court House from mob by two armed stick-up men on the outskirts of vio lence.” 68 down town. The ironworker died of his wounds The death of Roy Belton shat tered any confi - some twelve hours later, but before he suc - dence that black Tulsans may have had in the cumbed, he told Tulsa po lice de tec tives that

53 abil ity, or the will ing ness, of lo cal law en force- In addi tion to giv ing broad cov er age to both lo - ment to pre vent a lynch ing from tak ing place cal crim i nal ac tiv ity, and to sen sa tional mur ders in Tulsa. It also had done something else. For from across the state, the Tri bune also published more than a few black TuIsans, the bot tom line a se ries of hard-hitting edi to ri als. Using ti tles on the mat ter had become clearer than ever. such as “Catch the Crooks,” “Go Af ter Them,” Namely, the only ones who might pre vent the “Promoters of Crime," “To Make Every Day threatened lynch ing of an Af ri can Amer i can Safe,” “The City Failure,” and ‘Make Tulsa De- pris oner in Tulsa would be black TuIsans cent," the edi to ri als called for noth ing less than them selves. an ag gres sive city wide clean-up campaign. 70 Despite the clar ity of these conclu sions, it is Not sur pris ingly, the Tribune’s campaign ruf- impor tant to note that white Tulsans were ut - fled the feathers of some local law en force ment terly un aware of what their black neighbors figures along the way, in clud ing the county at - were thinking. Al though A.J. Smitherman’s tor ney, the po lice com mis sioner, and several ed i to ri als regard ing lynch ing were both direct mem bers of the Tulsa Po lice De part ment. While and plainspo ken, white Tulsans did not read it is uncer tain as to how much of the Tribune’s the Tulsa Star, and Smitherman’s opin ions campaign had been mo ti vated by par ti san po lit i- were not re ported in the white press. As dra - cal con cerns, both the pa per’s news sto ries and matic and as sig nif i cant as the visit of Dr. its ed i to ri als caused consid er able com mo tion. Bridgewater and the oth ers was to the city jail Al le ga tions of po lice corrup tion — partic u larly during the 1919 inci dent, it received lit tle cov- re gard ing auto mo bile theft — received a great erage in the city’s white newspa pers at the amount of at ten tion, and ul ti mately led to for mal time, and was no doubt quickly forgot ten. inves ti ga tions of local law enforce ment by both Rather, when it came to the matter of lynch- the State of Oklahoma and the City of Tulsa.71 ing, black Tulsa and white Tulsa were like two By mid-, the Tribune’s anti-crime sepa rate gal ax ies, with one quite un aware of and anti- campaign seemed to be on what the other was thinking. How ever, as the the verge of reach ing some sort of cli max. year 1921 be gan to un fold, events would soon Branding the city govern ment’s in ves ti ga tion of bring them crashing into one another. the po lice de part ment as a “whitewash,” the In 1921, most Tulsans received their news newspa per kept hammer ing away at the al leged through ei ther one or both of the city’s two in abil ity of, or re fusal by, local law enforce ment daily newspa pers — the Tulsa World, which to tackle Tulsa’s crime problem. “The peo ple of was the morn ing pa per, or the Tulsa Tri bune, Tulsa are be com ing awake to con di tions that are which came out in the after noon. While the no longer tol er a ble,” ar gued a ed i to rial. World went all the way back to 1905, the Tri- Two days later, in an ed i to rial titled “Better Get bune was only two years old. It was the cre - Busy,” the Tribune warned that if the mayor and ation of , a Wis con sin the city commis sion did not fulfill their cam - born newspa per man who had also worked as a paign pledges to “clean up the city,” and “do it maga zine ed i tor in New York. Hoping to chal- quick,” that “an awakened commu nity con - lenge the more estab lished — and, in many science will do it for them.”72 ways, more re strained — Tulsa World, Jones Just what that might entail was also be com ing had fashioned the Tri bune as a lively ri val, un- clearer and clearer. The very same months dur - afraid to stir up an oc ca sional hor net’s nest.69 ing which the Tribune waged its anti-crime As it turned out, Tulsa’s vex ing crime problem cam paign, the news pa per also gave prom i nent proved to be an ideal local arena in which the atten tion to news sto ries in volv ing vigi lante ac- Tri bune could hope to make a name for it self tivi ties from across the South west. Front-page Sensing just how frustrated many Tulsans cov er age was given to lynch ing threats made were with the lo cal crime con di tions, the Tri- against Afri can Amer i cans in Okmulgee in bune launched a vigor ous anti-crime campaign March, Oktaha in April, and Hugo in May. The that ran through out the early months of 1921. horsewhip ping of an al leged child mo lester in

54 Dallas by a group of masked men believed to ing houses across the city. It was said, Af ri can be members of the Ku Klux Klan that also took Amer i can porters rather routinely of fered to place in May, was also given front-page treat- provide the men with the ser vices of white pros- ment. Not sur pris ingly, the spec ter of Tulsa’s ti tutes. Just be yond the city limits, the Tri bune own re cent lynch ing also re-emerged in the re ported, the group visited a roadhouse where pages of the Tri bune in a ed i to rial. the color lines seemed to have disap peared en - While as sert ing that “Law less ness to fight tirely. “We found whites and Ne groes sing ing lawless ness is never justi fied,” the ed i to rial and danc ing to gether,” one member of Rev er - went on to claim “Tulsa en joyed a brief re spite end Cooke’s party testi fied, “Young, white girls fol low ing the lynch ing of Roy Belton.” More - were danc ing while Ne groes played the pi- over, the Tribune added that Belton’s guilt had ano.”75 been “practi cally estab lished . . ..”73 Con sidering Oklahoma’s social, po lit i cal, A revived dis cus sion of the pros and cons of and cul tural climate dur ing the 1920s, the effect vig i lante activ ity was not the only new el e - of this testi mony should not be taken lightly. ment to be added to the ongo ing conver sa tion Many white Tulsans no doubt found Rev er end about crime that was tak ing place in Tulsa in Cooke’s rev e la tions to be both shock ing and late May. De spite latter claims to the con trary, dis taste ful. Per haps even more im por tantly, they for much of early 1921, race had not been now had a con ve nient new target for their grow- much of a fac tor in the Tribune’s vigor ous ing an ger over local crime con di tions. Af ri can anti-crime and anti-corruption cam paign. Ameri can men who, at least as far as they were Crimes in Greenwood had not been given un - con cerned, had far too much con tact with white due cov er age, nor had black Tulsans been sin- women. gled out for provid ing the city with a As it turned out how ever, Tulsans did not dis pro por tion ate share of the city’s crim i nal el- have much time to digest the new rev e la tions. e ment. Only five days later, on May 26, 1921, the city But be gin ning on , 1921, only ten was rocked by the news of a spectac u lar jail - days before the riot, all that was to change. In a break at the county court house. Sawing their lengthy, front-page ar ti cle con cern ing the on - way through their cell doors and through the go ing inves ti ga tion of the po lice de part ment, one-inch steel bars that were set in an outer win- not only did ra cial is sues suddenly come to the dow, and then low er ing themselves four stories foreground, but more im por tantly, they did so to the ground on a rope that they had made by ty- in a manner that fea tured the highly explo sive ing their blan kets to gether, no less than twelve sub ject of rela tions between black men and pris on ers had es caped from the top floor jail. white women. Commenting on the city’s ram- Re mark ably, how ever, that was not the last jail- pant prosti tu tion indus try, a for mer judge break that month. Four days later, early on the flatly told the inves ti ga tors that black men morn ing of Me mo rial Day, May 30, 1921, six were at the root of the problem. “We’ve got to more pris on ers — saw ing through the same get to the ho tels,” he said, “We’ve got to kick hastily re paired cell doors and win dow bars also out the Ne gro pimps if we want to stop this es caped from the courthouse jail.77 vice.” Al though some of the escap ees were quickly Echoing these sen ti ments was the tes ti mony ap pre hended, the jailbreaks were one more in - of Rev er end Har old G. Cooke, the white pastor gre di ent in what had become, by the end of May of Cen te nary Meth od ist Church. Ac com panied 1921, an un sta ble and poten tially vol a tile lo cal by a private detec tive, Cooke had led a small atmo sphere. For more than a few white Tulsans, group of white men on an under cover tour of lo cal con di tions re gard ing crime and pun ish- the city’s il licit night life — and had been, it ment were fast be com ing intol er a ble. Frustrated was re ported, hor ri fied at what he had dis cov- over the amount of law break ing in the city, and ered. Not only was li quor avail able at ev ery by the appar ent inabil ity of the po lice to do any- place that they vis ited, but at hotels and room- thing about it, they had helped turn the city into a

55 tick ing time bomb, where anger and frus tra - Ap prox i mately one year later, Damie and her tion sat just be neath the surface, wait ing to ex- adopted son moved to Tulsa, where they were plode. More over, dur ing the last ten days of re united with Damie’s fam ily, the Rowlands. the month, they also had been pre sented with, Eventually, lit tle Jimmie took Rowland as his however fleetingly, a com pel ling new target own last name, and se lected his fa vor ite first for their fury, namely, black men who, to their name, Dick, as his own. Growing up in Tulsa, eyes, had an undue fa mil iar ity with white Dick attended the city’s sep a rate all-black women. schools, in clud ing Booker T. Wash ing ton High As Tulsa pre pared to cel e brate Me mo rial School, where he played foot ball.78 Day, May 30, 1921, something else was in the Dick Rowland dropped out of high school to air. As notions of tak ing the law into their own take a job shin ing shoes in a white-owned and hands be gan to once again circu late among white-patronized shine parlor lo cated down- some white Tulsans, across the tracks in town on Main Street. Shoe shines usually cost a Greenwood, there were black Tulsans who dime in those days, but the shoe shin ers — or were more de ter mined than ever that in their bootblacks, as they were sometimes called — city, no Af ri can Amer i can would fall victim to were of ten tipped a nickel for each shine, and mob vio lence. World War I vet er ans and sometimes con sid er ably more. Over the course newspa per ed i tors, com mon la bor ers and busi- of a busy work ing day, a shoe shiner could nessmen, they were just as pre pared as they pocket a fair amount of money — es pe cially if had been two years ear lier to make certain that he was a teenaged Af ri can Amer i can youth with no black per son was ever lynched in Tulsa, few other job pros pects. Oklahoma. There were no toi let fa cil i ties, however, for Pre cisely at this mo ment, in this highly blacks at the shine parlor where Dick Rowland charged at mo sphere, that two previ ously un - worked. The owner had ar ranged for his Af ri can heralded Tulsans, named Dick Rowland and Amer i can employ ees to be able to use a Sarah Page, walked out of the shadows, and “Colored” restroom that was lo cated, nearby, in onto the stage of his tory. the Drexel Build ing at 319 S. Main Street. In or- Although they played a key role in the der to gain access to the washroom, lo cated on events which directly led to Tulsa’s race riot, the top floor, Rowland and the other shoe shin- very lit tle is known for certain about either ers would ride in the build ing’s sole el e va tor. El- Dick Rowland or Sarah Page. Rumors, theo - e va tors were not auto matic, re quir ing an ries, and un sub stan ti ated claims have been op er a tor. A job that was usually reserved for plen ti ful throughout the years, but hard ev i - women.79 dence has been much more dif fi cult to come In late May 1921, the ele va tor oper a tor at the by. Drexel Build ing was a sev en teen-year-old Dick Rowland, who was black, was said to white woman named Sarah Page. Thought to have been nine teen-years-old at the time of the have come to Tulsa from Missouri, she appar - riot. At the time of his birth, he was given the ently lived in a rented room on North Boston name Jimmie Jones. While it is not known Av e nue. It also has been re ported that Page was where he was born, by 1908 he and his two sis- at tend ing a local busi ness school, a good ca reer ters had ev i dently been or phaned, and were liv- move at the time. Although,Tulsa was still rid - ing “on the streets of Vinita, sleep ing wher ever ing upon its construc tion boom, some build ing they could, and beg ging for food.” An Af ri can own ers were ev i dently hir ing Af ri can Amer i can Ameri can woman named Damie Ford, who women to re place their white el e va tor op er a- ran a tiny one-room-grocery store, took pity on tors.80 young Jimmie and took him in. “That’s how I Whether - and to what ex tent — Dick became Jimmie’s ‘Mama,”’ she told an in ter - Rowland and Sarah Page knew each other has viewer de cades after wards. long been a mat ter of spec u la tion. It seems rea - sonable that they would have least been able to

56 recog nize each other on sight, as Rowland ever, it sim ply is un clear what hap pened. Yet, in would have reg u larly rode in Page’s ele va tor the days and years that fol lowed, ev ery one who on his way to and from the restroom. Others, knew Dick Rowland agreed on one thing: that how ever, have specu lated that the pair might he would never have been ca pa ble of rape.83 have been lovers — a danger ous and poten - A clerk from Renberg’s, a cloth ing store lo - tially deadly ta boo, but not an impos si bil ity. cated on the first floor of the Drexel Building, Damie Ford later sug gested that this might however, reached the oppo site conclu sion. have been the case, as did Sam uel M. Jack son, Hearing what he thought was a woman’s who op er ated a fu neral parlor in Green wood at scream, and ap par ently see ing Dick Rowland the time of the riot. “I’m go ing to tell you the hur riedly flee the building, the clerk rushed to truth,” Jackson told riot his to rian Ruth Avery a the el e va tor, where he found a distraught Sa rah half cen tury later, “He could have been going Page. Ev i dently decid ing that the young ele va - with the girl. You go through life and you find tor oper a tor had been the victim of an attempted that some body likes you. That’s all there is to sex ual assault, the clerk then sum moned the po- it.” However, Rob ert Fairchild, who shined lice. shoes with Rowland, disagreed. “At that While it ap pears that the clerk stuck to his in- time,” Fairchild later recalled, “the Ne gro had ter pre ta tion that there had been an attempted so much fear that he didn’t bother with in te - rape — and of a partic u larly incen di ary kind — grated rela tion ship[s].” 81 no record exists as to what Sarah Page ac tu ally Whether they knew each other or not, it is told the po lice when they ini tially inter viewed clear that both Dick Rowland and Sarah Page her. What ever she said at the time, how ever, it were down town on Mon day, May 30, 1921 — does not ap pear that the po lice of fi cers who in - although this, too, is cloaked in some mystery. terviewed her nec es sar ily reached the same po- On Me mo rial Day, most — but not all — stores tentially explo sive conclu sion as that made by and busi nesses in Tulsa were closed. Yet, both the Renberg’s clerk, namely, that a black male Rowland and Page were ap par ently working had at tempted to rape a white fe male in a down- that day. A large Me mo rial Day pa rade passed town office building. Rather than is sue any sort along Main Street that morning, and per haps of an all-points bul le tin for the al leged as sail ant, Sarah Page had been re quired to work in order it ap pears that the police launched a rather to transport Drexel Build ing em ploy ees and low-key inves ti ga tion into the af fair.84 their fam i lies to choice pa rade view ing spots What ever had or had not happened in the on the build ing’s up per floors. As for Dick Drexel Build ing el e va tor, Dick Rowland had Rowland, per haps the shine parlor he worked be come a justly ter ri fied young man. For of all at may have been open, if noth ing else, to draw the crimes that Af ri can Ameri can men would be in some of the pa rade traffic. One post-riot ac- ac cused of in early twen ti eth cen tury Amer ica, count sug gests an other al ter na tive, namely, none seemed to bring a white lynch mob to - that Rowland was mak ing de liv er ies of shined gether faster than an ac cu sa tion of the rape, or shoes that day. What is cer tain, how ever, is attempted rape, of a white woman. Frightened that at some point on Mon day, May 30, 1921, and agi tated, Rowland has tened to his adopted Dick Rowland en tered the el e va tor op er ated by mother’s home, where he stayed inside with Sarah Page that was sit u ated at the rear of the blinds drawn.85 Drexel Building. 82 The next morning, Tuesday, May 31, 1921, What happened next is any one’s guess. Af - Dick Rowland was ar rested on Green wood Av e- ter the riot, the most com mon ex pla na tion was nue by two Tulsa police offi cers, De tec tive that Dick Rowland trip ped as he got onto the Henry Carmichael, who was white, and by Pa - el e va tor and, as he tried to catch his fall, he trol man Henry C. Pack, who was one of a hand- grabbed onto the arm of Sarah Page, who then ful of Afri can Amer i cans on the city’s screamed. It also has been sug gested that ap prox i mately seventy-five man police force. Rowland and Page had a lover’s quarrel. How- Rowland was booked at po lice head quar ters,

57 and then taken to the jail on the top floor of the text of the miss ing — and what he believed was Tulsa County Court house. In formed that her no less than “inflam ma tory” — story, which adopted son was in cus tody, Damie Ford seems read: to have lost no time in hir ing a promi nent 86 Nab Ne gro for At tacking white at tor ney to de fend him. Girl in El e va tor Word of both the al leged inci dent in the Drexel Building, and of the subse quent ar rest A Ne gro de liv ery boy who gave his name of the alleged perpe tra tor, quickly spread to the pub lic as “Dia mond Dick” but who throughout the city’s le gal cir cles. Black at tor- has been iden ti fied as Dick Rowland, was ney B.C. Frank lin was sitting in the courtroom arrested on South Greenwood Ave nue this during a recess in a trial when he over heard morn ing by Offi cers Carmichael and Pack, some other law yers dis cuss ing what he later charged with at tempt ing to assault the con cluded was the al leged rape at tempt. “I 17-year-old white el e va tor girl in the don’t be lieve a damn word of it,” one of the Drexel Build ing early yes ter day. men said, “Why I know that boy and have He will be tried in mu nic i pal court this af- known him a good while. That’s not in him.”87 ter noon on a state charge. Not sur pris ingly, word of both the alleged The girl said she no ticed the Negro a few in ci dent and of the ar rest of Dick Rowland had min utes before the attempted as sault look - also made it to the of fices of Tulsa’s two daily ing up and down the hall way on the third newspa pers, the Tri bune and the World. Due to floor of the Drexel Build ing as if to see if the tim ing of the events, the Tulsa Tri bune there was any one in sight but thought noth- would have the first crack at the story. Not only ing of it at the time. had the al leged Drexel Build ing inci dent gone A few min utes later he en tered the ele va - without no tice in that morn ing’s Tulsa World — per haps, one is tempted to surmise, be cause tor she claimed, and at tacked her, scratch - word of the al leged inci dent had not yet made ing her hands and face and tear ing her it to the pa per’s news desk, which may have clothes. Her screams brought a clerk from been short-staffed due to the hol i day — but Renberg’s store to her as sis tance and the Ne- Rowland’s ar rest had ap par ently occurred af ter gro fled. He was cap tured and iden ti fied that morning’s edi tion had al ready been this morn ing both by the girl and the clerk, 88 police say. printed. Be ing an after noon paper, however, the Tulsa Tri bune had enough time to break Tenants of the Drexel Build ing said the the news in its reg u lar after noon editions — girl is an orphan who works as an ele va tor which is ex actly what it did. oper a tor to pay her way through business 89 Pre cisely what the Tulsa Tri bune printed in college. its May 31, 1921 editions about the Drexel Since Gill’s thesis first ap peared, ad di tional Building inci dent is still a matter of some con- cop ies of this front-page ar ti cle have surfaced. jec ture. The origi nal bound vol umes of the A copy can be found in the Red Cross papers now de funct news pa per ap par ently no longer that are lo cated in the collec tions of the Tulsa ex ist in their entirety. A mi cro film ver sion is, Histor i cal Soci ety. A second copy, ap par ently how ever, avail able, but be fore the actual mi - from the “State Edi tion” of the Tulsa Tri bune, crofilm ing was done some years later, some - could once be found in the col lec tions of the one had delib er ately torn out of the May 31, Oklahoma His tor i cal Soci ety, but has now ev i - 1921 city edition both a front-page arti cle and, dently disap peared. 90 in ad di tion, nearly all of the ed i to rial page. This front page arti cle was not, how ever, the We have known what the front-page story, only thing that the Tulsa Tri bune seems to have titled “Nab Ne gro for Attacking Girl in Ele va - printed about the Drexel Build ing inci dent in its tor”, said for some time. In his 1946 mas ter’s May 31, edi tion. W.D. Williams, who later the sis on the riot, Loren Gill printed the en tire taught for years at Booker T. Wash ing ton High

58 School in Tulsa, had a vivid mem ory that the to rial the paper would have run con cern ing the Tribune ran a story ti tled “To Lynch Ne gro To- al leged Drexel Build ing inci dent would have night.”91 In fact, however, what Williams may surely mentioned lynch ing as a pos si ble fate for be re call ing is not an other news arti cle, but an Dick Rowland. Ex actly what the news pa per edi to rial from the miss ing ed i to rial page. would have said on the mat ter, however, can Other in for mants, both black and white, but- only be left to con jec ture. tress Williams’s ac count. Spe cifically, they re- The Tuesday, May 31, 1921 edi tion of the called that the Tri bune men tioned the Tulsa Tri bune hit the streets at about 3:15 p.m. possi bil ity of a lynch ing — something that is And while the “Nab Ne gro for Attacking Girl in en tirely absent from the “Nab Ne gro for At - El e va tor” was far from be ing the most prom i- tacking Girl in El e va tor” story, and thus must nent story on the front page of the city edi tion, it have appeared else where in the May 31, edi - was the story that gar nered the most at ten tion. tion. Robert Fairchild later re called that the Making his way through down town toward his Tribune “came out and told what hap pened. It of fice in Green wood shortly af ter the Tri bune said to the ef fect that ‘there is likely to be a rolled off the presses, at tor ney B.C. Frank lin lynching in Tulsa to night.’” One of Mary later re called that “as I walked leisurely along Parrish’s in for mants, whom she inter viewed the sidewalk, I heard the sharp shrill voice of a shortly af ter the riot, provided a simi lar ac - newsboy, “A Negro as saults a white girl.”93 count: Indeed, lynch talk came right on the heels of The Daily Tri bune, a white news pa per the Tri bune’s sen sa tional report ing. Ross T. that tries to gain its popu lar ity by refer ring Warner, the white man ager of the down town of- to the Negro set tle ment as “Lit tle Africa,” fices of the Tulsa Ma chine and Tool Company, came out on the eve ning of Tues day, May wrote that after the Tribune came out that after - 31, with an ar ti cle claim ing that a Ne gro noon, “the talk of lynch ing spread like a prairie had expe ri enced some trouble with a fire.” Simi lar mem o ries were shared by Dr. white el e va tor girl at the Drexel Build ing. Blaine Waynes, an Af ri can Amer i can phy si cian It also said that a mob of whites was form - and his wife Maude, who re ported that af ter the ing in order to lynch the Negro. Tri bune was is sued that day, that ru mors of the “in tended lynching of the accused Negro” Adju tant General Charles F. Barrett, who spread so swiftly and om i nously that even “the led National Guard troops from Oklahoma novice and stranger” could readily sense the City into Tulsa the next day, re called that there fast-approaching chain of events that was about had been a “fan tas tic write-up of the [Drexel to un fold. By 4:00 p.m., the talk of lynch ing Building] in ci dent in a sen sa tion-seeking 92 Dick Rowland had al ready grown so ubiq ui tous newspa per.” that Po lice and Fire Com mis sioner J.M. Given the fact that the ed i to rial page from Adkison tele phoned Sher iff Willard the May 31, Tulsa Tri bune was also de lib er - McCullough and alerted him to the ately re moved, and that a copy has not yet sur- ever-increasing talk on the street.94 faced, it is not diffi cult to conclude that Talk soon turned into ac tion. As word of the whatever else the paper had to say about the al- al leged sex ual as sault in the Drexel Build ing leged inci dent, and what should be done in re - spread, a crowd of whites be gan to gather on the sponse to it, would have appeared in an street out side of the Tulsa County Court house, ed i to rial. “To Lynch Ne gro Tonight” certainly in whose jail Dick Rowland was being held. As would have fit as the ti tle to a Tri bune ed i to rial people got off of work, and the news of the al - in those days. More over, given the se ri ous ness leged at tack re ported in the Tribune became of the charges against Dick Rowland, the ag - more widely dis persed across town, more and gres sive ness of the pa per’s anti-crime cam- more white Tulsans, in fu ri ated by what had sup- paign, and the fact that a Tri bune ed i to rial had pos edly taken place in the Drexel Building, be - mentioned the lynch ing of Roy Belton only gan to gather out side the court house at Sixth and four days ear lier, it is highly likely that any ed i -

59 Tulsa County Court house where al leged mur der Roy Belton was handed to an an gry mob. This event helped black lead- ers de cide to of fer as sis tance to Tulsa offi cials when Dick Rowland was held in the same pos ition (Cour tesy Oklahoma His tor i cal So ci ety).

Boulder. By sun set — which came at 7:34 p.m. p.m., in a near re play of the Belton inci dent, that eve ning — observ ers es ti mated that the three white men en tered the courthouse and de - crowd had grown into the hundreds. Not long manded that the sheriff turn over Rowland, but after wards, cries of “Let us have the nigger” were an grily turned away. Even though his could be heard echo ing off of the walls of the small force was vastly outnum bered by the massive stone court house.95 ever-increasing mob out on the street, Willard M. McCullough, who had re cently McCullough, un like his prede ces sor, was deter - been sworn in as the new sher iff of Tulsa mined to pre vent an other lynch ing.96 County, how ever, had other ideas. De ter mined Word of the al leged inci dent at the Drexel that there would be no re peat of the Roy Building, and of the white mob that was gath er- Belton affair dur ing his time in office, he ing out side of the court house, meanwhile, also quickly took steps to ensure the safety of Dick had raced across Greenwood. After read ing the Rowland. Or ga nizing his small force of depu - stories in the af ter noon’s Tri bune, Willie Wil - ties into a de fen sive ring around his now terri - liams, a popu lar junior at Booker T. Wash ing- fied pris oner, McCullough posi tioned six of ton High School, had hur ried over to his his men, armed with ri fles and shotguns, on fam ily’s flagship busi ness, the Dream land The- the roof of the court house. He also dis abled the ater, at 127 N. Greenwood. In side, he found a building’s el e va tor, and had his remain ing scene of ten sion and confu sion. “We’re not go - men bar ri cade themselves at the top of the ing to let this hap pen,” de clared a man who had stairs with orders to shoot any intrud ers on leapt onto the theater’s stage, “We’re go ing to sight. go down town and stop this lynching. Close this McCullough also went out side, on the court- place down.” house steps, and tried to talk the would-be Outside, simi lar dis cus sions were taking lynch mob into go ing home, but was “hooted place up and down Green wood Av e nue, as down” when he spoke. At approximatley 8:20 black Tulsans de bated how to respond to the in-

60 creas ingly dire threat to Dick Rowland. B.C. low member of the race, but also, lit er ally, upon Franklin later re called two army vet er ans out in the side of jus tice. Leaving Green wood by au to- the street, urg ing the crowd gath ered about mo bile, they drove down to the court house, them to take imme di ate ac tion, while perhaps where the white mob had gath ered. Armed with the most in tense dis cus sions were held in the ri fles and shotguns, the men got out of their au - offices of the Tulsa Star, the city’s pre mier Af- tomo biles, and marched to the courthouse steps. ri can Amer i can news pa per. Their pur pose, they announced to the no doubt What went un spo ken was the fact an Af ri can stunned author i ties, was to of fer their ser vices Ameri can had never been lynched in Tulsa. toward the de fense of the jail — an of fer that How to pre vent one from tak ing place now was was imme di ately declined. As sured that Dick no easy mat ter. It was not sim ply the crime that Rowland was safe, the men then re turned to Dick Rowland had been charged with — al - their auto mo biles, and drove back to Green - though that, by it self, made the sit u a tion par- wood.98 ticu larly dire. Rather, with the lynch ing of Roy The visit of the Af ri can Amer i can vet er ans Belton only nine months earlier, there was now had an elec tri fy ing effect, however, on the no rea son at all to place much con fi dence in the white mob, now es ti mated to be more than one abil ity of the local author i ties to pro tect Dick thou sand strong. Denied Rowland by Sheriff Rowland from the mob of whites that was McCullough, it had been clear for some time gath er ing outside the court house. However, that this was not to be an un com pli cated rep e ti - ex actly how to re spond was of ut most con cern. tion of the Belton affair. The visit of the black For A.J. Smitherman, the ed i tor of the Tulsa veter ans had not at all been fore seen. Shocked, Star, there was no question whatso ever that a and then out raged, some mem bers of the mob dem on stra tion of resolve was nec es sary. Black began to go home to fetch their guns.99 Tulsans needed to let the white mob know that Others, how ever, made a beeline for the Na - they were de ter mined to pre vent this lynching tional Guard Armory, at Sixth and Nor folk, from tak ing place, by force of arms if neces - where they intended to gain access to the rifles sary. Oth ers, in clud ing a number of war veter - and ammu ni tion stored in side. Ma jor James A. ans as well as vari ous local lead ers, the most Bell, an offi cer with the local Na tional Guard prom i nent be ing ho tel owner J.B. Stradford, units — “B” Company, the Service Company, vig or ously agreed. Moreover, when Dr. and the San i tary De tach ment, all of the Third In- Bridgewater had led a group of armed men fan try Regi ment of the Oklahoma National downtown to where three accused Af ri can Guard — had al ready been no ti fied of the trou - Ameri can men were be ing held only two years ble brew ing down at the court house, and had later, a rumored lynching did not take place. telephoned the local au thor i ties in or der to better “Come on boys,” Smitherman is said to have under stand the over all situ a tion. “I then went to urged his au di ence, “let’s go down town.” the Ar mory and called up the Sher iff and asked Not ev ery one agreed with the plan of ac tion. if there was any indi ca tions of trouble down O.W. Gurley, the owner of the Gur ley Hotel, there," Bell later wrote, “The sher iff reported seems to have argued for a more cautious ap - that there were some threats but did not be lieve proach. So, too, ap par ently, did Bar ney it would amount to any thing, that in any event he Cleaver, a well-respected Af ri can Amer i can could pro tect his pris oner.” Bell also phoned deputy sher iff, who had been try ing to keep in Chief Gustafson, who reported, “Things were a telephone contact with Sher iff McCullough, little threat en ing.”100 and therefore have something of a han dle on Despite such vague answers, Major Bell took the ac tual con di tions down at the court house.97 the initia tive and be gan to quietly instruct lo cal De spite some en treat ies to the con trary, at guardsmen — who were sched uled to depart the about 9:00 p.m. a group of ap prox i mately next day for their an nual sum mer encamp ment twenty-five Af ri can Ameri can men de cided to — to report down at the armory in case they cast their lot not only with an endan gered fel- were needed that evening. Mean while, a

61 guardsman in formed Bell that a mob of white judge had tried unsuc cess fully to talk the crowd men was attempt ing to break into the armory. into go ing home.102 As Bell later reported: Po lice Chief John A. Gustafson later claimed Grabbing my pistol in one hand and my that he tried to talk the lynch mob into dis pers- belt in the other I jumped out of the back ing. How ever, at no time that af ter noon or eve - door and running down the west side of ning did he order a sub stan tial number of Tulsa the Armory build ing I saw several men ap- police men to ap pear, fully armed, at the court - par ently pull ing at the win dow grating. house. Gustafson, in his de fense, would later Com manding these men to get off the lot claim that be cause there was a regu lar shift and see ing this command obeyed I went to change that very day, that only thirty-two offi - the front of the build ing near the south- cers were available for duty at eight o’clock on west corner where I saw a mob of white the evening of May 31. As subse quent tes ti - men about three or four hundred strong. I mony — as re corded in handwrit ten notes to a asked them what they wanted. One of post-riot in ves ti ga tion — later re vealed, there them replied, “Ri fles and ammu ni tion,” I were ap par ently only “5 police men on duty be - explained to them that they could not get tween courthouse & Brady ho tel not with stand- anything here. Someone shouted, “We ing lynch ing im mi nent.” More over, by 10:00 don’t know about that, we guess we can." I p.m., when the drama at the courthouse was ap- told them that we only had suffi cient arms proaching its cli max, Gustafson was no lon ger at the scene, but had re turned to his office at po- and ammu ni tion for our own men and that 103 not one piece could go out of there with out lice head quar ters. or ders from the Gov er nor, and in the name In the city’s Afri can Amer i can neighbor - of the law de manded that they dis perse at hoods, meanwhile, tension con tin ued to mount once. They con tin ued to press forward in a over the increas ingly ugly sit u a tion down at the threaten ing manner when with drawn pis - court house. Alerted to the poten tially danger - tol I again de manded that they disperse ous con di tions, both school and church groups and explained that the men in the Armory broke up their eve ning activ i ties early, while were armed with ri fles loaded with ball am- par ents and grand par ents tried to reas sure them- muni tion and that they would shoot selves that the trou ble would quickly blow over. promptly to pre vent any un au tho rized per - Down in Deep Greenwood, a large crowd of son en ter ing there. black men and women still kept their vigil out- side of the of fices of the Tulsa Star, await ing “By main tain ing a firm stand," Bell added, 104 101 word on the lat est de vel op ments down town. “. . . this mob was dis persed.” Some of the men, how ever, de cided that they Major Bell’s actions were both coura geous could wait no lon ger. Hopping into cars, small and effec tive but as the night wore on, sim i lar groups of armed Af ri can Amer i can men be gan ef forts would be in exceed ingly short sup ply. to make brief forays into downtown, their guns With each pass ing minute, Tulsa was a city visi ble to passersby. In ad di tion to re con nais - that was quickly spin ning out of con trol. sance, the pri mary in tent of these trips ap pears By 9:30 p.m., the white mob outside the to have been to send a clear mes sage to white court house had swol len to nearly Tulsans that these men were de ter mined to pre- two-thousand persons. They blocked the side - vent, by force of arms if nec es sary, the lynch ing walks as well as the streets, and had spilled of Dick Rowland. Whether the whites who wit- over onto the front lawns of nearby homes. nessed these ex cur sions un der stood this mes - There were women as well as men, young sters sage is, however, an open ques tion. Many, as well as adults, curi os ity seek ers as well as ap par ently, thought that they were in stead wit - would-be lynch ers. A handful of local leaders, ness ing a “Negro upris ing,” a conclu sion that in clud ing the Rev er end Charles W. Kerr of the others would soon share. First Pres by te rian Church as well as a local

62 In the midst of all of this ac tiv ity, ru mors be- by a group of an gry whites. As Dr. Miller later gan to circu late, partic u larly with re gards to told an in ter viewer: what might or might not be happen ing down at I went over to see if I could help him as a the court house. Possi bly spurred on by a false doctor, but the crowd was gath er ing around report that whites were storm ing the court- him and wouldn’t even let the driver of the house, moments af ter 10:00 p.m., a second am bu lance which just ar rived to even pick con tin gent of armed Af ri can Ameri can men, him up. I saw it was an impos si ble sit u a tion perhaps seventy-five in number this time, de - to con trol, that I could be of no help. The cided to make a second visit to the courthouse. crowd was get ting more and more bel lig er- Leaving Greenwood by auto mo bile, they got ent. The Negro had been shot so many out of their cars near Sixth and Main and times in his chest, and men from the onlook - marched, sin gle file, to the courthouse steps. ers were slash ing him with knives. Again, they of fered their ser vices to the au thor- Un able to help the dy ing man, Dr. Miller got i ties to help protect Dick Rowland. Once 109 again, their of fer was refused. 105 into his car and drove home. Then it hap pened. As the black men were A short while later, a sec ond , dead lier, skir - leav ing the courthouse for the sec ond time, a mish broke out at Sec ond and Cincinnati. No white man approached a tall Af ri can Amer i can lon ger directly involved with the fate of Dick World War I vet eran who was carry ing an Rowland, the belea guered sec ond con tin gent of army-issue revolver. “Nigger,” the white man Afri can Ameri can men were now fight ing for said, “What are you do ing with that pis tol?” their own lives. Heavily outnum bered by the “I’m go ing to use it if I need to,” re plied the whites, and suffer ing some casu al ties along the black veteran. “No, you give it to me.” Like way, most were appar ently able, how ever, to hell I will." The white man tried to take the gun make it safely across the Frisco rail road tracks, away from the vet eran, and a shot rang out.106 Amer ica’s worst race riot had begun. While the first shot fired at the courthouse may have been unin ten tional, those that fol - lowed were not. Almost im me di ately, mem - bers of the white mob — and possi bly some law enforce ment offi cers — opened fire on the Afri can Amer i can men, who re turned vol leys of their own. The initial gunplay lasted only a few seconds, but when it was over, an un- known number of peo ple — per haps as many as a dozen — both black and white, lay dead or wounded.107 Outnum bered more than twenty-to-one, the black men be gan a re treat ing fight toward the Afri can Amer i can district. With armed whites in close pur suit, heavy gunfire erupted again along Fourth Street, two blocks north of the court house.108 Dr. George H. Miller, a white phy si cian who was work ing late that eve ning in his office at the Unity Build ing at 21 W. Fourth Street, rushed outside after hear ing the gun shots, only to come upon a wounded black man, “shot and A typ i cal member of the white mob. Not only did they set Af ri- can-American homes and busi nesses on fire, but looted their bleeding, writh ing on the street,” sur rounded posses sions as well (Courtesy Bob Hower).

63 Follow ing the out break of vio lence at the court house, crowds of angry whites took to the streets downtown. There, accord ing to white eye wit nesses, a num ber of blacks were killed in the ri ots early hours. And even though ing soon moved north to ward Greenwood, groups of whites—in clud ing these at Main and Ar cher—were still roam ing the streets of down town the next morn ing (Cour tesy Oklahoma His tor i cal So ci ety). and into the more fa mil iar envi rons of the Afri - Shortly thereaf ter, whites be gan breaking into can Ameri can com mu nity.110 down town sport ing goods stores, pawn shops, and At the court house, the sud den and un ex- hard ware stores, steal ing — or “borrow ing” as pected turn of events had a jolting ef fect on the some would later claim — guns and am mu ni tion. would-be lynch mob, and groups of an gry, ven- Dick Bar don’s store on First Street was partic u - geance-seeking whites soon took the streets and larly hard hit as well as the J.W. MeGee Sporting sidewalks of downtown. “A great many of these Goods shop at 22 W. Sec ond Street, even though it per sons lining the side walks,” one white eye - was located liter ally across the street from police witness later recalled, “were holding a ri fle or headquar ters. The owner later testi fied that a Tulsa shot gun in one hand, and grasp ing the neck of a po lice of fi cer helped to dole out the guns that were li quor bot tle with the other. Some had pis tols taken from his store.113 stuck into their belts.”111 More blood shed soon fol lowed, as whites be- Some were about to become, at least tem po - gan gun ning down any Af ri can Amer i cans that rarily, offi cers of the law. Shortly after the they dis cov ered downtown. Wil liam R. fight ing had bro ken out at the court house, a Holway, a white en gi neer, was watch ing a large number of whites - many of whom had movie at the Rialto Theater when some one ran only a lit tle while ear lier been members of the into the theater, shout ing “Nigger fight, nigger would-be lynch mob — gath ered outside of fight.” As Holway later re called: police headquar ters on Second Street. There, Every body left that theater on high, you perhaps as many as five-hundred white men know. We went out the door and looked and boys were sworn-in by po lice offi cers as across the street, and there was “Spe cial Dep uties.” Some were provided with Younkman’s drug store with those big pil - badges or ribbons in di cat ing their new status. lars. There were two big pil lars at the en - Many, it ap pears, also were given specific in - trance, and we got over behind them. Just structions. Ac cord ing to Laurel G. Buck, a got there when a Ne gro ran south of the al - white brick layer who was sworn-in as one of ley across the street, the minute his head these ‘Spe cial Dep uties," a po lice of fi cer showed out side, some body shot him. bluntly told him to “Get a gun and get a nigger.”112 “We stood there for about half-an-hour watching," Holway added, “which I shall never

64 Groups of whites gath ered through out the city (Cour tesy West ern His tory Col lec tion, Uni versity of Oklahoma Li braries). forget. He wasn’t quite dead, but he was about for the aisle.” As he finished the sen tence, a to die. He was the first man that I saw shot in roar ing blast from a shot gun dropped the that riot.”114 Negro man by the end of the or ches tra Not far away, at the Royal The ater – that was pit.115 show ing a movie called “One Man in a Mil - Not all of the vic tims of the vio lence that lion” that eve ning — a sim i lar drama played it- broke out down town were white. Evi dence sug- self out. Among the onlook ers was a white gests that after the fight ing broke out at the teenager named William “Choc” Phil lips, who court house, carloads of black Tulsans may have later became a well-known Tulsa po lice offi - exchanged gunfire with whites on streets down- cer. As de scribed by Phil lips in his un pub- town, possi bly re sult ing in ca su al ties on both lished memoir of the riot: sides. At least one white man in an auto mo bile The mob action was set off when sev - was killed by a group of whites, who had mis - eral [white] men chased a Negro man taken him to be black.116 down the alley in back of the the ater and Around midnight, a small crowd of whites out onto Fourth Street where be saw the gathered — once again — outside of the court - stage door and dashed in side. Seeing the house, yell ing “Bring the rope” and “Get the open door the Negro rushed in and hur ried nigger.” But they did not rush the building, and forward in the dark ness hunt ing a place to nothing hap pened. Be cause the truth of the mat- hide. ter was that, by then, most of Tulsa’s riot ing Suddenly he was on the stage in front of whites no longer partic u larly cared about Dick the pic ture screen and blinded by the Rowland anymore. They now had much big ger bright flick er ing light com ing down from things in mind. the oper a tor’s booth in the balcony. After While dark ness slowed the pace of the riot, shield ing his eyes for a mo ment he re- spo radic fight ing took place through out the gained his vision enough to locate the night time hours of May 31 and June 1. The steps lead ing from the stage down past the heavi est oc curred alongside the Frisco rail road or ches tra pit to the aisle just as the pursu - tracks, one of the key di vid ing lines between ing men rushed the stage. One of them saw Tulsa’s black and white com mer cial dis tricts. the Ne gro and yelled, “there he is, head ing From ap prox i mately midnight un til around 1:30

65 a.m., scores of blacks and whites exchanged gun fire across the Frisco yards. At one point dur ing the fight ing, an in bound train re port edly ar rived, its pas sen gers forced to take cover on the floor as the shoot ing contin ued, raking both sides of the train. A few carloads of whites also made brief ex- cur sions into the Af ri can Amer i can district, firing in dis crim i nately into houses as they roared up and down streets lined with black res i dences. there were de lib er ate murders as well. As Walter White, who visited Tulsa im- medi ately after the riot, later re ported: Many are the sto ries of hor ror told to me During the nighttime hours of May 31 and June 1, groups of - not by colored peo ple - but by white res i - armed whitesmade “drive-by” shoot ings in black resi den tial dents. One was that of an aged col ored cou- neigh bor hoods, fir ing into Af ri can -Amer i can homes (Cour tesy ple, say ing their eve ning prayers before Greenwood Cul tural Center). re tir ing in their lit tle home on Green wood Av e nue. A mob broke into the house, shot About 10:30 o’clock, I think it was, I had both of the old peo ple in the backs of their a call from the Adjt. General ask ing about heads, blow ing their brains out and spatter - the situ a tion. I ex plained that it looked ing them over the bed, pil laged the home, pretty bad. He di rected that we con tinue to and then set fire to it.120 use every ef fort to get the men in so that if a call came we would be ready. I think it was It ap pears that the first fires set by whites in only a few min utes after this, another call black neigh bor hoods be gan at about 1:00 a.m. from the Adjt. Gen eral directed that “B” Co., Afri can Amer i can homes and busi nesses along the Sani tary Det. and the Ser vice Co. be mo - Archer were the ear li est tar gets, and when an bilized at once and render any assis tance to engine crew from the Tulsa Fire De part ment the civil au thor i ties we could in the main te- arrived and pre pared to douse the flames, nance of law and order and the protec tion of white ri ot ers forced the firemen away at gun - life and prop erty. I think this was about point. By 4:00 a.m., more than two-dozen 10:40 o’clock and while talking to the Gen - black-owned businesses, in clud ing the Mid - eral you ap peared and as sume command. 123 way Hotel, had been torched.121 The nighttime hours of May 31, and June 1, At ap prox i mately 11:00 p.m., perhaps as also wit nessed the first orga nized ac tions taken many as fifty lo cal National Guards men — by the Tulsa units of the Na tional Guard. While nearly all of whom had been contacted at their evi dence indi cates that Sheriff McCullough homes — had gath ered at the armory on Sixth may have requested local guard offi cers that Street. Some were World War I vet er ans. It is they send men down to the courthouse at unclear whether any of the men had been around 9:30 p.m.,122 it was not un til more than trained in riot con trol. Al though vari ous offi cial an hour later — about the time that the fighting and un of fi cial manu als were available in 1921 broke out at the courthouset—hat the local Na- on the use of Na tional Guard sol diers dur ing ri- ots, it is uncer tain whether the Tulsa units had tional Guard units were spe cif i cally or dered to 124 take action with re gards to the riot. Ac cord ing received any train ing in this area. to the after action re port later sub mit ted by Another inter est ing as pect regard ing the Ma jor James Bell to lo cal National Guard guardsmen who gath ered at the ar mory ex ists. com mander Lieu ten ant Colo nel L.J.F. Not only were the Tulsa units of the National Rooney: Guard exclu sively white, but as the eve ning wore on, it became increas ingly clear that they

66 Some of the most in tense fighting during the riot took place alongside the Frisco Railroad yards, as Af ri can-American defend ers tried to keep the white riot ers away from Greenwood. But when dawn broke on the morning of June 1, the black defend ers were simpley overwhelmed (Cour tesy Oklahoma His tor i cal Sociey). would not play an im par tial role in the “main- the Amer i can Le gion. Tulsa po lice of fi cials also tenance of law and or der.” Like many of their pre sented the guardsmen with a ma chine gun, white neigh bors, a number of the local guards- which guard offi cers then had mounted on the men also came to con clude that the race riot back of a truck. This par tic u lar gun, possi bly a was, in fact, a “Ne gro upris ing,” a term used war tro phy, it turned out, was in poor oper at ing through out their vari ous after action re ports. condi tion, and could only be fired one shell at a At least one Na tional Guard of fi cer went even time.126 further, us ing the term “enemy” in refer ence to Taking the ma chine gun along with them, Afri can Ameri cans. Given the tenor of the about thirty guardsmen then headed north, and times, it is hardly surpris ing that Tulsa’s po si tioned them selves along De troit Av e nue be- all-white National Guard might view black tween Brady Street and Standpipe Hill, along Tulsans an tag o nis ti cally. As the riot contin ued one of the bor ders sepa rat ing the city’s white to un fold, this also would prove to be far from and black neigh bor hoods. Their de ploy ment irrel e vant. 125 was far from impar tial, for the “skirmish line” Ini tially, the lo cal guards men were de ployed that the Na tional Guard offi cers estab lished was down town. Sometime be fore mid night, one set-up fac ing - or soon would be — the Af ri can de tach ment was sta tioned in front of po lice Ameri can dis trict. More over, the guardsmen head quar ters, where they blocked off Second also be gan round ing up black Tulsans, whom Street. Guardsmen also led groups of armed they handed over — as pris on ers — to the po - whites on “patrols” of down town streets, an lice, and they also briefly ex changed fire with ac tiv ity that was later taken over by mem bers gunmen to the east. Far from be ing uti lized as a of the — sim i larly all-white — lo cal chap ter of neutral force, Tulsa’s local Na tional Guard unit

67 North Tulsa burns while a white audi ence views the de struc tion from a safe distance (Cour tesy Oklahoma His tor i cal So ci ety). along De troit Ave nue were, even in the early “de fend ing Green wood,” he was one of scores hours of the riot, be ing deployed in a manner of other Af ri can Amer i can resi dents who were which would even tu ally set them in op po si tion pre par ing to do ex actly the same.129 to the black com mu nity.127 Other black Tulsans, however, reached a dif- In Tulsa’s black neigh bor hoods, meanwhile, fer ent conclu sion on what was the best course of word of what had happened at the courthouse action. De spite the fact that many of the city’s was soon followed by even more dis turb ing Afri can Ameri can resi dents un doubt edly hoped news. A light-complexioned Af ri can Amer i - that daylight would bring an end to the vi o lence, can man, who could “pass” for white, had min- others de cided not to wait and find out. In the gled with the crowds of an gry whites early hours of June 1, a steady stream of black down town, where he over heard talk of in vad - Tulsans be gan to leave the city, hop ing to find ing the Af ri can Amer i can dis trict. Carefully safety in the surround ing country side. “Early in mak ing his way back home, the man then re - the eve ning when there was first talk of trou ble,” lated what he had heard to Sey mour Williams, Irene Scofield later told the Black Dispatch , “I a teacher at Booker T. Washing ton High and about forty others started out of the town School. Williams, who had served with the and walked to a lit tle town about fifteen miles army in France, grabbed his service re volver away.” Others join ing the exo dus, how ever, and began to spread the news among his were not as fortu nate. Billy Hudson, an Af ri can neighbors liv ing just off of Standpipe Hill.128 Ameri can la borer who lived on Archer, hitched All along the southern edge of Greenwood, up his wagon as con di tions grew worse, and set in fact, a great amount of activ ity was in prog- out — with his grand chil dren by his side— for ress. Alerted to the news of the vio lence that Nowata. He was killed by whites along the had bro ken out downtown, ga rage and theater way.130 owner John Wesley Williams wasted no time Adding to the con fu sion over what to do was in prepar ing for the pos si bil ity of even greater the sim ple re al ity that, for most black Tulsans, it trou ble. Loading his 30-30 ri fle and a re peat ing was by no means clear as to what, exactly, was shot gun, he po si tioned him self along a going on through out the city. This was partic u - south-facing window of his fam ily’s second larly the case dur ing the early hours of June 1. floor apart ment at the corner of Greenwood Inter mit tent gun fire contin ued along the south - and Ar cher. Later tell ing his son that he was ernmost edges of the Af ri can Ameri can district

68 Street by street, block by block, the white invad ers moved north ward across Tulsa’s Af ri can-American dis trict, loot ing homes and set ting them on fire (Cour tesy De part ment of Spe cial Col lec tions, McFarlin Li brary, Uni ver sity of Tulsa). through out the night, while down along Ar cher lor-made for rumors. In deed, at about 2:30 a.m., Street, the fires had not yet burned themselves the word spread quickly across down town that a out. Yet, as far as any one could deter mine, train carry ing five-hundred armed blacks from Dick Rowland was still safe inside the court - Muskogee was due to ar rive shortly at the Mid - house. There had been no lynch ing. land Valley Rail way passen ger station off Third At ap prox i mately 2:00 a.m., the fierce fight- Street. Scores of armed whites in clud ing a Na - ing along the Frisco rail road yards had ended. tional Guard pa trol rushed to the depot, but The white would-be in vad ers still south of the nothing hap pened. There was no such train.132 tracks. As a re sult, some of Green wood’s de - Approx i mately 30 min utes later, reports fend ers not only concluded that they had reached the local Na tional Guard of fi cers that “won” the fight, but also that the riot was over. Afri can Amer i can gunman were fir ing on white “Nine p.m. the trou ble started,” A.J. resi dences on Sun set Hill, north of Standpipe Smitherman later wrote, “two a.m. the thing Hill. More over, it was said that a white woman was done.”131 had been shot and killed. Responding to the Nothing could have been further from the news, guardsmen in clud ing the crew man ning truth. the semi-defective ma chine gun were deployed Re gard less of what ever was, or was not, along Sunset Hill, an area that overlooked black happen ing down by the Frisco tracks, crowds homes to the east.133 of an gry, armed whites were still very much in In other white neigh bor hoods across Tulsa, a ev i dence on the streets and sidewalks of down- dif fer ent kind of activ ity was tak ing place, par - town Tulsa. Stunned, and then out raged, by ticu larly dur ing the first hours fol low ing mid - what had occurred at the court house, they had night. As word of what some would later call the only begun to vent their anger. “Ne gro up ris ing” be gan to spread across the Like black Tulsans, whites were not ex actly white com mu nity, groups of armed whites be - certain as to what ex actly was happen ing in the gan to gather at hastily-arranged meet ing places, city, a situ a tion that was, not sur pris ingly, tai - to dis cuss what to do next.134

69 White ri ot ers be gan set ting black homes and busi nesses on fire around mid night, largely along Ar cher Street. There were atroc i ties as well. One el derly Af ri can-American cou ple, it was later re ported, was shot in the back of the head by whites as they knelt in prayer in side their home (Cour tesy Oklahoma His tor i cal So ci ety).

For “Choc” Phil lips and his other young of cars headed east. He later esti mated, the compan ions, word of this activ ity came while crowd that had gath ered was about six-hundred they were sitting in an all-night restau rant. strong. Once again, men stood up on top of cars “Ev ery body,” they were told, “go to Fif teenth and began shout ing instruc tions to the crowd. and Boulder.” Phil lips wrote: “Men,” once man announced, “we are go ing in Many peo ple were drift ing out of the res- at day light.” An other man de clared that they taurant so we de cided to go along and see would be having, right then and there, an ammu - what hap pened at the meet ing place. nition ex change. “If any of you have more am - Driving south on Boulder we real ized that muni tion than you need, or if what you have many trucks and au to mo biles were headed doesn’t fit your gun, sing out,” he said. “Be for the same loca tion, and near Fifteenth ready at day break,” an other man in sisted, claim- Street people had abandoned their ve hi - ing that meetings like this were tak ing place all cles be cause the streets and in ter sec tions over town. “Noth ing can stop us,” he added, “for there will be thousands of others go ing in at the were filled to capac ity. We left the car 136 more than a block away and be gan walk - same time.” ing to ward the crowded in ter sec tion. The Tulsa po lice also ap pear to have been There were al ready three or four hun dred scat tered all over town. No doubt respond ing to people there and more arriv ing when we ru mors that armed blacks were sup pos edly en walked up. route to Tulsa from vari ous towns across eastern Oklahoma, Tulsa po lice of fi cers had been dis - Once there, a man stood up on top of a tour- patched to guard vari ous roads lead ing into the ing car and announced, “We have de cided to city. In deed, no less than a half-dozen offi cers go out to Second and Lewis Streets and join the 135 that by Chief Gustafson’s sub se quent cal cu la- crowd that is meeting there.” tions, was nearly one-fifth of the reg u larly Re turning to their auto mo biles, Phil lips and scheduled available police force that evening, his com pan ions blended in with the long line had ap par ently been posted at the ice plant over-

70 and at 1:46 a.m., the needed tele gram ar rived at the state cap i tal.138 It read: WESTERN UNION TELEGRAM Tulsa, Okla June l,1921 Govemor J.B.A. Robert son Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Race riot devel oped here. Sev eral killed. Unable handle situ a tion. Re - quest that Na tional Guard forces be sent by special train. Situ a tion se ri ous. Jno. A. Gustaftson, Chief of Po lice Wm. McCullough, Sheriff V.W. Biddison Dis trict Judge Twenty-nine minutes later, at 2:15 a.m., Ma - jor Kirkpatrick spoke again by phone with Ad - ju tant General Barrett, who in formed him that Sweeping past the black busi ness district, now aflame, the the gov er nor had au tho rized the call ing out of white ri ot ers en tered the heart of Tulsa’s Afri can-American the state troops. A spe cial train, carry ing ap - resi den tial area (Courtesy Oklahoma His tor i cal So ci ety). proxi mately one-hundred Na tional Guard sol - diers would leave Oklahoma City, bound for look ing the Elev enth Street bridge. Some local Tulsa, at 5:00 a.m. that morning. 140 guards men also were deployed to stand guard Tulsa’s lon gest night would fi nally be end ing, at var i ous pub lic works as well in clud ing the but its longest day would have only be gun. city water works along the Sand Springs road, In the pre-dawn hours of June l, thousands of and the Pub lic Ser vice Com pany’s power plant 137 armed whites had gath ered in three main clus - off First Street. ters along the northern fringes of downtown, op- Word of what was happen ing in Tulsa was posite Greenwood. One group had as sem bled also making its way to state offi cials in be hind the Frisco freight de pot, while an other Oklahoma City. At 10:14 p.m., Ad ju tant Gen- waited nearby at the Frisco and Santa Fe pas sen- eral Charles F. Barrett, the com man dant of the ger sta tion. Four blocks to the north, a third Oklahoma Na tional Guard, had re ceived a long crowd was clus tered at the Katy pas sen ger de - dis tance telephone call from Major By ron pot. While it is unclear how many people were Kirkpatrick, a Tulsa guard offi cer, advis ing in each group, some con tem po rary ob serv ers es- him of the worsen ing con di tions in Tulsa. ti mated the to tal number of armed whites who Kirkpatrick phoned again at 12:35 a.m. At that had gath ered as high as five or ten thou sand.141 point he was in structed by Gov er nor J.B.A. Smaller bands of whites also had been ac tive. Rob ert son to pre pare and send a signed tele - One group hauled a ma chine gun to the top of gram, as re quired by Oklahoma state law, by the Middle States Milling Company’s grain el e- the chief of po lice, the county sher iff, and a lo- va tor off of First Street, and set it up to fire to the cal judge, re quest ing that state troops be sent north of Greenwood Av e nue.142 Shortly before to Tulsa. Kirkpatrick, however, ran into some daybreak, five white men in a green Frank lin prob lems as he tried to col lect the neces sary au to mo bile pulled up alongside the crowd of sig na tures, partic u larly that of Sheriff whites who were massed be hind the Frisco McCullough, who was still bar ri caded with his freight de pot. “What the hell are you waitin’ men and Dick Rowland on the top floor of the on?,” one of the men hollered, “let’s go get court house. How ever, Kirkpatrick per se vered,

71 The loot ing and burn ing of Af ri can -Amer i can homes was indiscriminate, both poor and wealthy fam i lies lost their homes (Courtesy Green wood Cul tural Center).

‘em.” But the crowd would not budge, and the Woods run ning with both hands in the air men in the car set off alone toward Deep and their 3-month-old baby in one hand and Greenwood. Their bod ies, and the bul - three brutes be hind him with guns. let-ridden Franklin, were later seen in the mid- 143 “She said her legs gave way from under her,” dle of Ar cher Street, near Frankfort. contin ued, “and she had to crawl about Across the tracks in Green wood, con sid er- the room, tak ing things from her closet, putt ing able activ ity also had been tak ing place. While them in her trunk, for she thought if anything some black Tulsans pre pared themselves to happened she’d have her trunk packed, and be - face the onslaught, others de cided that it was fore she got ev ery thing in they heard foot steps time to go. “About this time of fi cers Pack and on their steps and there were six out there and Lewis pushed up to us and said it would not be they or dered Mr. Smart to march, hands up, out safe for us to re main any lon ger,” recalled Mrs. of the house.145 Dim ple Bush, who was with her hus band at the Sev eral eye wit nesses later re called that when Red Wing Hotel. “So,” she added, “We rushed dawn came at 5:08 a.m. that morning, an un - out and found a taxi which took us straight 144 usual whis tle or siren sounded, per haps as a sig- north on Greenwood.” nal for the mass as sault on Greenwood to begin. Not far away, along North Elgin, Julia Duff, Al though the source of this whis tle or siren is a teacher at Booker T. Washing ton High still un known, moments later, the white mobs School, faced a sim i lar crisis. Awakened by made their move. While the ma chine gun in the loud voices outside of her rented room shortly grain ele va tor opened fire, crowds of armed before dawn, the young teacher was soon whites poured across the Frisco tracks, headed nearly overcome with fear. As later described straight for the Af ri can Ameri can commer cial in a letter pub lished in the Chi cago De fender: district. 146 As later de scribed by one eye wit ness: Mrs. S. came into her room and told her With wild frenzied shouts, men be gan to dress-there was something wrong for pour ing from behind the freight de pot and sol diers were all around, and she looked the long string of boxcars and ev i dently out the window and saw them driv ing the from behind the piles of oil well easing men out of the houses on Detroit. Saw Mr.

72 which was at the other end and on the lo cated in the granary and north side of the building. From ev ery from men who were quickly surround ing place of shelter up and down the tracks our dis trict. Seeing that they were fighting came screaming, shout ing men to join in at a dis ad van tage, our men had taken shel ter the rush toward the Ne gro sec tion. Min- in the build ings and in other places out of gled with the shout ing were a few re- sight of the enemy. When my daughter, bel-yells and In dian gobblings as the great Flor ence Mary, and I ran into the street, it wave of hu man ity rushed forward to tally was va cant for a block or more. Someone ab sorbed in thoughts of de struc tion.147 called to me to “Get out of the street with Mean while, over at the Katy depot, the other that child or you both will be killed.” I felt crowd of armed whites also moved for ward. that it was suicide to re main in the build ing, Head ing east, they were soon joined by dozens for it would surely be destroyed and death of others in auto mo biles, driv ing along Brady in the street was preferred, for we expected and Cameron Streets. As one un iden ti fied ob - to be shot down at any moment. So we server later told re porter Mary Parrish, “Tues- placed our trust in God, our Heav enly Fa - day night, May 31, was the riot, and ther, who seeth and knoweth all things, and Wednesday morning, by day break, was the in- ran out of Green wood in the hope of reach- 148 ing a friend’s home who lived over the vasion.” 150 While black Tulsans fought hard to pro tect Standpipe Hill in Green wood Addi tion. their homes and businesses, the sheer nu mer i - For Dimple Bush, the flight from Green wood cal advan tage of the in vad ing whites soon had bor dered upon the inde scrib able. “It was proved to be overwhelm ing. After a val iant, just dawn; the ma chine guns were sweep ing the night long ef fort, John Wesley Williams had to valley with their murder ous fire and my heart flee from his fam ily’s apart ment once whites was filled with dread as we sped along,” she re- be gan to riddle the build ing with gun fire. called, “Old women and men, children were Squeezing off a few fi nal rounds a lit tle further run ning and scream ing every where.” 151 up Green wood Av e nue, Williams then faced Soon, how ever, new perils devel oped. As the the in ev i ta ble, and be gan walk ing north along mobs of armed whites rushed into the south ern the Mid land Val ley tracks, leav ing his home end of the Af ri can Ameri can dis trict, air planes and businesses be hind.149 — manned by whites — also ap peared over - He was hardly alone. Not far away, in her head. As Dr. R.T. Bridgewater, a well-respected apart ment in the Woods Build ing at 105 N. black Tulsa phy si cian, later de scribed what hap- Green wood, Mary E. Jones Parrish and her pened: young daugh ter Florence Mary had sat up Shortly after we left a whis tle blew. The much of the night, uncer tain of what to do. shots rang from a ma chine gun lo cated on “Finally,” she later wrote, Standpipe Hill near my resi dence and My friend, Mrs. Jones, called her hus - aeroplanes be gan to fly over us, in some in- band, who was try ing to take a lit tle rest. stances very low to the ground. A cry was They de cided to try to make for a place of heard from the women saying, “Look out safety, so called to me that they were leav- for the aeroplanes, they are shoot ing upon ing. By this time the enemy was close us.”152 upon us, so they ran out of the south door, Numer ous other eye wit nesses —both black which led out onto Ar cher Street, and went and white — con firm the presence of an un- east toward Lansing. I took my lit tle girl, known number of air planes fly ing over Green - Flor ence Mary, by the hand and fled out of wood dur ing the early daylight hours of June 1. the west door on Greenwood. I did not While cer tain other as ser tions made over the take time to get a hat for myself or Baby, years such as that the planes dropped streams of but started out north on Green wood, run - “liq uid fire” on top of Af ri can Amer i can homes ning amidst showers of bul lets from the

73 and busi nesses ap pear to have been tech no log- him, and they told his wife (old, too) to go, ically im prob a ble, partic u larly dur ing the early but she did n’t want to leave him, and he told 1920s, there is lit tle doubt but that some of the her to go on any way. As she left one of the occu pants of the air planes fired upon black damn dogs shot and then they Tulsans with pis tols and ri fles. More over, fired the house.156 there is ev i dence, to sug gest that men in at least There were near-atrocities as well. Af ter one air plane dropped some form of ex plo - armed whites had led his mother away at gun - sives, proba bly sticks of dyna mite, upon a point, five-year-old George Monroe was hid ing group of Af ri can Ameri can refu gees as they 153 beneath his par ents’ bed with his two older sis- were flee ing the city. ters and his one older brother when white men Gun fire soon erupted along the western sud denly en tered the room. Af ter ri fling through bound ary of the black com mu nity. Sharp fight- the dresser, the men set the cur tains on fire. As ing broke out along Standpipe Hill, where the the men be gan to leave, one of them stepped on lo cal guardsmen posi tioned there traded fire George’s hand. George started to cry out, but his with armed Af ri can Ameri cans, who had set up sis ter Lottie threw her hand over his mouth, pre- defen sive lines off Elgin and Elgin Place. vent ing their dis cov ery. A few min utes later, the Nearby, on Sunset Hill, the white guardsmen chil dren were able to escape from their home opened fire on the black neigh bor hood to the before it burst into flame.157 east, us ing both their standard is sue Some of the fires in Green wood ap pear to thirty-caliber 1906 Spring field rifles as well as have been set by whites wear ing khaki uni - the semi-defective ma chine gun provided to 154 forms. The actual identity of these men remains them by the Tulsa po lice. un clear. Most likely, they were World War I As the waves of white ri ot ers de scended veter ans who had donned their old army uni - upon the Af ri can Ameri can dis trict, a deadly forms when the riot erupted, rather than an offi - pattern soon emerged. First, the armed whites cially orga nized group.159 broke into the black homes and busi nesses, They were not, how ever, the only uni formed forc ing the occu pants out into the street, where whites ob served setting fires in Tulsa’s Af ri can they were led away at gunpoint to one of a Ameri can neighbor hoods. Accord ing to black grow ing number of in tern ment centers. Any - Deputy Sher iff V.B. Bostic, a white Tulsa po lice one who re sisted was shot. More over, Af ri can offi cer “drove him and his wife from his home,” Ameri can men in homes where fire arms were and then “poured oil on the floor and set a discov ered met the same fate. Next, the whites lighted match to it.”159 looted the homes and businesses, pocket ing Deputy Sher iff Bostic was not, however, the small items, and haul ing away larger items ei- only eye wit ness to report acts of crimi nal mis - ther on foot or by car or truck. Finally, the con duct by Tulsa police offi cers dur ing the white ri ot ers then set the homes and other course of the riot. Ac cord ing to one white eye - build ings on fire, us ing torches and oil-soaked wit ness, a “uni formed [white] po lice man on East rags. House by house, block by block, the wall Sec ond Street went home, changed his uniform of flame crept north ward, engulf ing the city’s 155 to plain clothes, and went to the Ne gro dis trict and black neigh bor hoods. led a bunch of whites into Ne gro, houses, some Atrocities occurred along the way. Accord - of the bunch pilfer ing, never of fered to pro tect ing to one account, published ten days after the men, women or children, or property.” This par - riot in a Chicago news pa per, ticu lar account was but tressed by the tes ti mony Another cruel instance was when they of an Af ri can Amer i can witness, who re ported [white riot ers] went to the home of an old that he had seen the same of fi cer in ques tion “on couple and the old man, 80 years old, was the morning of the riot, June 1, kick ing in doors para lyzed and sat in a chair and they told of Ne gro homes, and as sist ing in the destruc tion him to march and he told them he was crip- of prop erty.”160 pled, but he’d go if some one would take

74 Dedi cated only weeks be fore the riot, the Mount Zion Baptist Church was a great source of pride for many black Tulsans. But after a prolonged battle, the white riot ers burned it—as well as more than a half dozen other Afri can Amer i can churches—to the ground (Cour tesy Depart ment of Special Collec tions, McFarlin Li brary, Univer sity of Tulsa). Despite the daunt ing odds against them, a canvas cover then lay it on the bed of the black Tulsans val iantly fought back. Af ri can truck. They rolled up the belts with the Ameri can rifle men had posi tioned themselves empty shell casings, put away those that in the belfry of the newly-built Mount Zion were still un used, and in what seemed less Bap tist Church, whose com mand ing view of than ten minutes from the time the truck the area just below Standpipe Hill al lowed was parked at the loca tion, drove away. them to tem po rarily stem the tide of the white While stand ing on the high ground where in va sion. When white ri ot ers set up a ma chine the ma chine gun had been firing, we gun-probably the same weapon that had been watched the activ ity below for a few min - used ear lier that morn ing at the grain el e va tor, utes. Most of the houses were be gin ning to and un leashed its deadly fire on the church burn and smoke ascended slowly in to the belfry, the black de fend ers were quickly over- air while people flit ted around as busy as whelmed. As “Choc” Phil lips later described bees down there. From the number that ran what happened: in and out of the houses and the church, In a couple of minutes pieces of brick there had ev i dently been a cou ple of hun - started falling, then whole bricks be gan dred who remained be hind when the mob tumbling from the nar row slits in the cu - by passed the area. pola. Within five or six min utes the open - A short while later, Mount Zion was ings were large jag ged holes with so many torched.161 bricks fly ing from that side of the cu pola by black Tulsans to de fend their wall that it seemed ready to fall. homes and property were un der cut by the ac - The men stopped fir ing the ma chine tions of both the Tulsa police and the local Na - gun and al most im me di ately the houses on tional Guard units, who, rather than fo cus on the outer rim of the area that had been pro- dis arm ing and ar rest ing the white riot ers, took tected by the snipers, be came vic tims of steps that led to the even tual im pris on ment of the ar son ists. We watched the men take prac ti cally all of the city’s Af ri can Amer i can the ma chine gun from the tri pod, wrap it in citi zens. Guards men de ployed on Standpipe

75 Hill made at least one eastward march in the four men searched me. They told me to line early hours of June 1, round ing up Af ri can up in the street. I re quested them to let me Ameri cans along the way, before they were get my hat and best shoes, but they refused fired upon, ap par ently by whites as well as and abu sively or dered me to line up. They blacks, near Greenwood Av e nue. The guards - re fused to let one of the men put on any kind men then marched to Sunset Hill, where they of shoes. After lin ing up some 30 or 40 of us handed over their black pris on ers to local po - men, they ran us through the streets to Con- lice of fi cers.162 ven tion Hall, forc ing us to keep our hands An ar rest by a white of fi cer was not a guar- in the air all the while. While we were run - an tee of safety for black Tulsans. Ac cord ing to ning, some of the ruf fi ans would shoot at Thomas Higgins, a white res i dent of Wichita, our heels and swore at those who had diffi - Kan sas who happened to be vis it ing Tulsa culty keep ing up. They ac tu ally drove a car when the riot broke out, “I saw men of my own into the bunch and knocked down two or race, sworn of fi cers, on three occa sions search three men.165 Negroes while their hands were up, and not Harold M. Parker, a white book keeper for the finding weapons, extracted what money they Oklahoma Producing and Refining Cor po ra tion found on them. If the Negro pro tested, he was 163 at the time of the riot, later cor rob o rated how shot.” armed whites sometimes shot at the heels of White civil ians also took black prison ers. their black pris on ers. “Sometimes they missed When the in va sion be gan, Carrie Kinlaw, an and shot their legs,” Parker re called a half cen - Afri can Ameri can woman who lived out to - tury later, “It was sheer cruelty com ing out.”166 ward the Section Line, had to run toward the The most infa mous inci dent in volv ing white fight ing in order to help her sisters re trieve ci vil ians im pris on ing Af ri can Amer i cans was their in valid mother. Reaching the elderly that which concerned Dr. A.C. Jackson, Tulsa’s woman in a “rain of bul lets,” Kinlaw later noted black sur geon. De spite the in creas ing wrote: gun fire, Dr. Jackson had de cided to re main in - My sis ters and I gath ered her up, placed side of his hand some home at 523 N. Detroit, her on a cot, and three of us carried the cot along the shoul der of Standpipe Hill. But when a and the other one car ried a bundle of group of armed whites ar rived on his front lawn, clothes; thus we carried Mother about six Jackson ap par ently walked out the side door of blocks, with bul lets fall ing on all sides. his home with his hands up, saying, “Here I am About six squads of ri ot ers over took us, boys, don’t shoot.”167 What happened next was asked for men and guns, made us hold up later recounted by John A. Oliphant, a white at - our hands. tor ney who lived nearby, in testi mony he pro - Not all of her cap tors, how ever, were adults. vided after the riot: “There were boys in that bunch,” she added, Q. About what time in the morn ing did you “from about 10 years up ward, all armed with say it was Dr. Jackson was shot? guns.”164 A. Right close to eight o’clock, between Black Tulsans also faced dangers while in seven thirty and eight o’clock. the custody of white ci vil ians. James T. West a Q. Dr. Jack son was a Ne gro? teacher at Booker T. Washing ton High A. Yes, sir. School, was ar rested by whites at his home on Q. And he was com ing to ward you and these Easton Street that morning. “Some men ap - other men at the time he was shot? peared with drawn guns and or dered all of the A. Yes, Sir, com ing right between his house, men out of the house,” he re called im me di- right in his yard be tween his home and the house ately after the riot, below him. Q. What did these men say at the time he was I went out imme di ately. They or dered shot? me to raise my hands, after which three or

76 A. They did n’t say anything but they pulled down on him; I kept begging him not to shoot him, I held him a good bit and I thought he wouldn’t shoot but he shot him twice and the other fel low on the other side-and he fell-shot him and broke his leg. Q. One man shot him twice? A. Yes, sir, this is my rec ol lec tion now. Q. Then an other one shot him through the leg? A. Yes, I didn’t look at that fel low. Q. These same men that shot him car ried him to the hospi tal? A. No, they did n’t. Q. What did they do? A. I have never seen them after that, I don’t know a thing about what became of them. Dr. Jack son died of his wounds later that day.168 Not all black Tulsans, however, coun te- nanced sur ren der. In the fi nal burst of fighting off of Standpipe Hill that morning, a deadly firefight erupted at the site of an old clay pit, While the white riot ers contin ued their as sault upon the Af ri- can-American com mu nity, black Tulsans soon found them selves where several Afri can Ameri can de fend ers sub ject to ar rest by Tulsa of fi cials and “spe cial dep u ties”(Cour- were said to have gone to their deaths fighting tesy Bob Hower). off the white in vad ers. Stories also have been passed down over the years re gard ing the ex - In the wake of the in va sion came a wall of ploits of Peg Leg Tay lor, a leg end ary black de- flame, steadily mov ing north ward. “Is the fender who is said to have single hand edly whole world on fire?” asked a young play mate fought off more than a dozen white riot ers. of eight-year-old Kinney Booker, who was flee- Along the northern face of Sun set Hill, the ing with his family from their home on North white guardsmen posted there found them- Frank fort. Not far away, a fiery horror was un - selves, at least for a while, under at tack.169 derway. As later recounted by Walter White in Black Tulsa, it was clear, was not going The Na tion maga zine: with out a fight. One story was told to me by an eye wit- De spite their gallant effort, however, ness of five col ored men trapped in a burn - Tulsa’s Af ri can Ameri can mi nor ity was sim - ing house. Four burned to death. A fifth ply out gunned and outnum bered. As the white attempted to flee, was shot to death as he mobs con tin ued to move north ward, into the emerged from the burn ing struc ture, and his heart of the black res i den tial dis trict, some of body was thrown back into the flames. the worst vio lence of the riot ap pears to have Hu mans, how ever, were not the only victims taken place. “Ne gro men, women and chil dren of the confla gra tion. More than a few black were killed in great num bers as they ran, trying Tulsans kept pigs and chickens in their back - to flee to safety,” one uniden ti fied in for mant yards in those days. They too perished in the later told Mary E. Parrish, “. . . the most horri - flames, as did some dogs and other fam ily ble scenes of this oc cur rence was to see women 171 pets. drag ging their chil dren while run ning to Efforts made by the Tulsa Fire De part ment to safety, and the dirty white ras cals fir ing at them halt the burn ing were of lit tle ef fect. The ear li est as they ran.”170 at tempts by firemen to put out fires in the Afri -

77 While only the au thor i ties de tained a hand ful of white ri ot ers, most black Tulsans soon found them selves held un der guard. Even in the pre dom i nantly white neigh bor hoods on the city’s south side, Af ri can-American do mes tic work ers were rounded up and taken to the var i ous in tern ment cen ters (Cour tesy De part ment of Spe cial Col lec tions, McFarlin Library, Uni ver sity of Tulsa). can Amer i can dis trict were halted, at gunpoint, the hill to the north east among the by crowds of white ri ot ers. There af ter, what ef- out-buildings of the Ne gro settle ment forts that were made ap pear to have been di - which stops at the foot of the hill. After rected towards keep ing the flames away from about 20 minutes “fire at will” at the armed nearby white neigh bor hoods. This may also groups of blacks the lat ter be gan falling have played a role in how an other new black back to the north east, thus getting good church, the First Bap tist Church lo cated at Ar- cover among the frame buildings of the Ne- cher and Jackson, was spared. “Yonder is a gro set tle ment. Imme di ately we moved for - nigger church, why ain’t they burn ing it?” a ward, “B” Company ad vanc ing di rectly white woman al leg edly asked on the morning north and the Ser vice com pany in a of June 1. Be cause, she was told, “It’s in a north-easterly direc tion. 173 172 white district.” More remark able, the guardsmen came upon As the morn ing wore on, and the fighting a group of Af ri can Amer i cans bar ri caded inside moved northward across Green wood, there a store, who were attempt ing to hold off a mob was a startling new de vel op ment. On the heels of armed white ri oter’s. Rather than attempt to of their brief gun bat tle with Af ri can Amer i can get the white invad ers and the black de fend ers to ri fle men to their north, the guardsmen who dis en gage, the guardsmen joined in on the at - were posi tioned along the crest of Sunset Hill tack. Again, as de scribed by Cap tain McCuen: then joined in the in va sion of black Tulsa, with one de tach ment head ing north, the other to the At the northeast cor ner of the Negro set - northeast. As later de scribed by Captain John tle ment 10 or more Ne groes bar ri caded W. McCuen in the after action re port he sub - them selves in a concrete store and dwelling mit ted to the commander of Tulsa’s Na tional and a stiff fight en sued between these Ne - Guard units: groes on one side and guardsmen and civil - ians on the other. Several whites and blacks We advanced to the crest of Sunset Hill were wounded and killed at this point. We in skirmish line and then a lit tle fur ther cap tured, arrested and dis armed a great north to the mil i tary crest of the hill where many Ne gro men in this set tle ment and then our men were or dered to lie down because sent them under guard to the conven tion of the in tense fire of the blacks who had hall and other points where they were being formed a good skirmish line at the foot of concen trated. 174

78 Whites detained fleeing Afri can Ameri cans as well as those that stayed near their homes and busi nesses (Cour tesy De part ment of Special Collec tions, McFarlin Library, Uni ver sity of Tulsa). No lon ger re motely impar tial, the men of Ameri can refu gees were ap par ently hid den by “B” Company, Third Infan try, Oklahoma Na - the Phelpses dur ing the daylight hours.177 tional Guard, had now joined in on the as sault Other white Tulsans also hid blacks, or di - on black Tulsa. rectly con fronted the white riot ers. Mary Jo As Af ri can Amer i cans fled the city, new Erhardt, a young stenog ra pher who roomed at dangers sometimes appeared. Mary Parrish the Y.W.C.A. Build ing at Fifth and Chey enne, later re ported that as the group of refu gees she did both. After a sleep less night, punctu ated by was with “had traveled many miles into the the sounds of gunfire, Erhardt arose early on the coun try and were turn ing to find our way to morn ing of June 1. Head ing downstairs, she Claremore,” they were warned to stay clear of then heard a voice she recog nized as belong ing a nearby town, where whites were “treat ing our to the Af ri can Ameri can porter who worked peo ple aw fully mean as they passed there. “Miss Mary! Oh, Miss Mary!” he said, through.”175 Sim i lar sto ries have per sisted for “Let me in quick.” Armed whites, he told her, de cades. were chas ing him. Quickly secret ing the man in- Not all white Tulsans, how ever, shared the side the build ing’s walk-in refrig er a tor, Erhardt ra cial views of the white riot ers. Mary Korte, a later recalled, white maid who worked for a wealthy Tulsa Hardly had I hid den him behind the beef fam ily, hid Af ri can Ameri can refu gees at her 176 carcasses and re turned to the hall door fam ily’s farm east of the city. Along the road when a loud pound ing at the service en - to Sand Springs, a white cou ple named Merrill trance drew me there. A large man was try- and Ruth Phelps hid and fed black riot victims ing to open the door, for tu nately se curely in the base ment of their home for days. The locked, and there on the stoop stood three Phelps home, which still stands, be came some- very rough-looking mid dle-aged white thing of a “safe house” for black Tulsans who men, each point ing a re volver in my gen eral had man aged not to be im pris oned by the white direc tion! au thor i ties. Traveling through the woods and along creek beds at night, doz ens of Af ri can “What do you want?” I asked sharply. Strangely, those guns frightened me not at

79 The Zarrow Family. The par ents of Jack and Henry Zarrow, founder of Sooner Pipeling, owned a grocery store in the riot-torn area. It was spared because they were white. The Zarrow’s hid many of the flee ing blacks in their business (Courtesy Green wood Cul tural Cen - ter).

all. I was so an gry I could have torn those rican Ameri can chil dren, who had evi dently ruffi ans apart-three armed white men chas- been sep a rated from their parents, walk ing ing one lone, harm less Ne gro. I can not re - along the street. Suddenly, an air plane appeared call in all my life feeling hatred to ward on the ho ri zon, bear ing down on the two fright - any person, un til then. Ap par ently my feel- ened young sters. Morales ran out into the street, ings did not show, for one answered, and scooped the lit tle ones into her arms, and “Where did he go?” “Where did WHO out of danger. go?” I responded. A group of armed whites later de manded that “That nigger," one demanded, “did you Morales hand the two ter ri fied chil dren over to let him in here?” them. “In her Eng lish, she told them ‘No’,” her daughter Gloria Lough, later recalled. “Some - “Mister,” I said, “I’m not let ting how or other," she added, “they did n’t shoot ANYBODY in here!,” which was per- her." The young sters were safe.179 fectly true. I had al ready let in all I in - As the bat tle for black Tulsa con tin ued to tended. rage, it soon be came evi dent, even in neigh bor - “It was at least ten minutes before I felt hoods far re moved from the fighting, that on secure enough to re lease Jack,” Erhardt June 1, 1921, there would be very lit tle busi ness added, “He was nearly frozen, dressed as usual in the city of Tulsa. When Guy Ashby, a thinly as he was for the hot sum mer night, young white em ployee at Coo per’s Gro cery on but he was ALIVE!”178 Fourteenth Street, showed up for work that Some whites, in their ef forts to pro tect black morn ing, his boss was on his way out the door. Tulsans from harm put themselves at risk. “The boss told me there would be no work that None, per haps, more so than a young His panic day as he was declar ing it ‘Nigger Day’ and he woman named Maria Morales Gutierrez. A re- was go ing hunt ing niggers,” Ashby later re- membered, “He took a ri fle and told me to lock cent im mi grant from Mex ico, she and her hus- 180 band were living, at the time of the riot, in a up the store and go home.” small house off Peoria Av e nue, near In de pend- Down town, normal ac tiv i ties were even more ence Street. Hear ing a great deal of noise and in dis ar ray, as busi ness owners found them- commo tion on the morn ing of June 1, Morales selves short handed, and crowds of onlook ers ventured out side, where she saw two small Af- took to the streets, or climbed up on rooftops, to stare at the great clouds of smoke bil low ing over

80 The riot was felt along the south ern edge of the city as well, partic u larly in the well-to-do white neigh bor hoods off of 21st Street, as car - loads of armed white vigi lan tes went door to door, round ing up live-in Af ri can Ameri can cooks, maids, and but lers at gunpoint, and then haul ing them off toward downtown. A num ber of white home own ers, how ever, fear ing for the safety of their black em ploy ees, stood in the way of this forced evacu a tion. When Charles and Amy Arnold re fused to hand over their house - keeper, cries of being “nigger lovers” were fol- Any flee ing fam i lies were de nied free dom by whites po si tioned lowed by a brick be ing thrown through their on es cape routes (Cour tesy De part ment of Spe cial Col lec tions, front win dow.182 McFarlin Li brary, Uni ver sity of Tulsa). Even out in the country side, miles from town, the north end of town. At the all-white Cen tral people knew that something was happen ing in High School, sev eral male stu dents bolted Tulsa. Since day break, huge columns of black from class when gun fire was heard nearby. smoke had been ris ing up, hun dreds of feet into One of the students later recalled, “struck out the air, over the north end of the city. for the riot area.” Along the way, he added, The smoke was still there, some four hours they were met by a white man who handed later, when the State Troops fi nally ar rived in them a new rifle and a box of shells. “You can town. have it,” the man told them, “I’m go ing home The spe cial train from Oklahoma City, carry - and go ing to bed.”181 ing Ad ju tant General Charles F. Barrett and the

Shortly af ter the out break of vi o lence, the Tulsa po lice pre sented the lo cal Na tional Guards men with a ma chine gun—only it proved to be de fec tive. A sec ond ma chine gun that was in the hands of white ci vil ians, how ever, was used to con sid er able ef fect dur ing the at- tack on Greenwood (Cour tesy De part ment of Spe cial Col lec tions, McFarlin Li brary, Uni ver sity of Tulsa).

81 As more and more Af ri can Amer i cans were de tained the “pro tec tive cus tody” al ter nate holding lo ca tions had to be used including McNulty base ball Park (De part ment of Spe cial Col lec tions, McFarlin Li brary, Uni ver sity of Tulsa). ap prox i mately 109 sol diers and of fi cers under supply dealer who was visit ing Tulsa at the time his command, pulled into Tulsa’s bul- of the riot. “This law less loot ing con tin ued from let-scarred Frisco and Santa Fe passen ger de - about 9 un til 11 o’clock,” he added, “when mar- pot at approx i mately 9:15 a.m. on the morning tial law prevented further spoilation.”184 of June 1, 1921. The soldiers, who arrived There were on go ing hor rors as well. “One armed and in uniform, were all-members of an Ne gro was dragged behind an auto mo bile, Oklahoma City based Na tional Guard unit. In with a rope around his neck, through the busi - Tulsa, they soon became known, by both ness district,” re ported the Tulsa World in its blacks and whites, as the “State Troops,” a “Second Ex tra” edi tion on the morn ing of June term which had the intrin sic ben e fit of helping 1." De cades later, both former Tulsa mayor to dis tin guish the out-of-towners from the lo cal L.C. Clark, and E.W. “Gene” Maxey of the Na tional Guard units. Like the lo cal guards - Tulsa County Sher iff’s Depart ment, con - men, the State Troops were also all-white.183 firmed this re port. “About 8:00 a.m. on the By the time the State Troops ar rived, Tulsa’s morn ing of June 1, 1921, Maxey told riot devas tat ing ra cial confla gra tion was al ready chron i cler Ruth Avery, ten-and-one-half hours old. Dozens of blacks I was down town with a friend when they and whites had been killed, while the wards of killed that good, old, colored man that was the city’s four remain ing hos pi tals — the blind. He had ampu tated legs. His body was all-black Frissell Me mo rial Hos pi tal had al - attached at the hips to a small wooden plat - ready been burned to the ground by white ri ot - form with wheels. One leg stub was longer ers — were filled with the wounded. Most of than the other, and hung slightly over the the city’s Af ri can Amer i can dis trict had al- edge of the platform, drag ging along the ready been torched, while loot ing contin ued in street. He scooted his body around by shov- those black homes and busi nesses that were ing and push ing with his hands covered still standing. “One very bad thing was the with base ball catcher mitts. He supported way whites delved into the personal be long- him self by sell ing pen cils to passersby, or ings of the Ne groes, throwing their posses - ac cept ing their dona tions for his sing ing of sions from trunks and other wise damag ing songs. them,” re ported M.J. White, a den tal

82 The street car tracks ran north and south drag ging him behind the car in broad daylight on Main Street, and the tracks were laid on on June 1, right through the center of town on pretty rough bricks. The fellow that was Main Street.”185 driving the car I knew—an out law and a When the State Troops ar rived in Tulsa, the boot leg ger. But I won’t give his name be - ma jor ity of the city’s black cit i zenry had ei ther cause he has some folks here. There were fled to the country side, or were being held — al- two or three people with him. They got legedly for their own pro tec tion — against their that old col ored man that had been here for will in one of a handful of hastily set-up intern - years. He was help less. He’d carry an old ment cen ters, in clud ing Con ven tion Hall, the tin cup, sing, and mooched for money. fair grounds, and McNulty park. There One of them thuggy, white peo ple had a were still, however, some pockets of armed new car, so he went to the depot, and came black re sis tance to the remnants of the white in- back up Main Street between First and Sec- va sion, es pe cially along the northern reaches of ond Streets. We were on the east side of the Af ri can Amer i can dis trict. In cer tain bor der- the street. These white thugs had roped line areas such as the res i den tial neigh bor hood this col ored man on the longer stump of that lay just to the east of the Santa Fe tracks his one leg, and were dragging him behind where the Jim Crow line ran right down the cen- the car up Main Street. He was hol ler ing. ter of the street, a number of Af ri can Amer i can His head was be ing bashed in, bounc ing homes had escaped destruc tion, some times on the steel rails and bricks. through the ef forts of sym pa thetic white neigh- 186 “They went on all the speed that the car bors. could make,” Maxey added, “. . . a new car, Upon their ar rival in Tulsa, the State Troops with the top down, and 3 or 4 of them in it, ap par ently did not pro ceed imme di ately to where the fight ing was still in prog ress, al-

Re mark ably, a hand ful of Tulsa’s finest Af ri can-American homes were still standing when the State Troops ar rived in town. But about one-hour later, a small group of white men were seen en ter ing the houses, and set ting them on fire. By the time the State Troops marched up Standpipe Hill, it was too late, the homes were gone (Cour tesy Tulsa His tor i cal So c iety).

83 though it is uncer tain how long this de lay police men I will pro tect all this prop erty lasted. The reasons for this seem ing hold-up and save a million dol lars worth of stuff ap pear to be largely due to the fact that certain they were burn ing down and loot ing.” I steps needed to be ful filled — either through asked the fire de part ment for the fire depart - pro to col or by law — in or der for mar tial law to ment to be sent over to help pro tect my prop- be de clared in Tulsa. Accord ingly, after de - erty and they said they couldn’t come, they train ing at the Frisco and Santa Fe sta tion, Ad- wouldn’t let them.190 jutant Gen eral Barrett led a detach ment of Oliphant’s hopes were raised, how ever, when sol diers to the court house, where an unsuc - he observed the ar rival of the State Troops, fig- cessful attempt was made to con tact Sher iff uring that they might be able to save the homes McCullough. Barrett then went to city hall, along North Detroit. “I sent for them,” he tes ti- where, after confer ring with city offi cials, he fied, I sent for the mi li tia to come, send over fif- con tacted Gov er nor Robert son in Oklahoma teen or twenty of them, that is all I wanted." But, City and asked to be granted the author ity to instead, at around 10:15 a.m. or 10:30 a.m., a pro claim martial law in Tulsa County. Other party of three or four white men, proba bly detach ments of State Troops, meanwhile, ap - so-called ‘Spe cial Dep uties," each wearing pear to have be gun tak ing charge of black badges ar rived, and then set fire to one of the Tulsans who were be ing held by armed white 187 very homes that Oliphant had been try ing to pro- ci vil ians. However, an other account of the tect. By the time the State Troops ar rived in the riot, published a de cade later, al leges that upon neighbor hood later that morning, it was too late. their ar rival in Tulsa, the State Troops wasted Most of the homes were al ready on fire.191 valu able min utes by tak ing time to pre pare and 188 One of the few that was not belonged to Dr. eat breakfast. Rob ert Bridgewater and his wife, Mattie, at 507 As it turned out, while the State Troops were N. Detroit. Returning to his home — af ter be ing occu pied downtown, not far away, some of the held at Con ven tion Hall — in order to retrieve fin est Af ri can Amer i can homes in the city were his med i cine cases, Dr. Bridgewater later wrote, still standing. Lo cated along North De troit Av- e nue, near Easton, they included the homes of On reach ing the house, I saw my pi ano some of Tulsa’s most prom i nent black cit i- and all of my el e gant fur ni ture piled in the zens, among them the res i dences of Tulsa Star street. My safe had been bro ken open, all of ed i tor A.J. Smitherman, Booker T.Wash ing - sto len, also my silver ware, cut ton High School prin ci pal Ellis W. Woods, and glass, all of the family clothes, and every - busi ness man Thomas R. Gently and his wife, thing of value had been removed, even my Lottie.189 family Bible. My elec tric light fix tures For sev eral hours that morning, John A. were bro ken, all of the window lights and Oliphant a white at tor ney who lived nearby, glass in the doors were broken, the dishes had been tele phon ing po lice head quar ters in an that were not stolen were bro ken, the floors effort to save these homes, that had been looted were covered (lit er ally speak ing) with glass, even the phone was torn from the but not burned. Oliphant believed that a hand- 192 ful of of fi cers, if sent over imme di ately, could wall. see to it that the homes were spared. As he later The Bridgewaters, as they well knew, were recounted in sworn testi mony: among the fortu nate few. Most black Tulsans Q. Judge, when you phoned the po lice no longer had homes anymore. station what re ply did you get? By the time that mari tal law was de clared in Tulsa County at 11:29 a.m. on June 1, the race A. He said, some body in there, I riot had nearly run its course. Scat tered bands of thought I knew but I am not cer - white ri ot ers, some of whom had been awake for tain, he said, I will do the best I can for more than twenty-four hours straight, contin ued you." I told him who I was, I wanted some to loot and burn, but most had al ready gone po lice men, I says, “If you will send me ten

84 As the riot wore on, Afri can-American fam i lies frequently be came sepa rated, as black men were often the first to be led away at gunpoint. For many black Tulsans, it was hours—and, in some cases, much lon ger—be fore they learned the fate of their loved ones (De- partment of Special Collec tions, McFarlin Li brary, Uni ver sity of Tulsa).

home. Along the north ern and eastern edges of fend ers had ap par ently held off the whites who black Tulsa, where homes were mixed in with were gath ered along the rail road em bank ment. stretches of farm land, it had become dif fi cult When a sec ond group of whites, armed with for the ri ot ers to distin guish the homes of Afri - high-powered ri fles, ar rived on the scene, the can Ameri cans from those of their white Afri can Amer i cans were soon over run.194 neigh bors. The home that riot survi vor Nell Most of the city’s black pop u la tion, mean - Hamil ton shared with her mother out near the while, was be ing held un der armed guard. Many Sec tion Line was, per haps, spared for just that fam i lies had been sent, at first, to Con ven tion reason. 193 Hall, but as it filled to capac ity, black Tulsans A final skirmish ap pears to have occurred a were taken to the base ball park and to the fair - lit tle after Noon, when the remain ing mem bers grounds. As the day wore on, hun dreds would of the white mob exchanged fire with a group soon join them. As the men, women, and chil - of Af ri can Amer i cans not far from where the dren who had fled to the country side, or had Santa Fe railroad tracks cut across the Sec tion taken ref uge at Golden Gate Park, be gan to wan- Line, just off of Peoria Av e nue. The black de - der back toward town, they too, were taken into

From their po si tions along Standpipe and Sun set Hills, mem bers of the Tulsa-based units of the Oklahoma Na tional Guard also took black Tulsans into “protec tive custody.” And as the local guardsmen began mak ing for ays into the Af ri can-American district, they ac tively took black pris on ers (Cour tesy Oklahoma His tor i cal So ci ety).

85 On the morn ing of June 1, most black Tulsans who were taken into cus tody were brought to Con vention Hall, on Brady Street. But as the day wore on, and more and more Afri can Ameri cans were placed under arrest, new intern me nt centers had to be es tab lished (Cour tesy Oklahoma His tor i cal So ci ety). custody. While the white author i ties would Ad di tional detach ments of State Troops from later ar gue, and not with out some va lid ity, that other Oklahoma cities and towns ar rived in this was a pro tec tive measure designed to save Tulsa through out June 1, and with their help, the black lives, other rea sons in clud ing a linger ing streets were even tu ally cleared. All busi nesses white fear of a “Ne gro up ris ing” un doubt edly were or dered to close by 6:00 p.m. One hour played a role in their ratio nale. In any event, later, only mem bers of the mil i tary or civil au - follow ing the destruc tion of their homes and thor i ties, physi cians, or re lief workers were al - businesses on May 31 and June 1, black Tulsa lowed on the streets. It was later claimed that by now found it self, for all prac ti cal pur poses, un- 8:00 p.m. on the evening of June 1, order had der ar rest.195 been re stored.197 The Tulsa race riot was over. Fol low ing the dec la ra tion of martial law, the Doctors, re lief workers, and members of the State Troops be gan to move into what lit tle re- mil i tary and civil author i ties were not, how- mained of Tulsa’s Af ri can Amer i can neighbor - ever, the only ones who were ac tive in Tulsa on hoods, dis arm ing whites and send ing them Wednes day evening, June 1, 1921. As Walter away from the dis trict. After the riot, a number White later reported: of black Tulsans, strongly con demned, in no O.T. Johnson, com man dant of the Tulsa uncer tain terms, the actions of both the Tulsa Cita del of the Sal va tion Army, stated that Po lice Depart ment and the local National on Wednes day and Thurs day the Salva tion Guard units dur ing the conflict. How ever, the Army fed thirty-seven Ne groes em ployed State Troops were largely praised. “Every one as grave diggers and twenty on Fri day and with whom I met was loud in praise of the State Sat ur day. Dur ing the first two days these Troops who so gal lantly came to the rescue of men dug 120 graves in each of which a dead stricken Tulsa,” wrote Mary Parrish, “They Negro was bur ied. No coffins were used. used no partial ity in qui et ing the dis or der. It is The bodies were dumped into the holes and the general be lief that if they had reached the covered over with dirt.198 scene sooner, many lives and valuable prop - erty would have been saved.”196

86 Scene in front of Conven tion Hall as Afri can Ameri cans are being incar - cer ated on June 1 (Cour tesy De part- ment of Spe cial Collec tions, McFarlin Library, Univer sity of Tulsa).

Other written ev i dence, in clud ing fu neral What they found was a blackened land scape home re cords that had lain un seen for more of vacant lots and empty streets, charred tim - than seventy-five years, would later confirm bers and melted metal, ashes and bro ken that Af ri can Amer i can riot vic tims were bur ied dreams. Where the Af ri can Ameri can com mer- in unmarked graves at Oaklawn Ceme tery. 199 cial district once stood was now a ghost town of But oral sources would also point to addi tional crumbling brick store fronts and the burned-out un marked burial sites for riot vic tims in Tulsa bulks of auto mo biles. Gone was the Dreamland County, in clud ing Newblock Park, along the and the Dixie, gone was the Tulsa Star and the Sand Springs road, and the his toric Booker T. black pub lic li brary, gone was the Liberty Cafe Washing ton Ceme tery, lo cated some twelve and Elliott & Hooker’s cloth ing store, H.L. miles southeast of the city.200 Byars’ clean ers and Mabel Lit tle’s beauty sa lon. Con ducted, no doubt, under try ing circum - Gone were literal lifetimes of sweat and hard stances, the burial of Tulsa’s Af ri can Amer i - work, and hard-won rungs on the ladder of the can riot dead would never the less bear lit tle in Ameri can Dream. common with the in ter ment of white victims. Gone, too, were hun dreds of homes, and more Largely buried by strang ers, there would be no than a half-dozen Af ri can Ameri can churches, head stones or graveside ser vices for most of all torched by the white in vad ers. Nearly black Tulsa’s riot dead. Nor would fam ily mem bers be pres ent at the burials, as most of them were still be ing held under armed guard at the var i ous de ten tion cen ters. It ap pears that in some cases, not only did some black Tulsa fami lies not learn how their loved ones died, but not even where they were buried. In the week fol low ing the riot, nearly all of Tulsa’s Af ri can Ameri can citi zenry had man- aged to win their freedom, by one way or an - other, from the in tern ment centers. Largely home less, and in many cases now pen ni less, they made their way back to Greenwood. As black Tulsans won their re lease from the var i ous intern ment How ever, Greenwood was gone. cen ters, and re turned to Green wood, most dis cov ered that they no lon ger had homes any more (Cour tesy De part ment of Spe cial Collec tions, McFarlin Library, Uni ver sity of Tulsa).

87 at gunpoint, toward the vari ous in tern ment cen - ters.201 Some would soon find a new out let for their ra cial views in the hooded or der that was about to sweep across the white com mu nity. Other white Tulsans were hor ri fied by what had taken place. Im me di ately fol low ing the riot, Clara Kimble, a white teacher at Cen tral High School opened up her home to her black coun - ter parts at Booker T. Wash ing ton High School, as did other white fam i lies.202 Others do nated food, cloth ing, money, and other forms of as sis- tance. For many whites, the riot was a horror Stone and brick walls were all that were left of most of the never to be forgot ten, a mark of shame upon the homes in the Greenwood section (Courtesy Oklahoma His - tor i cal So ci ety). city that would endure for ev er more. How ever, for black Tulsans, the trials and ten-thousand Tulsans, practi cally the en tire trib u la tions had only just be gun. Six days after black com mu nity, was now home less. the riot, on , the Tulsa City Commis sion Across the tracks and across town, in passed a fire ordi nance de signed to pre vent the Tulsa’s white neigh bor hoods, no homes had re build ing of the Af ri can Ameri can commer cial been looted and no churches had been burned. dis trict where it had formerly stood, while the From the out side, life looked much the same as so-called Recon struc tion Com mis sion, an or ga - it had been prior to the riot, but even here, be - ni za tion of white busi ness and polit i cal lead ers, neath the surface, there was lit tle normalcy. had been fum ing away of fers of out side aid . In In one way or an other, white Tulsans had the end, black Tulsans did rebuild their commu - been stunned by what had happened in their nity, and the fire ordi nance was de clared un con- city. More than a few whites, in clud ing those stitu tional by the . whose homes now fea tured stolen goods, had Yet, the damage had been done, and the tone of un de ni ably, taken great joy in what had oc- the offi cial local response to the disas ter had al - curred, partic u larly the destruc tion of Green - ready been set. De spite the Hercu lean ef forts of wood. Some whites had even applauded as the Ameri can Red Cross, thousands of black black fam i lies had been led through the streets, Tulsans were forced to spend the win ter of

Many Af ri can Amer i cans were forced to spend the win ter after the riot in tents (Cour tesy Oklahoma His tor i cal So ci ety).

88 Iron bed frames were all that remained of many res i dences in North Tulsa (Courtesy Oklahoma Histor i cal So ci ety).

1921-22 liv ing in tents. Others sim ply left. of armed Ne groes, which pre cip i tated and was They had had enough of Tulsa, Oklahoma. the direct cause of the en tire af fair.”205 For some, stay ing was not an op tion. It soon A few other court cases, largely involv ing be came clear, both in the grand jury that had claims against the city and vari ous insur ance been im pan eled to look into the riot, and in var- com pa nies, lin gered on for a num ber of years af- i ous other legal actions that, by and large, lan- ter ward. In the end, while a handful of Af ri can guished in the courts, that Af ri can Ameri cans Ameri cans were charged with riot-related of- would be blamed for caus ing the riot. No- fenses, no white Tulsan was ever sent to prison where, per haps, was this stated more force fully for the murders and burnings of May 31, and than in the , fi nal re port of the grand June 1, 1921. In the 1920s Oklahoma court - jury, which stated: rooms and halls of govern ment, there would be We find that the re cent race riot was the no day of reck on ing for ei ther the per pe tra tors or direct re sult of an ef fort on the part of a cer- the vic tims of the Tulsa race riot. Now, some tain group of col ored men who ap peared at sev enty-nine years later, the aged riot sur vi vors the courthouse on the night of May 31, can only wonder if, in deed, that day will ever 1921, for the pur pose of pro tect ing one come. Dick Rowland then and now in the cus - tody of the Sher iff of Tulsa Coun try for an al leged as sault upon a young white woman. We have not been able to find any evi dence ei ther from white or colored cit i- zens that any orga nized attempt was made or planned to take from the Sheriff’s cus - tody any pris oner; the crowd as sem bled about the courthouse be ing purely spec ta- tors and curi os ity seekers result ing from ru mors cir cu lated about the city. “There was no mob spirit among the whites, no talk of lynching and no arms," the re port Com mem o ra tion of the riot con ducted by Ben Hooks (Cour tesy added, “The assem bly was quiet until the ar rival Green wood Cul tural Cen ter).

89 Endnotes 1 A num ber of general histo ries of Tulsa have been writ ten over the years, the most recent be ing Danney Goble, Tulsa!: Biog ra phy of the Ameri can City (Tulsa: Coun cil Oaks Books, 1997). In ad di tion, also see: William Butler, Tulsa 75: A History of Tulsa (Tulsa: Met ro pol i tan Tulsa Cham ber of Commerce, 1974); Angie Debo, Tulsa: From Creek Town to Oil Cap i tal (Nor man: Uni ver sity of Oklahoma Press, 1943); Clar ence B. Douglas, The His tory of Tulsa, Oklahoma: A City With a Per son al ity (3 vols.; Chi cago: S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1921); Nina Dunn, Tulsa’s Magic Roots (Tulsa: Oklahoma Book Publishing Com pany, 1979); James Mon roe Hall, The Begin ning of Tulsa (Tulsa: Scott-Rice Company, 1928); and Courtney Ann Vaughn-Roberson and Glen Vaughn-Roberson, City in the Osage Hills: Tulsa, Oklahoma (Boulder: Pruett Pub lishing Company, 1984). 2John D. Porter, comp., Tulsa County Hand book, 1920 (Tulsa: Banknote Printing Company, 1920). Dr. Fred S. Clinton, “In ter est ing Tulsa History,” a 1918 pamphlet, a copy of which is located in the Tulsa His tory ver ti cal files in the library of the Oklahoma Histor i cal Soci ety. [Federal Writers’ Project], Tulsa: A Guide to the Oil Cap i tal (Tulsa: Mid-West Printing Company, 1938), pp. 23-25, 32, 50, 54. Tulsa City Di rec tory, 1921 (Tulsa: Polk-Hoffhine Direc tory Company, 1921). Vaughn-Roberson and Vaughn-Roberson, City in the Osage Hills, p. 199. On the old Tulsa city cem e tery, which was located near what is now the in ter sec tion of Seco nd Street and Frisco Av e nue, see: Jim Downing, “Bull dozers Dis turb Pi o neers’ Fi nal Rest,” Tulsa World, Feb ru ary 17, 1970, pp. 113, 613; Mrs. J.O. Misch, “Last Resting Places Not Al ways Fi nal” and other un dated clip pings lo cated in the Tulsa Cem e teries sub ject files at the Tulsa His tor i cal So ci ety; and, in ter view with S.R. Lewis, In dian Pio neer His tory Col lec tion, Fed eral Writers’ Project, vol. CVI, pp. 351-352, Oklahoma Histor i cal So ci ety. 3 Tulsa City Di rec tory, 1921. Clinton, “Inter est ing Tulsa History”. Por ter, Tulsa County Hand book, 1920. Goble, Tulsa! pp. 78-111. 4While a complete archi tec tural his tory of Tulsa as not yet been writ ten, the homes of the oil barons have been the subject of careful study. See: Mari lyn Inhofe, Kathleen Reeves, and Sandy Jones, Foot steps Through Tulsa (Tulsa: Lib erty Press, 1984); and, espe cially, John Brooks Walton, One Hun dred Historic Tulsa Homes (Tulsa: HCE Publi ca tions, 2000). 5On the his tory of Greenwood, see: Eddie Faye Gates, They Came Searching: How Blacks Sought the Promised Land in Tulsa (Austin: Eakin Press, 1997); Hannibal B. Johnson, Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renais sance in Green wood’s Historic Green wood Dis trict (Aus tin: Eakin Press, 1997); Henry C. Whitlow, Jr., “A History of the Green wood Era in Tulsa”, a pa per pre sented to the Tulsa His tor i cal So ci ety, March 29, 1973; Fran cis Dominic Burke, “A Sur vey of the Ne gro Com mu nity of Tulsa, Oklahoma” (M.A. the sis, Uni ver sity of Oklahoma, 1936); and, [Na tional Ur ban League], A Study of the So cial and Eco nomic Con di tion of the Negro Popu la tion of Tulsa, Oklahoma (Washing ton, D.C.: National Ur ban League, 1945). 6The standard work on the history of Afri can Ameri cans in Oklahoma is Jimmie Lewis Frank lin, Journey Toward Hope: A History of Blacks in Oklahoma (Nor man: Uni ver sity of Oklahoma Press, 1982). 7On B.C. Frank lin, see: John Hope Franklin and John Whitting ton Frank lin, eds., My Life and An Era: The Au to bi og ra phy of Buck Colbert Frank lin (Baton Rouge: Loui si ana State Uni ver sity Press, 1997). The John Hope Frank lin quote is from his Fore word to Scott Ellsworth, Death in a Prom ised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 (Ba ton Rouge: Loui si ana State Uni ver sity Press, 1982), p. xv. 8On the transfer of en tre pre neur ial ex pe ri ence from the all black towns to Greenwood, credit is due to Pro fes sor D.F.G. Wil liams, an urbanist at Wash ing ton Univer sity in St. Louis. Pro fes sor Wil liams is cur rently prepar ing a scholarly arti cle about Tulsa’s Afri can Amer i can com mu nity at the time of the riot, and was kind enough to share an early version of this work, titled “Eco nomic Du al ism, In sti tu tional Fail ure, and Racial Vio lence in a Re source Boom Town: A Re ex am i na tion of the Tulsa Riot of 1921.” 9Mary E. Jones Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Di sas ter (rpt; Tulsa: Out on a Limb Pub lishing, 1998), pp. 11, 17. Tulsa City Di rec tory, 1921. Sanborn Fire in sur ance Maps, Tulsa Histor i cal So ci ety. “Tulsa’s Indus trial and Commer cial Dis trict,” 1921 map published by the Dean-Brumfield Com pany, Tulsa. Daily Okla ho man, June 2, 1921. Oral his tory in ter view with Nell Hamil ton Hampton, Tulsa, Septem ber 16, 1998. Oral history in ter view with Ed ward L. Goodwin, Sr., Tulsa, No vem ber 21, 1976, by Ruth Sigler Avery in Fear: The Fifth Horseman — A Doc u men tary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, un pub lished manu script. 10Mabel B. Lit tle, “A His tory of the Blacks of North Tulsa and My Life”, type script, dated May 24, 1971. Tulsa Star, , 1914. Oklahoma City Black Dis patch, June 10, 1921. Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter , pp. 115-126. Franklin and Franklin, My Life and An Era, p. 193. Tulsa City Di rec tory, 1921. Oral history inter views with: Rob ert Fairchild, Tulsa, June 8, 1978; V.H. Hodge, Tulsa, , 1978; W.D.Wil liams, Tulsa, June 7, 197 8; B.E. Caruthers, Tulsa, , 1978; El wood Lett, Tulsa, , 1998; and Otis Clark, Tulsa, June 4, 1999. 11[State Arts Coun cil of Oklahoma], “A Century of Afri can-American Ex pe ri ence — Green wood: From Ruins to Re nais sance”, ex hi bi tion bro chure. Oral his tory in ter views with W.D. Wil liams, Tulsa, by: Ruth Sigler Avery, in Fear:

90 The Fifth Horse man; and Scott Ellsworth, June 7, 1978. Tulsa City Di rec tory, 1921. Tulsa Star, Janu ary 4, 1919. New York Eve ning Post, , 1921. Wil liam Redfearn vs. Ameri can Central Insur ance Company , Case 15851, Oklahoma Su preme Court. 12Tulsa Star: May 30, 1913; , 1913; Febru ary 7, 1914; March 7, 1914; , 1914; April 11, 1914; Sep tem ber 12, 1914; Febru ary 16, 1918; , 1918; and Janu ary 4, 1919. Tulsa World, June 6, 1921. Daily Okla ho man, June 2, 1921. Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Di sas ter, pp. 83, 89-90. Tulsa City Di rec tory, 1921. Kavin Ross, “Booker T. Wash ing ton High School — Ellis Walker Woods His tor i cal Marker/Me mo rial Pro posal”, c1999. James M. Mitch ell, “Poli tics in a Boom Town: Tulsa from 1906 to 1930" (M.A. the sis, Uni ver sity of Tulsa, 1950). On the Af ri can Blood Broth er hood, see: the July and No vem ber 1921 is sues of The Cru sader, the of fi cial jour nal of the or ga ni za tion; “Ne groes Brand Story Race Ini ti ated Riot as Fake”,New York Call, June 5, 1921; and, in ter views with Binkley Wright, Los Angeles, Cali for nia, Febru ary and August 25, 2000, by Eddie Faye Gates; and Tulsa World, March 26, 2000. On the intel lec tual and polit i cal life of Green wood prior to the riot, ad di tional credit is due to the most helpful insights of Mr. Paul Lee, a jour nal ist and film mak er who is currently working on a docu me ntary on early black mi gra tion to Oklahoma. 13Tulsa City Di rec tory, 1921. Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter , pp. 41, 78-80. Gates, They Came Searching, pp. 165-167. Tulsa Star, March 6, 1915. On the edu ca tion of the new Mount Zion Baptist Church build ing, see the Tulsa World, April 10, 1921, p. B-8. 14Tulsa Star: May 30, 1913: May 29, 1915; , 1915; , 1915; and Febru ary 13, 1919. Panish, Events of the Tulsa Di sas ter, p. 115. Wal ter F. White, “The Erup tion of Tulsa", The Na tion, , 1921, pp. 909-910. [Na tional Asso ci a tion for the Advance ment of Colored People], “Minutes of of the Board of Direc tors, June 13, 1921", 1,A,l, NAACP Pa pers, Library of Con gress, Wash ing ton, D.C. Oral his tory in ter view with Sey mour Wil liams, Tulsa, June 2, 1978. J.B. Stradford, who was forced to flee Tulsa after the riot, was cleared of any wrongdo ing in the af fair at a 1996 cer e mony. See: “Black Man Cleared of 1921 Tulsa Riot”, Ar i zona Repub lic , Octo ber 27, 1996, p. A14; Mary Wisniewski Holden, -75 Years Later: Vin di ca tion in Tulsa", Chicago Lawyer , Decem ber 1996; and Jon a than Z. Larsen, “Tulsa Burning”, Civ i li za tion, IV, I (Feb ru ary/March 1997), pp. 46-55. Signif i cantly, Stradford wrote a memoir — a few pages of which have turned up in Tulsa — which, if pub lished, prom ises to be a most impor tant histor i cal doc u ment. 15Wil liams, “Economic Du al ism, In sti tu tional Failure, and Racial Vio lence in a Re source Boom Town”. Whitlow, “A His tory of the Greenwood Era in Tulsa”. Tulsa City Di rec tory, 1921. Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Di sas ter, pp. 82-83. Gates, They Came Searching, pp. 102-103. Tulsa Star: March 7, 1914; and Janu ary 4, 1919. Oral his tory inter view with Mabel B. Little, Tulsa, May 24, 1971, by Ruth Sigler Avery, in Fear: The Fifth Horseman . Af ri can Ameri cans who tried to shop down town were of ten the tar gets of discrim i na tory and derog a tory behav ior by white merchants and cus tom ers. See, for exam ple, “Colored Woman In sulted”, in the Tulsa Star, , 1913. At least one white mer chant in an oth er wise all-white block of stores did, however, actively seek black cus tom ers. See the ad ver tise ments for the North Main Depart ment Store in the Tulsa Star, March 27 and , 1920. 16[Na tional Ur ban League], A Study of the So cial and Eco nomic Con di tion of the Negro Popu la tion of Tulsa, Oklahoma, pp. 37-39, 87-89. [Oklahoma Writers’ Project], “Ra cial El e ments”, type script, dated Jan u a ry 17, 1938, in the Federal Writers’ Project topi cal files, 81.05, Archives and Manu script Di vi sion, Oklahoma Histor i cal So ci ety. Tulsa City Di rec tory, 1921. Gates, They Came Searching, pp. 62-64, 83-86. Oral his tory inter views with Kinney Booker, Tulsa, May 30, 1998; and, Elwood Lett, Tulsa, May 28, 1998. For a lon ger term per spec tive, see also the com ments of Mar ian Ramsey Jones, Ber tha Black McIntyre, and Walter “Pete” Wil liams fol low ing Hannibal John son’s ar ti cle, “Green wood: Birth and Re birth”, Tulsa Peo ple Mag a zine, July 2000, pp. 12-18. 17Tulsa City Di rec tory, 1921. On the lives of the Afri can Ameri can men and women who lived in the “Profes sor’s Row” off of Standpipe Hill, see the forthcom ing arti cle by Paul Lee in Essence mag a zine. While a com plete copy of the study con ducted by the Amer i can As so ci a tion of So cial Workers has not been lo cated, this report — and its find ings — was cited in sub se quent publi ca tions. The quote is from The Proceed ings of the Na tional Con fer ence of Social Work, 56th An nual Session, June 26 to July 3, 1929 (Chi cago: Uni ver sity of Chi cago Press, c1929), pp. 393-394. The study is also cited in Jesse O. Thomas, “Amer i can Cities — Tulsa”, an un iden ti fied 1924 ar ti cle, a copy of which is lo cated in the Oklahoma sub ject file of the Schomburg Cen ter Clip ping File 1925-1974, Schomburg Cen ter for Research in Black Cul ture, New York Pub lic Li brary, New York, NY. 18Kathy Callahan, “Mozelle May Re calls Early Tulsa His tory”, Tulsa World, , 1974. Tulsa City Di rec tory, 1921. Gates, They Came Searching, pp. 62-65, 139-140. Walton, One Hun dred Historic Tulsa Homes. Oral his tory

91 inter views with: Henry C. Whit low, Jr., Tulsa, June 6, 1978; and Kinney Booker, Tulsa, May 30, 1998. Telephone inter views with Jewel Smitherman Rogers, Perris, Cali for nia, 1998-2000. 19John Hope Franklin and Al fred A. Moss, Jr., From Slav ery to Freedom: A History of Af ri can Amer i cans, 7th edi tion (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994), pp. 346-354. Ar thur I. Waskow, From Race Riot to Sit-In: 1919 and the 1960s (Gar den City, NY: Doubleday & Com pany, 1966). John Higharn, Strangers in the Land: Pat terns of Amer i can Nativ ism, 1860-1925 (New Bruns wick, NJ: Rutgers Univer sity Press, 1955). Rich ard Maxwell Brown, Strain of Vio lence: His tor i cal Studies of Ameri can Vi o lence and Vigilantism (New York: Ox ford Uni ver sity Press, 1975). 20The classic study of the Chi cago riot is Wil liam M. Tuttle, Jr.’s Race Riot. Chicago in the of 1919 (New York: Atheneum, 1970). Fol low ing the riot, the Chicago Com mis sion on Race Rela tions conducted an exten sive inv esti ga tion of what had oc curred. Its re port, The Ne gro in Chi cago: A Study of Race Re la tions and a Race Riot (Chi cago: Uni ver sity of Chi cago Press, 1922), is still quite useful. 22Tuttle, Race Riot, pp. 29-30. 22Ibid., pp. 244-245. Franklin and Moss, From Slav ery to Free dom, p. 351. A num ber of other World War I era ri ots have also been the sub ject of ex ten sive study. See, for ex am ple: Elliott M. Rudwick, Race Riot at East St. Louis, July 2, 1917 (Car bon dale: South ern Il li nois Uni ver sity Press, 1964); U.S. House of Rep re sen ta tives, Sixty-Fifth , 2nd Session, “Report of the Spe cial Commit tee Au tho rized by Congress to In ves ti gate the East St. Louis Riots” (Wash ing ton, D.C.:Gov ern ment Print ing Of fice, 1918): and, Rob ert V. Haynes, A Night of Vio lence: The Riot of 1917 (Baton Rouge: Loui si ana State Uni ver sity Press, 1976). 23The liter a ture on in ter ra cial sex ual rela tions in Amer ica — in clud ing his tor i cal, so cio log i cal, and psy cho log i cal anal y ses, as well as the work of some of the coun try’s fin est nov el ist — is vo lu mi nous. For a his tor i cal per spec tive, two places to begin are: Joel William son, The Cruci ble of Race: Black-White Rela tions in the Ameri can South Since Eman ci pa tion (New York: Ox ford Uni ver sity Press, 1974); and Dan T. Carter, Scottsboro: A Trag edy of the Amer i can South (Baton Rouge, Loui si ana State Univer sity Press, 1969). 24Frank lin and Moss, From Slav ery to Freedom , pp. 348-349. Classic studies of lynching include: Arthur F. Raper, The Trag edy of Lynching (Cha pel Hill: Uni ver sity of North Carolina Press, 1933); James R. McGovern, Anatomy of a Lynching: The Killing of Claude Neal (Baton Rouge, Lou i si ana State Uni ver sity Press, 1982); and James Al len, With out Sanctu ary: Lynching Pho tog ra phy in Amer ica (Santa Fe: Twin Palms Publishers, 2000). 25Rob ert T. Kerlin, The Voice of the Negro, 1919 (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1920). Frank lin and Moss, From Slav ery to Freedom , pp. 323-360. Emmett J. Scott, History of the Ameri can Ne gro, in the World War (Chi cago: Home wood Press, 1919). 26LA. Newby, Jim Crow’s De fense: Anti Negro Thought in America, 1900-1930 (Baton Rouge: Loui si ana State Uni ver sity Press, 1965). Mary Fran ces Berry, Black Re sis tance/White Law: A His tory of Consti tu tional Racism in Amer ica (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1971). C. Vann Wood ward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow (New York: Oxford Uni ver sity Press, 1957). 27Da vid A Chalmers, Hooded Amer i can ism: The His tory of the Ku Klux Klan (Chi cago: Quad ran gle Books, 1965). Kenneth T. Jack son, The Ku Klux Klan in the City (New York: Ox ford Uni ver sity Press, 1967). 28Tulsa Star, No vem ber 11, 1916; Febru ary 16, 1918; May 4, 1918; and No vem ber 23, 1918. In ter view with Seymour Williams, Tulsa, June 2, 1978. Goble, Tulsa!, pp. 120-121. 29Richard Kluger, Sim ple Justice (New York: Ran dom House, 1977), pp. 102-104. Arrell M. Gib son, Oklahoma: A His tory of Five Cen turies (Nor man: Harlow Pub lishing Cor po ra tion, 1965), p. 353. Kay M. Teall, ed., Black His tory in Oklahoma: A Resource Book (Oklahoma City: Oklahoma City Pub lic Schools, 1971), pp. 172, 202-204, 225. 30Mary Eliz a beth Estes, “An His tor i cal Sur vey of Lynch ings in Oklahoma and Texas!’ (M.A. thesis, Uni ver sity of Oklahoma, 1942), pp. 130-134. 31Carter Blue Clark, “A History of the Ku Klux Klan in Oklaboma7’ (Ph.D. dis ser ta tion, Uni ver s ity of Oklahoma, 1976), pp. vii-xi, 36-80, 169-219. Charles C. Alex an der, The Ku Klux Klan in the South west (Lexington: Uni ver sity of Kentucky Press, 1965). W.C. Witcher, The Reign of Ter ror in Oklahoma (Ft. Worth, n.p., c 1923). Marion Monteval, The Klan Inside Out (Claremore: Mon arch Publishing Company, 1924). Howard A. Tucker, History of Gov er nor Walton’s War on the Klan (Oklahoma City: South west Pub lishing Company, 1923). 32Charles Oquin Meyers, Jr., “The Ku Klux Klan in Tulsa County During the Early 1920s” (Honor’s pa per, Depart ment of History, Uni ver sity of Tulsa, 1974), pp. 6, 12-19. Laurie Jane (Barr) Croft, “The Women of the Ku. Klux Klan in Oklahoma”(M.A. the sis, Uni ver sity of Oklahoma, 1984), p. 51. Clark, “A His tory of the Ku Klux Klan in Oklahoma”, pp. 36, 47, 52, 65, 71, 89. 33Tulsa World, , 1922. Meyers, “The Ku Klux Klan in Tulsa Country", pp. 9-12. Ku Klux Klan Pa pers, Depart ment of Special Collec tions, McFarlin Li brary, Uni ver sity of Tulsa.

92 34Al ex an der, The Ku Klux Klan in the South west, pp. 66, 142-58, 228. Chalmers, Hooded Amer i can ism, pp. 52-55. Meyers, “The Ku Klux Klan in Tulsa Country ”, pp. 20-22, 26-35. Bruce Bliven, “From the Oklahoma Front”, New Re pub lic, Oc to ber 17, 1923, p. 202. Jewel Smitherman Rog ers, “ Smitherman: A Pro file of The Fa ther, The Man, and The Of fi cer of the Law”, type script, No vem ber 1999. In ter view with Willa Catherine Smitherman, Tulsa, Febru ary 14, 1978, by Ruth Sigler Avery, in Fear: The Fifth Horseman . Oral history inter views with: Wil liam M. O’Brien, Tulsa, March 2, 1998; and Richard Gary, Tulsa, March 16,1999. 35Meyers, “The Ku Klux Klan in Tulsa County”, pp. 33-38. Tulsa Man member ship reg is ter/led ger, 1928-1929, De part ment of Special Collec tions, McFarlin Library, Univer sity of Tulsa. Oral his tory in ter view with Ed Wheeler, Tulsa, Febru ary 27, 1998. 36CIark, “A His tory of the Ku Klux Klan in Oklahoma”, pp. 42-45. 37Ibid., pp. 36-38 38TuIsa World, June 6, 1921. Ruth Sigler Avery, Fear: The Fifth Horseman . 39The Tribune, in par tic u lar, paid close at ten tion to Klan ac tiv i ties in Dal las. See the Tulsa Tri bune: Janu ary 29, 1921, p. 8; Feb ru ary 4, 1921, p. 1; , 1921, p. 1; , 1921, p. 5; May 22, 1921, p. 1; and May 24, 1921, p. 1. 40Tulsa Tribune , May 22, 1921, p. 2. On the May brothers, see also the March 27, 1921 is sue, p. 2. 41Meyers, “The Ku Klux Klan in Tulsa County”, pp. 3-7. Clark, “A His tory of the Ku Klux Klan in Oklahoma”, pp. 46-47. 42Tulsa Tri bune, April 17, 1921, p. 5. Tulsa World: April 10, 1921, p. 4; , 1921,, p. 4; ,1921, p. 4: , 1921, p. 4; and ,1921, p. 4. [Na tional As so ci a tion for the Ad vance ment of Colored Peo ple], “Min utes of the Meeting of the Board of Direc tors, June 13, 1921,” NAACP Pa pers, Library of Congress. Exchange Bu reau Bul le tin, I, 26 (July 7[?], 1921). On economic con di tions in Tulsa prior to the riot, see: Harlow’s Weekly, Decem ber 17, 1920 and Sep tem ber 16,1921; , April 14,1921, p. 6; Tulsa World, ,1921, p. 4; Tulsa City Commis sion, Record of Commis sion Proceed ings, August 26, 1921; Ralph Cassady, Jr., Price Making and Price Behav ior in the Pe tro leum Indus try (New Ha ven: Yale Uni ver sity Press, 1954), p. 136; and, U.S. Bu reau of the Cen sus, His tor i cal Sta tis tics of the United States, Co lo nial Times to the Present (Washing ton, D.C.: Govern ment Printing Office, 1975), Volume 2, p. 208. 43“Federal Report on Vice Con di tions in Tulsa,” -26, 192 , by Agent T.G.F., a copy of which is located in the At tor ney Gen eral Civil Case Files, Re cord Group 1-2, Case 1062, State Ar chives Di vi sion, Oklahoma De part ment of Libraries. 44Abun dant ev i dence on the ille gal con sump tion of al co hol in Tulsa County can be found in the Attor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Record Group 1-2, Case 1062, State Archives Di vi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. See, in partic u lar: the tes ti mony of E.S. McQueen, L. Medlen, and Mrs. W.H. Clark; “State ment of John Burnett”; ”Memo to Major Daily"; and, “Special Re port on Vice Condi tions in and Around the City of Tulsa, by H.H. Townsend”, Tulsa, ,1921. Oral his tory in ter view with El wood Lett, Tulsa, May 28, 1998. Tulsa Tri bune: Feb ru ary 7, 1921, p. 1; Feb ru ary 11, 1921, p. 5; Febru ary 12, 1921, p. 1; Febru ary 13, 1921, p. 3; and , 1921, p. 13. 45The quote from Charles C. Post is from the Tulsa Tribune , , 1921, p. 1. See also: Tulsa World, , 1921, p. 1; Tulsa Tri bune, May 18, 1921, p. 2; and, “State ment of Bar ney Cleaver,” At tor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Re cord Group 1-2, Case 1062, State Archives Di vi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. 46White, “The Eruption of Tulsa”, p. 909. Tulsa World: April 23, 1921, pp. 1,3; and , 1921, p. 1. Tulsa Tri bune: Jan u ary 13,1921, p. 12; Feb ru ary 12, 1921, p. 1; March 5, 1921, p. 1; March 9, 1921, p. 10; March 13, 1921, p. 7; March 14, 192 1, p. 1; March 21, 1921, p. 1; , 1921, p. 1; , 1921, p. 1; , 1921, p. B-14; , 1921, p. 1; , 1921, p. 1; May 18, 1921, p. 1; , 1921, p. 1; and May 28, 1921, p. 1. 47Tu1sa World. April 4,1921, p. 4; April 15, 1921, p. 4; May 13, 1921, p. 4; May 18,1921, pp. 1, 13; May 19, 1921, pp.1, 4; May 20, 1921, pp.1, 2; May 21, 1921, pp. 1, 4,17; and May 22, 1921, pp. 1, 17. Tulsa Tri bune, May 1, 1921, p. B-14. 4. Tulsa Tri bune: April 17, 1921, p. 1; April 19, 1921, p. 16; and , 1921, p. 16. 49Estes, “Histor i cal Sur vey of Lynchings in Oklahoma and Texas,” p. 131. In ter view with George B. Smith, Red Fork, Oklahoma, Au gust 24, 1937, by W.T. Hol land, Vol ume LXIX, pp. 470-475, In dian Pi o neer His tory Col lec tion, Fed eral Writers’ Project, Oklahoma Histor i cal So ci ety. 50William T. Lampe, Tulsa County and the World War (Tulsa: Tulsa Histor i cal So ci ety, 1918). [National Civil Liberties Bureau], “The ‘Knights of Liberty’ Mob and the I.W.W. Pris oners at Tulsa, Okla., No vem ber 9, 1917", pamphlet, 1918. Goble, Tulsa!, pp. 118-122.

93 53Tulsa Times: No vem ber 10, 1917, p. 6; and No vem ber 12,1917, p. 7. Tulsa Dem o crat: No vem ber 10, 1917, p.8; and No vem ber 11, 1917, pp. 1, 3. Tulsa World. No vem ber 10, 1917, p. 1; No vem ber 11, 1917, p. 1; No vem ber 12, 1917, p. 4; and No vem ber 13, 1917, p. 4. 52Tulsa World. August 22, 1920, p. 1; and August 24, 1920, p. 1. Tulsa Tri bune: August 22, 1920, p. 1; Au gust 24, 1920, pp. 1, 4; Au gust 25, 1920, p. 1; and August 28, 1920, p. 1. 53Tulsa Tribune : Au gust 23, 1920, p. 1; and Au gust 27, 1920, p. 1. Tulsa World. Au gust 25, 1920, pp. 1, 12; Au gust 28, 1920, pp. 1, 9; Au gust 29, 1920, p. 9; Au gust 30, 1920, p. 1; Sep tem ber 1, 1920, p. 12; and Sep tem ber 2, 1920, pp. 1, 9. 54Tulsa World, Au gust 25, 1920, p. 12; and August 31, 1920, p. 4. Tulsa Tri bune, Au gust 28, 1920, p. 1 . 55Tu1sa Tri bune, August 28, 1920, p. 1. 56Ibid., Au gust 29, 1920, pp. 1-2. Tulsa World. August 29, 1920, p. 1; and August 30, 1920, p. 3. 57Tulsa Star, Sep tem ber 4, 1920, p. 1. Tulsa Tri bune, Au gust 29, 1920, pp. 1, 2. Tulsa World: Au gust 29, 1920, p. 1; and August 30, 1920, pp. 1-3. See also: White, “The Eruption of Tulsa”, p. 909. 58Tulsa World, Au gust 30, 1920, pp. 1-3. 59Both the lynching of Roy Belton, and how Tulsans responded to the event, was cov ered exten sive ly in both of Tulsa’s daily news pa pers. See: Tulsa Tri bune: Au gust 31, 1920, p. 12; Sep tem ber 6, 1920, p. 1; Sep tem ber 9, 1920, p. 1; Sep tem ber 10, 1920, p. 1; Sep tem ber 21, 1920, p. 2; Sep tem ber 24, 1920, p. 1; and Sep tem ber 29, 1920, p. 4. Tulsa World: August 30, 1920, p. 4; Au gust 31, 1920, pp. 1, 4; Sep tem ber 1, 1920, pp, 1, 4, 12; Sep tem b er 2, 1920, pp. 1, 4; Sep tem ber 3, 1920, pp. 1, 18; Sep tem ber 5, 1920, p. A- 1; Sep tem ber 6, 1920, p. 1; and Sep t em ber 10, 1920 pp. 1, 13. 60Tulsa Star, Septem ber 4, 1920, pp. 1, 4. 61Ibid., March 6, 1920, p. 8. 62Clark, “His tory of the Ku Klux Klan in Oklahoma”, p. 17. 63Tulsa Star, March 6, 1920, p. 8. 64Ibid., Septem ber 4, 1920, pp. 1, 4. 65TuIsa Dem o crat, March 18, 1919, p. 1. Tulsa World, March 18, 1919, p. 1. Tulsa Times, March 18, 1919, p. 1. 66TuIsa Times: March 20, 1919, p. 1; March 21, 1919, p. 1; and March 22, 1919, p. 3. Tulsa World, March 21, 1919, p. 1; Tulsa Dem o crat: March 19, 1919, p. 11; March 20, 1919, p. 9; and March 21, 1919, pp. 10,16. 67Tulsa Tribune , June 12, 192 1, p. 1. 68Tulsa Star, Septem ber 4, 1920, pp. 1, 4. 69Bio graph i cal sketch of Rich ard Lloyd Jones by Ha zel S. Hone, , 1939; “Rich ard Lloyd Jones” from Who’s Mo in Tulsa, 1950, by Clar ence Allen; and, miscel la neous newspa per clip pings on Jones, all located in the “Tulsa’ verti cal subject files, Oklahoma Histor i cal Soci ety. 70Tulsa Tri bune: Jan u ary 13, 1921, p. 12; Feb ru ary 12, 1921, p., 8; March 5, 1921, p. 10; April 5, 1921, p. 16; , 1921, p. 16; May 1, 1921, p. B-14; ,1921, p. 18; and May 13, 1921, p. 24. 71Ibid.: Jan u ary 3, 1921, p. 12; March 2,1921, p. 1; March 4, 1921, p. 1; March 5, 1921, p. 1; March 28, 1921, p. 1; March 29, 1921, p. 1; March 31, 1921, p. 1; April 4, 1921, p. 1; April 5, 1921, p. 1; April 13, 1921, p.1; May 8, 1921, p. 1; May 16, 1921, p. 12; , 1921, p. 1; May 19, 1921, pp. 1, 2; May 20, 1921, pp. 1, 2, 22; May 21, 1921, pp. 1, 2; May 22, 1921, p. B-14; May 24, 1921, pp. 1, 18; and May 25, 1921, pp. 1, 3.16. The Tulsa World painted a some what ros ier por trait of crime con di tions in Tulsa. See, for ex am ple: April 15, 1921, p. 4; April 17, 1921, p. 16; May 19, 1921, pp. 1, 3; May 19, 1921, pp. 1, 4; May 20, 1921, pp. 1, 2; May 21, 1921, pp. 1, 4, 17; and May 22, 1921, pp. 1, 17. On po lit i cal is sues which may have in flu enced the Tri bune’s campaign, as well as the sub se quent in ves ti ga tions of the Tulsa Police Depart ment, see: Ron ald L. Trekell, His tory of the Tulsa Police Depart ment, 1882 - 1990 (N.p, n.p., n.d.); Mitch ell, “Pol i tics in a Boom Town”; Randy Krehbiel, “Root of the Riot”, Tulsa World, Jan u ary 30, 2000, pp. A- 1, A-2; and, John R. Woodard, In Re Tulsa (N.p., n.p., 1935). 72Tulsa Tri bune: May 14, 1921, p. 10; May 16, 1921, p. 12; and May 25, 1921, p. 16. 71Ibid.: March 3, 1921, p. 1; April 17, 192 1, p. 1; May 24, 1921, p. 1; May 26, 1921, p. 14; and , 1921, p. 1. 74Ibid, June 4, 1921, p. 8. 75Tulsa Tri bune, May 21, 1921, pp. 1, 2. Typescript re ports by mem bers of Cooke’s party can be found in the At tor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Re cord Group 1-2, Case 1062, State Ar chives Di vi sion, Oklahoma De part ment of Libraries.

94 76Tulsa Tri bune: May 26, 1921, p.1; and May 27,1921, p. 1. Tulsa World: May 26, 1921, p. 1; and May 27, 1921, p. 8. 77Tulsa Tri bune, May 30, 1921, p. 1. 71Oral his tory in ter view with Damie Rowland Ford, Tulsa, , 1972, by Ruth Sigler Avery, in Fear: The Fifth Horse man. Frank lin and Frank lin, My Life and An Era, p. 199. Tulsa City Di rec tory, 1921. Oral his tory in ter views with: W.D. Williams, Tulsa, June 7, 1978; and Rob ert Fairchild, Tulsa, June 8, 1978. Booker T. Washin g ton High School Alum ni Ros ter, 1916-1929. Loren L. Gill, “The Tulsa Race Riof’ (M.A. the sis, Uni ver sity of Tulsa, 1946), p. 22. ”Mob Fury and Race Ha tred as a Na tional Dan ger", Lit er ary Di gest, LXIX (June 18, 1921). In ter view with Al ice An drews in Gates, They Came Searching, pp. 41-42. Dick Rowland’s last name is some times spelled “Roland”. Simi larly, Sarah Page’s sur name is sometimes given as “Paige”. 79Oral his tory in ter views with: Rob ert Fairchild, Tulsa, June 8, 1978; and W.D. Wil liams, Tulsa, June 7,1978. Tulsa City Di rec tory, 1921. Tulsa Tri bune, May 22, 1921, p. 4. 80Tulsa Tribune : April 17, 1921, p. 5; May 31, 1921, p. 1; and June 1, 192 1, p. 4. White, “Eruption of Tulsa, pp. 909-910. 81Oral history inter views with: Damie Rowland Ford, Tulsa, July 22, 1972; S.M. Jackson and Eunice Cloman Jackson, Tulsa, June 26, 1971; and Rob ert L. Fairchild, Tulsa, April 18, 1971; all by Ruth Sigler Avery, in Fear: The Fifth Horse man. Oral his tory in ter view with Rob ert Fairchild, Tulsa, June 8, 1978. 82Tulsa World, May 29, 1921, p. A-1. Tulsa Tri bune: May 29,1921, pp. 2,8, B-1, B-10, B-12; and May 30,1921, p .l. Oral history in ter view with Damie Rowland Ford, Tulsa, July 22,1972, by Ruth Sigler Avery, in Fear: The Fifth Horse man. Sanborn Fire In sur ance Maps, Tulsa, Tulsa His tor i cal Soci ety. 83New York Eve ning Post, June 11, 1921. White, “Erup tion of TuIsa”, p. 910. ”Mob Fury and Race Ha tred", Liter ary Digest , op cit. Tulsa World, June 2, 1921, p. 2. Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Di sas ter, p. 18. Oral his tory in ter views with: Darnie Rowland Ford, Tulsa, July 22, 1972; Rob ert Fairchild, Tulsa, April 18, 1976; Mabel B. Little, Tulsa, May 24, 197 1; S.M. Jackson and Eunice Clornan Jack son, Tulsa, June 26, 197 1; all by Ruth Sigler Avery, in Fear: The Fifth Horse man. 84Tulsa Tri bune, May 31, 192 1, p. 1. Tulsa World, June 2, 192 1, pp. 1-5. White, “Eruption of Tulsa”, p. 909. Oral his tory inter views with: W.D. Williams, Tulsa, June 7, 1978; and Rob ert Fairchild, Tulsa, June 8, 1978. 85Oral his tory in ter view with Damie Rowland Ford, Tulsa, July 22, 1972, by Ruth Sigler Avery, in Fear: The Fifth Horse man. On lynch ing, see also, “The Ide ol ogy of Lynching”, in Stephen J. Whitfield, A Death in the Delta: The Story of (New York: The Free Press, 1988), pp. 1-14. 86Tulsa Tribune , May 31, 1921, p. 1. Oral history in ter view with Damie Rowland Ford, Tulsa, July 22, 1972, by Ruth Sigler Avery, in Fear: The Fifth Horseman . In early May 1921, the Tulsa Tri bune reported that the Tulsa Police Depart ment had eighty-eight offi cers; Tulsa Tri bune, May 2, 1921, p. 1. The Tulsa City Di rec tory, 1921, however, lists only fifty-seven of fi cers, four of whom are iden ti fied as Afri can Amer i can. 87Franklin and Frank lin, My Life and An Era, pp. 195-196. 88Tulsa World, May 31, 1921. 89Gill, “Me Tulsa Race Riot’, pp. 21-22. 90Red Cross Collec tion, Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, Tulsa His tor i cal So ci ety. The State Edition copy of “Nab Negro for At tacking Girl in El e va tor” was uncov ered by Bruce Hartnitt, a Tulsa-based researcher, in the col lec tions of the Oklahoma Histor i cal Soci ety some time prior to 1996. 91Oral history in ter view with W.D. Wil liams, Tulsa, June 7, 1978. 92Oral history in ter view with Rob ert L. Fairchild, Tulsa, April 18, 1971, by Ruth Sigler Avery, in Fear: The Fifth Horse man. State ment of “A.H.” in Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Di sas ter, p. 62. Charles F. Barrett, Oklahoma Af ter Fifiy Years: A His tory of the Sooner State and Its People, 1889-1939 (Hopkinsville, Kentucky: Histor i cal Record Asso ci a tion, 1941), p. 206. 93Franklin and Frank lin, My Life and Era, p. 196. 94Ross. T. Warner, Oklahoma Boy (N.p., n.d., n.d.), p. 136. Pe ti tion No, 23325, B.A. Waynes and M.E. Waynes vs. T.D. Evans et al., Tulsa County District Court. New York Evening Post, June 11, 1921. Tes ti mony of John A. Gustafson, State of Oklahoma vs. John A. Gustafson, Attor ney Generals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Archives Divi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. 95Tulsa World, June 1, 1921, “Fi nal Edition”, pp. 1, 8. Major James A. Bell to Lieu ten ant Colo nel L .J .F. Rooney, “Report on Activ ities of the National Guard on the Night of May 31 and June 1, 1921", Testi m ony of John A.

95 Gustafson; and Lau rel Buck tes ti mony; all in At tor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Ar chives Di vi sion, Oklahoma De part ment of Li braries. A. J. Smitherman, ”A De scrip tive Poem of the Tulsa Riot and Mas sa cre", un dated pam phlet, Oklahoma His tor i cal Soci ety. 96Tulsa Tri bune: June 3, 1921, p. 1; and June 6, 1921, P. 3. Tulsa World, June 1, 1921, “Final Edition”, p. 8. Oklahoma City Black Dispatch , June 3, 1921, p.1. New York Eve ning Post, June 11, 1921. Typescript notes on the tes ti mony of A.B. Nesbitt; and mis cel la neous hand writ ten notes; both in the At tor ney Generals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Ar chives Di vi sion, Oklahoma De part ment of Li braries. Oral his tory in ter view with Dave Faulk ner, Tulsa, , 1971, by Ruth Sigler Avery, in Fear: The Fifth Horse man. 97Oral history in ter view with W.D..Williams, Tulsa, June 7, 1978. Franklin and Frank lin, My Life and An Era, pp. 96-97. Oral his tory in ter view with Rob ert Fairchild, Tulsa, by Eddie Faye Gates, in They Came Searching, p. 7 1. Tulsa World, June 2, 192 1, p. 1. White, “Eruption of Tulsa”, pp. 909-910. Smitherman, ”Me Tulsa Riot and Mas sa cre". Handwrit ten notes on the tes ti mony of O.W. Gurley; and typescript notes on the tes ti mony of Henry ; both in At tor ney Generals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Archives Di vi sion, Oklahoma Depart men t of Libraries. 98Oklahoma City Black Dis patch, June 3,1921, p. 1. Tulsa World. June 2, 1921, p. 7; June 3, 1921, p. 1; June 6, 192 1, P. 3; June 9, 1921, p. 4; and June 10, 1921, p. 8. Ma jor James A. Bell to Lieu ten ant Col o n el L. J. F. Rooney, “Re port on the Activ ities of the National Guard”, typescript notes on the tes ti mony of John Henry Potts; and miscel la neous handwrit ten notes; all in Attor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Archives Div i sion, Oklahoma De part ment of Li braries. White, “Erup tion of Tulsa:, pp. 909-910. Oral his tory in ter views with: W.D. Wil liams, Tulsa, June 7, 1978; and Sey mour Williams, Tulsa, June 1, 1978. 99Barrett, Oklahoma After Fifty Years, p. 207. Lau rel Buck testi mony, Attor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Archives Di vi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. 100Bell, “Re port on the Ac tiv ities of the National Guard”, op cit. Tulsa Tri bune: Janu ary 16, 1921, p. 5; and March 20, 1921, Maga zine Section, p. 2. 101Bell, “Re port on Activ ities of the National Guard.” See also: Major Paul R. Brown to the Ad jutant General of Oklahoma, “Work of the Sani tary De tach ment During the Riot in Tulsa”, Attor ney Generals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Archives Di vi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Li braries; and, Rob ert D. Norris, Jr., ”The Oklahoma National Guard in the Tulsa Race Riot: Ten ta tive Summary of Finding", typescript, 1999. 102John A. Gustafson tes ti mony; and handwrit ten notes to the tes ti mony of W. M. Ellis; both in At tor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Ar chives Di vi sion, Oklahoma De part ment of Li braries. Ste p hen P. Kerr, “Tulsa Race War, 31, May 1921: An Oral History ," un pub lished manuscript, 1999. St. Louis Argus, June 101-1921. 103John A. Gustafson tes ti mony; and mis cel la neous hand writ ten notes; both in At tor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Archives Divi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Li braries 104Oral history inter views with Ernestine Gibbs, Augusta Mann, Rosa Davis Skin ner, Rob ert Fairchild, and Al ice An drews, all by Eddie Faye Gates, in They Came Searching, pp. 42-43, 71, 85-86, 151, 165-166. Hand writ ten notes to the tes ti mony of O. W. Gur ley; type script notes to the tes ti mony of W.C. Kelley; and John A. Gustafson tes ti mony; all in Attor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Archives Di vi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. 105Follow ing the riot, some claimed that Sher iff McCullough had actu ally re quested that this sec ond con tin gent of Af ri can Amer i can men come down to the Court house, a highly un likely pos si bil ity. It is, how ever, pos si ble to en vi sion a sce nario whereby a tele phone call by McCullough to Dep uty Sher iff Bar ney Cleaver - per haps made to the of fices of the Tulsa Star - might have been misin ter preted, in the heat of the moment, as a re quest for assis tance. Tulsa Tri bune, June 3, 1921, pp. 1, 3. Tulsa World, June 10, 1921, p. 8. New York Eve ning Post, June 11, 192 1. White, ‘Eruption of Tulsa", pp. 909-9 10. John A. Gustafson tes ti mony; Lau rel Buck tes ti mony; and, handwrit ten notes to W. N. Ellis testi mony; all in Attor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Archives Divi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. Oral history in ter view with I.S. Pittman, Tulsa, , 1978. 106Oral history in ter view with Rob ert Fairchild, Tulsa, June 8, 1978. Handwrit ten notes to the testi mony of W. E. Dudley, Attor ney Generals Civil Case Files, State Archives Di vi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. Tulsa World, July 7, 1921, p. 3. Tulsa Tribune , June 3, 1921, pp. 1, 3. 107Tulsa World, June 1, 1921, “Fi nal Edition”, p.1. White, “Eruption of Tulsa," pp. 909-910. Wil liam Cleburn “Choc” Phil lips, “Mur der in the Streets,” un pub lished mem oir of the 1921 Tulsa race riot, pp. 32-34, 47. Handwrit ten notes to the tes ti mony of “Witnesses in Order”, Attor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Archives Divi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. 108Tulsa Tribune , June 1, 1921, p. 3. Tulsa World, June 1, 1921, “Fi nal Edition”, p. 8. Oklahoma City Black Dis patch, June 3, 192 1, p. 1. New York Times, June 2, 1921. 109Oral his tory in ter view with Dr. George H. Miller, M.D., Tulsa, August 1, 1971, by Ruth Sigler Avery, in Fear: The Fifth Horseman . Tulsa City Di rec tory, 1921.

96 110Okmulgee Daily Dem o crat, June 1, 1921. Oklahoma City Black Dis patch, June 3, 1921, p. 1. Tulsa World, June 1, 1921, “Final Edition”, p. 8. Tulsa Tribune , June 1, 1921, p. 3. New York Times, June 2,1921. 111Phillips, “Mur der in the Streets”, p. 46. 112Lau rel Buck tes ti mony; handwrit ten notes to “Witnesses in Or der” tes ti mony; and mis cel l aneous handwrit ten notes; all in Attor ney Generals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Archives Di vi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. Tulsa World, June 10, 1921, p. 8. Gill, “Tulsa Race Riot”, p. 28. Who ac tu ally per formed the swear ing-in of the “Spe cial Dep uties” is un clear, as is what may have been the “of fi cial pol icy” — if any — of both the Po lice De part ment and the city gov ern ment in re sponse to the vi o lence dur ing the early hours of the riot. The lat ter was of ten prom i nently fea tured in a num ber of law suits filed af ter the riot. See, in par tic u lar: “Brief of Plantiff in Error” and ”Answer Brief of De fen dant in Er ror", Wil liam Redfern vs. Ameri can Cen tral In sur ance Com pany (1925), Oklahoma State Su preme Court; and docu ments involv ing var i ous cases filed by in di vid u als who suf fered prop erty losses dur ing the riot, in clud ing C.L. Netherland vs. City of Tulsa, Loula T. Wil liams vs. Fire As so ci a tion of Phila del phia, Osborne Monroe vs. Me chanics and Traders Insur ance Com pany of , and H.J. Caver vs. T.D. Ev ans, et at.. 113Let ter from A. J. Perrine, Tulsa, July 2, 1921, to the At tor ney Gen eral, Oklahoma City; Lau rel Buck Tes ti mony; Statement of [J.W.] MeGee; Major Byron Kirkpatrick to Lieu ten ant Colo nel L. J.F. Rooney, “Activ ities on Night of May 31, 1921 at Tulsa, Okla.”; all in Attor ney Generals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Arc hives Di vi sion, Oklahoma De part ment of Li braries.Tulsa World: June 1, 1921, “Fi nal Edi tion”, p. 1; and June 2, 192 1. Oklahoma City Black Dis patch, June 3, 1921, p. 1. Oral his tory in ter view with L. C. Clark, Tulsa, June 25, 1975, by Ruth Sigler Avery, in Fear: The Fifth Horseman . 114Oral his tory in ter view with W.R. Holway, by Ruth Sigler Avery, in Fear: The Fifth Horse man. 115Phillips, “Mur der in the Streets,” p. 38. Tulsa World, May 31, 1921, p. 5. 116Tulsa Tribune , June 1, 1921, p. 5. Tulsa World, June 1, 1921, “Fi nal Edi tion”, p. 1. New York Times, June 1, 1921. Phil lips, “Mur der in the Streets”, pp. 37-41. Oral his tory in ter views with: Mrs. C.A. (Helen) Donohue Ingraham, Tulsa, May 4, 1980; and W.R. Holway; both by Ruth Sigler Avery, in Fear: The Fifth Horseman . 117Ma jor C.W. Daley to Lieuten ant Colo nel L. J. F. Rooney, “In for ma tion on Ac tiv ities Duri ng Ne gro Upris ing, May 31, 1921", Attor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Archives Di vi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. New York Eve ning Post, June 11, 1921. 118Denver Post, June 4,1921. Kan sas City Post, June 2,1921. New York Tri bune, June 2, 1921. New York Times, June 2,1921. Tulsa World, June 2, 1921, p. 2. Tulsa Tribune , June 1, 1921, p. 5. Daley, “In for ma tion on Ac tiv ities During Ne gro Upris ing”. Handwrit ten notes to “Witnesses in Or der” testi mony, Attor ney General s Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Ar chives Di vi sion, Oklahoma De part ment of Li braries. Oral his tory in ter view with W.D. Wil liams, Tulsa, June 7, 1978. 119Ed Wheeler, “Pro file of a Race Riot,” Im pact Mag a zine, IV (June-July 197 1), p. 21. Oral his tory in ter view with W.D. Wil liams, Tulsa, June 7,1978. Tulsa World, June 2, 1921, p. 2. Tulsa Tri bune, June 3, 1921, p. 1. 120White, “Eruption of Tulsa,” p. 910. 121Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter , p. 19. Tulsa World, June 1, 1921, “Second Ex tra Edi tion”, p. 1; and June 2, 1921, p. 2. Tulsa Tri bune, June 3, 1921, p. 1. New York Times, June 2, 1921. New York Post, June 1, 1921. Cap tain Frank Van Voorhis to Lieu ten ant Col o nel L. J. F. Rooney, “Detailed Report of Negro Up ris i ng for Ser vice Com pany, Third Infan try, Oklahoma National Guard”, Attor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Archives Di vi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. 123Bell, “Re port on Ac tiv ities of the Na tional Guard”. See also: Kirkpatrick, “Ac tiv ities on Night of May 31, 1921 ”; and, Barrett, Oklahoma After Fifty Years, pp. 207-210. 124Bell, “Report on Activ ities of the National Guard.” Brown, ‘Work of the Sani tary De tach ment". Kirkpatrick, “Activ ities on Night of May 31, 1921.” Barrett, Oklahoma After Fifty Years, pp. 207-212. 125Cap tain John W. McCuen to Lieuten ant Colo nel L. J. F. Rooney, “Duty Per formed by [”B"] Comp any, Third Infan try, Oklahoma National Guard, at Negro Up ris ing, May 31, 1921"; Lieuten ant Roy R. Dunlap to Lieuten ant Col o nel L. J. F. Rooney, “Re port on Negro Up ris ing, May 31, 1921"; Van Voorhis, ”Detailed Report of Negro Upris ing"; Daley, “In for ma tion on Activ ities During Ne gro Upris ing and, Let ter from Lieuten ant Colo nel L. J. F. Rooney and Charles W. Daley to the Adju tant General, June 3, 1921; all in Attor ney Generals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Archives Di vi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. 126Let ter from Lieuten ant Colo nel L. J. F. Rooney and Charles W. Daley to the Adju tant General , June 3, 1921. Kirkpatrick, “Activ ities on the Night of May 31, 1921.” Bell, “Report on Ac tiv ities of the National Guard.” McCuen, “Duty Per formed by [”B’] Company." Van Voorhis, “De tailed Report of Negro Upris ing.” Daley, “Infor ma tion on

97 Activ ities During Negro Upris ing.” Muskogee Daily Phoe nix, June 4, 1921, P. 1. Gill, ‘Tulsa Race Riot", pp. 30-31, 40-41. 127Inter view with Major Frank Van Voorhis, Tulsa, Octo ber 25, 1937, by Effie S. Jackson, n Pi o neer His tory Col lec tion, Oklahoma His tor i cal So ci ety. Let ter from Lieu ten ant Col o nel L. J. F. Rooney and Charles W. Daley to the Adju tant General, June 3, 1921. Kirkpatrick, “Ac tiv ities on Night of May 31, 1921.” McCuen, “Duty Per formed by [”B"] Com pany". 128Oral his tory in ter view with Sey mour Wil liams, Tulsa, June 2, 1978. 129Oral his tory in ter view with W.D. Wil liams, Tulsa, June 7, 1978. Smitherman, “The Tulsa Riot and Mas sa cre.” 130Oral his tory in ter views with: El wood Lett, Tulsa, May 29, 1998; and Nell Ham il ton Hampton, Tulsa, Sep tem ber 16, 1998. Oklahoma City Black Dis patch, June 10, 1921, p. 8. Tulsa World, June 1, 1921, “Third Extra,” p. 1. 131Smitherman, “The Tulsa Race Riot and Mas sa cre”. 132Let ter from Lieuten ant Colo nel L. J. F. Rooney and Charles W. Daley to the Adju tant Gen eral, June 3, 1921. 133Ibid. 134Tulsa World, June 1, 1921, “Final Edition,” p. 1. Oral history in ter view with Harold Madi son Parker, Tulsa, Jan u ary 3, 1973, by Ruth Sigler Avery, in Fear: The Fifth Horse man. Gill, ‘Tulsa Race Riot," p. 28. Phil lips, “Murder in the Streets, ” pp. 47-51. McCuen, “Duty Per formed by [”B"] Com pany." Dunlap, “Re port on Ne g ro Up ris ing”. Van Voorhis, “Detailed Re port of Negro Upris ing”. Daley, “Infor ma tion on Activ ities During Ne gro Upris ing”. 135Phil lips, “Mur der in the Streets.” Jno. A. Gustaftson, Chief of Police Wm. McCullough, Sher iff V. W. Biddison, Dis trict Judge.139 J. B. A. Robert son, June 1, 1921, Attor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Arch ives Di vi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. 139Copy of telegram from John A. Gustafson, Wm McCullough, and V. W. Biddison to Gover nor J. B. A. Robert son, Attor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Archives Di vi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. 142Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter ," pp. 19-21. Tulsa City Di rec tory, 1921. 143Phillips, “Mur der in the Streets,” pp. 68-73. 144Oklaborna City Black Dis patch, June 10, 1921. Pa trol men Henry C. Pack and Rob ert Lewis were two of the approx i mately four Afri can Ameri cans who served on the Tulsa Police force at the time of the riot. 145Chicago Defender, June 11, 1921. 146Testi mo nials of James T. West, Dr. R. T. Bridgewater, and J. C. Lati mer in Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter , pp. 20-21, 38, 45-47, 60-61. Tulsa World, June 1, 1921, “Extra,” p. 1. Chicago De fender, June 11, 1921. New York Mail, June 1, 1921. Phil lips, “Murder in the Streets,” pp. 70-73. Oral his tory inter views with: W.D. Williams, Tulsa, No vem ber 29,1970; and S.M. Jackson and Eunice Cloman Jackson, Tulsa, June 26, 197 ; by Ruth Sigler Avery, in Fear: The Fifth Horse man. 147Phillips, “Mur der in the Streets”, p. 70. 148Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Di sas ter, p. 65. Phil lips, “Mur der in the Streets”, pp. 70-71. , June 2, 1921. 149Oral his tory in ter view with W.D. Wil liams, Tulsa, June 7, 1978. 150Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter , pp. 18-21. Tulsa City Direc tory, 1921. 151Oklahoma City Black Dis patch, June 10, 1921. 152Testi mo nial of Dr. R .T. Bridgewater in Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter , p. 45. 153Bar ney Cleaver vs. The City of Tulsa, et al., 1921. Tes ti mo nials of James T. West and “A.H.” in Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter , pp. 37, 62. Oklahoma City Black Dis patch, June 10, 1921. New York Times, June 2,1921. Oral his tory inter views with: W.D. Wil liams, Tulsa, No vem ber 29, 1970; and S. M. Jackson and Eunice Cloman Jackson, Tulsa, June 26, 1971; by Ruth Sigler Avery, in Fear: The Fifth Horseman . Chi cago De fender, Octo ber 25, 1921. Franklin and Frank lin, My Life and An Era, p. 197. Oral history in ter view with Allen Yowell, Tulsa, June 5, 1999. Black Tulsa was not de stroyed—as some have al leged—from the air, but by fires set by whites on the ground. And sim i lar, latter-day claims that Mount Zion Baptist Church was spe cif i cally tar geted and bombed must also be viewed with a healthy dose of skep ti cism, given the rather primi tive aerial bombing capa bil i tie s that existed, world wide, in 1921. That said, how ever, the ev i dence does in di cate that some form of ae rial bom bard ment took place in Tulsa on the morn ing of June 1, 1921—thus making Tulsa, in all proba bil ity, the first U.S. city bombed from the air.

98 154Let ter from Lieuten ant Colo nel L. J. F. Rooney and Charles Daley to the Adju tant General, June 3, 1921. Van Voorhis, “Detailed Report of Ne gro Upris ing.” Tes ti mo nials of Dr. R.T. Bridgewater and Mrs. Carrie Kinlaw in Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter , pp. 45-57, 50-51. John A. Oliphant testi mony, Attor ney Generals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Archives Divi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. Oral his tory inter view with Kinney Booker, Tulsa, May 30,1998. New York Times, June 2, 1921. 155Testi mo nials of James T. West, Mrs. Rosetta Moore, P.S. Thompson, Carrie Kinlaw, J.P. Hughes, and “A.H.” in Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Di sas ter, pp. 37, 42-44, 50-52, 62-63. Gill, “Tulsa Race Riot,” pp. 31, 55. Phil lips “Mur der in the Streets”, pp. 70, 87-88. New York Eve ning Post, June 11, 192 1. Franklin and Franklin, My Life and An Era, p. 197. 156Chicago Defender, June 11, 1921. 157Oral his tory inter views with George Monroe, Tulsa, 1997-2000. 158Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Di sas ter, pp. 49, 55-56. Lau rel Buck testi mony, and notes to the tes ti mony of O. W. Gur ley, At tor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Ar chives Di vi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. Gill, “Tulsa Race Riot,” p. 31. Tulsa World, June 1, 1921, “Fi nal Edition”, p. 1. Chicago Defender , June 11, 1921. Oklahoma City Black Dis patch, June 10, 1921. The entire is sue of fires being set in Green wood by whites in mili tary-style uniforms is fur ther-and per haps hope lessly—com pli cated by the use of the am big u ous term, “Home Guards.” When used by whites, it usu ally re fers to a loose or ga ni za tion of white vet er ans. When em ployed by Af ri can Amer i cans, how ever, the term also ap pears to re fer, at times, to the local, Tulsa-based units of the National Guard. See, also: Rob ert D. Norris, Jr., “The ”, unpub lished manu script, ca 2000; and, Ellsworth, Death in a Promised Land, p. 131, n13. 159Type script note on the tes ti mony of V.B. Bostic in let ter of June 8, 1921, Attor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Archives Divi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. See also John A. Oliphant testi mony, Ibid. 160Type script notes on the tes ti mony of Jack Krueger and Rich Rickard in let ter of June 8, 1921, At tor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, States Archives Di vi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. 161Phillips, “Murder in the Streets,” pp. 92-93. Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter , p. 21. Tulsa Tri bune, June 1, 1921, p. 5. Kan sas City Post, June 2,1921. New York Times, June 2, 1921. Gill,’Tulsa Race Riot," pp. 32-33. John A. Oliphant tes ti mony, At tor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Ar chives Di vi sion, Oklahoma De part ment of Li braries. See also: oral his tory in ter view with W.D. Wil liams, Tulsa, June 7, 1978; and oral his tory in ter view with Dr. Ray mond Knight, Oklahoma City, Feb ru ary 10, 197 1, by Ben Woods, Liv ing Leg ends Li brary, Oklahoma Christian College. 162McCuen, ‘Duty Per formed by [“B”] Com pany." Van Voorhis, ‘Detailed Report of Negro Up ris ing." Testi mo nials of E.A. Loupe and “A.H.” in Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter , pp. 49, 62-63. Miscel la neous hand writ ten notes, At tor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Ar chives Di vi sion, Oklahoma De part ment of Libraries. Oral his tory inter views with: Sey mour Wil liams, June 2, 1978; W. D. Williams, June 7, 1978; Rob ert Fairchild, June 8, 1978; V. H. Hodge, Tulsa, June 12, 1978; and I. S. Pittman, Tulsa, July 28, 1978. 163From the Wich ita Daily Ea gle, reprinted in , June 11, 1921. 164Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter , pp. 50, 55. Oklahoma City Black Dis patch, June 10, 1921. Daley, “Infor ma tion on Ac tiv ities During Negro Upris ing.” John A. Oliphant testi mony, Attor n ey Gen erals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Archives Divi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. 165Testi mo nial of I. T. West in Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter , p. 37. 166Oral his tory in ter view with Har old Mad i son Parker, Tulsa, Jan u ary 3, 1972, by Ruth Sigler Avery, in Fear: The Fifth Horse man. 167Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter , p. 55. 169John A. Oliphant tes ti mony, At tor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Ar chives Di vi sion, Oklahoma De part ment of Libraries. Oklahoma City Black Dis patch, June 10, 1921. Oral his tory in ter view with Wilhelmina Guess Howell by Eddie Faye Gates, in They Came Searching, pp. 113-115. 169Van Voorhis, “De tailed Re port of Negro Upris ing.” McCuen, “Duty Per formed by [”B"] Com pany." Phil lips, “Mur der in the Streets,” pp. 73-74, 93-95. In ter view with Binkley Wright, Los An geles, Feb ruary and Au gust 25, 2000, by Eddie Faye Gates. Curlee Hack man, “Peg Leg Taylor and the Tulsa Race Riot,” in J. M. Brewer, ed., Ameri can Ne gro Folklore (Chi cago: Quad ran gle Books, 1968), pp. 34-36. 170Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter , pp. 62-63. 171Oral his tory inter views with: Kinney Booker, Tulsa, May 30, 1998; and Otis Clark, Tulsa, June 4, 1999. White, “Erup tion of Tulsa”, p. 910.

99 172 Guthrie Daily Leader, June 1, 1921. Tulsa Tri bune: June 1, 1921, p. 6; and June 3, 1921, p. 1. Tulsa World, June 2,1921, p. 2. Affi da vit of Al bert Her ring, De cem ber 2,1921, Attor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Ar chives Di vi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter , p. 55. 173 McCuen, “Duty Per formed by [”B"] Company." 174Ibid. 175 Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter , p. 22. 176Un dated let ter by Mary Korte. Let ter from Joan Morgan, Kan sas City, Missouri, June 1998. “Mary Uhrig Korte Tells of Early Life in Tulsa,” Giebar fam ily ge ne a log i cal news let ter, 1992. Notes on Mary Korte by Nora Stallbaumer, Tulsa, April 3, 1998. Tulsa City Di rec tory, 1921. 177Oral history in ter view with Merrill A. “Red” Phelps 11, Tulsa, August 12, 1999. 178Mary Jo Erhardt, “My Most Hideous Birth day,” un pub lished memoir. 179Oral his tory in ter view with Glo ria Lough, Tulsa, June 4, 1999. 180Oral his tory in ter view with Guy Ashby, Tulsa, No vem ber 5, 197 1, by Bruce Hartnitt. 181 Gill, “Tulsa Race Riot”, pp. 36-37, n39. 182Barrett, Oklahoma Af ter Fifty Years, p. 212. Oral his tory in ter view with Mrs. Harry Frantz, Enid, , 1985, by Joe L. Todd, Oklahoma Histor i cal So ci ety. Tele phone in ter view with Mark Childers, Santa Fe, New Mex ico, Decem ber 10, 1998. Tulsa City Direc tory , 1921. 183Tulsa World, June 1, 1921, “Third Ex tra,” p. 1. “Re port from Gen eral Barrett,” mis cel la neous type script. Barrett, Oklahoma Af ter Fifty Years, pp. 211-212. Kirkpatrick, “Ac tiv ities on Night of May 3 1, 192 L” Daley, “In for ma tion on Activ ities During Negro Upris ing”. 184Tulsa World, June 1, 1921: “Sec ond Ex tra,” p, 1; and “Third Ex tra,” p. 1. Tulsa Tri bune, June 1, 192 1, p. 1. New York Times, June 2, 192 1. Denver Post, June 4, 1921. 185Tulsa World, June 1, 1921, “Second Extra,” p.1. Oral history in ter views with: L.C. Clark, Tulsa, June 25, 1975, by Hansel Johnson and Ruth Avery; and with E.W. “Gene” Maxey, Tulsa, 1971 and 1985; both in Avery, Fear. The Fifth Horse man. 186Oklahoma City Black Dis patch, June 10, 1921. Tulsa Tri bune: June 1, 1921, p. 8; and June 2, 1921, p. 3. Testi mo nials of Rich ard I. Hill and Dr. R. T. Bridgewater in Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter , pp. 41, 44-47. Oral his tory in ter views with S.M. Jack son and Eunice Cloman Jack son, Tulsa, June 26, 1971, by Ruth Sigler Avery, in Fear: The Fifth Horse man. John A. Oliphant testi mony, Attor ney Generals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Archives Divi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. 187Tulsa World, June 1, 1921, “Third Extra,” p. 1. Barrett, Oklahoma After Fifty Years, pp. 212-213. 188Fran ces W. Prentice, “Oklahoma Race Riot,” Scribner’s Maga zine , XC (Au gust 1931), pp. 151-157. Prentice was mar ried to Clar ence C. Prentice, sales man ager for the Sabine Oil and Mar keting Com pany. At the time of the riot, the couple lived at 1446 S. Den ver. Tulsa City Di rec tory, 1921. 189John A. Oliphant testi mony, At tor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Ar chives Divi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Di sas ter, pp. 55-56, 120. Tulsa City Di rec tory, 1921. 190John A. Oliphant testi mony, At tor ney Gen erals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Ar chives Divi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. 191Ibid. 192Testi mo nial of Dr. R. T. Bridgewater in Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter , pp. 46, 120. Tulsa City Di rec tory, 1921. 193Tulsa Tri bune, June 1, 1921, p. 1. Tulsa World, June 2, 1921, p.1. Barrett, Oklahoma After Fifty Years, pp. 212-213. Phil lips, “Mur der in the Streets,” pp. 103-105. John A. Oliphant testi mony, Attor ney Generals Civil Case Files, Case 1062, State Archives Di vi sion, Oklahoma Depart ment of Libraries. Oral history inter view with Nell Hamil ton Hampton, Tulsa, Septem ber 16, 1998. Phillips, “Mur der in the Streets”, pp. 97-103. 195Some black Tulsans also found ref uge in the First Pres by te rian Church and other white churches. Tes ti mo nials of James T. West, Jack Thomas, Mrs. Rosetta Moore, Dr. R. T. Bridgewater, and C.L. Netherland, in Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter , pp. 23-24, 38, 39, 42, 44-47, 57. Tulsa World: June 1, 1921, “Third Extra”, p. 1; and June 2, 1921, pp. 1, 2. New York Times, June 2,1921. Rob ert N. Hower, “An gels of Mercy”: The Amer i can Red Cross and the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot (N.p., n.p., 1993), p. A-2. Oral his tory inter views with Ernestine Gibbs and Rob ert Clark Frayser, by Eddie Faye Gates, in They Came Searching, pp. 86, 247. Oral his tory in ter views with: W.D. Wil l iams, Tulsa, June 7, 1978; and Nell Ham il ton Hampton, Tulsa, Sep tem ber 16, 1998. Van Voorhis, “De tailed Re port of Ne gro Up ris ing.”

100 196Tulsa Tri bune, June 1, 1921, pp. 1, 2. Tulsa World, June 2, 1921, pp. 1, 2. Barrett, Oklahoma Af ter Fifty Years, p. 214. Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter . 197Tulsa World, June 2, 1921, pp. 1, 7. Tulsa Tri bune, June 2, 1921, p. 2. Barrett, Oklahoma After Fifty Years, pp. 213-215. 199 White, “Eruption of Tulsa,” p. 910. 199Burial record led gers for Stanley & McCune Funeral Direc tors, Tulsa, 1921. 200Prelim i nary sci en tific tests—primar ily involv ing ground-penetrating radar-were per formed at Oaklawn Cem e tery, Newblock Park and Booker T. Wash ing ton Cem e tery (now a part of Rolling Oaks Me morial Park) in 1998 and 1999. It is hoped that further and more de fin i tive-tests will be per formed in 2001. The princi pal histor i cal sources for each of the three sites in clude the follow ing: Oaklawn Ceme tery . Oaklawn Ceme tery burial records, Pub lic Works De part ment, City of Tulsa. Historic and present-day Oaklawn Ceme tery maps. Burial re cords led gers, Stanley & McCune Funeral Di rec tors, Tulsa, 1921. Tulsa County Commis sion, Minutes of Proceed ings, 1921. Salva tion Army records, Sal va tion Army South ern His tor i cal Cen ter, At lanta, Geor gia. Ruth Sigler Avery, Fear: The Fifth Horse man. Oral his tory in ter views with Clyde Eddy, Tulsa, 1998-1999. Booker T. Wash ing ton Cem e tery. His toric and pres ent-day maps for Booker T.Wash ing ton Cem e tery. Oral his tory in ter views with Larry Hutchings, Tulsa, April 10, 1998; John Irby, Tulsa, July 17, 1998; Chris Brockman, Tulsa, April 14, 1998; El wood Lett, Tulsa, May 28, 1998; Gladys J. Cummins, Bro ken Ar row, April 20, 1998; Ray mond Beard, Jr. and Sa rah Beard, Tulsa, May 25, 1998; Mavelyn Blocker, Tulsa, May 24, 1998; Deborah Childers, Tulsa, May 24, 1998; Don Kennedy, Tulsa, May 24, 1998; Sa rah (But ler) Thompson, Tulsa, May 25, 1998; and Sherry Thompson, Tulsa, , 1998. Newblock Park. His toric and pres ent-day maps and ae rial pho to graphs of Newblock Park. Tim o thy A. Posey, “The Im pact of the New Deal on the City of Tulsa” (M.A. the sis, Oklahoma State Univer sity, 1991). ‘Tulsa Parks,” Tulsa Jour nal, 1, 3 (July 1984). Tulsa Tri bune: Febru ary 15, 1921, p. 2; May 17, 1921, p. 1; and May 18, 1921, p. 3. Oral his tory in ter views with: Wil liam M. O’Brien, Tulsa, March 2, 1998; Rob ert D. Norris, Jr., Tulsa, March 25, 1998; Ruth Avery, Tulsa, Febru ary 20, 1998; Bruce Hartnitt, Tulsa, May 30, 1998; Ed Wheeler, Tulsa, Febru ary 27, 1998; Frank Mason, Tulsa, March 26, 1998; Jeff Britton, Tulsa, March 26, 1998; Leslie Lawrence, Owasso, March 26, 1998; and Joe Welch and Harvey Schell, Sand Springs, March 18, 1998. Addi tional infonmation has been col lected on other po ten tial burial sites, in clud ing one other eyewit ness account, and on the trans por ta tion of the bod ies of the dead. “His tor i cal In for ma tion About the Tulsa Race Riot,” tele phone log, Jan u ary through March 1999. Oral his tory in ter views with: Rich ard Gary, Tulsa, March 16, 1999; El len Prater Lasson, Tulsa, Au gust 12, 1999; and Wade Foor and Char lie An der son, Tulsa, June 5, 1999. 201Old and young had to pile on trucks," wrote Mrs. Rosetta Moore af ter the riot, “and when we were be ing driven through town, men were seen clap ping their hands, re joic ing over our con di tion.” Tes ti mo nial of Mrs. Rosetta Moore, in Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter , p. 42. 202Chicago De fender, June 11, 1921. State ment of J. W. Hughes, in Hower, “Angels of Mercy,” p. A-3. Tulsa City Direc tory, 1921. Oral his tory inter views with Jewel Smitherman Rogers, Perris, Cali for nia, 1999- 2000. See also the forth com ing ar ti cle by Paul Lee in Es sence Mag a zine about the ex pe ri ences of Julia Duff, a young teacher at Booker T. Wash ing ton High School, during the riot. 203On the af ter math of the riot, includ ing relief ef forts, lo cal polit i cal maneuverings, and var i ous legal ac tions, see: Ellsworth, Death in a Prom ised Land, pp. 71-97. 204The exten sive post-riot relief efforts by the Amer i can Red Cross, and its in trepid lo cal relief direc tor, Maurice Willows, is well-documented in Rob ert A. Hower, “Angels of Mercy”: The Ameri can Red Cross and the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot. 205Tulsa World, June 26, 1921, pp. 1, 8.

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(Cour tesy Oklahoma His tor i cal So ci ety). Air planes and the Riot By Richard S. Warner There is no question that air planes were in into the pos si ble involve ment of U.S. mil i tary the air over Tulsa dur ing and af ter the Tulsa air craft in the riot. Wheeler, who had access to race riot. The ques tion is: what were they be ing mil i tary re cords which are no longer avail able, used for? learned that there were only six U.S. mil i tary We can not en tirely be lieve all the re ports air planes in Oklahoma at the time of the riot. that have ap peared over the years in news pa- Based at Fort Sill, some 212 miles from Tulsa, pers, or as recounted by survi vors, descen dants these six planes were World War I Jennys, with of survi vors, and others. The prob lem is to sep- a range of about 190 miles. Of the six planes, the a rate the proba ble from the im prob a ble. For re cords showed that two were inop er a ble and exam ple, in one uniden ti fied news pa per ac- un der go ing mainte nance while two had just count from June 12, 1921, it was al leged that, been deliv ered and were not yet in fly ing con di - “The planes used dur ing the riot and which set tion. Only two were service able planes and nei - fire to brick build ings are owned by the United ther was in the air on May 31 or June 1, 1921.2 It States Govern ment.” 1 Subse quent research, is, there fore, rea son able to con clude that the air- how ever, casts con sid er able doubt upon this planes re ported over Tulsa dur ing the riot were claim. While re search ing for his ar ti cle, ”Pro- not U.S. mil i tary aircraft, Hence, they must have file of a Race Riot," that appeared in the been privately or commer cially owned air- June-July, 1971 is sue of Impact Mag a zine, planes, prob a bly based in Tulsa. Bri ga dier Gen eral Ed Wheeler (ret.) looked

103 The story of aircraft in Tulsa goes back to Sometime in 1921, a second air field was es- July 4, 1903, when the first re corded local tablished in Tulsa by Paul Arbon, a World War I flight, a bal loon as cent, took place.3 Three British and dealer for the Brit- years later, dur ing the sum mer of 1906, Jimmy ish-manufactured, air craft. Arbon’s air - Jones con structed an air plane of his own de - field was lo cated at the north west corner of sign at his home in Tulsa. He and his part ner, Fed eral Drive and Sheridan Road, and fea tured Bill Stigler, disas sem bled the plane and took it only one han gar.9 to a pasture near Red Fork. There they reas - Reg is tra tion of air planes by the U.S. Govern - sem bled it, except for the in stal la tion of the ment was not re quired in 1921. Thus, no re cords control cables to make a test flight. It was a hot ex ist of actual air plane owner ship dur ing the day and Jones and Stigler de cided to go home time of the riot. With out govern ment re cords, and fin ish the job the next day. That af ter noon, one can assume that if there were fourteen how ever, a strong wind came up and de stroyed planes at the Curtiss-Southwest Air Field at the the plane.4 end of 1921, and prob a bly no more than one (a The next air plane in Tulsa was designed and dem on stra tor) at the Paul Arbon Air Field, the constructed by Herman DeVry, who owned a to tal number of air planes based in Tulsa at the machin ery repair busi ness. DeVry hired A. C. time of the riot would not have been more than Beach, an Eng lish pilot then liv ing in Tulsa, to fif teen. test the air plane. After four tries, it fi nally took Most of these were prob a bly owned by the off from a field south west of Sand Springs and Curtiss-Southwest Air plane Company, but a rose to 800 feet, stay ing aloft for 20 min utes. few were prob a bly owned by in di vid u als or Af ter sev eral other attempts to fly, the engine com pa nies. There is really no way to de ter mine blew up and DeVry quit the air craft busi ness.5 the owner ship of the planes, but it is very likely The first air field in Tulsa was estab lished in that at least one was owned by the Sinclair Oil 1917 by Har old Breene on the south side of Company. A “St. Clair Oil Company plane” is Fed eral Drive (now East Admi ral Place), at ap- men tioned in some ac counts of the riot and there proxi mately South Hud son Av e nue. A spur is a photo graph in the files of the Tulsa His tor i- rail way line served as the field’s west bor der. cal So ci ety of a Jenny re fu el ing at the There was one hangar. Mr. Breene pur chased a Curtiss-Southwest Air Field from barrels num ber of sur plus Curtis Jenny air planes that marked “Sinclair Oils.” Tulsa was the head quar- he later sold to avi a tion enthu si asts. 6 ters of the Sinclair Oil Company at that time and In 1920, Mr. Breene sold his Tulsa avia tion the top ex ec u tives lived here.10 inter ests to B.L. Brookins and Bill Camp bell. Appar ently, among the planes in Tulsa at the The new com pany, called the time of the riot, were a Stinson Detroiter, a sin - Curtiss-Southwest Air plane Company, was gle en gine plane with an en closed cabin ca pa ble the agency for Curtis and Waco airplanes. 7 of hold ing sev eral people as well as an other In early 1921, the air field was moved to a tri-motor, make unknown. Stinson did man u fac - new loca tion on a farm owned by Mr. Brookins ture a tri-motor at that time accord ing to per son- lo cated just east of North Me mo rial Av e nue nel at the Tulsa Air and Space Cen ter.11 and north of East Apache Street. It was sit u ated There are many refer ences to air planes dur ing in what is to day a corner of Tulsa In ter na tional the riot, but few can be addi tion ally doc u mented Airport. Accord ing to the Jan u ary 1, 1922 is- through further re search. Mary E. Jones Parrish sue of the , a Tulsa Chamber of in cluded a number of refer ences to air planes in Com merce publi ca tion, the air field con tained her book, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter . In her two large steel han gars, 90’ x 60’ in size and own account of her expe ri ences dur ing the riot, capa ble of hold ing eigh teen airplanes, a motor she mentions see ing “fast ap proach ing re pair shop, a wing and fu se lage shop, and a aeroplanes.” More over, in her escape from the gas o line and oil service sta tion. Fourteen air - riot area, Parrish tells of near ing the “avi a tion planes were based there.8 fields” —in all like li hood the Curtiss- South -

104 The losses in the Green wood busi ness dis trict alone—in clud ing two the aters, three ho tels, more than a dozen res tau rants, and scores of shops, fam ily-run busi nesses, and profes sional of fices—were stagger ing. One con tem po rary ob server called the deaths and de - struction cased by the race riot “without paral lel in Amer ica” (Courtesy Oklahoma His tor i c al So ci ety). west Air Field—and see ing the “planes out of I saw aeroplanes, they flew very low. To my sur- their sheds, all in readi ness for flying, and prise, as they passed over the busi ness dis trict, these men with high-powered ri fles get ting they left the en tire block a mass of flame.”12 into them." Parrish adds that “The aeroplanes Other con tem po rary sources also reported the con tin ued to watch over the flee ing peo ple like pres ence of airplanes. Wal ter White wrote in the great birds of prey watch ing for a victim, but I June 29, 1921 issue The Na tion that “eight have not heard of them do ing any harm to the aeroplanes were employed to spy on the move - peo ple out in the direc tion where we were." ments of the Ne groes and ac cord ing to some Events of the Tulsa Disas ter also includes in - were used in bomb ing the col ored section.” 13 ter views in clud ing one with Mr. James T. Mabel E. Little, in her unpub lished bi og ra - West, a teacher at Booker T. Wash ing ton High phy, wrote that, “air planes dropped incen di ary School, who reported that air planes “flew over bombs to en hance the burn ing of Mount Zion very low, what they were do ing I can not say, Bap tist Church and busi ness build ings.”14 A re- for I was in my room.” Dr. R. T. Bridgewater, porter for the Oklahoma City Black Dispatch an assis tant county phy si cian, stated that he wrote that ”Air planes were seemingly every - was “near my resi dence and aeroplanes be gan where. They seemed to fly low and I could see to fly over us, in some in stances very low to the the men in the planes as they passed us." In an ground,” and that he heard a woman say, “look in ter view with Dr. Payne and Mr. Robin son that out for the aeroplanes, they are shoot ing upon ap peared in the same is sue, it was stated that, us.” Mrs. Parrish also wrote that “more than a “These two men with their wives suc ceeded in dozen aeroplanes went up and be gan to drop reaching the open coun try. They were fi nally turpen tine balls upon the Ne gro resi dences,” spotted by the air mur derers who show ered load but she gives no source for this state ment nor after load of leadened mis siles upon them.” W. does it ap pear that she witnessed this herself. I. Brown, a porter on the Katy Rail road who Lastly, Parrish also in cluded the testi mo nial of reached Tulsa Wednesday morn ing, June 1, an anon y mous eye wit ness, who stated, “Then with the Na tional Guard, re cited this story:

105 “We reached Tulsa about 2 o’clock. Air - in 1937 when this case was dis missed. This is the planes were cir cling all over Greenwood. We same Elisha Scott, a prom i nent Afri can Ameri can stopped our cars north of the Katy de pot, go ing at tor ney of Topeka, Kan sas, who, accord ing to an to wards Sand Springs. The heav ens were light- Oc to ber 14, 1921 arti cle in the Chicago De fender, ened up as plain as day from the many fires claimed to have a thirty-one page af fi da vit signed over the Ne gro sec tion. I could see from my car by Van B. Hurley, suppos edly a white for mer window that two air planes were do ing most of Tulsa police man, that told of a meeting be tween the work. They would ev ery few seconds drop local avia tors and of fi cials prior to the inva sion of some thing and every time they did there was a black Tulsa on the morning of June 1. These in di - loud explo sion and the sky would be filled vid u als al leg edly planned an at tack on the black with fly ing debris.” 15 area by air planes. There is no re cord that a “Van B. Bruce Hartnitt, of Tulsa Junior Col lege, in - Hurley” ever was a po lice man or even existed. terviewed Mabel Bonner Lit tle in 1969 and This af fi da vit was never made pub lic or ap par - 1971. He asked Mrs. Little, “Do you remem ber ently used in any of the lawsuits. Af ter his death, during the time of the riot it self, if there were Mr. Scott’s home burned and his per sonal pa pers any airplanes, peo ple dropping stuff?” Mrs. ev i dently were de stroyed. Beryl Ford, an au thor ity Lit tle replied, ”Oh yes, they dropped those in- on Tulsa’s pho to graphic history, af ter ex am in ing cendi ary bombs, that’s what burned those big pho to graphs of the Green wood dam age, has stated build ings down, they could n’t have de stroyed that the build ings were not de stroyed by ex plo- them with anything else . . .”16 sives. The de bris shown in pho to graphs, he be- In case No. 23, 331 filed in the Dis trict Court lieves, is located in side the shells of the buildings, of Tulsa County between Bar ney Cleaver, where it had fallen af ter the raf ters had burned, and plain tiff, and The City of Tulsa, one of the de- not out side where it would have been scattered if fen dants was “The St. Clair Oil Com pany.” ex plo sives had been used. Outbuild ings also are The fourth paragraph of the plain tiffs peti tion shown to be largely undam aged, some thing that alleges that: was un likely had explo sives been used.17 “The St. Clair Oil Company, a cor po ra tion, An un iden ti fied news pa per re ported that Ed did, at the request and in sis tence of the city’s Lockett was shot from an air plane that had fol - agents, and in further ance of the con spir acy, lowed him for about eight miles from Tulsa. It aforemen tioned and set out, furnish air planes was re ported that “several hun dred per sons saw on the night of May 31, 1921, and on the morn- the avia tor shoot Lockett and were later fired on ing of June 1, 1921, to carry the defen dant’s by the same plane themselves.” The body of a city’s agents, ser vants, and employ ees, and man was found on June 6, 1921 near the other persons, be ing part of said con spir acy Curtiss-Southwest Air Field. Al though there is and other conspir a tors. That the said J.R. no re cord of an “Ed Lockett,’ there is a funeral Blaine, captain of the po lice de part ment, with home re cord of an Ed Lockard who was found oth ers, was car ried in said air plane which eight miles from Tulsa on June 6, 1921, and is dropped turpen tine balls and bombs down and bur ied in Oaklawn Cem e tery in Tulsa. upon the houses of the plaintiff . . . ” The Chi cago De fender, on June 11, 1921, re- The 1921 Tulsa City Di rec tory does not list a ported that “at 4:30 a steam whis tle sounded J.R. Blaine, but it does list a G.H. Blaine, a po - three times. With the com ing of daylight air - lice captain. Captain Blaine appears in a number planes from the local avi a tion field, in which the of newspa per arti cles concern ing air planes and Cadil lac company is in ter ested, di rected the there is no question that he was a pi lot or pas sen- move ment of the on com ing army. At 6:15 a.m. ger on a num ber of flights. The same source does men in the planes dropped fire bombs of tur pen - not list a “St. Clair Oil Com pany,” but its pho - tine or other in flam ma ble ma te rial on the prop - netic simi lar ity to the Sinclair Oil Com pany is erty.” The ar ti cles goes on to say, “One man, too close to be ignored. It is inter est ing to note leaning far out from an air plane, was brought that Elisha Scott was the at tor ney for the plain tiff down by the bul let of a sharpshooter and his

106 body burst upon the ground.” Other news pa- sup port this. The newspa pers tar geted to black pers published sim i lar claims. readers were full of sto ries of tur pen tine or ni - The St. Louis Argus, on June 10, 1921, re - troglyc erin bombs being dropped and men ported that “The Ne groes held their own un til shooting from planes. Mary E. Jones Parrish about 6 o’clock in the morn ing when a fierce mentions bomb ing inci dents, but one is from an attack was made upon them from the hill by anony mous source and the other may have not cannons, and air planes soared over the Negro been wit nessed by her. In Bar ney Cleaver’s law- sec tion drop ping fire on their houses.” J.W. suit, his peti tion al leges that tur pen tine bombs Hughes, prin ci pal of Dunbar Grade School, were dropped on his house, thereby destroy ing wrote a state ment that said that “at five o’clock it. How ever, he ap par ently did not wit ness this. a whis tle was blown, seven aeroplanes were Allen Yowell stated that in 1950 or 1951 he fly ing over the col ored dis trict . . .”18 was hav ing his hair cut in a barber shop in As some news pa per ac counts men tion nitro - Tulsa. There be heard a man, who looked to be glyc erin bombs, it is in ter est ing to note that the 50 or 60 years old, who said that dur ing the time Tulsa World published an ar ti cle on April 20, of the riot, he and a friend obtained some dy na - 1921 ti tled, “Tulsa Man First to Transport Ni- mite, com man deered an air plane, flew over the tro by Means of an Airplane.” The ar ti cle dis- riot area, and dropped the dyna mite on a group cusses the great danger in transport ing of flee ing Af ri can Amer i can refu gees not far ni tro glyc erin and notes that a careless move - from where some rail road tracks cross East Pine ment “may only leave a grease spot.”19 Street. Yowell said, “the man was brag ging There is quite a bit of infor ma tion that the about this, and while he did not know if the story police used airplanes to search the outskirts of was cor rect or not, he felt that the man was tell- the black area for flee ing peo ple. When in di - ing the truth. He did not know the man’s name vidu als were seen, a mes sage was placed in a and never saw him again.”22 con tainer and dropped to search parties on the Another oral infor mant, Lillian Lough, re - ground. These con tain ers may have been ported that her grand mother, a re cent im mi grant thought to be bombs by some. In re ply to a re - from Mex ico, lived on the edge of the black area quest for infor ma tion from people con cern ing in 1921. At the time of the riot, she saw two the riot, one man called in and said that his un- young black boys running down the street be ing cle, Charles Foor, a Tulsa police man, flew one fol lowed by a two-seater air plane. The man in of these search planes. He said that three planes the rear seat was shoot ing at . She then were used and they flew in a “V’ forma tion ran out and grabbed the boys and took them into with his uncle in the lead. The planes, he be - the house. The man in the air plane stopped lieved, were used for re con nais sance only.20 shooting when she ap peared.23 On June 7, 1921, the Tulsa World re ported that It is within rea son that there was some shoot ing Captain George Blaine of the Tulsa Po lice De - from planes and even the drop ping of in cen di ar ies, part ment had flown over a num ber of black com- but the ev i dence would seem to in di cate that it was muni ties around Tulsa to see if any armed mobs of a minor na ture and had no real ef fect in the riot. were forming. This was in answer to per sis tent While it is cer tain that air planes were used by the ru mors that an at tack upon Tulsa was be ing police for recon nais sance, by photog ra phers and planned by Afri can Ameri cans in these commu - sight se ers, there prob a bly were some whites who ni ties. His flight took him over Boley, Red Bird, fired guns from planes or dropped bottles of gas o - Taft, Wybark, and oth ers. Blaine, it was re ported, line or some thing of that sort. However, they were found no ev i dence of any such ac tiv ity.21 prob a bly few in numbers. It is im por tant to note, a Although it is within rea son to be lieve that num ber of prom i nent Afri can Ameri cans at the some in di vid u als did drop inflammables or ex- time of the riot includ ing James T. West, Dr. R.T. plosives on the riot area, there is very lit tle to Bridgewater, and Wal ter White of the NAACP, did not speak of any ag gres sive ac tions by air - planes during the conflict.

107 Endnotes 1“Search Homes for Loot Taken Dur ing the Con flict”, un iden ti fied ar ti cle, Tuskegee In sti tute News Clip ping Files, “1921–Riots, Tulsa.” 2Inter view with Ed Wheeler, Tulsa, 1999. 3Tulsa Di vi sion Skywriter, , 1968, a pub li ca tion of the North Amer i can-Rockwell Cor po ra tion. 4Da vid Moncrief, “Early Tulsa Takes Flight” an uniden ti fied Octo ber 1981 arti cle located in the files of The Tulsa His tor i cal So ci ety. 5Ibid. 6Ibid. 7Ibid. 8The Tulsa Spirit, Janu ary 1, 1922. 9Tulsa Di vi sion Skywriter, April 26, 1968. 10“Rushing in the Roaring 20s”, Tulsa World, , 1969. 11Inter view with Beryl Ford and per son nel of the Tulsa Air and Space Cen ter, Tulsa, 1999. 12Mary E. Jones Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter , (rpt ed; Tulsa: Out On a Limb Pub lishing, 1998). 13Wal ter White. “Eruption of Tulsa”, The Nation , June 29, 1921. 14“A His tory of the Blacks in North Tulsa and My Life (A True Story)” by Mabel E. Lit tle, un pub lished manu script. 15Oklahoma City Black Dispatch , June 10, 1921. 16Transcript of in ter view between Bruce Hartnitt and Mabel Bonner Little, circa 1969-1971. 17 Tele phone in ter view with Beryl Ford, Tulsa, 1999. 18Chicago De fender, June 11, 1921. St. Louis Argus, June 10, 1921. 19Tulsa World, April 20, 1921. 20Telephone in ter view with Wade Foor, Tulsa, 1999. 21Tulsa World, June 7, 1921 22Telephone in ter view with Allen Yowell. Tulsa, 1999. 23Telephone in ter view with Lillian Lough, 1999. Confirmed Deaths in the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921: A Pre lim i nary Re port by Clyde Collins Snow

108 (Cour tesy De part ment of Spe cial Col lec tions, McFarlin Li brary, Uni ver sity of Tulsa).

Confirmed Deaths: A Preliminary Report By Clyde Col lins Snow A Cau tion ary Fore word Until this data is collected and ana lyzed, no fi - It should be em pha sized that this re port is, as nal report can be completed. indi cated in the , prelim i nary. While col - Ac knowl edg ments lect ing data for this study, it has become ob vi- In my final re port, I will in clude a full list of ous that much criti cal infor ma tion on how the many persons who have helped me. In this many people were killed and who they were is prelim i nary ef fort ac knowl edg ments must be lack ing. Much of this infor ma tion still re sides lim ited to the wise and inde fat i ga ble Mr. Dick in the mem o ries and fam ily re cords and other Warner and Ms. Sue Bordeaux of the Oklahoma per sonal docu ments of the survi vors and par - State De part ment of Health. Much of the ba sic tic i pants of the riot - both black and white — infor ma tion upon which this report is based was and their de scen dants. For this reason, we are orig i nally com piled by Dick; he is also a mag - reaching out, both lo cally and na tion ally, for nifi cent fact-checker. Sue Bor deaux’s vast more in for ma tion on pos si ble persons killed in knowledge of the vi tal re cords sys tem and her the riot whose deaths were never recorded. We en thu si asm in putt ing it to work in this pro ject also sus pect much addi tional in for ma tion of was invalu able. Nat u rally, neither one of them impor tance is contained in still un ex am ined are respon si ble for any factual errors or eccen - docu ments such as life insur ance claims, will tric opinions which may ap pear in this pre lim i- probates, cen sus re cords, etc. Hope fully, these nary report — they are all my own. docu ments still sur vive in ob scure ar chives.

109 future. When con ducted ob jec tively, they gen er- ally at tain these goals. Unfor tu nately, no im par tial inves ti ga tion was con ducted of the 1921 Tulsa race riot in its im- medi ate after math, while mem o ries of the par - tic i pants and vic tims were still fresh, and the phys i cal ev i dence, in clud ing the bodies of the dead, could be fo ren si cally ex am ined. To day, eight de cades af ter the event, only the doc u men- tary evi dence — much of it lost or of doubtful authen tic ity — and the fading mem o ries of the rapidly dwindling survi vors remains. A key piece of in for ma tion in any inves ti ga tion of in ci dents involv ing loss of hu man life is an ac - curate as sess ment of the num ber of vic tims. Such de ter mi na tions are im por tant for several reasons. For exam ple, where prelim i nary es ti mates of the num ber of dead are part of an on go ing in ves ti ga- tion, they can be used to make rea son able allot - ments of often scarce man power, equip ment, and finan cial resources to the task and to de ter mine the over all inves ti ga tive strat egy. Ac cu rate esti mates of the dead and in jured From the first shots that were fired at the courthouse on May can also help iden tify fac tors con trib ut ing to 31, to the last fight ing that took place on June 1, the Tulsa race such di sas ters and, thus, pro vide guide lines for riot proved to be a par tic u larly le thal af fair. And while a de fin- i tive death count is still elu sive, it is clear that doz ens of blacks amelio rat ing the loss of life in sim i lar fu ture and whites lost their lives in the catas tro phe (Depart ment of cases. For exam ple, in Hon du ras, the immi gra - Special Collec tions McFarlin Library, Uni ver sity of Tulsa). tion of the ru ral poor to ur ban areas resulted in large numbers of them build ing small houses on The Need for Ac cu rate Ca su alty Counts “waste” land along the steep banks of ma jor Dur ing the past half-century, it has be come river courses and other areas sub ject to flood ing. increas ingly common for major disas ters, nat - As a conse quence, many thousands of such set- ural and man-made, to be come the sub ject of tlers drowned or died in mud slides dur ing the pub lic in ves ti ga tion. Such inves ti ga tions may massive hur ri cane of 1998. This loss of life be offi cial — that is, con ducted by any govern - could be mini mized by govern men tal or pri vate men tal branch, judi cial, ex ec u tive or leg is la - aid to pro vide hous ing sites in safer areas or, at tive and at any level, fed eral, state or lo cal. the least, as sure the prompt evac u a tion of peo ple Unof fi cial, but no less search ing and reveal - from such vul ner a ble places when warnings of ing, inves ti ga tions may be con ducted by the impend ing hur ri canes are re ceived in the fu ture. press or pri vate en ti ties. Exam ples of such in- When the di sas ters are man-made, such as qui ries in the recent past in clude the several in- acts of ter ror ism, war crimes or other massive vesti ga tions of the deaths of the fol low ers of human rights vi o la tions, an ac cu rate as sess ment David Koresh in the Branch Davidian Com - of the number of vic tims is a nec es sary step in pound in Waco, Texas in 1994. Such in qui ries any fo ren sic in ves ti ga tion conducted to exhume are de signed to shed light on the causes of such the vic tims so that they may be iden ti fied and re- di sas ters, estab lish culpa bil ity when pos si ble turned to the fami lies, make suit able repa ra tions and appro pri ate and pro vide guide lines to pre- to the per sons affected and, hope fully and vent or, if they do oc cur again, design pro ce - above all, pro vide evi dence to bring the per pe- dures for ef fec tively deal ing with them in the tra tors to jus tice.

110 Be fore the ashes of Greenwood had cooled, story had not changed since it was re counted in the dis agree ments over the number of dead be gan Muskogee (OK) Phoenix in 1921, Sergeant Esley to surface. Esti mates of the to tal number of would tes tify that the vic tim died in her hus band’s dead have varied by an order of magni tude, arms af ter be ing struck by five bul lets fired by a rang ing from about fifty to as many as five black who stole up be hind her while she and her hundred. They also vary greatly in the reli abil - family were watching the fires in Green wood ity of the sources on which they are based. from the front porch of their home on Sunset Hill. Here, I have chosen a more con ser va tive ap - He might further state, as he did eight decades ago, proach by compil ing a list of per sons who that, af ter watch ing his mother die, Mrs. Deary’s have, at one time or an other, been named as fifteen year old son joined the riot and helped set vic tims of the Tulsa race riot. At the out set, I some of the fires. On cross-examination, of should point out that this compi la tion is not course, Sergeant Esley would be forced to admit likely to in clude all of the riot fatal i ties since it that even in 1921, when he first told his story, he is proba ble that at least some and, perhaps had not been able to remem ber the vic tim’s name many, deaths went unre corded. At the same but only . . . “that it sounded like Deary." Further - time, how ever, I feel that it may prove valuable more, he was not sure whether she was shot late to future scholars since it provides at least a Tues day night or on Wednes day morning. Now firm min i mum of the number of dead. suppose, that the as tute defense law yer in tro duces Classi fi ca tion of Deaths (as they always do, at least on televi sion), a “sur- prise” witness, and a frag ile lit tle old lady makes Based on the infor ma tion pres ently avail - 2 able, riot fatal i ties of both races can be divided her way to the stand. She would state that her into two groups. Within the first are those es - name was Mrs. S. A. Gilmore and that, in 1921, tablished by pri mary sources such as death cer- she was liv ing at 225 E. King in the Sun set Hill ad- tifi cates and mor tu ary records. The second dition, which overlooked the Green wood district. group con sists of deaths mentioned only in On Wednes day morning, while she and her hus - second ary sources (news pa per sto ries, mag a - band were watching the battle be low, she received zine arti cles, books, etc.) deal ing with the race five wounds in the arms and chest. While the riot. In this study, I have des ig nated in di vid u- shots came in the di rec tion of Green wood, it was als in the first group as confirmed, and those of never cer tain whether they were fired by a black or the sec ond as re ported deaths. she was struck by stray shots be ing fired in the The distinc tion between the two groups is gen eral di rec tion of Sun set Hill by mem bers of the white mob. Taken to Morning side Hos pi tal, she made clearer when put in a fo ren sic con text. 3 For ex am ple, bear ing in mind that there is no lin gered close to death for several days but even - statute of limi ta tions on murder and that the tu ally re cov ered. The defense at tor ney would then vic tims killed in the Tulsa race riot were homi - in tro as doc u men tary ev i dence Tulsa City Di - cide victims, it is at least the o ret i cally pos si ble rec tories which show that Mrs. Gilmore did in - that murder charges could be brought against deed re side at 225 E. King at the time of the riot in an al leged per pe tra tor.1 If the victim were to be 1921 and, in fact, was stilling liv ing there two Dr. Andrew C. Jackson, the prom i nent black years later. He would also point out that Mrs. physi cian who was gunned down af ter emerg- Gilmore was the only white female re ported to ing from his burn ing Green wood home with have been shot dur ing the riot in the abun dant lo cal his hands held high, the death cer tif i cate signed and na tional press cov er age. And fi nally, he would eighty years ago would be unchal lenge able ev- show that an ex haus tive search of death re cords idence of his death in any court. failed to produce any ev i dence of the death of Mrs. On the other hand, let us imag ine that an el- Deary in the form of funeral home, ceme tery or, derly black man was charged with the death of most impor tantly, a death cer tif i cate. While the a white woman iden ti fied only as “Mrs. Deary” jury would rush out to acquit, the red-faced pros- by the now ex tremely aged ex-Sergeant Esley ecu tor would sit con tem plat ing how much he of the Tulsa Na tional Guard. As suming that his

111 would en joy ripping out the pacemaker of his the years since the riot also were a source of star wit ness, Ser geant Esley. names. The hy po thet i cal trials for the murders of The next step in this analy sis was to enter the Dr. Jack son and Mrs. Deary, by juxta pos ing names, along with other data per tain ing to the the tragic and the comic, serve to il lus trate the vic tims, into a com put er ized da ta base. Once en- crucial differ ence between confirmed and re - tered, other infor ma tion on a par tic u lar victim ported deaths as I have classi fied them here. could be pur sued. For exam ple, an espe cially Only the most dim-witted pros e cu tor would impor tant pro ce dure was to search for the per - con sider ac tu ally tak ing the Deary case to court son’s death cer tif i cate in the files maintained by based on Ser geant Esley’s story. On the other the Oklahoma State De part ment of Health, cen- hand, the Jack son murder would have been a sus data, Tulsa City Direc tories . Fu neral home strong case for the pros e cu tion since the docu - and cem e tery re cords of the pe riod also were mentary ev i dence clearly estab lishes his death help ful, and in a few cases, valu able in for ma tion and the witnesses, both black and white, could was sup plied by the victim’s family members. have provided clear and con vinc ing evi dence Death Certif i cates of the cir cum stances of his death. Un for tu - In 1921, Oklahoma death certif i cates con- nately, how ever, no inves ti ga tion of this death sisted of two sec tions, one to be completed by was ever under taken by the Tulsa po lice or the under taker and the other by the phy si cian other city, county, or state offi cials. who at tended the de ceased. Normally, the com- Readers should be aware the cate go ri za tion ple tion of a death cer tif i cate re quired four steps: of indi vid ual deaths as confirmed or reported 1. The under taker would be gin the pro cess by in this pre lim i nary study is not nec es sar ily fi - fill ing in the personal data on the dead per son. nal. This is be cause the data pres ently avail able This would in clude the name, sex, race, age, oc- on many of the vic tims is still incom plete. As further infor ma tion comes to light, at least some of the deaths classi fied as re ported might be fully confirmed. This is well-illustrated by the case of Ed Lockard, which will be dis- cussed in detail in the fi nal re port. As noted above, much more data must be col lected and ana lyzed to produce a fi nal re - port. This is partic u larly true in re gard to re - ported deaths. There fore, in this prelim i nary report, only the data so far com piled on con - firmed deaths will be presented. METHODS AND DATA SOURCES Ana lytic Method The initial ef fort of this study con sisted of combing all known doc u men tary sources for the names of in di vid u als men tioned as victims or pos si ble vic tims of the riot. The most im - portant pri mary source was, of course, con tem - po rary local and na tional press ac counts in which the names of riot vic tims were given. These names in clude not only the reported fa - tali ties but, also, those who were wounded se - verely enough to be ad mit ted to lo cal hospi tals. In ad di tion to press stories, the var i- Death cer tif i cate for an un known Af ri can American ous books, reports, and ar ti cles pub lished in

112 cupa tion, birth place and oc cu pa tion of the de - those who died un der their care a few days after ceased as well as the names and birthplaces of the riot than those who were dead on ar rival or his or her par ents. The infor mant (usu ally the succumbed a few hours later. next-of-kin) pro vid ing this in for ma tion also To compound the prob lem, many death cer- was asked to sign the cer tif i cate. tif i cates were signed not by phy si cians but by 2. The cer tif i cate would then be sent to the Tulsa County At tor ney W.D. Seavers. This at tend ing phy si cian who provided the date, was legal because at the time, state law al - time, and cause of death. Signed by the physi - lowed of fi cers of the court to cer tify deaths cian, it was re turned to the under taker. that had not been at tended by a phy si cian. As 3. Next, the under taker would com plete his nearly the en tire Tulsa med i cal es tab lish ment part of the cer tif i cate by list ing the cem e tery was tied up in the care of the wounded, no and date of in ter ment or, if the body was buried doc tors were available to exam ine bodies elsewhere, the date and place of shipment. found at the scene. Ap par ently, this task fell to 4. Finally, the under taker would submit the Seavers, who signed out eigh teen victims completed cer tif i cate to the vi tal statis tics reg- whose bod ies were found in the still smoul der- istrar of the county in which the death oc- ing ru ins of Green wood, or who died af ter be- curred. After assign ing it a unique reg is ter ing brought to tempo rary deten tion cen ters num ber, the regis trar would forward it to the where blacks were held dur ing the first hours Bu reau of Vi tal Statis tics of the Oklahoma of the riot. It is not clear whether Seavers ac tu- State Health De part ment in Oklahoma City. ally vis ited the scene to ex am ine the bodies or In the case of the riot victims, the orderly whether the death cer tif i cates were brought to process outlined above was not always fol - him by un der tak ers. lowed. In partic u lar, the per sonal infor ma - Mortu ary Records tion on the de ceased was some times left At the time of the riot, the bodies of the vague or incom plete. In for mants who were known vic tims were taken from the hos pi tals not im me di ate family members did not often where they were pronounced dead or, some- know such details as the ex act age, mar i tal times, directly from the scene to local mortu ar - sta tus, or birthplace of the de ceased, much ies. There they were pre pared for burial in Tulsa less the names of the dead per son’s father or or shipped to other cities desig nated by their mother. This was es pe cially true for black next-of- kin. The re cords of these estab lish - victims since their next-of-kin were still in ments (Mobray’s, Mitchell-Fleming, and Stan - the deten tion camps and could not come to ley-McCune), pro vide data on the de ceased not the mortu ar ies to claim their rel a tives if, in- found on the death certif i cates. deed, they were in formed of their deaths at all. Press Ac counts The in for ma tion pro vided by phy si cians The events of the riot received heavy cov er - also was sketchy. For exam ple, the exact age in local, state, and na tional newspa pers as time of death was not re corded and, in many well as other jour nals, both white and black, of cases, it is not clear whether the vic tim was the time. As with all such news events, press at - dead on arrival at the hospi tal or sur vived for ten tion was most inten sive in the days im me di - a few hours. Also, the causes of death on ately fol low ing the riot, then dwin dled rap idly in many certif i cates are la conic: “Gun shot the weeks that fol lowed. Over the years, how - wound (riot)” with no details on the number ever, oc ca sional news pa per feature sto ries and and loca tion of wounds. Such lapses of over- maga zine ar ti cles deal ing with the riot and its af- worked and har ried phy si cians, termath have appeared. The most valuable sin- overwhelmed by the influx of sev eral hun dred gle source for these ma te ri als was the extremely wounded in ad di tion to the dead, is un der stand - thor ough news pa per clippings col lec tion from able. It is in ter est ing that the doctors provided the Tuskegee Insti tute micro film files. more de tailed in for ma tion on the cer tif i cates of

113 While the white riot dead ap pear to have all been given proper buri als, lit tle ef fort was made by the white au thor i ties to iden tify the bod ies of black riot victims. Indeed, as both long-forgotten funeral home re cords and death cer tif icates would confirm, some un iden ti fied Af ri- can-American riot vic tims were hur riedly bur ied in un marked graves at Oaklawn Cem e tery (Courtesy Green wood Cultural Cen ter).

Books and Mono graphs Sex Over the years, several books have been All thirty-nine victims, in clud ing the still born published deal ing with the Tulsa race riot. in fant, were diag nosed as males. However, it These in clude one by a riot survi vor and sev - should be pointed out that the bodies of four eral others by his to ri ans who have collected blacks — all signed out by County Attor ney written and oral accounts from survi vors and Seavers — were so badly burned that identi fi ca - their de scen dants. tion was impos si ble. Since it is often impos si ble Mis cel la neous Sources to de ter mine the sex in such cases with out an au- In the course of this in ves ti ga tion, several topsy, the re li abil ity of a layman’s di ag no sis in re search ers have gen er ously provided un pub- these four cases is ques tion able. lished re ports and docu ments on the riot which Race they have collected in their own stud ies of the Twenty-six (66%) of the thirty-nine victims, event. includ ing the still born, were diag nosed as DATA ANALYSIS blacks. Again, the four bod ies that were so badly To date, death certif i cates on thirty-nine vic- burned that the could not be iden ti fied (see tims have been found. They are listed in Table above) must be con sid ered. This is espe cially 1 which summa rizes the prin ci pal vari ables true since thermal damage often results in the pres ently available on them. It should be noted de struc tion of the del i cate, pa per-thin epidennis that not all of the tab u lated in for ma tion was ab- that is made up of cells which, in blacks, contain stracted from the death certif i cates alone. For the mel a nin pigments de ter min ing skin color. exam ple, most of the infor ma tion on the lo ca - When this layer is exten sively destroyed, it ex - tion of their wounds was found in other poses the un der ly ing dermis that, in all races, is riot-related doc u ments, par tic u larly con tem po - no darker than the skin of a light com plex ion rary press ac counts, which of ten pro vide more white person, mak ing it easy for an in ex pe ri - specific in for ma tion on the nature of their in ju- enced ob server to mis tak enly diag no sis a ries than was noted on the death cer tif i cates. burned black body as white. How ever, in the pres ent case, since all the burn vic tims were See Ta ble 1 Tulsa Race Riot Deaths found in fire-destroyed Greenwood, it is likely that they were indeed those of blacks.

114 Age only fifteen (58%) of the twenty-six blacks and, As noted above, among the black victims was of these, at least seven are given as esti mates an infant di ag nosed as a stillborn. This case is (usu ally to the nearest fifth year, e.g., “35", in ter est ing since it is appar ently related to an ac- “40", etc.). This distri bu tion again clearly count given to Eddie Faye Gates by a riot sur vi - shows that black vic tims were signed out with vor, Rosa Da vis Skin ner. Ac cord ing to Mrs. less care and re gard than whites; lit tle or no ef - Skin ner, she and her husband Thomas, alarmed fort was made to iden tify blacks by con tact ing by the shoot ing, fled their home at 519 West their next-of-kin. Latimer a lit tle after midnight on the night of See Ta ble 2 Dis tri bu tion of Known, the riot. Esti mated and Unknown Ages by Race “When we got to Greenwood, we met up Despite the fact that no age esti mates were with a lot more who were run ning given for nearly half of the black victims, statis - tying to find a safe place. We ran into a couple tical com par i son of the available age data on the — the man was one of [her hus band’s] best races is inter est ing. In the anal y sis be low, I have friends. had just had a baby that had excluded the stillborn which, as a non-violent died at birth. She had put it in a shoe box and death, is clearly a special case (see above). The was wait ing un til morn ing to bury it when the mean age of white vic tims was around riot broke out. Well durin’ all that runnin’ and twenty-seven years com pared to thirty-four pushin’ and shovin’ when black people were years for blacks. This differ ence is statis ti cally try ing to get safely away from the riot, that po’ sig nif i cant (Table 3). lit tle baby got lost! Every body was just runnin’ and bumpin’ into each other. They never did See Ta ble 3 Age of Con firmed Riot Deaths find that child.” by Race Ac cord ing to in for ma tion in the Stan- Birth place / Resi dence ley-McCune mor tu ary records, sometime on The dis tri bu tion of the known vic tims by state June 1, po lice brought in the body of a new born of birth or resi dence is shown in Table 4. The in fant. It had been found in Greenwood ear lier state of resi dence was inferred from mor tu ary in the day by two white men who turned it over re cords which show the state where the body to the po lice. The body was de scribed as that of was shipped for burial. This infor ma tion is a black male mea sur ing “less than twelve avail able in the re cords of only two (8%) of the inches long.” It ap par ently bore no signs of twenty-five black victims. Again, an in di ca tion trauma and was signed out as a still born. Like of the lack of at ten tion given them before their many of the other black victims, it was bur ied hasty buri als. This is in con trast to the whites for in Oaklawn Ceme tery. The evi dence seems which birth places/res i dence of all thirteen were compel ling that the baby lost by its fleeing given. It is of in ter est to note that eleven (85%) mother and that brought to the mor tu ary were of the white victims were from out side one and the same. This case is im por tant for Oklahoma. The sig nif i cance of this finding will two reasons. First, the story of this tiny victim be discussed more fully below. In all, na tives or pro vides a poignant glimpse of the madness resi dents of ten states are rep re sented among the that pre vailed on that ter ri ble day. Sec ond, this white victims. in fant is the only one of the thirty-nine known See Ta ble 4 Dis tri bu tion of Con firmed vic tims that did not die of gunshot wounds Deaths by Race and State of Birth or and/or burns. Resi dence Ages are given on the death certif i cates of Mari tal Status all thirteen of the white vic tims (Table 2). One Of the white victims, nine (69%) were single, of these was ap par ently an es ti mate based on sepa rated or divorced. Only three were mar ried ex am i na tion of the body. The others were pro- and the wife of at least one of these does not ap- vided by in for mants who knew the ac tual age of the victim. In con trast, ages are given for pear to have been liv ing in Tulsa at the time of his death. The mar i tal sta tus of one is un known.

115 Among blacks, the mari tal sta tus of sev en- are doc u mented; all four of these men died in teen is not given. Of the remain ing eight, five hospi tals on June 2, or later. The wound lo ca - were married and three were single. tions of the remain ing twenty-one blacks, all of See Ta ble 5 Dis tri bu tion of Con firmed whom died dur ing the first twelve hours of the Deaths by Race and Mari tal Status riot, were un spec i fied. The wounds of the twelve whites whose lo ca tions are known were Occu pa tion nearly evenly dis trib uted by an a tom i cal region. The occu pa tions of ten (40%) of the black The over all pattern of wound dis tri bu tion is victims are known. Among them were two pro- rather typ i cal of those seen in hotly con tested fession als, a phy si cian, and a realtor (who also armed confron ta tions carried on at moder ate to was a tailor). The remain ing eight in cluded distant ranges. In this, it con trasts strongly with five listed as “la bor ers,” a bank porter, an patterns observed in extra-judicial ex e cu tions iceman, and an ele va tor oper a tor. by fir ing squads.4 Among the twelve (92%) of the white vic - tims whose oc cu pa tions are known, there was See Ta ble 8 An a tom i cal Dis tri bu tion of a high school stu dent, two cooks, a salesman, a Gun shot Wounds of Con firmed Death ho tel clerk, and a day la borer. Five were skilled Victims blue col lar work ers and, of these, three were oil Place of Death field work ers; the other-two, a boiler maker At the time of the riot, Tulsa had four ma jor and a machin ist might also have been em- white hospi tals. Tulsa blacks were served only ployed in petro leum-related jobs. The sole pro- by Frissell Me mo rial Hos pi tal, that was burned fessional among the whites was the of fice during the riot. Greenwood blacks who did not manager of a large local oil company. Thus, at flee Tulsa al to gether were first taken to tem po- least one-third and possi bly as many as rary de ten tion centers set up in the ar mory and one-half of the white vic tims were petro leum Conven tion Cen ter in down town Tulsa. The indus try work ers. lightly wounded who were forced to walk to the See Ta ble 6 Dis tri bu tion of Con firmed de ten tion cen ters. Those more se ri ously in jured Deaths by Race and Occu pa tion were either carried to the cen ters by the un- wounded or trans ported there by vari ous means, Cause of and Manner of Death in clud ing privately owned trucks and au to mo - All of the thir teen whites were killed by gun- biles, some of which were driven by white vol - shot wounds. Among the twenty-five black un teers.5 adults, at least twenty-one (84%) died of gun- While it ap pears that small first aid stations shot wounds. The cause of death of the re main - were set up at the de ten tion cen ters early on June ing four, all signed out by County Attor ney 1, it must have be come quickly ap par ent that Seavers, were given as burn but, as noted pre - they were not suf fi cient to provide the care that vi ously, any un der ly ing fa tal gunshot wounds the doz ens of wounded required. Accord ingly, may not have been appar ent in the ab sence of the base ment of Morning side Hos pi tal was autopsy. hastily con verted to ac com mo date blacks. Ap - Of the thirty-nine confirmed deaths, the par ently, this make shift fa cil ity included not manner of death of all but that of the stillborn only cots for the wounded but a small oper at ing black male were ho mi cides. The lat ter is clas si- room where all surgery on the ad mit ted blacks fied as “natu ral.” At least one, and possi bly was per formed. For the next few days, all in - two, whites were killed by persons of their own jured blacks were treated in the Morningside race who ap par ently mistook them for blacks. base ment, that may not have ex ceeded See Ta ble 7 Cause and Man ner of Death of 5,000-square-feet of floor space.6 A brief Con firmed Death Victims glimpse of con di tions there can be gained from a Wounds story in the Tulsa World on June 2, that noted Of the twenty-five blacks who died of gun - sixty-three wounded blacks were be ing treated shot in jury, the wound loca tions of only four there. So far as is pres ently known, none of the

116 other white hospi tals in Tulsa opened their See Ta ble 9 Dis tri bu tion of Con firmed door to Af ri can Amer i can patients. Deaths by Place of Death All thir teen of the white fa tal i ties were taken Date of Death from the scene to one of four hospi tals where The re cords in di cate that four of the white ca- they were either pro nounced dead on ar rival su al ties died before midnight on May 31. If this (DOA) or died later. Unfor tu nately, the death is cor rect then these men were most likely killed certif i cates are not al ways clear as to whether in the down town area where the fight ing first the vic tims who were ad mit ted late on May 31, be gan. Seven others died on June 1, and one on or in the early morn ing hours of June 1, were June 2. The last white fatal ity died in the early ac tu ally dead when brought to the hospi tal, or morn ing hours of June 6. He was wounded a died shortly after wards. So far as can be pres- few hours ear lier when white mi li tia men fired ently de ter mined, at least two and pos si bly four on the car in which he was riding. The per pe tra- whites were ac tu ally dead on ar rival. All four tors, a least one of whom was wear ing his were pronounced dead at Oklahoma Hos pi tal World War I army uniform, claimed that the by the same phy si cian, Dr. Lyle Archerloss. driver of the car re fused to obey their orders to Only eight (31%) of the twenty-six black fa- stop. tali ties were brought to hospi tals. Six died in None of the twenty-six black vic tims is listed Morning side, that as men tioned above, was the as hav ing died on the evening of May 31. only one where blacks were treated in the first Twenty-one were signed out as hav ing died on few days of the riot. A sev enth died in Cin na- June l, two on June 2, and two others on June 7, bar Hos pi tal on June 7, about a week af ter the and June 10, respec tively. The last black to die riot. Pre sum ably, he had been transferred from of riot wounds was a twenty-one year old who Morning side af ter Cinna bar had been re- lin gered un til August 20, eleven weeks after the opened. The last died on August 20, in the Red riot. Cross hos pi tal that was set up in the Green - The fact that no black fatal i ties were re corded wood’s black Dunbar School after the riot. for the eve ning of May 31, is cu ri ous. Ac cord ing The other eighteen (69%) blacks were not to sev eral sources, many shots were fired by taken to hospi tals. The bodies of these six teen both sides during the re treat of the blacks from in di vid u als were found in the down town area the courthouse area back to Greenwood, and where the fight ing be gan or in the ru ins of some early news pa per ac counts describe blacks Green wood. Five days af ter the riot on June 6, lying wounded or dead in the down town area. If the badly de com posed body of a black man the lat ter are true, it sug gests that no med i cal aid was found about eight miles east of Tulsa. He was extended to those wounded blacks un for tu- had died of a gunshot wound of the neck. He nate enough to have been left be hind dur ing the was later iden ti fied as a man who had escaped re treat to Greenwood. from a tempo rary de ten tion cen ter. All of these bodies were taken directly to See Ta ble 10 Con firmed Deaths by Date of mortu ar ies and their death certif i cates were Death signed out by County At tor ney Seavers. An - Mor tu aries other of these “non-hospital” vic tims died in As in most of the United States at the time, the armory deten tion cen ter where he was Tulsa mor tu ar ies were racially re stricted. The taken after he was shot down by a teen-aged three major estab lish ments serv ing white member of the mob while try ing to surren der Tulsans were Mitchell-Fleming, Mow bray, and outside his home in Greenwood. Ironically, Stanley-McCune. Black funer als were han dled this man — a prom i nent phy si cian — lay with- by a single Green wood fu neral home op er ated out med i cal at ten tion for sev eral hours before by S. M. Jackson, a grad u ate of the Cincinnati he fi nally suc cumbed to a bul let wound of the (Ohio) School of Em balming. In 1971, Jack son chest. His death cer tif i cate was also signed by was in ter viewed by Tulsa histo rian Ruth the county at tor ney.7 Avery.8 His account of his riot expe ri ences is

117 valu able since it provides some insight into the The Oaklawn Burials way the dead, both black and white, were han- In light of the con tro versy surround ing the to- dled. On the morning of June 1, when the white tal number of black vic tims of the race riot and mob stormed into Greenwood, Jackson’s fu - the disposal of their bod ies, the doc u mented neral parlor was burned down. At the time, he buri als in Oaklawn take on a spe cial sig nif i- was hold ing four em balmed bodies for burial; cance. This is es pe cially true in the light of the only two of these were retrieved (leav ing one prelim i nary archae o log i cal findings .9 to wonder about the fate of the other two). At As noted above, twenty-one black victims, first in terned, he was promptly pa roled by the 84% of the total, were buried in Oaklawn. At own ers of Stan ley-McCune who tem po rarily that time, the cem e tery was seg re gated by race hired him to help process the bodies who were and blacks were buried in the west ern-most sec- brought to their estab lish ment. Dur ing the next tion, so it is safe to assume that these black riot few days he embalmed sev eral blacks whose victims also were bur ied there. Five of these vic- bodies were to be shipped to other cit ies for tims, all of whom died in Morningside Hospi tal, burial. were bur ied by Mow bray mortu ary. All these Stan ley McCune also had a hast ily ar ranged hos pi tal cases died of gun shot wounds. Their con tract with Tulsa County to bury death certif i cates were signed by a single physi - (unembalmed) the bod ies of blacks whose rel a- cian, J. F. Capps, M.D. Dr. Capps signed out two tives could either not afford to claim them for of these as “John Does.” Four died on June 1, and private burial or were not in formed of the the fifth in the early morning of June 2. deaths. In all, Stan ley-McCune han dled the The re main ing sixteen were bodies found at the arrange ments for two whites and eighteen scene and taken to Stan ley-McCune; their death blacks. The bodies of all of the blacks were cer tif i cates were signed by County Attor ney pre pared for burial by Mr. Jackson. He em - Seavers. Six of these, four of whom were badly balmed two of these that were claimed and burned, were not iden ti fied. A sev enth un iden ti- were buried in other cit ies. The remain ing fied body was that of the pre vi ously de scribed six teen were not embalmed and placed in stillborn. The re main ing nine were iden ti fied. plain wood coffins. Mr. Jack son was able to These Oaklawn burials were conducted at re build his Green wood busi ness and han dled county ex pense. The Mow bray and Stanley- the funeral of the last black riot vic tim who McCune re cords in di cate that the vic tims were died on August 20, and whose body was not em balmed but buried in plain wooden cof - claimed by his family for burial in his na tive fins; they also show that the mor tu ar ies charged Mis sis sippi. the county $25 for each burial. An impor tant See Ta ble 11 Dis tri bu tion of Con firmed feature of the Stan ley-McCune re cords was a Dead by Mortu ary nota tion indi cat ing the “grave num ber” of each burial. These numbers form a single sequence Burial Places from 1 to 19, except for graves 15, 16 and 17. It Only three of the white vic tims were bur ied is pos si ble that these graves were filled by three in Rose Hill, a privately op er ated ceme tery. of the Mow bray. Unfor tu nately, grave numbers Another was bur ied in Watonga, a small town were not given in the Mow bray re cords. in west ern Oklahoma. The re main ing nine The data cur rently available on these were bur ied in other states. Five of the black fa- Oaklawn burials is given in Table 13. They are tali ties were buried outside of Tulsa: two in significant for several rea sons. First, should ar- other Oklahoma towns and three out side the chae o log i cal explo ra tion of the area go for - state. The remain ing twenty-one blacks (84%) ward, the ex ca va tors should encoun ter them. were in terred in Oaklawn, the Tulsa mu nic i pal As suming, as the re cords in di cate, that they ceme tery. were buried in sepa rate graves in the order in di- See Ta ble 12 Burial Places of Con firmed cated by the Stan ley-McCune grave num bers, Dead they should be encoun tered in an or derly row(s).

118 If so, the avail able in for ma tion that we have on money. With no strong domes tic ties to keep them should be valuable in ob tain ing ten ta tive them home that night, drift ing around in the bus- iden ti fi ca tions. For ex am ple, the skele tons in tling down town area on a nice sum mer evening, graves 7, 9, 13, and 18 should show some signs perhaps look ing for la dies, li quor or other ex - of fire expo sure. If so, they should pro vide ten- cite ment, they also were the kind who might be tative leads to the non-burned skele tons in ad- expected to show up around the courthouse jacent graves.10 By nar row ing the number of when the talk about lynching a black accused of possi ble de ce dents, the ef fort (and the cost) of assault ing a white girl got started. Since DNA iden ti fi ca tion could be sub stan tially re - boot-legging was a busy cottage indus try in duced. Tulsa, it is pos si ble that at least some of them See Ta ble 13 Burials of Con firmed Dead in had high blood-alcohol levels by the time the Oaklawn Cem e tery trouble began. Black victims, in contrast, tended to be older DISCUSSION than whites. They ranged in age from nine teen Of course, this small group of doc u mented to sixty-three. Blacks av er aged close to 35 years fa tal i ties can not be con sid ered a sta tis ti cally- in age — nearly seven years older than the de fined random sam ple of those who had some whites. This differ ence is sta tis ti cally sig nif i- role in the riot, either as active mem bers of the cant. Of the eight for whom mari tal data is avail- mob or as passive victims. How ever, it is prob- able, five were listed as married. While their a bly typ i cal enough to pro vide some glimpses oc cu pa tional sta tus tended to be lower than that of the kinds of peo ple who were caught up in of the whites (and none were employed in the the riot. pe tro leum indus try), two, a realtor who also The whites ranged in age from six teen to owned a tailor shop and a highly-regarded phy - thirty-nine years. As a group, they tended to be si cian, were solidly middle class. Un like the young, with a me dian age of twenty-seven whites, most of whom were young, sin gle, new- years. The state of birth or resi dence of all thir- com ers to Tulsa, this group of black vic tims ap- teen are known and, of these, only two were pears to have been sta ble, older cit i zens of the born in Oklahoma. The bodies of all but four Green wood commu nity. were shipped to other states for burial and, of These thirty-nine cases also dem on strate that, the four Oklahoma buri als, only three took com pared to white victims, those who were place in Tulsa. Of the ten for whom we have black vic tims were treated with what would to - mar i tal infor ma tion, seven were sin gle, one day be con sid ered cava lier, if not crim i nal, care- was di vorced and an other had been sepa rated less ness. This is in di cated by the fact that at least from his wife for nearly twelve years. Among one was allowed to bleed to death with out med- the three mar ried men, the wife of one was not ical at ten tion in a de ten tion cen ter in stead of be- liv ing in Tulsa at the time of the riot. At least ing taken imme di ately and directly to a hos pi tal four and possi bly six were employed in petro - after be ing gunned down in Greenwood while leum-related jobs; three others held jobs sug - trying to sur ren der. An other in di ca tion of this is gesting tran sient sta tus: two were cooks and found in the death cer tif i cates. Those of at least the third listed as a “la borer.” Judging from four of the thirteen whites were pro nounced their occu pa tions, all were of lower so cio eco- dead before midnight on May 31, in di cat ing that nomic sta tus except one, an oil company ju nior they were promptly taken to hospi tals. In con - exec u tive. trast, none of the death certif i cates of black vic - In short, the lim ited de mo graphic infor ma - tims are dated ear lier than June 1, a find ing that tion that can be drawn from such a small sam- sug gests that whether dead or still alive, they lay ple indi cates that these men were proba bly unat tended for at least sev eral hours. More ev i- fairly typ i cal of white Tulsans of the oil boom dence is provided by the fact that ade quate treat- days: young, single, non-professionals from ment facil i ties were de nied blacks un til outside Oklahoma who had been lured to some time in the late morn ing or after noon of Tulsa by the promise of good jobs and good

119 June 1, when a make shift ward and sur gery to their black neigh bors. Their brave actions was hastily set up in the base ment of one of the have been well doc u mented else where and will several hos pi tals that normally ad mit ted only not be con sid ered in detail here. whites. Only then were the many black It should also be pointed out that what hap - wounded provided with care, and some al- pened in Tulsa could have taken place in almost lowed to die under the care of nurses and phy- any other city in the United States in 1921. Nor sicians. were the con di tions and cir cum stances lead ing If Tulsa med i cal care givers were cal lous to this tragic event a uniquely Oklaho man, or and care less in their treat ment of black riot vic- even “South ern” phenom e non. In the data con - tims, repre sen ta tives of the Tulsa fu neral in - sid ered here, this is prob a bly best il lus trated by dus try were not far be hind them. This is shown the known birthplaces or resi dences of the by the hasty, “county” burials in Oaklawn on white fa tal i ties. Of the thir teen men who were June 1 and 2. Their death certif i cates in most killed, only two were na tive Oklaho mans. None cases signed by a lay man, County Attor ney were from states of the deep South. Five — the Seavers. Much of the vi tal in for ma tion on two Oklaho mans, a Texan, an Arkan san and a these certif i cates such as address, age, mari tal native of Kentucky — were from Confed er ate sta tus, next-of-kin, etc. was left blank or filled bor der states in which the popu la tions were of in with a hast ily scrawled “don’t know”. This deeply divided loy al ties dur ing the Civil War. indi cates that author i ties with the respon si bil - The remain ing seven were from midwest ern or ity to con tact fam i lies and iden tify vic tims did north east ern states. not bother to track them down in the admit - CONCLUSIONS AND tedly crowded and con fused de ten tion centers. RECOMMENDATIONS Thus, some fam i lies that might have been able In summary, per haps the least that can be said and will ing to claim their dead and bury them of the physi cians, under tak ers, po lice, and pros- properly were not given this op por tunity. e cu tors of Tulsa of the time was that they were Whether they could af ford to or not, most prob- not hypo crit i cal: they treated their black fel - ably did not know for sure that their rel a tives low-citizens no better when they were dead than were al ready dead and buried in un marked they did when they were alive. pauper graves un til they were re leased from Al though this pre lim i nary report is limited to deten tion. treat ment of the confirmed dead, it can not be Another fin ger of blame points to law en - closed with out con sid er ing the as yet un con- force ment author i ties at the lo cal and county firmed dead of the Tulsa race riot. First to be lev els. As noted pre vi ously, all of these deaths consid ered are the eighteen deaths that oc curred — both black and white — were ho mi cides in the Maurice Willows Hos pi tal op er ated by which oc curred within the ju ris dic tion of ei ther the Red Cross un til Jan u ary 1, 1922. A system - the Tulsa Po lice Depart ment (thirty-seven atic search of vi tal statis tics re cords to find their cases) or the Tulsa County Sheriffs Depart - names and the causes of their deaths has not yet ment (two cases). Yet, so far as is known, these been made. Some may have died of com pli ca - mur der cases were not in ves ti gated while at tions of wounds received dur ing the riot; if so, of least some of the perpe tra tors could be iden ti - course, such deaths would add to the riot deaths. fied and ap pre hended. Pros e cu to rial au thor i- Others, partic u larly, if chil dren or el derly whose ties, both county and state, also are ac count able homes were destroyed or their family life dis - since they appar ently did not ag gres sively rupted, may have succumbed easily to dis eases press for such inves ti ga tions. they may have other wise sur vived; while ac tu - These hard truths can not be pre sented with- ally not killed in the riot the deaths of these vic- out point ing out that many white Tulsans and tims would cer tainly have to be con sid ered as Tulsa insti tu tions (partic u larly some churches riot-related. and the local Red Cross) took a coura geous As noted in the in tro duc tion of this pre lim i- role in the riot by of fer ing pro tec tion and care nary re port, we al ready have the names of many

120 possi ble descen dants and, hope fully, may ob - There fore, it is pos si ble that bodies found in the tain still more. These re ported dead will first ru ins of Greenwood dur ing the days im me di- be scanned against vi tal sta tis tics re cords to see ately after the riot were sim ply buried with out if their death certif i cates have been some how docu men ta tion. over looked. If they are not found, it will not That this may have indeed happened is sug - neces sar ily mean that they did not die in the gested by a state ment ap par ently made by Ma jor riot since there is at least some ten u ous ev i - O. T. Johnson, a Sal va tion Army offi cer sta - dence that more peo ple, es pe cially blacks, tioned in Tulsa at the time. Accord ing to stories died in the riot whose deaths were not re - in at least two news pa pers, the Chi cago De- corded. Most of this evi dence, it is true, is in fender, June 11, 1921 and St. Louis Argus, June the form of wildly vary ing esti mates that ap - 10, 1921, John son is said to have stated that he peared in both the Tulsa and na tional press in hired a crew of over three dozen grave diggers the days and weeks imme di ately fol low ing the who labored for sev eral days to dig about 150 riot. Many Tulsans, white and black, have rec- graves for Ne gro victims. Unfor tu nately, any of- ollec tions of bodies of vic tims be ing disposed fi cial re port that Major John son may have sub - of in irreg u lar ways in the first few days fol - mit ted to the Salva tion Army has not yet been low ing the riot. These esti mates and sto ries lo cated. How ever, the pos si bil ity the state ment can not be dis missed lightly. at trib uted to him was indeed true is at least As one whose en tire profes sional life has partly supported by two witnesses. One, Eunice been devoted to the in ves ti ga tion of mass di - Cloman Jackson, the wife of black morti cian S. sas ters such as fires and floods, aircraft ac ci - M. Jack son stated in 1971 that her step-father dents, hu man rights vi o la tions, war crimes and was part of a crew of fifty-five grave dig gers; acts of ter ror ism through out the world, this when she was asked where the bodies were bur- writer is fully aware of the of ten ex ag ger ated ied, she re plied that “. . .most of them were out at es ti mates of the number of vic tims that surface Oaklawn. That was the cem e tery for bury ing in the wake of the chaos and confu sion fol low - them. . ..”11 Clyde Eddy, a young boy at the ing such events. At the same time, expe ri ence time, re mem bers see ing large wooden crates, has shown that in manner of these situ a tions, each con tain ing several burned bod ies, await - of fi cial counts of the dead or often se ri ously ing burial in Oaklawn in the days fol low ing the un der es ti mated. riot. If bodies were col lected from the burned In the pres ent case, it should be pointed out out area of Green wood they may well have been that, like nearly all other states at the time of col lected in crates rather than indi vid ual cof fins the riot, Oklahoma had no ade quate system for and trans ported to Oaklawn for burial by Ma jor the medicolegal ex am i na tion of vi o lent or un - Johnson and his large crew of grave dig gers. at tended deaths. To day, the law man dates that They most likely wood have been carried on all such deaths fall within the medicolegal re - trucks, railroad flatcars (the Frisco tracks ran spon si bil ity of the State Med i cal Ex am iner. adja cent to Oaklawn), or both, thus ac count ing Bodies of such vic tims are exam ined and, for the sev eral eye wit ness re ports that bodies when nec es sary, autopsied by fo ren sic pathol - were seen being carried from the Green wood o gists to de ter mine the cause and manner of area on both trucks and flatcars. death. At the time of the riot, the law required The theory that per haps as many as 150 bod - that death certif i cates be signed by attend ing ies were bur ied in Oaklawn under Major John - phy si cians or, as we have seen, certain pub lic son’s super vi sion can be framed as an offi cials in excep tional cases. However, it ap- hy poth e sis that can be tested by ar chae o log i cal pears that there was no control ling le gal au - explo ra tion of the area de scribed else where in thority (to use a phrase cur rently in vogue) that this volume by Drs. Brooks and Witten.12 Such required that medi cally un at tended deaths not an ef fort would, at the least, re sult in the re cov- com ing to the at ten tion of of fi cers of the court ery of the twenty-one black confirmed dead be doc u mented with a state death cer tif i cate. from their unmarked graves so that they can be

121 more suit ably me mo ri al ized and, pos si bly, it would re sult in the re cov ery of the of the iden ti fied. If the hy poth e sis turns out to be true, undoc u mented dead and, thus, help pro vide a solu tion to a lin ger ing mys tery.

Endnotes 1Theo ret i cal in deed, since at this late date the perpe tra tor most likely would be as dead as his victim and the case, thereby, moved to a higher (or, pos si bly, lower) ju ris dic tion. 2The geri at ric prob lems of conduct ing such a trial would be a night mare. Imag ine the com plica tions re sult ing from the inter-tangling of iv and cathe ter tubes of the witnesses and de fen dant as they traded places on the witness stand! 3Tulsa World, June 3, 1921. 2The geri at ric prob lems of conduct ing such a trial would be a night mare. Imag ine the com plica tions re sult ing from the inter-tangling of IV and cathe ter tubes of the witnesses and de fen dant as they traded places on the witness stand! 3Tulsa World, June 3, 1921. 4Snow, Clyde. 1993 Fo ren sic Anthro pol ogy Report. in An der son, Snow et al. The Anfal Cam paign in Iraqi Kurdistan: The Destruc tion of Koreme. (Mid dle East Watch/Phy si cians for Human Rights, New York and Boston: 1993). 5At this time, the three or four am bu lances in Tulsa were op er ated by mor tu ar ies and it ap pears that all of them were fully employed in taking wounded whites to the vari ous hospi tals. 6Warner, per sonal com mu ni ca tion, No vem ber 11, 2000. 7What a ex cru ci at ingly cruel fate for a physi cian to have his death cer tif i cate signed by a law yer! 8Avery, R. “Afri can-American S.M. Jack son (Mor ti cian) and his wife, Eunice Cloman Jack son on June 26, 1971 ”, un pub lished transcript of taped inter view. 9See the re port of Drs. Brooks and Witten elsewhere in this pub li ca tion. 11Eddy, loc. cit. 12 Brooks and Witten, loc. cit.

122 (Cour tesy De part ment of Spe cial Col lec tions, McFarlin Li brary, Uni ver sity of Tulsa). The In ves ti ga tion of Po ten tial Mass Grave Lo ca tions for the Tulsa Race Riot by Rob ert L. Brooks and Alan H. Witten Intro duc tion burned and an other 400 looted. The business On the night of May 31, and June 1, 1921 the dis trict of Greenwood was to tally de stroyed and City of Tulsa wit nessed a ra cial con flict be - prob a bly accounts for much of the $4 million in tween whites and the mi nor ity black popu la - claims filed against the city in 1921.1 Fol low ing tion liv ing in the Green wood section that was this night of de struc tion and blood shed, blacks unprec e dented in United States his tory during were forcibly in terned un der armed guard. the twen ti eth cen tury. This vio lence, some - Eventually, over 4,000 blacks were held at the what erro ne ously la beled as a riot, was brought fairgrounds and other loca tions. Under pro vi - about by the inflam ma tory cover age by the sions of the imposed martial law, blacks also Tulsa Tri bune of an al leged rape attempt of a were re quired to carry iden tity or “green cards.” white girl by a young black male. Tensions had This in tro duc tion only serves to broadly por - been mount ing with a number of ra cial in ci- tray the con di tions that ex isted in Tulsa dur ing dents oc cur ring prior to the night of May 31. the “Race Riot.” Detailed account ing regard ing The economic suc cess of the Greenwood com- the causes of the riot, the pro gres sion of events, mu nity un doubt edly played a role in fuel ing re- ca su al ties, and property are discussed in other sentment among the white popu la tion and chapters of this re port. This study fo cuses on further es ca lat ing the vio lence. Through the those who died dur ing the vi o lence, what hap - night of May 31, and into the morn ing of June pened to their remains, and our ef forts to re lo- 1, whites vir tu ally de stroyed the Greenwood cate them almost 80 years later. section. There were an unde ter mined number Casu alties in the Tulsa Race Riot of deaths, both black and white, with esti mates As por trayed in the many stud ies concern ing rang ing from the of fi cial count of 36 to ap prox- the Tulsa Race Riot, there is no well- documented i mately 300. Over 1,000 resi dences were

123 ev i dence for the number of peo ple who died guns and pistols pitted against unarmed victims, dur ing the vi o lence. Ellsworth notes that the at least not at the be gin ning. Depart ment of Health’s Bureau of Vi tal Statis - Based on these con sid er ations, the mortal ity tics esti mate was ten whites and 26 blacks, profile would have com pa ra ble num bers of whereas es ti mates in the Red Cross re cords deaths among black and white males ini tially. were around 300 deaths.2 There were other fig- As white numbers swelled and they success fully ures in the Tulsa Tri bune, in two con tra dic tory made their way into Greenwood, the number of ar ti cles, of ca su al ties of 68 and/or 175. While an black deaths would in crease and also would re - accu rate num ber of indi vid u als who died dur ing flect increas ing num bers of women and chil dren the vio lence may not be possi ble some 80 years in res i dences. This profil ing provides some later, some perspec tive can be gained by exam - cred i bil ity (al though no hard ev i dence), for ca - ining the black pop u la tion of Tulsa and the sualty counts between 175 and 300. If there Greenwood sec tion and likely mortal ity pro files were a greater number of vic tims than reported, dur ing a con flict of this na ture. then the City of Tulsa and the Army National It is es ti mated that ap prox i mately 11,000 Guard would have to deal with a sig nif i cant blacks resided in Tulsa in 1921, most liv ing in health prob lem. Based on weather re cords for the area of the Green wood sec tion. The black the City of Tulsa on May 31 and June 1, the tem- pop u la tion prob a bly repre sented around ten per a tures hovered around 100 de grees. This per cent of the to tal pop u la tion of Tulsa. Using would have made it a ne ces sity that vic tims be the Bu reau of Vi tal Statis tics counts, ca su al ties handled ex pe di ently to pre vent out breaks of among blacks us ing this statis tic would be two dis ease. One means of deal ing with the deaths of per cent of the black pop u la tion. large numbers of peo ple is through mass graves. Given the inten sity of the conflict and the The fol low ing section discusses the plausi bil ity fact that many of the blacks re sist ing in va sion of mass graves and pos si ble loca tions. of their commu nity by whites were armed vet - Mass Graves and the Tulsa Race Riot er ans of World War I, it would not be un rea- There are numer ous ac counts as to the dis po- sonable to esti mate 150 to 300 deaths. A death si tion of the riot victims. There are re ports of toll of 150 is only slightly greater than one per- victims be ing placed on flat bed rail road cars and cent of the black pop u la tion. It is also sus - moved by rail from Tulsa. Other accounts have pected that the number of whites who died victims be ing thrown in the Ar kan sas River or would ex ceed the ten in di vid u als cited by the be ing in cin er ated. However, the most fre- De part ment of Health. Un like many riots, the quently re ported ver sion is of vic tims be ing bur- racial con flict in Tulsa on the night of May 31, ied in mass graves. Some of these are oral ini tially contained well-armed groups of his to ries of riot survi vors. However, in many blacks and whites. Later, as blacks were over- other cases they are second ary histo ries, stories run by the increas ing number of whites in vad - that have been handed down through gen er a - ing Greenwood, they lost the nu mer i cal tions and across kinship lines as well. The diffi - capa bil ity for de fend ing their property and culty here has been dis tin guish ing oral histo ries some times, their lives. that carry a higher level of credi bil ity where The his to ric ity of the Tulsa Race Riot must there is some addi tional thread of evi dence, in - also be fac tored into the inten sity of the vio - forma tion, or something that makes that par tic - lence. World War I ended three years prior to u lar indi vid ual’s testi mony more believ able, the vio lence. Thus, there were many blacks as from others of more spec u la tive na ture. In sort - well as white males who retained recent ing through the hun dreds of taped oral histo ries, knowledge of war fare and armed con flict. telephone calls, and written ac counts, three lo - Some of these vet er ans proba bly had re tained cations were iden ti fied that held greater cred i- their ri fles from the war. Sim ply stated, this bil ity. This was based on the fre quency of their was not a riot of a few in di vid u als with shot - report ing, the verac ity of the in di vid u als giv ing the account, and the plau si bil ity of the loca tion.

124 Bed frames rise out of the de struc tion in the Green wood dis trict (Cour tesy Oklahoma His tor ical So ci ety).

What is meant by plau si bil ity is whether the lo- wa ter pump ing sys tem buildings, numer ous cation would have func tioned as a mass grave utility lines, as well as the Parkview drainage or as a means of dispos ing of the victims. For channel lead ing to the Ar kan sas River. There is exam ple, the city in cin er a tor was report edly also a rail road line between the park and the Ar- used to cre mate riot victims. How ever, accord - kansas River as well as a levee con structed by ing to Clyde Snow, an in ter na tion ally known the Corps of En gi neers in the 1940s. Thus, the fo ren sic scien tist, this would not have been a landscape is mark edly differ ent than that wit - fea si ble strat egy based on what we know of the nessed by Tulsans in the sum mer of 1921. There size of the in cin er a tor and the likely number of have been nu mer ous un ver i fied ac counts of vic- riot victims. It would have been too time con- tims of the riot be ing buried in Newblock by suming and requir ing too much en gi neer ing whites and/or the Na tional Guard. Ac counts of coor di na tion. The three loca tions frequently their remains be ing sub se quently un earthed dur- cited and thought to merit further study were ing the many pub lic works pro jects tak ing place Newblock Park, Oaklawn Cem e tery, and there since the time of the riot have been re- Booker T. Wash ing ton Ceme tery. ported. However, no evi dence ex ists in the City Newblock Park is lo cated ad ja cent to the of Tulsa’s files docu ment ing a mass grave or hu- downtown area and the Greenwood sec tion. It man remains be ing found in Newblock. The nu- is bounded to the south by the Arkan sas River, merous re ports of bodies be ing placed on the to the east by a res i den tial area and 7th Street, sand bar north of the 11th Street Bridge also fig- to the north by Charles Page Bou le vard, and on ures in the Newblock Park ac count. If vic tims of the west by more city property (Figure 1). At the riot were to be placed in a mass grave in the the time of the Tulsa Race Riot, Newblock Newblock Park area, this sand bar of the Ar kan- Park was the loca tion of the city landfill, the sas River ad ja cent to the park could have served city in cin er a tor, and a substan tial amount of as a stag ing area for the event. open land. Be cause of wooded tree lines, Oaklawn Ceme tery is also lo cated in the much of the area of Newblock may have been down town area al though not adja cent to the blocked from view. To day, Newblock Park is Green wood sec tion. It is bounded to the west by dra mat i cally al tered from the way it appeared the Cher o kee Express way (I-444), to the south in 1921; much of the park is greenspace. How- by 11th Street, and to the east by Peoria, and to ever, this greenspace hides the remains of old the north by 8th Street (Figure 2). At the time of

125 the riot, Oaklawn functioned as a ceme tery, the case of human rights vio la tions in foreign one that contained plots for peo ple from many coun tries this has been ac com plished through the dif fer ent socio-economic life styles, includ ing use of infor mants and me chan i cal equip ment. white and black pau pers. Like much of the However, in the case of the Tulsa Race Riot, Tulsa landscape, Oaklawn changed signif i - some 80 years later, survi vors of the riot’s knowl- cantly in the fol low ing 80 years. The Chero kee edge and memory of the 1920s land scape, com - Ex press way did not ex ist at the time of the pared to that of to day, is question able. Without Tulsa Race Riot and un doubt edly claimed the precise knowledge of mass grave lo ca tions, the ex treme western portion of the cem e tery dur - use of me chan i cal equipment to search for re - ing its construc tion. Re ports of vic tims of the mains is not cost-effective. Thus, ar chae o log i cal riot be ing bur ied at Oaklawn in clude indi vid - ex am i na tion methods were used to seek mass ual graves in addi tion to the mass inter ment. grave loca tions in the three site areas. Cur rently, there are markers for two blacks Archae ol o gists fre quently exam ine the land - who died dur ing the riot in the black section of scape for ev i dence of pre his toric and early his- Oaklawn. It is not known whether the place - toric peoples settle ments. While evi dence of ment of the headstones for these graves is ac - these set tle ments may be exposed on the sur - cu rate or not. As with Newblock Park, burial of face, they are fre quently buried by many feet of the riot vic tims is at trib uted to whites. soil de pos its. Thus, ar chae ol o gists have re sorted The fi nal loca tion that was fre quently men - to us ing a va ri ety of method olog i cal tools to tioned was Booker T. Wash ing ton Ceme tery. cost-effectively exam ine the subsurface. Some Un like the other sites, Booker T. Wash ing ton of these meth ods use con ven tional me chan i cal Ceme tery is lo cated in south Tulsa at what was equip ment such as backhoes and hydrau lic cor - in 1921 a ru ral outlier of the city. Booker T. ing rigs. These of fer the advan tage of pro vid ing Wash ing ton is bounded to the south by a creek phys i cal ev i dence of subsurface remains. Their drainage and sand bor row pit, to the north by dis ad van tages are that they dis turb the ground South 91st Street, to the west by a Cath o lic subsurface and are heavy users of time and fi - Ceme tery, and commer cial and resi den tial nan cial resources. Begin ning in the 1940s, ar - land to the east (Figure 3). At the time of the chaeol o gists be gan to ex plore non-invasive riot in 1921, there was prob a bly lit tle devel op - means of exam in ing the soil subsurface through ment with most of the area be ing ag ri cul tural ap pli ca tion of the prin ci ples of physics. 3 By land. The ac counts of Booker T. Washing ton’s send ing dif fer ent types of phys i cal im pulses into use as burial place for riot victims also vary the ground subsurface, ar chae ol o gists could from the other two loca tions. Ac cord ing to oral measure dif fer ences be tween nat u ral soil for ma- his to ries of riot survi vors, it was blacks that tions and cultur ally al tered con di tions. These brought vic tims to Booker T. Wash ing ton for contrasts are referred to as anom a lies. When burial. sampling over a large area, the pattern in these This occurred a few days after the riot sug - anom a lies can of ten be ar tic u lated with rec og - gesting that these may have been blacks that niz able shapes (e.g., houses, fire places, graves, were wounded dur ing the riot and died a few etc.). Geo phys i cal appli ca tions in ar chae ol ogy days after the con flict. were more fre quently prac ticed in Eu rope from Ar chae o log i cal Methods and the Search the 1940s through 1960s, How ever, fol low ing for Mass Graves the transis tor rev o lu tion of the 1970s, they be - came widely used around the world, partic u larly Research conducted by Scott Ellsworth and 4 Dick Warner revealed the three lo ca tions de - in the United States. There are three basic scribed above as hold ing the greatest poten tial meth ods of geo phys ics ap plied in archae ol ogy: for mass graves within the Tulsa city lim its. mag ne tom e ter, resitivity, and radar. The problem then was how to exam ine the The magne tom e ter mea sures changes in mag- three sites to deter mine whether they might netic prop er ties between cul tural fea tures and yield evi dence of a large com mu nal grave. In natu ral prop er ties of the soil. These changes or

126 differ ences are usu ally due to the presence of Based on the cost-effectiveness of exam in ing ferrous metal ob jects al though baked clays large areas and the non-invasive nature of the around burned houses or fireplaces also may meth ods, geo phys i cal ex am i na tion of pres ent a strong mag netic response. Mag ne- Newblock Park, Oaklawn Cem e tery, and tom e ters to day are extremely sen si tive and can Booker T. Wash ing ton Cem e tery ap peared to be pick-up re sponses from small ob jects such as the most rea son able ap proach to study of this is- nails or gun parts. Resitivity in volves measur - sue. The Commis sion at their Feb ru ary, 1999 ing the re sis tance to an electri cal cur rent in - meeting ap proved use of geo phys ics to ex am ine jected into the subsoil. Typically, the for po ten tial mass grave sites. differ ences in val ues yielded by resitivity are a Ar chae o log i cal Geophys ics at the Three result of vari a tion in ground mois ture. These Suspected Mass Grave Lo ca tions changes in ground moisture content are fre- quently due to col lec tion of moisture around Phase I cul tural fea tures such as houses, walls, and On and 21, 1998, ini tial geophys i cal privies. The third method ap plied is ground ex am i na tion of the three-suspected mass grave pene trat ing radar. Here, radar signals are pro- lo ca tions was un der taken. David L. Maki and jected into the ground and are reflected back Geoffrey Jones of Archaeo-Physics conducted upon en coun ter ing an object or natu ral feature the geophys i cal in ves ti ga tions. Condi tions at the (much like sonar on ships). The differ ence in time of the study were ex tremely hot and dry. the char ac ter of soil between a natu ral soil se - Tem per a tures on the two days of fieldwork were quence and one where some type of cul tural 105 and 106 degrees. As discov ered later, the ex- fea ture is present (e.g., house, trash pit, or ten sive heat and drought of the sum mer of 1998 grave) will vari ably reflect back to the radar had some bearing on the results of the July work. The fol low ing de tails on Phase I in ves ti ga tions unit and pres ent an approx i ma tion as to the 6 shape of the anom aly. have been ex cerpted from Maki and Jones. There are obvi ous ben e fits to use of geo - Methods phys i cal meth ods in archae o log i cal inves ti ga - The search for mass graves at the three lo ca- tions. They permit cost-effective subsurface tions was carried out with a pulse EKKO 1000 ex am i na tion of large areas. In many, areas, the ground pen e trat ing radar unit (GPR). Ground highly por ta ble nature of to day’s equip ment al- pene trat ing radar was selected for this initial ex - lows ex am i na tion of con fined or congested ar- am i na tion be cause of its success ful use in de - eas (e.g. wooded areas). Most im por tantly, tect ing both pre his toric and his toric graves in a these geo phys i cal ap pli ca tions are vari ety of set tings. A noted in Maki and Jones non-invasive and do not physi cally disturb the report the GPR unit may lo cate anoma lies subsurface areas under in ves ti ga tion.5 There through re flec tions from dis turbed soil asso ci - are some disad van tages as well. They can re - ated with the grave shaft such as bones, cof fins, spond to nearby sur face fea tures and they are grave goods, and breakdown in nor mal soil con- sen si tive to “noise” in the subsurface and may ditions. Two dif fer ent frequency an tenna’s pres ent dis torted sig nals. In such cases, infor - were used, 450 MHz and 225 MHz. The higher ma tion on anom a lies may be mislead ing or er- frequency an tenna was used to ob tain better res- rone ous. The other drawback to these meth ods o lu tion al though this fre quency also ex pe ri ences is that they lack a “ground truth” el e ment. The a loss in the depth of ground pen e tra tion. The actual charac ter of the anomaly can only be antenna uti lized was de ter mined by local soil confirmed by physi cal ex am i na tion of the con di tions at each local ity. Each of the three po- subsurface though ex ca va tion. tential mass grave loca tions was also sketched In the spring of 1998, it was recom mended and a grid im posed over the area to be ex am ined. to the Tulsa Race Riot Commis sion that a Newblock Park search for mass graves sites be attempted Using infor ma tion obtained from their oral through use of geophys i cal in ves ti ga tions. history research, Scott Ellsworth and Dick

127 Warner as sisted in the se lec tion of the area for the three areas. A 15 meter square (ca. 45 feet) exam i na tion. This area is near the eastern ex - grid was laid-out for Area A and data were sys- tent of the park im me di ately ad ja cent to the tem at i cally col lected at .75 me ter (ca. 30 inches) Parkview drain age chan nel. Soils at Newblock spacing us ing a 225 MHz an tenna. Area B was a Park con sisted of silt, sand, and clay with rel a- grid roughly 25 me ters (75 feet) east-west by 7 tively high moisture con tent. From a baseline meters (21 feet) north-south. Area C was a grid es tab lished for the study area, data were sys - of some 13 me ters (40 feet) north-south by 8 tem at i cally col lected along transects spaced meters (25 feet) east-west. some .75 me ters (ca. 30 inches) apart us ing the These two areas were inspected using a 225 MHz antenna. A to tal of 38 transects of transect inter val of one me ter and 225 MHz an - GPR data were collected. Depth of subsurface tenna. Forty-three transects of ground pen e trat- pen e tra tion of the ra dar sig nal was lim ited to .5 ing ra dar data were col lected. As was the case at meters to 1.5 me ters due to high con duc tiv ity Newblock Park, depth of subsurface pen e tra tion soils. In ter pre ta tion of the Newblock Park data by the ra dar sig nal was lim ited due to high con - was also com pli cated by re flec tion from the ductiv ity soils. There was also a “ring ing” re - nu mer ous build ing foun da tions and bur ied sponse that made signal inter pre ta tion diffi cult. utility lines, es pe cially the sewer lines. How - Despite these dif fi cul ties, 14 anom a lies were ever, one anoma lous area of in ter est was iden- iden ti fied at Oaklawn with 13 of these lo cated ti fied and is pres ent on Transects 8-11 (Figure within Area A (Figure 5). The remain ing anom - 4). Ad di tionally, Transect 10 ex hib its sloping aly was found in Area B. Seven of these anom a- re flec tions that might rep re sent the walls of a lies oc cur with burial mark ers. Thus, these shal low ex ca va tion (or pit). There also was an distinc tive reflec tions prob a bly re flect marked in verted re flec tion that poten tially re flects a and unmarked single inter ments. No evi dence bur ied ob ject of some nature. In ves ti ga tions was found to suggest the pres ence of a mass were in con clu sive as to the specific nature of grave in the three areas surveyed at Oaklawn the re flec tive pat tern. Cem e tery. How ever, this again does not dis- While one anom aly was re vealed dur ing the count the po ten tial for a mass grave site within work at Newblock Park, this does not discount an other, un ex am ined part of the ceme tery. the po ten tial for other anom a lies in areas not Booker T. Wash ing ton Cem e tery in ves ti gated. With infor ma tion pro vided by Scott Oaklawn Cem e tery Ellsworth and Dick Warner, three ar eas at As was the case at Newblock Park, Scott Booker T. Wash ing ton Cem e tery were selected Ellsworth and Dick Warner as sisted in iden ti- for GPR study. Soils here dif fered from those at fying the areas at Oaklawn to be exam ined. the other two loca tions, con sist ing of a homog e - Here, the study area was re stricted to the black nous sand with rel a tively low moisture con tent. part of the ceme tery. Three areas (A, B, and Q Area A was a roughly 40 meter (ca. 120 feet) by were tar geted for GPR sur vey. Areas A and B 7 meter (21 feet) rect an gu lar seg ment south of were square and rectan gu lar plots of land the gravel road. Area B was a 22 meter (ca. 66 within the black section of the “The Old Pot - feet) by 22 meter (66 feet) square north of the ters Field” of the cem e tery near 11th Street. gravel road and roughly 20 meters (60 feet) Area C was a rect an gu lar plot of land on the north of Area A. Area C contained two sep a rate west side of Oaklawn near est the Cher o kee Ex- segments. The first was a 40 me ter (120 feet) by pressway. One note wor thy feature of areas A 8 meter (ca. 25 feet) rect an gu lar unit ori ented and B was the pres ence of recog nized single north-south, whereas the sec ond was a smaller grave ar eas as marked by headstones. Soils in 18 meter (55 feet) by 3 meter (9 feet) unit ex - Oaklawn Ceme tery are much like those at tend ing east-west approx i mately 5 meter (15 Newblock Park, ex hib it ing a mixture of silt, feet) east of the initial Area C unit. Ground pen- sand, and clay and a rel a tively high moisture e trat ing radar data were sys tem at i cally col lected content. Base line grids were estab lished for from the three units us ing 1 and 2 meter (3 and 6

128 feet) transect spacings. Be cause of the sandy With this in for ma tion, avoid ance of ar eas with a na ture of the soil, both 225 MHz and 450 MHz high den sity of util ity ca bles, con duits, etc. was an ten nas were used. The 450 MHz an tenna accom plished. Ten core samples were drawn was used in Areas A and B and both an tenna from the anom aly. The cores were typi cally ex - frequen cies were used in the two Area C seg - tended to a depth of 2 me ters (6 feet). Mate rial ments. A to tal of 40 transects were collected re cov ered from these sam ples in cluded brick from the three areas. One anom aly was iden ti- fragments, con crete, broken glass and fied in Area A and was thought to poten tially whiteware, and cin ders. The de bris ap pears to be repre sent an indi vid ual grave. A much larger uni formly dis trib uted through out the area of the anom aly was re corded in the initial unit in anomaly with lit tle strati graphic integ rity. The Area C (Figure 6). The re flec tion suggested a artifactual data were sugges tive of fill for what zone of dis turbed soil ap prox i mately 6.5 me - was ap par ently the base ment or subfloor of a ters (ca. 20 feet) by 3 me ters (9 feet) extend ing wa ter pump sta tion. The re flec tive shapex of to a depth of at least a meter. This anom aly this fea ture as de tected with the ground pen e trat- was thought to poten tially rep re sent a pit such ing radar prob a bly repre sents the slightly as one might find with a mass grave. slumped subsurface walls of the razed building. Inves ti ga tions at Newblock Park, Oaklawn Thus, the anom aly at Newblock Park can be dis- Ceme tery, and Booker T. Wash ing ton Cem e- counted as a mass grave site. This does not, tery did not conclu sively dem on strate the pres- how ever, mean that Newblock Park can be dis- ence of mass graves. How ever, anom a lies were counted as hold ing po ten tial for a mass grave. found at Newblock Park and Booker T. Wash- Booker T. Wash ing ton Cem e tery ing ton Cem e tery that mer ited further in ves ti- Dur ing the study of Newblock Park, the ga tion. Dur ing the fall of 1998, it was truck-mounted cor ing rig was damaged and recom mended to the Tulsa Race Riot Com - could not be used to inves ti gate the anom aly in mission that these anom a lies be physi cally Area C at Booker T. Wash ing ton. The work here studied to ascer tain whether they rep re sented was ac com plished us ing man u ally op er ated cor- mass graves. This request was approved by the ing rods. These rods were ca pa ble of prob ing to Com mis sion in Oc to ber, 1998. depths of up to 1 meter (3 feet). Between 10 and Phase II 15 probes were ran domly placed through the Fol low ing ap proval to study the anom a lies anomaly in Area C. No cul tural mate rial or ev i- at Booker T. Wash ing ton and Newblock Park, dence of graves was obtained dur ing this work. a method ol ogy was devel oped to al low us to Soils from the cores were uniform, corre spond - de ter mine the nature of the anom a lies without ing to the natu ral soil stratig ra phy, with no ev i - signif i cantly dis turb ing these features. The dence of a dis turbed con text. At approx i mately plan was to take core samples from each of the 90 cm (35 inches), a sand lens with some clay anoma lies us ing a three-inch truck-mounted con tent was encoun tered. This also marked bull probe. The three-inch cores would min i - slightly moister soils. Be cause of the drought mally disturb the anom a lies while pro vid ing con di tions encoun tered in July, it ap pears that neces sary infor ma tion on the con text and con- the radar was re flect ing back from this moister tent of these features. This work was per- clay lens, present ing a pit-like image. The po - formed with the as sis tance of Dr. Lee Bement tential sin gle grave in Area A also was in ves ti - us ing the Ar che o log i cal Sur vey’s truck gated with three core probes. These were mounted cor ing rig on De cem ber 16, 1998. neg a tive as well. Al though there are mul ti ple re- Newblock Park ports of Race Riot victims be ing buried at Be cause of the poten tial for buried utility Booker T. Washing ton, these lo ca tions were lines at Newblock Park, an initial step in the in- not discov ered dur ing this work. vesti ga tion was to obtain from the City of Inter pre ta tions Tulsa a map identi fy ing the place ment of lines The De cem ber, 1998 inves ti ga tions con- in re la tion to the anomaly to be in ves ti gated. ducted at Newblock Park and Booker T. Wash -

129 ing ton Ceme tery failed to substan ti ate the iron fence fac ing 11th Street. Fourteen head - anom a lies as the sites of mass graves or even stones or footstones are pres ent within the unit. indi vid ual graves. The work did re veal why the The unit, referred to as the Clyde Eddy Area, ground pene trat ing radar pre sented these was first ex am ined us ing a Geometrics 858 ce - anoma lies as pitlike features. This demon - sium magne tom e ter. North-south transects were strates the ne ces sity of physi cally in ves ti gat- walked with the magne tom e ter at 1 meter (3 ing such fea tures be fore view ing them as valid feet) inter vals. Sig nals were acquired at a rate of mass grave loca tions. The first two phases of 5 samples per second. Numer ous mag netic work also ad dress but small portions of the anom a lies were identi fied. Most of these rep re- three poten tial loca tions. That other ar eas sent head stones rein forced with iron rebar or within Newblock Park, Oaklawn Ceme tery, ferrous ob jects as so ci ated with sin gle marked and Booker T. Washing ton Ceme tery hold in ter ments. How ever, there was one large mag- mass grave sites can not be discounted. netic anom aly at 24.5 west and 3.5 south that Phase III could not be explained by the pres ence of the In the spring of 1999, an eye wit ness was single graves (Figure 7). This anom aly extends found to the dig ging of a mass grave at over an area of some 2 meters (6 feet) Oaklawn Ceme tery. Mr. Clyde Eddy, who was north-south by 2.6 meters (ca. 8 feet) east-west a child of ten at the time of the riot, wit nessed to a depth of 1 to 1.6 me ters (3-5 feet). This was white la bor ers at Oaklawn dig ging a “trench.” a strong fer rous ob ject signal. It could rep re sent There also were a number of black riot victims a coffin with consid er able quantity of ferrous pres ent in several wooden crates. While Mr. metal hard ware or a fer rous metal ob ject with no Eddy did not directly see the vic tims being re la tion to the ceme tery. Be cause it is doubtful placed in this trench-like area, it is rea son able that vic tims of the riot would have been bur ied to as sume that its purpose was for a mass with siz able amounts of metal or in metal cof - grave. Mr. Eddy re calls this area be ing within fins, this feature prob a bly did not re late to burial the white section of the “Old Pot ters Field” of the race riot victims. and was able to point out the area in a visit to The Clyde Eddy Area was subse quently ex - Oaklawn dur ing the spring, 1999. Based on amined us ing elec tro mag netic in duc tion (EMI) this new in for ma tion, fur ther study of Oaklawn with a GEM-2. The GEM-2 is a broad band in - Ceme tery was approved. Be cause a spe cific stru ment that re sponds to varia tions in electri cal area was identi fied, thus limit ing the search con duc tiv ity some what like a resitivity de vice. area, it per mit ted a more expan sive exam i na - Transects were cov ered in a manner iden ti cal to tion us ing geo phys i cal methods. Three dif fer- that for the magne tom e ter (1 meter spac ing with ent geophys i cal ap pli ca tions were used at 5 sam ples per sec ond). The GEM-2 re ceives sig- Oaklawn: magne tom e ter, elec tro mag netic in - nal vari a tion from both high conduc tiv ity ob - duction, and ground pen e trat ing ra dar. Dr. jects (metal) as well as non-metallic conduc tors. Alan Witten of the De part ment of Geol ogy and Data ac quired with the GEM-2 obtained results Geophys ics, Univer sity of Oklahoma con- sim i lar to that of the magne tom e ter. How ever, ducted these inves ti ga tions at Oaklawn on June in ad di tion to these responses, the GEM-2 also 4, 1999 and subse quently, on Novem ber 22, iden ti fied an area in the northwest ern quadrant 1999. that ex hib its a regu lar shape and could rep re sent A rect an gu lar grid of 15 me ters (45 feet) an area of al tered soil elec tri cal con duc tiv ity as a north-south by 50 me ters (150 feet) east-west result of past ex ca va tion (Figure 8). This was was estab lished over the area that Mr. Eddy roughly an area some 5 me ters (15 feet) square. iden ti fied. Be cause the lo ca tion was based on a Ground pen e trat ing radar was initially per - visual his tory from some 80 years ago, the tar- formed on June 4, in conjunc tion with the 200 geted area was enlarged by about a fac tor of MHz anten nas with a Mala Geosciences four to en sure com plete cov er age. This rect an- RAMAC system. Transects of sys tem at i cally gu lar area lies within 4 me ters (12 feet) of the col lected GPR data for the Clyde Eddy Area re-

130 vealed no re flec tions of pos si ble cul tural or i- Con clu sions and Recom men da tions for gin. This work, though, was con ducted with out Further Study the ben e fit of the results of the magne tom e ter Be tween July,1998, and Novem ber, 1999, and EMI data, A second GPR study was con - geo phys i cal inves ti ga tions were conducted at ducted on Novem ber 22, 1998. three loca tions thought to poten tially rep re sent GPR data acqui si tion in this sec ond sur vey sites of mass graves for vic tims of the Tulsa was focused on the two anom a lies revealed by Race Riot. Exam i na tion of se lect areas at the magne tom e ter and ENR Two grid areas Newblock Park and Booker T. Wash ing ton were estab lished and north-south transects at 1 Ceme tery through use of ground pen e trat ing ra - meter (3 feet) in ter vals were run for the two po- dar failed to reveal any fea tures sugges tive of a ten tial features. Both 250 and 500 MHz anten - mass grave. As has been re it er ated through out nas were used in data collec tion. The 250 MHz this re port, the fail ure to iden tify a mass grave at antenna provided no new data; the re flec tions spec i fied loca tions does not ne gate the poten tial were basi cally the same as those obtained on for a mass grave within either Newblock Park June 4 , 1998. The 500 MHz an tenna presented or Booker T. Wash ing ton Ceme tery. It only a much differ ent pic ture. The radar iden ti fied docu ments that such a feature was not present an anomaly in the same loca tion as that re - within the area ex am ined. vealed by the GEM-2 unit. Ground pene trat ing Initial study of Oaklawn Cem e tery with ra dar data de pict a fea ture mea sur ing approx i - ground pen e trat ing radar revealed a number of mately 5 me ters (15 feet) square, a unit essen - indi vid ual intern ments but no evi dence of a tially the same size as that de fined by the mass grave. With an eye wit ness ac count per mit- GEM-2. The GPR data addi tion ally suggest ting a nar row ing of the search win dow, a sec ond the presence of an iso lated ob ject in roughly ex am i na tion was conducted at Oaklawn Cem e- the cen ter of the anomaly and that the feature tery. Through use of elec tro mag netic in duc tion has walls that ap pear to be verti cal with and ground pen e trat ing ra dar, a 5 me ter (15 well-defined corners (Figure 9). feet) square anomaly with ver ti cal walls was In ter pre ta tions and Conclu sions iden ti fied within the area pointed out by the The third phase of geophys i cal work at eyewit ness as where a trench was dug for bury - Oaklawn Cem e tery re sulted in the iden ti fi ca - ing riot victims. While this evi dence is com pel - tion of two subsurface anom a lies or features. ling, it can not be viewed as factual un til the One anomaly rep re sents a highly ferrous feature has been physi cally ex am ined by ex ca- subsurface de posit. This is not believed to be va tion to de ter mine if this repre sents a grave as so ci ated with the Tulsa Race Riot. The other site, and, more impor tantly, if a grave, whether anom aly bears all the charac ter is tics of a dug it con tains mul ti ple indi vid u als. The sit u a tion at pit or trench with ver ti cal walls and an un de - Oaklawn Cem e tery has been fur ther compli - fined ob ject within the ap prox i mate center of cated by cem e tery re cords in di cat ing that an the fea ture. Be cause this anom aly showed up adult white male had been buried there shortly on both EMI and GPR sur veys, it is not be - before the riot and two white chil dren were bur- lieved to be a false sig nal. The ver ti cal walls ied within the bound aries of this feature follow - also sup port an ar gu ment for this be ing some ing the riot. This in for ma tion seems sort of dug feature. With out the pres ence of an con tra dic tory to the pres ence of a mass grave at eye wit ness, this would just rep re sent an other this loca tion. “anom aly” to be ex am ined. However, with There are a number of rec om men da tions that Mr. Eddy’s tes ti mony, this trench-like feature should be consid ered. They are enu mer ated as takes on the prop er ties of a mass grave. It can follows: be argued that the geo phys i cal study, com- 1 . Oral history and ar chi val work should con- bined with the account of Mr. Eddy, are com- tinue the search for more spe cific data on areas pelling ar gu ments for this fea ture being within Newblock Park and Booker T. Wash ing - con sid ered a mass grave. ton Ceme tery. Other lo ca tions that have some

131 cred i bil ity should also be re ex am ined (if mer- a north west-southeast di rec tion) to ef fect the re- ited). flec tion of the sig nal. Other options would be 2. Continued ex am i na tion of records at the use of differ ent an tenna and chang ing the Oaklawn Cem e tery to resolve the somewhat signal rate. para dox i cal issue of a mass grave where other 4. At the discre tion of commis sions govern - non Race Riot re lated people were report edly ing the Race Riot in ves ti ga tion, the City of bur ied. Tulsa, and the Greenwood commu nity lim ited 3. Further ex am i na tion of the poten tial mass phys i cal inves ti ga tion of the feature be under - grave feature at Oaklawn with geo phys i cal ap- taken to clarify whether it in deed repre sents a plica tions. This would involve changing the mass grave. This is not a rec om men da tion to ex- an gle of ori en ta tion used in the transects (e.g., hume any remains but to clarify the na ture of this anomaly. Endnotes 1 Ellsworth, Scott, 1982. Death in a Prom ised Land: Yhe Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. (Lou i si ana State Uni ver sity Press, Ba ton Rouge: 1982). 2Ibid., p. 70. 3 Aikens, M. J., Phys ics and Ar chae ol ogy. (Claredon Press, Lon don and New York: 1961). 4 Wynn, J. C., “Archae o log i cal Prospection: An Intro duc tion to the Special Is sue. Spe cial Is sue: “Geophys ics in Archae ol ogy,” Geo phys ics 51(3), 1986. 5 Heimmer, D. H., Near-Surface, High Reso lu tion Geophys i cal Methods for Cul tural Resource Manage ment and Ar chae o log i cal Inves ti ga tions . (National Park Ser vice, U.S. Govern ment Printing Services, Den ver: 1992). 6 Maki, D. and G. Jones, “Search for Graves from the Tulsa Race Riot Using Ground Pene trating Rad ar.” Archaeo-Physics, Re port of Inves ti ga tions Num ber 5, 1998.

132 (Cour tesy De part ment of Spe cial Col lec tions, McFarlin Li brary, Uni ver sity of Tulsa). His tory Uncovered: Skele tal Re mains as a Ve hi cle to the Past By Phoebe Stubblefield and Lesley M. Rankin-Hill ever, they re main ob scure in pub li ca tions of I am in vis i ble, under stand, sim ply be cause their times and the his tory books. Elites leave peo ple re to see me. sig nif i cant docu men ta tion of their lives in a va - —Ralph Ellison ri ety of forms and these ma te ri als have a high Overview proba bil ity of be ing archived. The few sources During the last 20 to 30 years, several large of docu men ta tion for the poor and under classes and nu mer ous small Af ri can Amer i can skel e tal of a so ci ety are likely to be lost. pop u la tions have been stud ied by phys i cal an- There fore, when Af ri can Amer i can skel e tal thro pol o gists. Each pop u la tion has con trib uted pop u la tions are discov ered or recov ered they signif i cantly to the recon struc tion of Af ri can pres ent a unique op por tu nity to add to the his tor- Amer i can lives, ex pe ri ences, commu ni ties, ical re cord and doc u ment the lives of the in di- and his tor i cal events. Af ri can Amer i cans to a vidu als and their com mu nity. Physi cal great ex tent are the “invis i ble peo ple” in the an thro po log i cal studies pro vide a di rect method histor i cal re cord. This is a com mon problem of as sess ment (pro vid ing ev i dence) when skel e - whenever one stud ies non-elite people in the tal popu la tions like the New York Afri can his tor i cal past, es pe cially members of the Burial Ground or the Dal las Freedmen’s cem e- . These are the peo ple who facil i - tery become avail able. tated the lives of the wealthy and the pow er ful Afri can Ameri can skel e tal pop u la tions have of soci ety; they built cit ies, provided goods be come available under sev eral condi tions: 1) and ser vices, and, to a great ex tent, were the es- the in ten tional ex ca va tion due to land re de vel- sential el e ments of a grow ing soci ety. How - op ment or threat of envi ron men tal damage; 2)

133 the acci den tal dis cov ery of an abandoned cem- and re pa tri at ing the de ceased from World War II etery; 3) ar chae o log i cal ex ca va tion pro jects for and the Ko rean War brought the field into prom- his tor i cal/an thro po log i cal re search and docu - i nent ac tiv ity. Tech ni cal ad vances at this time menta tion. These skel e tal pop u la tions, repre - and a steady in crease in ac a demic in ter est in the sent a broad spectrum of Af ri can Amer i can field led to its later or ga ni za tion as a section of lifestyles throughout the eigh teenth, nine- the Ameri can Academy of Foren sic Sci ences in teenth, and twen ti eth centu ries in the West ern 1972. Since that time, foren sic an thro pol ogy has Hemisphere. been a recog nized subfield of phys i cal anthro - Bi o log i cal and be hav ioral factors affect the pol ogy and the foren sic sci ences, requir ing the human skel e ton be cause the skel e ton is a dy - usual ac a demic rig ors of ob tain ing the higher namic sys tem, that under goes growth and de - degrees in anthro pol ogy (at least a Mas ter’s de - velop ment through out the in di vid ual’s life gree), as well as the spe cial train ing and certif i - span. In general, these bio log i cal and cul tural cation of its section in the Acad emy. factors can inter fere in the nor mal processes of A fo ren sic anthro pol o gist is a phys i cal an - bone growth and loss, caus ing dis ease ep i sodes thropol o gist who has been trained to rec og nize and/or pe ri ods of de layed growth. These ex pe - and exam ine human skel e tal re mains for in di ca- riences can be usu ally in del i bly re corded on tions of sex, age, height, unique charac ters of the skel e ton and dentition. Through ob serv ing the indi vid ual, fea tures which might indi cate these “his tor i cal rem nants” of bones and teeth, how the per son died, and pro cesses that affect the phys i cal anthro pol o gist has a means of the skel e ton af ter death. Al though a foren sic pa- measur ing a pop u la tion’s health. In ad di tion, tholo gist or other med i cal doc tor may seem a the skele ton can re cord the ac tual cause(s) of more appro pri ate con duc tor of such anal y ses, death and/or con trib u tory factors surround ing their edu ca tion and train ing fo cuses on changes death. in soft tissue. The foren sic anthro pol o gist is ex- Therefore, the poten tial con tri bu tion and pected to rec og nize bone out side of its nat u ral im por tance of the Tulsa Race Riot victims’ context even if it is reduced to small frag ments. skel e tal remains would be sig nif i cant to both He or she can iden tify all the bones of the hu man the doc u men ta tion of the his tor i cal event and skele ton, de ter mine if a bone is human or not, to Af ri can Ameri can his tory. It is imper a tive and un der stand that the shape of a bone is re - that these remains be located, re cov ered, lated to its function in the body and its owner’s “given a voice” through skel e tal anal y sis, and rela tion ship to other ani mals. then reinterred with dig nity, as most of the Af- Fo ren sic anthro pol o gists serve the pub lic in ri can Amer i can skel e tal popu la tions have been several types of inves ti ga tions. As a result they and will be in the fu ture. work with the other agents con cerned with the A dis cus sion of the basic types of analy sis dispo si tion of human remains, such as med i cal and infor ma tion that phys i cal anthro pol o gists ex am in ers or cor o ners, local and fed eral law en- and fo ren sic anthro pol o gists can pro vide is force ment and family or ga ni za tions. The most pre sented be low. com mon cir cum stances are crim i nal inves ti ga - The Role of Fo ren sic An thro pol ogy in the tions on a local or federal level, such as a lo cal Identi fi ca tion of Deceased Indi vid uals ho mi cide or the results of ter ror ist ac tiv ity. Fo ren sic an thro pol ogy has had an ac tive role Other cir cum stances in clude mass di sas ters of in Ameri can sci ence and medicolegal in ves ti- natu ral or human cause, such as the re cov ery of ga tions since at least 1878, when Har vard anat- tornado or avi a tion acci dent victims. The U.S. omist Thomas Dwight published his es say on Army main tains a staff of fo ren sic an thro pol o- identi fy ing human skel e tal remains. 1 Ex isting gists at a facil ity based in Ha waii who are ded i - as a poorly recog nized subfield of the sci en - cated to the con tin ued re cov ery and tific dis ci pline called phys i cal an thro pol ogy, identi fi ca tion of Amer i cans lost in the past foren sic anthro pol ogy received lit tle schol arly armed con flicts. Fre quently the pub lic learns of or pub lic no tice un til the task of identi fy ing the fo ren sic anthro pol o gists work when it in-

134 While stories have per sisted for years that the bod ies of riot vic tims were thrown into the Ar kan sas River, there is lit tle ev i dence to sup port this oral tra di tion. Con sid er able oral and writ ten ev i dence does ex ist, how ever, which points to Af ri can-American riot vic tims be ing bur ied in un marked graves at Oaklawn Cem e tery, Booker T. Wash ing ton Cem e tery, and per haps, Newblock Park (Courtesy de part ment of Spe cial Col lec tions, McFarlin Li brary, Uni ver sity of Tulsa). volves cases of his tor i cal inter est, such as the in ves ti ga tions, the anthro pol o gists ser vices be - ex hu ma tion of Pres i dent Zachary Tay lor for an gin and end (if no hu man bones are found) at this in ves ti ga tion of the cause of his death, or the step when he or she is called to a local ity or med- recov ery and iden ti fi ca tion of the remains of ical ex am iner’s of fice and asked to make a de - the last Czar of Rus sia and his household. termi na tion. At an inves ti ga tion scene the The va ri et ies of oc ca sion that re quire the foren sic anthro pol o gist will search for and iden- skills of a fo ren sic anthro pol o gist are suffi - tify human bone, look for indi ca tions of buri als, ciently di verse that the anthro pol o gist may en- and con duct nec es sary ex ca va tions in a system - ter the pro ject at var i ous points and uti lize a atic manner us ing thor ough docu men ta tion. In wide as sort ment of skills. The list below is a the search for buri als, in ad di tion to using visual sum mary of exer cises that could be em ployed clues, the anthro pol o gist may employ spe cial- in a ge neric in ves ti ga tion. While it seems a ized equip ment and tech niques, such as ground short list, many activ i ties take place under pene trat ing radar and infra red pho tog ra phy. each sec tion. While all of the items listed will As part of re cov ery of remains, the anthro pol - be cov ered, most of the re main der of this chap- ogist may map the local ity in order to have a re - ter will fo cus on item three, lab o ra tory analy - cord of the po si tion of the remains rel a tive to a sis. fixed land mark and any sig nif i cant fea tures of 1. Scene or local ity search for skel e tal re - the site. This is a typ i cal part of a crim i nal in ves- mains or burials tiga tion and can be conducted in conjunc tion 2. Re cov ery of remains by sur face re cov ery with scene in ves ti ga tors. Locating the site on an or ex ca va tion ex ist ing map and not ing the phys i cal ad dress of 3. Lab o ra tory analy sis the loca tion may suf fice, but in wooded areas or 4. Re port pro duc tion along roadsides the anthro pol o gist may em ploy As pre vi ously stated, fo ren sic an thro pol o - a Global Posi tioning Sys tem (GPS) unit to get gists are trained to dis crim i nate between hu - the geo graphic coor di nates of the site. If a burial man and non-human bone. In many is involved the site must be mapped with the lo-

135 cation of the burial in di cated (sometimes the The best as sess ments are a sum mary con clu sion burial is the site), while the burial it self re - based on as many parts of the skel e ton as possi - ceives a mapping grid. The grid provides a ble. This technique becomes espe cially im por - means of mapping the loca tion of each bone or tant when deal ing with mature indi vid u als, arti fact found within the burial. An orga nized be cause they have fewer age-specific char ac ters and thor ough ex ca va tion may pro vide the in- than infants, chil dren, and young adults. forma tion that allows the recon struc tion of the Age De ter mi na tion in Infants, Children, and events surround ing the burial of the deceased. Young Adults In one in stance the late Dr. Wil liam Maples The tech niques for de ter min ing skel e tal age suc cess fully docu mented differ ing times of in children are based on stan dards of skel e tal death for mul ti ple in di vid u als in one grave, and den tal matu ra tion devel oped for liv ing chil - based on the infor ma tion gained from his thor- 2 dren. Infant remains are aged by compar ing the ough ex ca va tion. In ad di tion to any phys i cal length of the long bones of the legs or arms to mapping of the burial, good note taking, pho- guide lines for the matu ra tion of liv ing in fants. tog ra phy and/or vid eo tap ing dur ing the ex ca - One diffi culty in ag ing infant re mains is that va tion also will en sure a good re cord of what their bones are very fragile, do not pre serve well was found during the exca va tion. under ground, and are rarely recov ered from Once human re mains are found, they are burials. Older chil dren, depend ing on how far col lected in a manner that will pro tect the pri - into de vel op ment they are, can be aged by var i- vacy of the fam ily of the de ceased, keep ma te- ous tech niques, in clud ing long bone length, de - rial re mains in as so ci a tion, and pre vent frag ile gree of completed growth of the teeth, and ma te rial from further breakage or de te ri o ra tion de gree of completed growth of the long bones. from expo sure to air and sun light. The re mains Age as sess ments us ing den tal remains are pri - are then maintained in a se cure loca tion while marily based on the de gree of devel op ment of the anthro pol o gist con ducts the analy sis. each tooth crown and root, the si mul ta neous Good se cu rity en sures the remains and any pres ence of adult and baby teeth, and whether a items with them stay to gether and are not adul- tooth has erupted and if so how far. This tech - terated or al tered by out side influ ences. nique is use ful from in fants with teeth still de - What Skele tal Re mains Tell Us velop ing inside the jaws, to teenag ers with In ev ery day living, our skele tons are frames devel op ing wis dom teeth. The den tal eruption from which we work our muscles, frames sequence may alone be enough to ob tain an age which we pro tect from break ing when ever pos - as sess ment, but eruption of the wis dom teeth si ble and rely on as si lent part ners as we move cannot be con sid ered an in di ca tion of adult hood through and manip u late the world around us. be cause their erup tion times are highly vari able. Yet human bones are not just a frame for the The long bones of the arms and legs each flesh, they also are frames for our identi ties. have a main shaft that de vel ops ends that fuse as An anthro pol o gist can get more in for ma tion the per son ma tures. The age that the ends de - from a skel e ton with all of its parts pres ent, no velop and fuse to the main shaft occurs so reg u- bones bro ken, and lit tle or no deg ra da tion from larly that age can be as sessed within a cou ple the envi ron ment. Even fragmen tary re mains years if enough of the skel e ton is pres ent. Limb will tell much about their for mer owner. Fo - bones stop be ing useful for age assess ment in ren sic anthro pol o gists in ves ti gate six proper - early adult hood. The bones in the arm, be ing the ties when exam in ing skel e tal remains: age, last to fully develop, do so at about 18 years in sex, ances try, stature, unique charac ters of the women and 19 years in men. As a gen eral rule skele ton, and indi ca tions of trauma. when con fronted with a skel e ton that looks ma - Age As sess ment ture on first glance, the col lar bone is ex am ined Un less the skel e ton is sparsely repre sented, first. The col lar bone is the lat est fus ing long foren sic anthro pol o gists do not rely on only bone, be com ing com plete by about 25 years in one technique to arrive at an age assess ment. males and fe males. If the col lar bone is com -

136 pletely united, the anthro pol o gist uses tech - increase in size and number as a per son grows niques for ag ing adult remains. older. An other indi ca tor of greater ma tu rity is Age Es ti ma tion in Adults the pres ence of ossi fied soft tis sue, such as the As sessing age in the adult skel e ton presents thyroid and cricoid carti lage of the throat, the a special challenge because any parts that were car ti lage join ing the ribs to the sternum, and go ing to fuse as a part of matu ra tion have done sclerotic portions of the de scend ing aorta. As so. Most stan dard ized tech niques for age as - stated ear lier, every suit able method, begin ning sessment in adults focus on age related changes with the most reli able, should be used for an age to ma ture bone in portions of the post-cranial as sess ment, but fo ren sic anthro pol o gists are es- skel e ton. In 1920 and again in 1989, an thro pol- pecially careful while us ing qual i ta tive clues. ogists pub lished standards for age changes at An over used and overworked body will have ar- the fibrous joint between the pu bic bones, tile thritic devel op ment and ossi fied soft tis sue at a pubic symphysis.3 Sim i larly, in 1986, anthro - younger age than other wise ex pected. pol o gists be gan pub lish ing stan dards for the age Sex As sess ment changes to the sternal end of the fourth rib.4 It is ex tremely dif fi cult to esti mate sex for Quite fre quently a skel e ton is too fragmen - pre-pubertal remains be cause the charac ters of tary or too poorly pre served to retain the pubic the skel e ton that in di cate sex do not ap pear un til bones or the fourth rib. In such a case more after pu berty. A few tech niques have been pro- mar ginal age esti ma tion tech niques may be posed for esti mat ing sex in infants, but the re li - used such as closure of the cranial sutures. ability of these tech niques is ques tion able. Hunt Con trary to popu lar belief, cranial suture clo - and Gleiser (1955) devel oped a technique for sure, as seen by the dis ap pear ance of the lines chil dren age two to eight, based on a com bi na- sep a rat ing the bones of the cranium, is one of tion of den tal and skel e tal de vel op ment of the the most un re li able tech niques for es ti mat ing hand and wrist. This technique works better age. Cra nial su tures do not close in a sys tem - than 50 percent of the time, but does re quire a atic fash ion in any human pop u la tion. As a re- fairly in tact skel e ton. sult, an age es ti mate of 30 to 50 years is not For adult remains, esti mat ing sex can be one uncom mon from this technique, which only of the sim pler parts of a fo ren sic analy sis if cer- sig ni fies that the remains are adult, as was al - tain parts of the skel e ton are pres ent. Given a ready known. Cra nial su tures are used only as a choice, a fo ren sic anthro pol o gist would always last re sort, such as when only a cra nium is prefer to have an intact pelvis, with the sec ond found. choice be ing an in tact skull. For either part two In ad di tion to us ing the suit able stan dard ized approaches are used to es ti mate sex, a morpho - techniques for the skel e tal re mains, the an thro- log i cal assess ment and/or a met ric as sess ment. polo gist also exam ines all the col lected re - The morphol ogy or shape of the pel vis dif fers mains for general in di ca tors of age. He or she between males and fe males. This differ ence can ex am ines the teeth, to see how worn or de- be re corded by not ing the pres ence of fea tures cayed they are in order to as sess how long they asso ci ated with a par tic u lar sex, or by mea sur- were in use. Tooth wear is a pop u la tion de - ing the pel vis and us ing statis ti cal analy sis to es- pendent charac ter be cause some popu la tions ti mate sex. use their teeth as tools, get more den tal care, or Fo ren sic anthro pol o gists un der stand that the eat more grit than oth ers. The joint sur faces sex dif fer ences in the human pel vis are re lated and ver te brae also are ex am ined for signs of ar- to differ ences in function and are trained to rec- thritic de vel op ment. In general, an older body ognize the physi cal differ ences as so ci ated with will show more signs of lost carti lage and have function. The female pel vis dif fers from the more exten sive bony growth on the margins of male in be ing de signed to pass a large brained the joint. Ver te brae in par tic u lar be gin devel - in fant through a nar row space. The pel vis is op ing bony growths called osteo phytes as a made of three bones, the two innominates plus per son en ters his or her 30s. The os teo phytes the sacrum. The innominates, themselves are

137 com posed of three bones that fuse at about age points of a foren sic iden ti fi ca tion, ances try and 13 in girls and 15 in boys, the pubis, ischium, stature. and ilium. As a means of ori en ta tion, con sider De ter mining Ances try that when you sit down on a firm sur face the The skull is the best source of in for ma tion for bone that makes con tact is the ischium, the es ti mat ing ances try from the human skel e ton. bony hip you rest your hand on is the ilium, and Just as with the pel vis in sex as sess ment, mor - the part that may un for tu nately connect with pholog i cal and met ric analy sis of the skull can the bar on a mens bike is the pubis. The fe male show the geo graphic pop u la tion to which an in - pelvis dif fers visi bly from the male by hav ing, divid ual be longed. A geo graphic pop u la tion is among other features, a rect an gu lar shape to the large col lec tion of people such as Eu ro pe- the body of the pubis, a wide sci atic notch be - ans, Afri cans, and Asians that is usually called a tween ilium and ischium, and a pronounced “race.” Here the term race is avoided because an gle be neath the body of the pubis. the skull only indi cates ge netic ances try, not the In con trast to the pel vis, sex differ ences in so cial con no ta tions of race. So cial is sues of race the skull make males excep tional. Larger size such as “pass ing,” or “one-drop rule,” are rarely plays a part here rather than a differ ent shape, rep re sented by the shape of the skull. In the be cause while skulls serve the same func tion same way that some one resem bles his or her no matter the sex, men tend to be larger and or other rel a tives, that re sem blance car ries down more ro bust than are women. Greater to the bone and can be approx i mated with mea - robusticity means that in the male skull projec - sure ments and careful obser va tion. When as - tions pro trude far ther, and ridges are rougher sessing an ces try we fre quently state it in terms and sharper. In the skull, the male brow tends of descent. Typically in the United States we en- to pro ject farther than in fe males, and the mass coun ter in di vid u als of Euro pean, Afri can, Asian of bone behind the ear, the mastoid process, (which in cludes Na tive Ameri cans), or mixed tends to be larger. Size and rugged ness also de scent. This does not mean that the in di vid ual will dis tin guish male long bones and ver te brae. in question recently im mi grated to the United Fo ren sic anthro pol o gists do not rely solely States; rather, it means that the person’s ances - on morphol ogy to es ti mate sex be cause there try is de rived from that pop u la tion. are several cir cum stances when this tech nique Fo ren sic anthro pol o gists de ter mine ances try is in suf fi cient. Skel e tal remains are frequently by exam in ing the morphol ogy of the skull and fragmen tary. Also, differ ences in size and by tak ing measure ments at several points on the shape occur as central ten den cies sur rounded skull. In a morpho log i cal exam the an thro pol o - by varia tion. Therefore, we can say that the fe- gist looks for partic u lar sets of an a tom i cal fea - male pel vis has cer tain features, but we do not tures that are found with greater fre quency in ex pect ev ery fe male pel vis to have all those certain pop u la tions. Closely re lated people will fea tures in the same de gree. In ad di tion, hu man share more cra nial fea tures with each other than pop u la tions dif fer in the de gree to which males with their more dis tant re la tions on the next con- are more ro bust than fe males. Con sider the ti nent. On the other hand, since large pop u la- contrast of the Amer i can quar ter back with his tions are not made up of clones, the cheer leader girl friend juxta posed to the East - an thro pol o gist can not expect ev ery one in a par- ern Eu ro pean bride. The alter na tive to, or sup- tic u lar pop u la tion to have the same fea tures in port for a mor pho log i cal assess ment is to the same de gree or combi na tions. Also, since all compare measure ments of the pelvis, skull, or hu mans are re lated, the anthro pol o gist can not other parts of the skel e ton to statis ti cal sam ples ex pect any cranial feature to nec es sar ily be ex - gen er ated for par tic u lar pop u la tions. The equa- clusive to a par tic u lar pop u la tion. Therefore, an tions of Giles and Elliot are fre quently used to assess ment of ances try is based on a suite of deter mine sex for skulls from Amer i cans of 5 char ac ters that tend to ap pear or are found in Euro pean and Af ri can de scent. Statis ti cal sim i lar de gree in par tic u lar pop u la tions. For ex- pro ce dures are very impor tant in the next two ample, the anthro pol o gist might look for a short,

138 high cra nium combined with a nar row nasal and in com plete, Steele devel oped equations for aper ture as part of an indi ca tion of Eu ro pean pre dict ing the complete length of the long ances try, but he or she would not re quire a bone.8 One addi tional con cern regard ing stat ure short, high cra nium be cause some Euro pe ans es ti ma tion is that as peo ple enter their 40s they have long crani ums. Nor would we look only be gin los ing height, so stature esti mates for for the ratio of skull length to height be cause older in di vid u als must be cor rected. The rate of differ ent pop u la tions can have the same ra tio. cor rec tion is mi nus 0.06 centi me ters for ev ery See the table be low for a list of some of the decade past 30. charac ters used for de ter min ing ances try. Trauma Analy sis In ad di tion to the mor pho log i cal as sess- The as sess ment of trauma in skeletonized re - ment, the fo ren sic anthro pol o gist can con duct mains requires the ability to distin guish be - a met ric anal y sis of the skull. A met ric anal y sis tween perimortem trauma and postmor tem re quires that a skull be mea sured across sev- dam age. Perimortem trauma is damage caused eral points, and those measure ments com pared to bone in the inter val sur round ing the time of to a statis ti cal sample of in di vid u als of known death. The inter val is de fined by the time pe riod ances try. In the United States many fo ren sic during which the bone is “green” or behaves anthro pol o gists rely on an other set of equa- with the plas tic ity of its liv ing state. Any trauma tions designed by Giles and Elliot that dis tin - that oc curs while the bone is fresh and green is guish between people of Euro pean, Afri can, 6 perimortem trauma in clud ing damage that oc - and Native Ameri can descent. An thro pol o - curs shortly after death. Perimortem trauma that gists at the Uni ver sity of Tennes see also have would have either con trib uted to or is directly pro duced a statis ti cal pack age called asso ci ated with the cause of death is classi fied FORDISC that serves a combined function of as trauma as so ci ated with the cause of death. ances try and stature es ti ma tion. Metric analy - For ex am ple, perimortem rib frac tures can oc cur sis is of ten the preferred route to an ces try de - in a victim with out those frac tures be ing the ter mi na tion be cause it does not re quire that the cause of death, but the ac com pa ny ing cranial eye be trained to recog nize mor pho log i cal gun shot wound would be trauma asso ci ated traits, and be cause it is more effec tive on frag- with the cause of death. men tary skulls. Fo ren sic anthro pol o gists are trained to rec og- Stature Esti ma tion nize the types of trauma that can be found on Esti ma tion of the stand ing height of the liv- bone in clud ing blunt force, sharp force, gunshot ing indi vid ual is an exclu sively metric pro ce- wounds, and burn ing. By vi sual inspec tion, dure. Anthro pol o gists have de vel oped touch, use of a light mi cro scope, and ra di og ra- predic tive equa tions that es ti mate stat ure based phy, the an thro pol o gist can iden tify these forms on the length of vari ous bones of the body. on trauma from the char ac ter is tic marks they These equations ex ist for sev eral pop u la tions, leave on bone. Blunt force trauma is as so ci ated includ ing Native Amer i cans and Amer i cans of with frac tured or crushed bone, such as in a Afri can and Euro pean de scent. Trot ter and greenstick fracture or a de pressed cranial frac - Gleser de signed the most commonly used ture. Blunt force inju ries to green bone may equations in response to the re pa tri a tion ef fort leave clear identi fy ing marks of the in stru ment of WWII and Ko rean War dead.7Normally, leg used to in flict the trauma, such as grooves or di- length is the greatest con trib u tor to standing rect im pres sions of the weapon. Sharp force height, so most of the pre dic tive equations are trauma in cludes in cised cuts, stab wounds, and based on length of the long bones of the leg, the chop ping in ju ries. This type of trauma leaves an femur, tibia, and fib ula. Other anthro pol o gists as sort ment of marks, such as nicks, punc tures or have devel oped equations for the com plete ser rated grooves, which are ob serv able by skele ton, ver te brae, long bones of the arm, and touch, plain vision, and under the mi cro scope. bones of the hands and feet. In cases where The anthro pol o gist may make a sil i cone cast of pres er va tion is poor and bones are fragmen tary cutmarks for later com par i son to the cutting

139 edge of a suspect weapon. Gunshot wounds, graphs to post mor tem ra dio graphs of the same es pe cially to thin or tabu lar bones, have char - area, and match ing the anatomy and/or med i cal acter is tic beveled shapes. Bul lets frequently ap pli ances found in each. An other technique, leave traces of lead on the bone, which can be called video su per im po si tion, allows the anthro - seen on an x-ray. Typi cal fracture pat terns are polo gist to match pho to graphs taken in life to found on bone burned dur ing the perimortem the fea tures of the skull. In cases when the re - in ter val. Fire damage may occur in con junc - mains rep re sent a com plete unknown, the an - tion with other forms of trauma, so the an thro- thropol o gist may build or commis sion a fa cial pol o gist is pre pared to find ev i dence that recon struc tion of the de ceased based on the as - might be obscured by the charring and break - sess ment of sex, ances try, age, and pub lished age caused by burning. data on skin thick ness. The recon struc tion is ei - Postmor tem damage oc curs after death, af - ther three-dimensional, us ing clay to rep re sent ter the bone has be come brit tle from de com po- the skin, or con ceived of in two dimen sions by a si tion and drying. Some damage may oc cur sketch artist. during re cov ery such as marks ac quired during The re cent ad vances in ge netic analy sis has exca va tion from shov els, trow els or probes, made it pos si ble to de scribe the most unique dam age from careless handling such as break- char ac ters of the indi vid ual, his or her DNA se - age, and marks from scalpels or scis sors. Other quence. In non-living tis sue, bone is the best forms of damage are from nat u ral agents such pre server of DNA. Therefore, it is pos si ble to as dog or other car ni vore chew ing, rodent take a small sam ple from the pre served bone of a gnaw marks, root etch ing, and flak ing and de ceased per son and match the DNA to a sam - cracking caused by expo sure to sunlight. At - ple collected while the indi vid ual was liv ing, or tempts to dis pose of remains also will cause to match the sam ple to the nearest rel a tives. postmor tem damage, such as cutmarks, chem i- Only a small bone sam ple is needed, be cause a cal burns, and burn ing from fire. Fo ren sic an- technique called PCR (polymer ase chain re ac - thropol o gists are careful to mini mize the tion) allows the volume of DNA to be ampli fied oc cur rence of post mor tem damage dur ing and until there is an abun dant amount to se quence. after re cov ery of re mains. Post mor tem dam age The Re port is dis tin guish able from perimortem trauma by Af ter all the anal y ses and descrip tions are the lack of in di ca tors of plas tic be hav ior in the complete, the fo ren sic anthro pol o gist gen er ates bone, a color differ ence between the out side a report of his or her findings. This report will bone and the newly exposed bone, and the pat- doc u ment in a suc cinct and clear form all the tern (e.g., only at joints) or type (e.g., car ni- findings and conclu sions re gard ing sex, ances - vore chewing) of the damage. try, stat ure, trauma anal y sis, and in di vid u al iz ing Id io syn cratic Char ac ters char ac ter is tics, made by the an thro pol o gist. Any In di vid ual charac ters can be the clear est in - sup port ing docu ments such as radio graphs, pho- dica tors of iden tity in skel e tal remains. The fo- to graphs, slides, or vid eo tapes will ac com pany rensic an thro pol o gist care fully in spects the the re port. Depending on the na ture of the in - skel e tal remains in order to doc u ment any fea- vesti ga tion this report will be sub mit ted to a tures that might have been noted by family med i cal ex am iner, com mit tee, or fam ily or ga ni - mem bers or placed in a medi cal or den tal re - zation, or, in the case of an in ter dis ci plin ary pro- cord. The an thro pol o gist docu ments healed ject, be combined with the re ports of the other fractures, atyp i cal anatomy, signs of dis eases project members. that affect bones such as ane mia, syph i lis, can- Conclu sion cer, or med i cal ap pli ances such as prosthe ses, It is clear from the above de scrip tion that wires and sutures, and den tal res to ra tions and “dead men do tell tales.” Phys i cal an thro pol o- plates. gists and fo ren sic anthro pol o gists tell the sto ries The anthro pol o gist can make pos i tive iden - of the indi vid ual skele tons and skel e tal pop u la- tifi ca tions by com par ing an te mor tem ra dio - tions they study. This work iden ti fies in di vid u -

140 als, and provides ev i dence for recon struct ing died in Greenwood in 1921 are recov ered they com mu ni ties and his tor i cal events. The focus will be treated with re spect and their sto ries will of locat ing the remains of Tulsa Race Riot vic- be docu mented. Their voices, therefore, will be tims is not to prove that it happened or to count added to the his tor i cal re cord, fi nally giv ing the dead. When the in di vid u als who lived and them and their fam i lies clo sure with dig nity. Endnotes 1T.D. Stew art and Charles C. Thomas, “Essen tials of Fo ren sic An thro pol ogy”, 1979. 2William R. Maples and Michael Browning, Dead Men Do Tell Tales, (Doubleday, 1994). 3Todd, T.W., “Age Changes in the Pu bic Bone: I. The Male White Pubis.” Ameri can Journal of Phys i cal Anthro pol ogy 3:285-334, 1920. Katz, D. and Suchey, J.M., “Race Dif fer ences in Pu bic Symphyseal Aging Pat terns in the Male.” Ameri can Journal of Physi cal Anthro pol ogy 80:167-172, 1989. 4Iscan M.Y., Loth, S R. and Wright, R.K., “Metamor pho sis at the Sternal Rib: A New Method to Es timate Age at Death in Males.” Ameri can Journal of Physi cal Anthro pol ogy 65:147-156, 1984. 5E. Giles and O. Elliot, “Sex deter mi na tion by Discriminant Function Analy sis of Cra nia,” Ameri can Journal of Phys i cal An thro pol ogy 21:53-68, 1963. 6E. Giles and O. Elliot, “Race Iden ti fi ca tion From Cra nial Mea sure ments,” Jour nal of Fo ren sic Sci ences 7:147-157. 233 “Stature Esti ma tion,” 1962. 7trotter M. And Gleser G. 1952. Estimation of stature from long bones of American whites and Negroes. Amreican Journal of Physical Anthropology 10:463-514. 8Steele, D. Gentry, “Esti ma tion of Stature from Frag ments of Long Limb Bones,” T.D. Stew art ed., “Per sonal Identi fi ca tion in Mass Di sas ters,” National Mu seum of Natu ral History, Smithso nian In sti tu tion, Wash ing ton D.C., 1970. pp. 85-97.

141

(Cour tesy De part ment of Spe cial Col lec tions, McFarlin Li brary, Uni ver sity of Tulsa).

Riot Property Loss By Larry O’Dell An account of the property damage in North 1920-1923. This would not only show the res i- Tulsa dur ing the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot can dence of many Af ri can Amer i cans af fected by im part solid infor ma tion. But re search ing the the riot, but also would give a clue to the wealth history of an Afri can Amer i can controlled and pros per ity of black Tulsa by reveal ing the com mu nity sev enty-nine years later, however, ad dresses of businesses, profes sion als, and civic entails many problems as so ci ated with the ra - lo ca tions. Also, list ing the name and loca tion of cial cli mate of the era. Through out the re search a res i dent in 1920, and then track ing that name pro cess not just the de struc tion of prop erty, but through 1923, should shed insight on whether also the loss of life had to be consid ered. When there was a huge pop u la tion loss in North Tulsa tally ing up the mon e tary value of a com mu nity and help to pinpoint cit i zens that may not have the results are insig nif i cant when com pared to sur vived the riot. the loss of a fa ther, mother, brother, sister, son, The data base uti lized city direc to ries, 1920 or daughter. Yet, the phys i cal charac ter of the census infor ma tion, and the ap pen dix to Mary com mu nity and the prop erty lost are an impor - E. Jones Parrish’s account, Events of the Tulsa tant as pect to any un der tak ing to un der stand Di sas ter, which has a partial list of losses and this awful oc cur rence in Oklahoma his tory. their addresses. With its docu ment’s com ple- Most of Tulsa’s Af ri can Ameri can popu la - tion, this data base became a tool it self when tion re sided in the north east sec tion of the city. compared to maps, inter views, Sanborn In sur- The first step in the research involved building ance maps (created for insur ance purposes and a da ta base of North Tulsa for the years of in clud ing descrip tions of build ing and the ma te -

143 (Cour tesy Greenwood Cul tural Center). rials they are made of), plat maps, warranty The da ta base listed 159 busi nesses in 1920; deed re cords, build ing permits, Red Cross re - after the riot in the 1922 city direc to ries , 120 ports, and so on. The da ta base high lights prob- businesses are listed. The Red Cross reported lems in the re cords for North Tulsa. Many of that 1,256 houses burned, that 215 houses were the Af ri can Amer i cans in the cen sus records looted and not burned, and the to tal number of do not show up in the 1920 city di rec tory and building not burned but looted and robbed was vice versa. Poor research or lack of in ter est by 314. Ac cord ing to 1920 cen sus en tries, a num - the city di rec tory would prob a bly account for ber of the res i dences in North Tulsa contained the discrep an cies. The cen sus takers would more than just one family, Green wood Ave nue likely mir ror this at ti tude. held the heart of the district, with two theaters The United States cen sus of 1920 reported and many of the prom i nent busi nesses lo cated 10,903 Af ri can Amer i cans liv ing in Tulsa there. Distin guished busi ness owners and lead - County. The cen sus also claimed that 8,878 ers of the commu nity resided on De troit Av e - blacks lived in the city of Tulsa, or that 10.8 nue, the western boundary to the Af ri can per cent of Tulsans were Af ri can Amer i cans.1 Ameri can section; across the street were white The influx of Af ri can Amer i cans contin ued, houses and businesses. An other eco nom i cally total ing al most 11,000 by 1921 and, ac cord ing prosper ous section of the Af ri can Ameri can dis- to the da ta base founded on city di rec tory es ti- trict was the Lacy sector in the eastern part of mates, in cluded 191 businesses. There were the commu nity .2 fif teen doc tors, one chiro prac tor, and two den- Three sources corrob o rate an ap prox i mate tists prac tic ing in the dis trict as well as three value for the destroyed prop erty: the Tulsa Real law yers. This sec tion of town contained a li - Estate Exchange Commis sion; the claims filed brary, two schools, a hospi tal, and an office of against the city in the City Commis sion meet - the Tulsa pub lic health services. Two news pa- ings; and the actual damage claimed in court pers, the Tulsa Star and the Oklahoma Sun, cases against insur ance com pa nies and the city were pub lished in North Tulsa. Af ri can Amer- of Tulsa. The Tulsa Real Es tate Exchange Com - ican frater nal lodges and churches dotted the mission re ported 1.5 million dol lars worth of neighbor hoods and busi ness dis tricts in the prop erty damage, with one-third of it be ing in north east ern quadrant of the city. the busi ness district. This re search by the com - mission was done shortly after the riot and may

144 be sus pect be cause of their tempo rary involve - which is in close re la tion to the $1.5 and the $1.8 ment in the plan to re lo cate the black mil lion of the other esti mates. 5 population and de velop the Green wood area for a Of course, not all res i dents took insur ance train station. 3 The Real Es tate Com mis sion es ti - com pa nies or the city to court, but most of the mated per sonal property loss at $750,000. Be - promi nent busi ness men and women, as well as tween , 1921, and June 6, 1922, Tulsa the influ en tial resi dents did have detailed pe ti - res i dents filed riot-related claims against the city tions drawn out against both en ti ties. In 1937, for over $1.8 million dollars. The city com mis- Judge Brad ford J. Wil liams summarily dis - sion dis al lowed most of the claims. One excep - missed most of the court cases. North Tulsans tion occurred when a white res i dent ob tained claimed a va ri ety of posses sions in these cases. com pen sa tion for guns taken from his shop.4 For ex am ple, Dr. R. W. Mot ley claimed not only The sum of the ac tual damage filed in the 193 his sur gi cal in stru ments and medi cines, but re trieved court cases equaled $1,470,711.56, Chippendale book cases, a set of the Har vard

De struc tion in the black busi ness dis trict in curred most of the finan cial loss of the riot (Cour tesy of West - ern History Collec tions, Univer sity of Oklahoma Li - braries).

145 Ruins of a building com pleted months prior to the riot (Cour tesy Oklahoma His tor i cal So ci ety).

Classics, a mahog any li brary ta ble, a silk mo- lots in the Greenwood ad di tion to black res i - hair library outfit, a Steinway pi ano, and dents in the years before the riot. A power ful Rodgers silver ware, among other items. Other member of of com merce, Avery claims were for livestock, rental prop erty, and served as a member of the Tulsa Water Board other essen tial ma te ri als. A study of these for the Spavinaw water pro ject, and he also di - claims re veals the di verse wealth and pov erty rected the Ex ec u tive Wel fare Commit tee that in the com mu nity, one that could match or ex- col lected $26,000 for the Red Cross after the ceed that of many other many commu ni ties in riot.8 E.W. Sinclair also con ducted real busi - 1921 Oklahoma. ness in North Tulsa. Sinclair was the pres i dent Accord ing to Mary Parrish’s book, court of Exchange Na tional Bank and vice pres i dent case claims, war ranty deed records, and court of Sinclair Pipe line. Other signif i cant white clerk records, many Afri can Amer i cans in prop erty own ers in the district were: S.R. Tulsa owned rental prop erty. Black Tulsans Lewis, vice-chairman of the tax payer’s commit - who suf fered sig nif i cant fi nan cial loss at trib- tee; W.H. Botkin, real es tate fi nan cier; Tate uted to rental prop er ties in cluded R.T. Brady, for mer Demo cratic national commit tee - Bridgewater, J.H. Goodwin, Sadie Partee, man and Oklahoma commander of the Sons of Loula Williams and G.W. Hutchins. Many Confed er ate Vet erans; T.E. Smiley, realtor; R.J. other Afri can Ameri cans pos sessed rental Dixon, realtor; George Stephens, realtor; H.E. prop erty, includ ing Carrie Kinlaw, Vir gil Bagby, de part ment man ager of Exchange Na - Rowe, John Swinger, Emma Works, S.M. tional Bank; Claude Sample, realtor; H.C. Jackson, J.B. Stradford, Osborne Mon roe, Stahl, in for ma tion not found, but prob a bly re - C.W. Henry, Mrs. Warren and A.L. Stovall. lated to W.E. Stahl involved in in sur ance, loans Also, many white Tulsans conducted real and bonds; Earl Sneed, lawyer; Win Redfearn, estate busi ness in the Af ri can Amer i can dis trict pro pri etor of the Dixie Theater; The Brockman prior to the riot. One of the better known white broth ers, realtors; and J.A. Oliphant, lawyer. 9 business men, Cyrus S. Avery, sold mul ti ple

146 Portion of the Sanborn map dated 1920 with occu pants drawn from the 1921 City Di rec tory overlapped.

It is problem atic to deter mine property own- build ings would be on one lot mak ing the as - er ship in 1921 North Tulsa for a va ri ety of rea- sign ment of street ad dresses almost entirely sons. The city renamed some of the streets in guess work. An other prob lem con sists of prop - the area af ter the riot, cre at ing com pli ca tions in erty trans fer that is con ducted by means other the transfer ence of an ad dress from pre-riot to than money convo lut ing the value of the prop - modern. 10 Also, urban renewal and the ac cu - erty. In many in stances a transfer of deed would mula tion of North Green wood property for the be listed as cost ing the buyer only one dollar. high way and Rogers State Uni ver sity (Now When look ing for a cer tain indi vid ual or fam- OSU-Tulsa), create a in the re cords of ily, the best place to begin is the com piled da ta- prop erty and cause old addresses, le gal and base of city di rec to ries. After find ing the oth er wise, do not dis play on the county clerk ad dress, if it can be lo cated on the ex ist ing com puter system. City di rec to ries list res i dents Sanborn maps, the size and make up of the struc- by their city ad dress, and even com par ing these ture and its loca tion on the property can be de - to city plats can cause confu sion on the legal ter mined. The Sanborn map will also pinpoint ad dress; but, luck ily, all war ranty deeds and the le gal ad dress. If it is lo cated outside the other track ing de vices are made with the legal Sanborn map area it needs to be ex am ined on the address, mak ing this a time-consuming but not plat maps. Using the legal ad dress, owner ship an in sur mount able task. A great problem can be de ter mined by go ing to the Tulsa County arises when the legal ad dress is all that is Clerk’s office. In theory, find ing the last trans - known; match ing it to a street ad dress tends to action in the tract indexes before 1921 should be com plex un less the owner and not the renter in di cate the owner at the time of the riot. Be sides is listed in the city di rec tory. Of ten times two prob lems listed in the paragraph above, how -

147 Black Tulsans sal vaged what they could from their burned homes and busi nesses and be gan to re build on their own, us ing what ever ma te ri- als they could find. It took some congre ga tions years to rebuild their burned churches (Courte sy Oklahoma His tor i cal Society). ever, many times the lot will be split and sold the riot could have been used as a beauty parlor; to two par ties, mak ing it dif fi cult to de cide who after the riot Mrs. Lit tle put an ad for her beauty owned what part of the lot. par lor in Mary Parrish’s book, Events of the Exam ining the prop er ties of Percy and Tulsa Disas ter , that claimed the ad dress as 1301 Mabel Lit tle pro vides an ex am ple of how us ing Greenwood. 11 the da ta base, war ranty deed re cords, plats, and Another exam ple is Osborne Monroe. Ac - county court house re cords can pro vide needed cording to the 1921 Tulsa City Di rec tory, Mon - data. The Littles resided at 617 East In de pend - roe and his wife, Olive, lived at 410 Easton, lot ence, which is not on a portion of the Sanborn 3, block 17 North Tulsa, and worked as a porter In sur ance maps. Percy had in ter est in the Bell at 117 South Main Av e nue. Mary Parrish listed and Lit tle Restau rant on land owned by J. the loss of their resi dence as $1,000. Accord ing Hodnett or W. Appleby at 525 Cameron. The to the Sanborn Insur ance maps their house be - Littles had just bought some land off Green - fore the riot was a one-story frame house with a wood Ave nue at the le gal ad dress lots 13-14, porch. In Au gust 1920, Mon roe received a block 8 Greenwood Addi tion, for $600 from build ing permit to build a $2,000 one-story C.S. Avery on , 1921. The bank re - frame structure on lot 1 block 15 North Tulsa leased them from their mortgage on June 8, Addi tion. In a peti tion filed against the Me - 1923. The 1923 direc tory lists P.L. Lit tle at chanics and Traders Insur ance Com pany of 1301 Greenwood. This resi dence should be on New Orleans, Osborne Monroe claimed fire de- the land they purchased. This property before stroyed his prop erty, con sist ing of two one-story

148 shingle-roof, frame build ing with stone piers busi ness dealings, es pe cially in real es tate, by founda tion and brick chim neys and flues, on whites and often times, by major leaders of the June 1, 1921. Six months after the riot, Mr. white busi ness or civic com mu nity con ducted in Mon roe re quested build ing per mits on De cem- North Tulsa. The major ity of the wealth oc - ber 6, 1921, to build a frame build ing on lot 1, curred in the “Deep Green wood” business sec- block 15 North Side Ad di tion and on De cem - tion and in the res i den tial areas around De troit ber 12, 1921 to build three frame build ings on Av e nue and what was known as the Lacy Sec tor lot 1, block 15 North Tulsa Ad di tion at $400 north east of the busi ness dis trict. Using the three each. This would be on the 500 block of Exeter dif fer ent sources explained above (Re cords of or North Elgin Place.12 The Tulsa Real Es tate Exchange Com mis sion, By early , the city of Tulsa be gan claims ad dressed at the Tulsa City Commis sion grant ing building per mits to Af ri can Amer i can meetings, and the var i ous court cases) each with res i dents of North Tulsa. O.W. Gurley re- its own par tic u lar faults, an esti mate of just un - ceived a permit on July 2 for a one-story brick der $2 million of property damage in 1921 dol - building that was to cost him $6,000. The ear li- lars can be made. When us ing a consumer price est to rebuild were gen er ally the “Deep Green- index infla tion calcu la tor, a tool provided by the wood” busi ness owners. For ex am ple, Gurley, website at NASA, a 1921 amount of $1.8 mil - Goodwin, Woods, Young, Bridgewater, and lion would equal an amount of $16,752,600 in Williams were among the first to gain a build- 1999.16 ing per mit.13 This happened amidst the ef forts The trag edy and triumph of North Tulsa tran- of white Tulsa to in dus tri al ize this sector with scends numbers and amounts and who owned var i ous codes to pre vent black rebuild ing. 14 what portion of what lot. The Af ri can Amer i can The city man ager or the fire marshal likely is- commu nity not only thrived in an era of harsh sued more per mits to indi vid ual fam i lies as the “Jim Crow” and oppres sion, but when the big - winter of 1921 ap proached.15 otry of the ma jor ity de stroyed their healthy Although much of the research on owner - commu nity, the resi dents worked together and ship of all property in North Tulsa may not be rebuilt. Not only did they rebuild, they again de fin i tive, the char ac ter of the Green wood area success fully ran their businesses, schooled their can be deci phered be fore and after the riot. A chil dren, and wor shiped at their mag nif i cent thriving area of the town of Tulsa where the churches in the shadow of a grow ing Ku Klux major ity of the busi ness dis trict was owned Klan in Oklahoma and con tin u ing legal ra cial and managed by the Af ri can Amer i can res i - sep a rat ism for more than forty years. In fact, one dents, Green wood also con tained a di verse res- of the largest Ku Klux Klan buildings, not only i den tial area. But, there were exten sive in the state, but the country stood within a short walking dis tance of their commu nity. 17

149 (Cour tesy Oklahoma His tor i cal So ci ety).

Endnotes 1Bu reau of the Cen sus, 1920. 2 Scott Ellsworth, Death in a Prom ised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. (Baton Rouge: Loui si ana State Uni ver sity Press. 1982). Tulsa City Di rec tories for 1920-1923 (Tulsa: Polk-Hoffhine Di rec tory Com pany, 1920-1923). 3Ibid., p. 72. 4Records of Com mis sion Proceed ings, City of Tulsa, Septem ber 2, 1921. J.W. Megee’s pawnshop re ceived $3,994.57 for guns and am mu ni tion taken from the store during the riot. 5Court cases vs. the City of Tulsa and var i ous in sur ance com pa nies. Al though the pu ni tive dam ages were claimed in many of these cases, for this pur pose only actual damage was tal lied. 6Dismissal re cords from court cases filed. 7Motley vs. Me chanics and Traders Insur ance Com pany, Case No. 23404 Tulsa Country District Court (1937) 8Avery, Ruth Sigler, “Cyrus Stevens Avery,” Chroni cles of Oklahoma, 45 (Spring 1967), pp 84-91. 9Tulsa City Direc tory , 1921 (Tulsa: Polk-Hoffhine Direc tory Company, 1921) 10Com paring the 1920 to the 1922 Tulsa City Direc tories . 11Tulsa City Direc tories , Tulsa County Court cases, etc. 12Tulsa City Direc tories , Court Cases, Deed Records, etc. 13Build ing per mits garnished from The Tulsa Daily Legal News, 1921-1922. 14Ellsworth, Death in a Prom ised Land, pp. 84-89. 15Ibid., p. 90. 16. The CPI in fla tion cal cu la tor is for ad just ing costs from one year to an other using the Con sumer Price In dex in fla tion in dex. The cal cu la tor is based on the av er age infla tion in dex during the cal en dar year. The CPI rep re sents changes in prices of all goods and ser vices pur chased for con sump tion by ur ban household. User fees and sales and excise paid by the con sumer are also in cluded. In come taxes and invest ment items (like stocks, bonds and life in sur ance) are not in cluded. 17Carter Blue Clark, “A His tory of the Ku Klux Klan in Oklahoma” (Ph.D, diss., Uni ver sity of Oklahoma, 1976), p. 71.

150 The Wil liam’s Dream land Theater before the riot, destruc tion af ter the riot, rebuild ing pro cess, and opened after the riot (All Photos Courtesy Greenwood Cul tural Center).

151

On June 7, 1921, the Tulsa City Com mis sion passed a fire or di nance whose real pur pose was to prevent black Tulsans from rebuild ing the Greenwood commer cial district whre it had pre vi ously stood. Af ri can Amer i can at tor ney B. C. Frank lin, shown at right, helped the legal ef fort that was suc cess ful in over turn ing the or di nance (Cour tesy Tulsa His tor i cal So ci ety).

As sessing State and City Culpa bil ity: The Riot and the Law By Al fred L. Brophy The Tulsa riot repre sented the breakdown of draws largely upon testi mony in the Oklahoma the rule of law.1 As Bishop Mouzon told the Su preme Court’s 1926 opin ion in Redfearn v. con gre ga tion of the city’s Boston Ave nue Ameri can Cen tral Insur ance Com pany to por - Meth od ist Church just af ter the riot, “Civ i li za- tray the events of the riot. Then it explores the tion broke down in Tulsa.” I do not attempt to attempts of Greenwood res i dents and other place the blame, the mob spirit broke and hell Tulsans who owned property in Greenwood to was let loose. Then things happened that were ob tain relief from insur ance com pa nies and the on a foot ing with what the Ger mans did in Bel- city after the riot. gium, what the Turks did in Ar me nia, what the 2 In ves ti gating Tulsa’s Cul pa bil ity in the Riot Bolshe vists did in Rus sia. That break down of This section summa rizes the evi dence of the law is cen tral to under stand ing the riot, the re- city’s culpa bil ity in the riot. It em pha sizes that sponse after wards, and the deci sion over what, Tulsa failed to take action to pro tect against the if anything, should be done now. riot. More impor tant, city of fi cials depu tized This es say assesses the culpa bil ity of the men right after the riot broke out. Some of those city and the state of Oklahoma dur ing the riot, dep u ties — prob a bly in conjunc tion with some questions that are of con tin u ing impor tance to- uniformed po lice — offi cers were respon si ble day. This es say begins by review ing the chro- for some of the burn ing of Green wood. After nol ogy of the riot, pay ing par tic u lar at ten tion the riot, the city took fur ther ac tion to pre vent re- to the actions of gov ern men tal offi cials. It building by pass ing a zon ing ordi nance that re -

153 Green wood Busi ness Dis trict dev as tated by the race riot (West ern his tory Col lec tion, Uni v er sity of Oklahoma Li braries). quired the use of fire proof ma te rial in Impor tant de tails of the riot are re corded in re build ing. sev eral contem po rary ac counts. The 1926 4 “The Riot” opinion of the Oklahoma Supreme Court in Redfearn v. Amer i can Central Insur ance Com - Questions of In ter pre ta tion and Sources pany, the least biased of the con tem po ra ne ous In recon struct ing the his tor i cal re cord of the “offi cial” re ports of the riot, demon strates the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, there are diffi cul ties in close connec tion between Tulsa’s spe cial po lice inter pre ta tion. Questions rang ing from general and the riot.5 It culmi nated a two year suit by issues such as the mo tive of Tulsa ri ot ers and William Redfearn, a white man who owned two was a riot in ev i ta ble given the context of vio - build ings in Green wood: the Dixie Thea tre and lence and ra cial tension in 1920s Tulsa to spe - the Red Wing Hotel. Redfearn lost both build - cific is sues such as whether Dick Rowland ings, both were in sured for a to tal of $19,000. would have been lynched had some black The Amer i can Cen tral Insur ance Com pany re - Tulsans not ap peared at the court house, the na- fused pay ment on either building, cit ing a riot ture of instruc tions the po lice gave to their dep- ex clu sion clause in the pol i cies. Redfearn sued u ties, and how many people died can be 3 on the pol icy and the case was tried in April, answered with vary ing de grees of cer tainty. 1924. The insur ance company claimed that the The re cord estab lishes with about as much cer- prop erty was de stroyed by riot and the judge di- tainty as on any is sue re lated to the riot that rected a ver dict for the de fen dant at the con clu - “spe cial” dep uty po lice of fi cers were deeply sion of the trial. Dur ing the trial and subse quent in volved in the burn ing of Greenwood. Con - appeal, Redfearn and the insur ance company tem po ra ne ous re ports estab lish the shame ful advanced compet ing sto ries about the riot. Their record of the hastily depu tized po lice. briefs pres ent one of the most com plete stories Looking for Evi dence: The Of fi cial of the riot now avail able.6 They also capture the Inves ti ga tions uncer tainty of facts and outcome that is cen tral to a true under stand ing of his tory. For we have

154 Cu ri os ity reigned as whites toured the de stroyed Green wood dis trict af ter the riot (Cour tesy West ern His- tory Col lec tion, Uni ver sity Of Oklahoma Li braries). the writ ten, neatly stylized version of “an cient teen-year-old Dick Rowland had assaulted sev - myth” and the other unwrit ten, cha otic, full of en teen-year-old Sarah Page, a white el e va tor con tra dic tions, changes of pace, and sur prises oper a tor. 8 Some time around 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 as life itself. 7 As we try to re cover the un writ ten p.m. and cer tainly by 6:30 p.m., ru mors that his tory, Redfearn’s hun dreds of pages of tes ti- Dick Rowland would be lynched that eve ning mony are in dis pens able. It may no longer be cir cu lated in the Greenwood com mu nity.9 possi ble to think of the events put in motion by Green wood res i dents were be com ing more anx- the Tulsa Tri bune’s story on Rowland having ious as the evening wore on. Wil liam Gurley, any other outcome. How ever, it is nec es sary to owner of the Gur ley Ho tel in Greenwood and un der stand the contin gen cies, to put ourselves one of the wealthi est blacks in Tulsa, went with back in the events as they were oc cur ring, and Mr. Webb to the courthouse to inves ti gate the to un der stand how forces came to gether in the rumored lynching. The sher iff told him “there riot. We now know the broad con tours of the would be no lynching; if the wit ness could keep riot, but the testi mony fills in in spe cific his folks away from the courthouse there would- ar eas and recov ers the cha otic, fearful en vi- n’t be any trou ble.” Gur ley then went back to re- ron ment in which black and white Tulsans port his con ver sa tion with the sher iff to the strug gled to pre vent vio lence, even as strong crowd gath ered out side his ho tel. The crowd forces, like the ideas of equality and enforce - was skepti cal. “You are a damn liar,” said one ment of the law against mob vio lence clashed person. “They had taken a white man out of jail a with white views of the place that blacks few weeks be fore that, and that they were go ing should oc cupy. The follow ing ac count is to take this Ne gro out.” At that point the speaker drawn from those briefs and is sup ple mented “pointed a Winches ter at [Gur ley], and was with con tem po rary news pa per stories. stopped by a Negro lawyer named Spears.”10 Evolu tion of the Riot At approx i mately 9:00 p.m., the situ a tion was As best as we can now de ter mine, a crowd of becom ing more heated. William Redfearn, whites be gan gath er ing at the Tulsa County owner of a the ater tes ti fied: court house in the early eve ning on Tuesday, that he closed his busi ness about 9:00 May 31. They were drawn there at least in part p.m. or 9:30 p.m. on the evening of May 31. by a newspa per story im ply ing that nine- He closed it be cause a col ored girl came

155 into the thea tre and was go ing from one closed up shop around 10:30 p.m. His car had person to another, telling them something, been com man deered by blacks and he was taken and he looked out into the street and saw back towards the courthouse by a black man. As several men in the street talking and he passed the court house, he was told he “had bunched up. Upon inquiry as to what was better get on home to his fam ily, if he had one, or wrong, some one said there was go ing to else get some arms, for the thing was com ing be a lynch ing and that was the rea son they on.”16 The police de part ment’s reac tion to the had come over there.11 events ”com ing on" was to commis sion hun - 17 Redfearn went to the courthouse, where dreds of white men. some one asked him to go back to Greenwood, One of the best de scrip tions of the unfold ing to try to dis suade the black res i dents from com- of events came from Colum bus F. Gabe, a black ing to town. De spite Redfearn’s ef forts, he was man who lived in Greenwood for about 15 unsuc cess ful. When he returned, “there was a years. His testi mony at the Redfearn trial pre - bunch of men stand ing in front of the po lice serves the unfold ing of the en tire riot and thus station and across the street when he ar rived at allows us to re con struct a pic ture through a sin- that place; that there was prob a bly fifty or gle char ac ter. He first heard about the lynch ing sixty men in front of the po lice sta tion.12 The around 6:30 p.m. He went home to pick up a police chief attempted to persuade the blacks gun, and then he went to the court house. When to dis perse. Gurley told the court about the un- Gabe ar rived at the court house, there were per - sta ble scene at the courthouse: haps about 800 people there and tensions were al ready running high. Some peo ple were yell ing That some white man was mak ing a to “Get these niggers away from here.” Mean - speech and advised the people to go home, while, Gabe was told by a car load of blacks to stating that the Ne groes were riding arm him self. Whites were go ing to the ar mory to around with high pow ered revolv ers and arm themselves and several carloads of armed guns downtown; that the speech had some blacks headed to wards the court house. Gabe left ef fect and the crowd started to disperse, the courthouse area, but was still within earshot but would soon come back; that while this when the gun that be gan the riot went off. The man was speak ing the wit ness no ticed next morning, he was ousted from his house by “some col ored men com ing from Main two men. One said to the other, “Kill him,” and street; that when the ma chine was up in the other said, “No, he hasn’t a gun, don’t hurt front of the court house, the peo ple there him,” and said, “Get on up with the crowd.” He closed in around that bunch of men, and was then taken to the Con ven tion Cen ter.18 that when they got mixed up a pis tol went Bar ney Cleaver, a black member of the Tulsa off, but the crowd soon dispersed, and he Sheriffs De part ment, pre sented sim i lar tes ti - didn’t know whether any one was killed or 13 mony about the way the forces gath ered mo - not. men tum around the riot. He was polic ing Shooting started af ter the con fron ta tion.14 Green wood Ave nue when he heard ru mors of a Af ter the shoot ing, “hell . . . broke loose,” as lynch ing, so he drove up to the court house. Ac - O.W. Gur ley told Wil liam Redfearn when they cording to Cleaver, as the blacks were dis pers- met that night.15 The re cord is not as clear on ing, a gun fired and then peo ple be gan to run what happened im me di ately af ter the initial away. He stayed at the courthouse un til about shoot ing. White wit nesses were likely reluc - four o’clock the next morn ing and then he tant to tes tify and few blacks witnessed the headed back to Greenwood, where he met about next events around the court house. 15 or 20 black men. He told the group that no The mob broke into Bardon’s pawnshop, one had been lynched and that they should go looking for guns. Henry Sowders, a white man home. Someone then “made the re mark that he who op er ated projec tor in the Wil - was a white man lover.”19 liams’ Dreamland The ater in Green wood,

156 On the morn ing of June 1, most black Tulsans who were taken into cus tody were brought to Con vention Hall, on Brady Street. Later, de ten tion ar eas were es tab lished at the fair grounds and McNulty ball park (Cour tesy West ern His tory Col lec tion, Uni ver sity of Oklahoma Li braries).

The next morn ing, a whis tle blew about 5:00 The Oklahoma Supreme Court’s opin ion in a.m., and the in va sion of Greenwood began. Redfearn, written by Com mis sioner Ray, ac- Gurley left his ho tel around 8:30 a.m., be cause knowledges the city’s in volve ment in the riot. he became worried that it might burn and as The court wrote that “the evi dence shows that a white ri ot ers ap peared. Gurley stated, great number of men engaged in ar rest ing the “Those were white men, they was wear - Negroes found in the Ne gro section wore po lice ing khaki suits, all of them, and they saw, badges or badges in di cat ing they were dep uty me stand ing there and they said, ‘You sher iffs.” It ques tions, how ever, whether the ”men wear ing po lice badges" were offi cers or better get out of that ho tel be cause we are 21 going to burn all of this God damn stuff, were “act ing in an offi cial capac ity. That better get all your guests out.’ And they rat- state ment in di cates Com mis sioner Ray’s tled on the lower doors of the pool hall and pro-police bias. The case was ap pealed from a the res tau rant, and the peo ple be gan on the directed ver dict against Redfearn, that meant the lower floor to get out, and I told the peo ple trial judge concluded there was no evi dence in the hotel, I said ‘I guess you better get from which a jury could con clude that the men out.’ There was a deal of shoot ing go ing wear ing badges were of fi cers. Yet, cases in volv- on from the el e va tor or the mill, some body ing re sist ing ar rest rou tinely con clude that a po- was over there with a ma chine gun and lice badge indi cates one’s author ity to ar rest. shooting down Green wood Av e nue, and Sim ply put, if one of the blacks involved in the the peo ple got on the stair way go ing down riot re sisted one of the men wear ing a badge, he to the street and they stampeded. ”20 could have been prose cuted for re sist ing ar rest. Commis sioner Ray could have in su lated the in - Gurley hid un der a school build ing for a surance company from lia bil ity with the state - while. When he came out, he was detained and ment that, even as sum ing the men wear ing taken to the Con ven tion Cen ter. badges were po lice of fi cers, they were act ing The Oklahoma a Supreme Court’s Ver sion beyond their author ity and were thus act ing as of the Riot

157 Af ri can Amer i cans were de - tained by many dif fer ent white’s, not only the police or National Guard (Cour - tesy Depart ment of Special Col lec tions, McFarlin Li - brary, Uni ver sity of Tulsa).

riot ers. Ray’s incon sis tency in ap ply ing pre ce - wore badges and started fires.26 Green Smith, a dent sug gests that his mo tive was not a solely black car pen ter who lived in Muskogee and was in impar tial deci sion of the case be fore him, but Tulsa for a few days working on the Dream land the insu la tion of the po lice de part ment and The ater install ing a cool ing system, testi fied to the Tulsa from li a bil ity. role of the spe cial po lice dur ing the riot. He awoke There is sub stan tial testi mony in Redfearn’s before 5:00 a.m. and went to work at the the ater, brief, more over, dem on strat ing a close con - but soon heard shooting. The shoot ing was heavy nection between the “po lice dep u ties” and the from 5:00 a.m. un til around 8:00 a.m., and then it Po lice Chief Fire Marshal, Wesley Bush, let up. But by 9:30, “there was a came down stated that when he ar rived at the po lice sta tion the street knock ing on the doors and setting the some time af ter 10:00 p.m., buildings afire.” Smith thought they were po lice. the station was prac ti cally full of peo - In response to a cross-examination ques tion, how ple, and that the people were armed; that he could know they were po lice, Smith tes ti fied, “They came and taken fifty dol lars of money, and there would be bunches of men go out of 27 the police sta tion, but he didn’t know I was look ing right at them.” He saw a gang of where they would go; that they would about ten to twelve wear ing “Spe cial Po lice” and “Dep uty Sheriff’ badges. ”Some had ribbons and leave the po lice station and go out, and 28 come back - they were out and in, all of some of them had regu lar stars.” Smith was ar - them, that they were in squads, several of rested and taken to the Conven tion Center. them to gether.22 The insur ance company’s brief presents The instruc tions those special depu ties re- a differ ent story, one that blames Tulsa ceived are un clear. Accord ing to pleadings in a blacks. But perhaps most tell ing is the insur - suit filed by a black riot victim, one dep uty offi - ance company’s ar gu ment at the end of the cer gave instruc tions to “Go out and kill you a brief, in which the insur ance company was d__m nigger.”23 Another al le ga tion was that the ar gu ing that there was a riot and, there fore, mayor gave in struc tions to ”burn ev ery Negro they did not have to pay for the losses. house up to Haskell Street."24 Other con tem po - There were from a few hun dred to several rary reports contain sim i lar al le ga tions.25 thousand people engaged in the Tulsa race Whether they re ceived instruc tions to “ru[n] riot. They met at differ ent places includ ing the Negro out of Tulsa,” as one of the photos of the court house, Green wood Av e nue, the the riot was cap tioned or not, many of the riot ers hard ware store, and the pawn shop. They fully armed themselves with guns and am -

158 (Photo Courtesy Oklahoma His tor i cal Soci ety).

mu ni tion, with a com mon intent to ex e- They be came as dep u ties the most danger - cute a common plan, to-wit: the ous part of the mob and af ter the ar rival of exter mi na tion of the colored peo ple of the ad ju tant general and the dec la ra tion of Tulsa and the destruc tion of the col ored set- martial law the first ar rests or dered were tlement, homes, and buildings, by fire.29 those of spe cial offi cers whohad hin dered Ap por tioning Blame to the City the fire men in their abor tive ef forts to put out the incen di ary fires that many of these Whatever in ter pre ta tion one places on the 30 or i gin of the riot, there seems to be a con sen sus special of fi cers were accused of set ting. emerg ing from his to ri ans that the riot was Sev eral other white men tes ti fied about the much worse be cause of the actions of Tulsa of- role of the po lice. Ac cord ing to tes ti mony found ficials. Major General Charles F. Barrett, who in the Oklahoma At tor ney Gen eral’s pa pers, a was in charge of the Oklahoma Na tional Guard brick layer, Laurel Buck, tes ti fied that af ter the dur ing the riot and thus was a par tic i pant in the riot broke out he went to the po lice station and closing moments of the riot, wrote in his book asked for a com mis sion. He did not re ceive it, Oklahoma After Fifty Years about the role of but he was in structed to “get a gun, and get busy the dep u ties in fuel ing the riot. The po lice and try to get a nigger.”31 Buck went to the chief had depu tized per haps 500 men to help Tulsa Hardware Store, where he received a gun. put down the riot. Like many other men, Buck was issued a He did not real ize that in a race war a weapon by Tulsa offi cials. Buck then stood large part if not a ma jor ity, of those spe cial guard at Boston and Third. In the words of the dep u ties were imbued with the same spirit lawyer who questioned Buck, he ”went to get a of de struc tion that ani mated the mob. Negro." By that he meant that, if be had seen a

159 black man shoot ing at white people he would The record from the tes ti mony of credi ble have “tried to kill him.” He was “out to pro tect whites before the at tor ney gen eral and in the the lives of white peo ple . . . under spe cific or- Redfearn case, in con junc tion with Gen eral ders from a police man at the po lice depart - Barrett’s book, dem on strate the involve ment of ment.” And the only rea son Buck did not kill the city in the de struc tion. any blacks was that he did not see any. The State Culpa bil ity: The Di vided (and next morn ing he went near Greenwood, where Ambig u ous) Roles of the National Guard he saw two uni formed po lice of fi cers break ing 32 Dur ing the open ing mo ments of the crisis, the into buildings and setting them afire. lo cal units of the Na tional Guard behaved admi - Another wit ness, Judge Oliphant, linked the ra bly. They de fended the ar mory against a police and their special dep u ties to burn ing, crowd of gun-hungry whites, then offered their even mur der. The seventy-three-year old as sis tance to the po lice in putt ing down the riot. Oliphant went to Green wood to check on his How ever, it is pre cisely that of fer of as sis tance rental property there. He called the po lice de - and their sub se quent co op er a tion with the Tulsa part ment around eight o’clock and asked for 33 police that calls their be hav ior into ques tion. help pro tect ing his homes. No assis tance There also is substan tial evi dence that the came, but shortly after his call, a gang of men out-of-town units of the National Guard — those — four uni formed of fi cers and some dep u ties who had trav eled through out the night from — came along. In stead of pro tect ing property, 34 Oklahoma City — helped re store or der when “they were the chief fellows setting fires.” they arrived around 9:00 am on the morning of They shot Dr. A.C. Jackson and then be gan 35 June 1. They deserve some of the credit for lim it - burn ing houses. ing the loss of life caused by the white mobs that Oliphant tried to dissuade them from burn - invaded Green wood. Nev er the less, the local ing. “This last crowd made an agree ment that units of the National Guard may have acted un - they would not burn that property [across the consti tu tion ally in re stor ing or der. The guards - street from my property] be cause I thought it men arrested ev ery black resi dent of Tulsa they would burn mine too and I prom ised that if could find and then took them into “pro tec tive they would n’t, . . . I would see that no Ne groes cus tody.” That left Green wood prop erty unpro - ever lived in that row of houses any more.”36

(Cour tesy Depart ment of Spe cial Col lec tions, McFarlin Li brary, Uni ver sity Of Tulsa).

160 tected -and vulner a ble to the “special depu ties” to the court house un til they re ceived or ders from who came along and burned it. Lieuten ant Col o nel Rooney, the of fi cer in The key questions then become, what was charge of the Tulsa units of the Na tional Guard. the role of the local units of the Na tional Guard Van Voorhis ar rived af ter the riot had bro ken that were present in Tulsa even before the riot out at 10:30 p.m., with two offi cers and six teen broke out and were there through out the riot? men. They went to the po lice sta tion, where What was the role of the out-of-town units of they ap par ently be gan work ing in conjunc tion the National Guard that arrived from with the po lice. At 1: 15 a.m. they “produced” a Oklahoma City around 9:00 a.m. the morning machine gun and placed it on a truck, along with of June 1? three ex pe ri enced ma chine gun ners and six The local units knew that there was trouble other enlisted men. They then trav eled around brew ing in the early eve ning of May 31. They the city to spots where “there was fir ing” until closely guarded their sup ply of am mu ni tion 3:00 a.m., when Col o nel Rooney or dered them and guns and waited orders from the gov er nor to Stand Pipe Hill. At that point, Rooney de - about what to do next. Sometime after 10:00 ployed the men along De troit Av e nue, from p.m., fol low ing the vi o lent confron ta tion at the Stand Pipe Hill to Ar cher, where they worked court house, the local units, under the di rec tion “disarm ing and ar rest ing Ne groes and send ing of Col o nel Rooney, went into action and trav- them to the Con ven tion Hall by po lice cars and eled the few blocks from the ar mory to the po- trucks.”38 Van Voorhis’s report de tails the cap - lice station, where they es tab lished ture of more than 200 “pris on ers.” Van head quar ters. The sol diers helped to stop loot- Voorhis’s men were able to dis arm and cap ture ing near the court house.37 They then be gan those Green wood res i dents with out much gun - work ing in conjunc tion with local author i ties fire. It ap pears that his men killed no one. to try to quell the riot. There was con sid er ation Cap tain McCuen’s men, how ever, did fire given to pro tect ing Greenwood by keeping upon a number of Green wood resi dents in the white mobs out. But such a plan was aban - pro cess of respond ing to what the local units of doned in favor of an other, which had disas - the Guard called a “Ne gro upris ing.” Sometime trous conse quences for Green wood. The local after 11:00 p.m., McCuen brought 20 men to the units of the Guard sys tem at i cally dis armed and po lice sta tion, where Col o nel Rooney had set up arrested Green wood res i dents, leav ing their headquar ters. They guarded the border between prop erty defense less. When the “spe cial depu - white Tulsa and Green wood for sev eral hours. ties” came along in the wake of the Guard, it Then they be gan mov ing towards Green wood was a sim ple task to burn Green wood prop erty. and estab lished a line along Detroit, on the west Af ter-Action Re ports: The Tes ti mony of side of Greenwood. They be gan push ing into the Local Units of the National Guard Greenwood, us ing a truck with an old (and The Na tional Guard’s af ter-action re ports likely inop er a ble ma chine gun on it), proba bly describe their role in the riot us ing their own around 3:00 a.m. McCuen’s men, like Van words. Two re ports in par tic u lar suggest that Voorhis’s, were work ing in close conjunc tion the lo cal units of the Guard — while os ten si - with the Tulsa po lice. They ar rested a “large bly oper at ing to pro tect the lives and prop erty number” of Green wood resi dents and turned of Green wood resi dents — disarmed and ar - them over to the “po lice de part ment au to mo - rested Green wood resi dents (and not white ri - biles,” that were close by “at all times." Those ot ers), leaving their property de fense less, cars “were manned by ex-service men, and in many cases plain-clothes men of the po lice de - allow ing depu ties, uni formed po lice offi cers, 39 and mobs to burn it. partment.” The close con nec tion between the Ac cord ing to the re port filed by Captain lo cal units of the Na tional Guard and the po lice de part ment is not sur pris ing. Major Daley, for FrankVan Voorhis, the po lice called around 40 8:30 p.m. to ask for help in control ling the in stance, was also a po lice offi cer. The Guard crowds at the court house. No guardsmen went es tab lished its headquar ters at the po lice station

161 .41 The local units were in structed to follow the fol lowed shortly after wards. In es sence, the direc tions of the ci vil ian author i ties. 42 Once guardsmen fa cil i tated the destruc tion of Green - they went into oper a tion, the local units took wood be cause they re moved res i dents who had charge of a large num ber of volun teers, many no de sire to leave and ap peared more than ca pa- of whom were Ameri can Legion mem bers and ble of defend ing them selves. While the af- veter ans of the war.43 ter-action reports are sparse, they cre ate a Some may ar gue that the Guard was tak ing pic ture of the lo cal units of the Guard work ing in Green wood resi dents into protec tive custody. In- close con junc tion with the lo cal ci vil ian au thor i- deed, the lo cal units of the Na tional Guard told ties to dis arm and ar rest Green wood res i dents. It the men they were dis arm ing, and they were was those same ci vil ian author i ties who were there to pro tect them.44 Never the less, the af - later crit i cized for burning, looting, and kill ing ter-action re ports sug gest that the Guard’s work in Greenwood. in conjunc tion with lo cal author i ties was de- Colo nel Rooney, who was in charge of the lo- signed to put down the sup posed “Negro up ris- cal units of the Guard, ad mit ted that the Guard ing,” not to pro tect the Green wood res i dents.45 fired upon Greenwood res i dents. How ever, he McCuen’s men did not seem to be working claimed that his men only fired when fired to pro tect blacks. In fact, after daylight he re - upon.47 Rooney’s men were lined up fac ing into ceived an ur gent request from the po lice de - Green wood and they posi tioned to pro tect white part ment to stop blacks from fir ing into white prop erty and lives. When the Guard heard that homes along Sunset Hill, lo cated on the north- blacks were fir ing upon whites, they moved into west side of Greenwood. “We advanced to the po si tion to stop the fir ing. When the Tulsa police crest of Sun set Hill in a skir mish line and then a thought that five hun dred black men were com - little further north to the mil i tary crest of the ing from Muskogee, they put a ma chine gun crew hill where our men were or dered to lie down on the road from Muskogee with or ders to stop at be cause of the in tense fire of the blacks who the in va sion “at all haz ards.”48 When Col o nel had formed a good skirmish line at the foot of Rooney heard a ru mor that the five hun dred black the hill to the north east among the outbuild - men had comman deered a train in Muskogee, he ings of the Ne gro set tle ment which stops at the went off to or ga nize a patrol to meet it at the sta- foot of the hill.” The guardsmen fired at will tion.49 Yet, in con trast, when whites were firing for nearly half an hour and then the Green - upon blacks who were in the Guard’s custody, wood resi dents be gan fall ing back, “get ting they re sponded by hur ry ing the pris on ers along at good cover among the frame buildings of the a faster pace. The Guard seems to have been too negro settle ment.” As the guardsmen ad- busy working in con junc tion with civil ian au- vanced, they contin ued to meet stiff oppo si - thor i ties arrest ing Greenwood res i dents, or too tion from some “ne groes who had bar ri caded preoc cu pied putting down the ”Ne gro upris ing" themselves in houses.” Accord ing to McCuen, to protect Greenwood prop erty. the men who were bar ri caded “re fused to stop McCuen concluded that “all firing” had firing and had to be killed.” It is un clear how ceased by 11:00 a.m. The rea son for the end of many they killed. Later, at the northeast corner the fight ing was not that the Guard had suc- of the settle ment, “ Ten or more ne groes barri - ceeded in bring ing the white ri ot ers under con - caded themselves in a con crete store and a trol. Rather, it was that the Greenwood resi dents dwelling.” The guardsmen fought along side had been ar rested or driven out. “Practi cally all ci vil ians, and at this point, some blacks and of the Negro men had retreated to the northeast whites were killed.46 or else where or had been disarmed and sent to As the guardsmen were advanc ing, fires ap- con cen tra tion points.”50 peared all over Greenwood. Appar ently, the Inter preting the Lo cal Units’ Actions white mobs followed closely af ter the guards - There re mains the ques tion of how one men as they swept through Greenwood dis arm - should in ter pret the ac tions of the Na tional ing and ar rest ing the resi dents. They fires Guard’s local units. In di vid uals ap pear to have

162 been ar rested based on race. Some have argued them protec tion, as well as see that their that the Guard took Green wood resi dents into prop erty was saved . . .. When they re turned protec tive cus tody and that they pro tected to what were once their places of business lives by do ing so. There were simply too few or homes, with hopes built upon the prom - guards men to pro tect all of Green wood from ises of the Home Guards, how keen was inva sion by white mobs.51 So the question be - their disap point ment to find all of their comes, is it permis si ble to draw such dis tinc - earthly posses sions in ashes or stolen. 52 tions based on race in time of crisis? Was it Parrish’s ac count tes ti fies to the belief consti tu tion ally permis si ble to ar rest (or take among Greenwood res i dents that the lo cal into pro tec tive custody) Greenwood resi dents? troops were cul pa ble and the out-of-town units Did the local units of the Na tional Guard be - were respon si ble for end ing the riot, or at least have prop erly? Mary Jones Parrish captured for re stor ing order after wards. the frustra tion of Greenwood resi dents after While in ex tremely rare in stances it is per mis- the riot: si ble for the govern ment to draw in vid i ous dis- It is the general be lief that if [the state tinc tions based solely on race,53 such ac tion troops from Oklahoma City] had reached must be narrowly tailored. In 1921, the Su - the scene sooner many lives and valu able preme Court recog nized that it was in ap pro pri- prop erty would have been saved. Just as ate for the govern ment (as opposed to pri vate praise for the State troops was on ev ery indi vid u als) to seg re gate on the basis of race.54 tongue, so was denun ci a tion of the Home The reports of the Guard units based in Tulsa ac- Guards on ev ery lip. Many stated that they knowl edge that they ar rested many blacks, be gin- [the local guard] fooled [the res i dents] out ning as early as 6:30 a.m. on June 1.55 At that of their homes on a promise that if they point, much of Greenwood was still in tact. It is would give up peace fully they would give likely that had the lo cal units not arrested those

163 res i dents, their homes would not have been va - safety. In re ject ing the ar gu ment, the United cant and they might not have been burned. In es- States Supreme Court observed that commu nity sence the Guard cre ated the dan ger when they hostil ity might be a se ri ous prob lem, but it re - took Greenwood res i dents into custody. fused to per mit con tin ued de ten tion on that ba sis Much of the United States Supreme Court’s once loyalty was dem on strated.63 law on ra cial ar rests arises out of World War The most impor tant-and most heavily crit i - II. Three cases in partic u lar ad dress the con sti - cized case of the tril ogy was Korematsu, which tu tion al ity of draw ing dis tinc tions based on up held the forced relo ca tion of Jap a nese Amer i - race: Hirabayashi v. United States, 56 decided cans. The court up held the re lo ca tion, with the in June 1943, and Korematsu v. United bold con ten tion that “when under con di tions of States.57 and Ex Parte Endo, 58 de cided on the mod ern war fare our shores are threatened by same day in De cem ber 1944. They all ad- hostile forces, the power to pro tect must be com- dressed the le gal ity of the United States laws men su rate with the threatened dan ger.”64 The re gard ing Jap a nese Amer i cans. Hirabayashi, ma jor ity opin ion acknowl edged that the major - the first of the race cases to reach the United ity of those interned were loyal.65 We now rec - States Supreme Court, ad dressed the con sti tu - ognize the deci sion as im proper. In deed, the tion al ity of a imposed on Amer i cans of Civil Rights Act of 1988, that provided $20,000 Japa nese an ces try liv ing in Ha waii. A ma jor ity compen sa tion to each Jap a nese Ameri can per - of the court up held the racially discrim i na tory son interned dur ing World War II was premised cur few. One con cur ring jus tice ob served that on the be lief that Korematsu and the re lo ca tion “where the peril is great and the time is short, that it up held was wrong. The act apol o gized for tem po rary treat ment on a group ba sis may be the relo ca tion and in tern ment and provided the only prac ti ca ble expe di ent what ever the ul- some compen sa tion for those af fected. ti mate per cent age of those who are de tained for Justice ’ dis sent ing opin ion in cause.”59 The con cur ring opinions were care - Korematsu, argued that the relo ca tion was un - ful to note that dis tinc tions based on race were consti tu tional, and rec og nized that citi zens extraor di narily dif fi cult to jus tify. They went might occa sion ally be taken into pro tec tive cus- “to the brink of con sti tu tional power.”60 While tody. At other times, the govern ment can, Rob - ar rests might be jus ti fied upon a show ing of erts acknowl edged, “exclude cit i zens im me di ate harm, they had to be justi fied. “De- tempo rarily from a local ity.” For ex am ple, it ten tion for rea son able cause is one thing. De - may ex clude cit i zens from a fire zone.66 But the ten tion on account of an ces try is an other,” intern ments went be yond lim ited exclu sion for Jus tice Wil liam O. Douglas wrote.61 Jus tice the pro tec tion of the peo ple ex cluded and so Murphy’s con cur rence fur ther lim ited the gov- Rob erts thought them improper. Korematsu in - ernment’s power to detain Ameri can citi zens volved in tern ment “based on his ances try, and with out any showing that they posed a solely be cause of his ances try, with out evi dence threat.62 or inquiry con cern ing his loy alty. . ..”67 While the Supreme Court unan i mously up - The ev i dence seems to estab lish that the lo cal held a curfew imposed upon Ameri can cit i - units of the Na tional Guard, in conjunc tion with zens on the basis of race, in two cases decided police depu ties, ar rested based on race, not on the next year, some jus tices voted against con- danger to the Green wood res i dents themselves. tin ued dis tinc tions based on race. In Ex Parte The fear of Tulsa’s po lice force was that the Endo, Mitsuye Endo, an Ameri can cit i zen Green wood resi dents were engaged in an up ris - whose loy alty to the United States was un ques - ing. Their response was to dis arm and arrest, in tioned, challenged her contin ued de ten tion in a some cases tak ing life to do so. That be hav ior is re lo ca tion camp. The United States sought to suspect even under the major ity’s opin ion in justify the de ten tion on the ground that there Koremastsu. Un der Jus tice Rob erts’s dis sent, were commu nity senti ments against her and the actions of the lo cal units of the National that, in es sence, she was detained for her own Guard are even more sus pect. There is one other

164 prece dent that is impor tant in in ter pret ing the ac count of Van B. Hurley, who was iden ti fied Na tional Guard’s ac tions: the United States as a for mer Tulsa police of fi cer, was printed in Supreme Court’s 1909 de ci sion in Moyer v. the Chi cago De fender in Oc to ber 192 1. The Peabody . 68 That case arose from a con flict be- ac count was cir cu lated by Elisha Scot, an at - tween min ers and min ing com pa nies in Colo - torney from To peka, Kansas, who rep re sented rado. The presi dent of the West ern a number of riot vic tims. The De fender re - Feder a tion of Miners was arrested by the Na- ported that Hurley, “who was honor ably dis - tional Guard and detained for sev eral weeks, charged from the force and given splen did even though there ‘was no proba ble cause to rec om men da tions by his cap tains and lieuten - arrest him. Sim ply put, he had commit ted no ants,” named city offi cials who planned the at- crime. Colo rado’s gover nor ex plained that tack on Greenwood us ing air planes. Hurley there was an in sur rec tion and that he had to ar- described “the confer ence be tween lo cal avi a - rest Moyer and de tain him to put down the in- tors and the of fi cials. Af ter this meet ing Hurley sur rec tion.69 Justice Holmes gave the as serted the air planes darted out from han gars National Guard, act ing un der the gov er nor’s and hovered over the district drop ping nitro - or ders, broad power to arrest in or der to put glycerin on buildings, set ting them afire.” down an in sur rec tion. Holmes re fused to al - Hurley said the offi cials told their dep u ties to low a suit against the gov er nor for de pri va tion deal ag gres sively with Green wood resi dents. of consti tu tional rights, as long as the gover - “They gave in struc tions for every man to be nor had a good faith belief that the arrest was ready and on the alert and if the niggers wanted to nec es sary. It is eas ier, though, to clas sify the start anything to be ready for them. They never arrest of one per son in Moyer, as justi fied, put forth any efforts at all to prevent it what ever, than the whole sale arrest of Green wood res i- and said if they started anything to kill ev ery b_ dents. Moyer sup ported limited ar rests to stop son of a b_ they could find.”73 Hurley’s account in sur rec tions. The lo cal units of the National is somewhat sus pect, but it fits with Laurel Guard, in con junc tion with depu tized Tulsa Buck’s testi mony that the police told white police offi cers, arrested thou sands. In the pro- Tulsans to “get out and get a nigger.” cess — ac cord ing to their own reports—they At a min i mum, there was sub stan tial plan ning killed an unspec i fied num ber of blacks. Such by the police for the system atic ar rest and de ten - actions are diffi cult to defend even apply ing tion of Greenwood res i dents. Fire Mar shal Wes- the legal stan dards of the times. ley Bush reported that he saw armed men coming and go ing from the police station all eve- Newspa per Accounts of the Offi cial 74 In volve ment in the Riot ning. The Tulsa Tribune re ported that there had The accounts of the riot as it was unfold ing been plans to take Greenwood res i dents to in the Tulsa World show the coor di na tion of the Con ven tion Cen ter. It is very diffi cult at the police, National Guard, and white cit i- this point to recon struct the instruc tions from zens. Some white men were work ing to arrest the mayor and police chief to the dep u ties. That “ev ery Ne gro seen on the streets.” Many of dif fi culty arises in large part be cause the city those people had at a mini mum vol un teered refused to al low a se ri ous in ves ti ga tion of the their ser vices to the police. 70 “Armed guards riot. There are, however, a substan tial number were placed in cars and sent out on patrol of re ports of those instruc tion s and the pat tern duty. Companies of about 50 men each were of destruc tion cer tainly fits with those reports. or ga nized and marched through the business Quite simply, it is dif fi cult to ex plain the sys - streets.”71 As the Tulsa World stated in an ed- tematic ar rest of blacks, the destruc tion of their i to rial on June 2, “Semi-organized bands of prop erty, and the tim ing of the inva sion of white men sys tem at i cally ap plied the Green wood with out rely ing upon some coor di - while oth ers shot on sight men of color.”72 na tion by the Tulsa city govern ment, with the assis tance of the lo cal units of the National The black press presented starker pic tures 75 of offi cial involve ment in the de struc tion. An Guard.

165 Many owners of destroyed property took ac tion against in sur ance com pa nies.

Stat u tory Li a bil ity for City’s Fail ure to The Af ter math of the Riot: Of Prose cu tions, Pro tect Lawsuits, and Ordi nances Asking for rep a ra tions for the riot does not As Tulsans be gan to shift the rubble af ter the re quire us to read our own mo ral ity back onto riot, they asked themselves how had such a trag- Tulsa at the early part of the century. Many edy oc curred, who was to blame, and how might states pro vided a rem edy for the city’s fail ure they rebuild. A grand jury inves ti gated the riot’s to pro tect riot vic tims in the 1920s. At the causes and re turned in dict ments against about time of the riot, for instance, Il li nois had a seventy men, mostly blacks. The city re-zoned stat ute pro vid ing a cause of action for dam - the burned dis trict, to discour age rebuild ing, as age done by riot when the lo cal govern ment Green wood resi dents and whites who owned failed to pro tect against the riot ers. The Il li - prop erty in Green wood filed lawsuits against nois law pro vided that the mu nic i pal ity the city and their insur ance compa nies. The law- where vio lence occurred was li a ble to the suits, filed by more than one-hundred peo ple fam i lies of “lynch ing” vic tims. It al lowed who lost prop erty, tes tify to the attempts made claims for wrongful death up to $5,000.76 by riot vic tims to use the law for relief, and its The Il li nois courts construed “lynch ing” to fail ure to as sist them, even after the govern ment include deaths dur ing race ri ots.77 If the riot had destroyed their prop erty. had occurred in Il li nois, there would have The Failure of Repa ra tions Through been a right to recover if the police failed to Lawsuits protect the vic tims. Tulsans knew about the Green wood resi dents and property own ers statutes in Il li nois and Kan sas. They even (both black and white), filed more than one- consulted an at tor ney from East Saint Louis hundred suits against their insur ance com pa- for help in un der stand ing their legal li a bil- nies, the city of Tulsa, and even Sinclair Oil 78 ity. Company, that al leg edly provided air planes that were used in at tack ing Greenwood. Not one of

166 those suits was success ful. One, filed by Wil - ply, a clas sic case of in ter preter’s ex treme bi ases liam Redfearn, a white man who owned a ho tel col or ing their vi sion of events. and a movie theater in Greenwood, went to The grand jury, which began work on June 7, trial and then on appeal to the Oklahoma Su - took testi mony from doz ens of white and black preme Court. Redfearn’s insur ance com pany Tulsans. It op er ated within the frame work es - de nied lia bil ity, cit ing a riot exclu sion clause. tablished by Tulsa Dis trict Judge Biddson. He The clause ex empted the insur ance com pany instructed the jurors to in ves ti gate the causes of from lia bil ity for loss due to riot. the riot. Biddson feared that the spirit of law - The Oklahoma Supreme Court in ter preted less ness was growing. The ju rors’ conclu sions the damage as due to riot-an under stand able would be “marked in del i bly upon the pub lic conclu sion, and thereby im mu nized insur ance mind” and would be im por tant in de ter ring fu - compa nies from li a bil ity.79 Fol low ing the fail - ture ri ots.83 It cast its net widely, look ing at the ure of Mr. Redfearn’s suit, none other went to riot as it un folded as well as so cial con di tions in trial. That is not sur pris ing. It is dif fi cult to see Tulsa more gen er ally. how any one could have prevailed in the wake The grand jury fixed the imme di ate cause of of the Redfearn opin ion. They lay fallow for the riot as the ap pear ance “of a certain group of years and then were dis missed in 1937. col ored men who appeared at the courthouse . . . The Grand Jury and the Fail ure of for the purpose of pro tect ing . . . Dick Prose cu tions Rowland.” From there it laid blame en tirely on Just as the le gal sys tem had failed to provide those peo ple who sought to de fend Rowland’s a ve hi cle for re cov ery by Green wood res i dents life. It discounted ru mors of lynch ing. “There was no mob spirit among the whites, no talk of and property owners, the legal sys tem failed to 84 hold Tulsans crim i nally respon si ble for the lynch ing and no arms.” reign of terror dur ing the riot. The grand jury, Echoing the dis cus sions of the riot in the con vened a few days after the riot, returned white Tulsa news pa pers, the grand jury iden ti - about sev enty indict ments. A few peo ple, fied two re mote causes of the riot which were mostly blacks, were held in jail. Others were “vital to the pub lic in ter est.” Those causes were released on bond, pend ing their tri als for ri ot - the “agi ta tion among the Ne groes of so cial ing. How ever, most of the cases were dis- equal ity” and the break down of law en force - missed in Sep tem ber, 1921, when Dick ment. The agi ta tion for so cial equality was the Rowland’s case was dismissed. When Sa rah first of the re mote causes the jury dis cussed: Page failed to ap pear as the complain ing wit - Certain pro pa ganda and more or less ag i ta tion ness, the dis trict at tor ney dis missed his case.80 had been go ing on among the colored pop u la - Other dis miss als soon followed .81 Appar ently, tion for some time. This ag i ta tion resulted in the no one, black or white, served time in prison accu mu la tion of firearms among the people and for murder, lar ceny, or arson, al though some the storage of quanti ties of ammu ni tion, all of peo ple may have been held in custody pending which was ac cu mu la tive in the minds of the Ne- dismissal of suits in the fall of 1921. gro which led them as a peo ple to be lieve in equal rights, so cial equal ity, and their ability to The grand jury’s most no ta ble action is not 85 the indict ments that it re turned but the white - demand the same. wash it. engaged in. Their re port, which was The Nation broke the grand jury’s code. pub lished in its en tirety in the Tulsa World un- Charges that blacks were rad i cals meant that der the head ing “Grand Jury Blames Ne groes blacks were in suf fi ciently ob se qui ous. They for In citing Race Rioting: Whites Clearly Ex - asked for legal rights. on er ated,”82 told a laughable story of black cul- Negroes were un com pro mis ingly denounc - pabil ity for the riot. The report is an amazing ing of “Jim-Crow” cars, lynching, peon age; in docu ment, that dem on strates how ev i dence short, were ask ing that the Fed eral con sti tu- can be se lec tively in ter preted. It is, quite sim- tional guar an tees of “life, lib erty, and the pur suit of happi ness” be given re gard less of color. The

167 Negroes of Tulsa and other Oklahoma cities fire ordi nance to incor po rate parts of Green- are pi o neers; men and women who have dared, wood. That ex pan sion made rebuild ing in the men and women who have had the initia tive burned dis trict prohib i tively expen sive. The city and the courage to pull up stakes in other pre sented two ra tio nales: to expand the in dus- less-favored states and face hardship in a trial area around the railroad yard and to fur ther newer one for the sake of greater even tual sepa rate the races.87 progress. That type is ever less ready to submit The story of the zon ing or di nance is one of the to in sult. Those of the whites who seek to few tri umphs of the rule of law to emerge from the main tain the old white group con trol natu rally riot. Green wood resi dents who wanted to re build do not rel ish see ing Ne groes eman ci pat ing challenged the or di nance as a vio la tion of property themselves from the old system. 86 rights as well as on techni cal grounds. They first Such was the mind set of the grand jury that won a tem po rary re strain ing or der on techni cal they thought ideas about ra cial equality were to grounds (that there had been in suf fi cient notice blame for the riot, instead of explain ing why before the or di nance was passed). Then, fol low- Green wood resi dents felt it nec es sary to visit the ing re-promulgation of the or di nance, they won a court house. Thus, the grand jury recast its ev i- perma nent injunc tion, ap par ently on the grounds dence to fit its estab lished prej u dices. And as it that it would deprive the Green wood prop erty did that, as it confirmed white Tulsa’s myth that own ers of their property rights if they were not the blacks were to blame for the riot, it helped to per mit ted to rebuild. 88 remove the moral im pe tus to repa ra tions. And so, hav ing won one court vic tory, Green- Preventing Rebuilding? wood res i dents were left to their own de vices: Given the context of ra cial vi o lence and seg - free to rebuild their property, but with out the di- re ga tion leg is la tion of Pro gres sive-era rect as sis tance from the city that was cru cial to Oklahoma, it makes sense that one of the city doing so. Now the question is whether the city gov ern ment’s first re sponses was to ex pand the and state wish to ac knowl edge that as a debt and to pay it?

(Cour tesy West ern His tory Col lec tion, Uni ver sity of Oklahoma Li braries).

168 Endnotes 1This brief re port on “the riot and the law” is neces sar ily summary. For a fuller ex plo ra tion of many of the is sues dis cussed here, see Al fred L. Brophy, “Recon structing the Dream land” (2000), avail able at 2Black Ag i ta tors Blamed for Riot, Tulsa World, June 6, 1921. 3There are seven key questions, which need answers in devel op ing a clear picture of the riot: (1) How did Tulsa go from minor event in el e va tor to attempted lynching? (2) How did Tulsa go from confron ta tion at the courthouse to riot? (3) What was the role of the police? That question has several sub-parts: (a) How many were com mis sioned as depu ties? (b) What instruc tions did po lice give the dep u ties? (c) How much plan ning was there for the at tack on Green wood? (4) What was the role of the mayor? (5) What was the role of the NationalGuard? (6) What mo ti vated the changing of the fire or di nance and the rezoning of Green wood to requi re building using fireproof mate rial? How was that re solved? (7) Was a riot in ev i ta ble? That question has sev eral sub-parts: (a) Was there plan ning be fore the eve ning of May 31, to “run the Negro out of Tulsa,” as some alleged. See, e.g., “The Tulsa Riots”, 22 The Crisis . pp. 114-16 July 1921. “Compare Pub lic Welfare Board Vacated by Commis sion: Mayor in State ment on Race Trou ble”, Tulsa Tri bune, June 14, 1921 (re print ing Mayor T.D. Evans speech to City Com mis sion. June 14, 1921) “It is the judgment of many wise heads in Tulsa, based upon obser va tion of a number of years that this upris ing was inev i ta ble. If that be true and this judg ment had to come upon us, then I say it was good gen er al ship to let the de struc tion come to that sec tion where the trou ble was hatched up, put in mo tion and where it had its incep tion.” (b) Were racial ten sions so great that there would have been a riot even without the attempted lynching of Dick Rowland? See Wal ter F. White, “The Erup tion of Tulsa”, The Na tion, pp. 909-910 (de tail ing el e ments of ra cial ten sion and law less ness in Tulsa). See also: R. L. Jones," Blood and Oil", Sur vey 46, June 1921. On questions of his tor i cal inter pre ta tion, where the record is only imper fectly pre served, there are in ev i ta ble uncer tain ties. 4221 Pacific Reporter p. 929 (1926). 5The other “of fi cial” re ports, the grand jury re port and the fire mar shall’s re port, are lesshelp ful in re con struct ing the riot. The hast ily pre pared grand jury re port blamed Tulsa’s blacks for the riot. The grand jury re port focused blame on “ex ag ger ated ideas of equal ity.” See “Grand Jury Blames Ne groes for Inciting Race Rioting: Whites Clearly Ex on er ated”, Tulsa World, June 26, 1921, pp. 1,8 (re print ing grand jury report). The grand jury report, for instance, de clared that the riot was the di rect re sult of “an ef fort on the part of a cer tain group of col ored men who ap peared at the court house . .. for the pur pose of pro tect ing . . . Dick Rowland....” Id. at 1. An in di rect cause of the riot was the “ag i ta tion among the Ne groes” for ideas “of so cial equal ity.” Id. It is an ex traor di nary doc u ment, which il lus trates in vivid de tail how an in ves ti ga tion can se lect ev i dence, re fuse to seek out al ter na tive tes ti mony, and then for mu late an in ter pre ta tion that is re mark ably biased in the story it creates. The fire marshal’s report cannot be lo cated. There was another inves ti ga tion, per haps by a special city court of in quiry. See “Hun dred to be Called in Probe”, Tulsa World, June 10, 1921. “With the for mal em pan el ing and swearing in of the grand jury Thurs day morning the third inves ti ga tion into the causes and placing or re spon si bil ity for the race riot ing in Tulsa law week was be gun.”; “Police Or der Ne gro Por ters Out of Hotels”, Tulsa Tri bune, June 14, 1921. “This ac tion fol lows scath ing crit i cism of the sys tem that al lowed the Ne gro por ters to carry on their ne far i ous prac tices of selling booze and solic it ing for women of the under world made . . . at the city’s court of in quiry held sev eral weeks ago.” 6Brief of Plain tiff in Er ror, Wil liam Redfearn, Plain tiff in Er ror v. Amer i can Cen tral In sur ance Com pany, 243 P 929 (Okla. 1926), No. 15,851 [here in af ter Plain tiff’s Brief]. Of the pre vi ous his to ri ans of the riot, only Ellsworth has even men tioned Redfearn’s suit. See Ellsworth, supra note 2, at 135, n. 57. No one has utilized the Oklahoma Su preme Court’s opinion or the briefs. 7Ellison, “Going to the Ter ri tory”, in Ellison, Going to the Ter ri tory, p. 124 (1986). See also Brent Staples, Par al lel Time: Growing Up in Black and White, 1994, (explor ing ways that life un folds and the ways that indi vid u als and fam i lies per ceive, re act to, and rewrite that history). Ellison’s essay spoke in terms simi lar to those em ployed by Bernard Bailyn, whose widely read monograph on Thomas Hutch in son, the gover nor of Massa chu setts on the eve of

169 the Amer i can Revo lu tion, presented a sym pa thetic portrait of the Loy al ist, in an effort to present a com pre hen sive por trait of the com ing of Rev o lu tion. See Ber nard Bailyn, The Or deal of Thomas Hutch in son IX, 1974. One hopes that the Redfearn tes ti mony, when com bined with a care ful read ing of the other texts, will en able us to “em brace the whole event, see it from all sides.” Id. We might even see “the in es cap able bound aries of ac tion; the blind ness of the ac tors-in a word, the trag edy of the event.” Id. The compet ing nar ra tives of the in sur ance com pany and Redfearn showed the ways that Tulsans inter preted what hap pened dur ing the riot and the con clu sions they drew from those events. Cf. Ju dith L. Maute, Peevyhouse v. Gar land Coal and Mining Co. Re visited: The Ballad of Willie and Lucille , 89 NW. U. L. REV. 1341, 1995, (ex plor ing in de tail the background to an in fa mous Oklahoma case). Redfearn shows the compet ing inter pre ta tions of the riot’s ori gins even within the Green wood com mu nity it self and the con straints im posed upon the Oklahoma Su p reme Court by de sire to limit the city’s lia bil ity. The tes ti mony shows the di ver sity of opinions in Tulsa and the ways that legal doctrine shapes those opinions. Those com pet ing in ter pre ta tions can tell us a great deal about larger Tulsa and Amer i can so ci ety, much as stud ies of medi cine and law serve as mir rors for soci ety more gen er ally. See, e.g., Edward H. Beardsley, A His tory of Neglect: for Blacks and Mill Workers in the Twenti eth-Century South VIII, 1987; Eben Moglen, The Trans for ma tion of Morton Horwitz, 93 Col umn. L. Rev. 1042, 1993, (discuss ing modes of legal his tory and the reflec tions on cul ture they provide). 8See R. Halliburton, “The Tulsa Race War of 1921", 2 J. Black Studies, pp. 333-57, 1972. (citing story, ”Nab Negro for Attacking Girl in an El e va tor", Tulsa Tri bune, May 31, 1921. 9Plain tiff s Brief, supra note 6, at 44; 47 (tes ti mony of Bar ney Cleaver); Brief of De fen dant in Error, Wil liam Redfearn, Plain tiff in Er ror v. Amer i can Cen tral In sur ance Com pany, 243 P 929 (Okla. 1926), No. 15,851 [here in af ter De fen dant’s Brief] at 74 (Tes ti mony of Co lum bus F. Gabe). 10De fen dant’s Brief, supra note 9, at 101 (Tes ti mony of O.W. Gur ley). 11Plaintiff s Brief, supra note 6, at 30 (Tes ti mony of O.W. Gurley). 12Ibid. 13Ibid., at 48-49. 14A some what differ ent, more detailed version of the confron ta tion appears in Ron ald L. Trekell, History of the Tulsa Police Depart ment, 1882-1990, 1989. 15Plain tiff’s Brief, supra note 6, at 48. 16Ibid., at 44. 17Charles F. Barrett, Oklahoma After Fifty Years: A His tory of the Sooner State and Its People, 1889- 1939, 1941. 18Plain tiff’s Brief, supra note 6, at 40. 19Ibid., at 44. 20De fen dant’s Brief, su pra note 9, at 106. 21221 Pacific Re porter, at 931. 22Plaintiff s Brief, supra note 6, at 67. 23Pe ti tion in Rob in son v. Evans, et al, Tulsa County District Court, No. 23,399, May 31, 1923. 24Ibid. 25See, e.g., Wal ter F. White, “The Eruption of Tulsa”, 112 Nation , June 29, 1921. 26See, e.g., Plain tiff s Brief, supra note 6, at 61. It is impor tant to note that one early crit i cism was that the sher iff failed to depu tize of fi cers to quell fears of a lynch ing. See “Tulsa in Re morse,” New York Times, June 3, 1921. General Barrett “declared the Sheriff could have [paci fied the armed men] if he had used power to depu tize as sis tants. The General said the pres ence of six uni formed police men or a half dozen Deputy Sheriffs at the county building Tues day night, when whites bent on taking from jail Dick Rowland . . . clashed with Ne groes intent on pro tect ing Rowland, would have prevented the riot.”. See also “Tulsa Of fi cials ‘Simply Laid Down’,” Sapulpa Herald , June 2, 1921. Re porting General Barren’s belief that offi cials could have prevented riot by dispers ing both blacks and whites. 27Plain tiff’s Brief, supra note 6, at 62. 28Ibid., (empha sis in origi nal). While the Oklahoma Su preme Court re ferred to the some of the spec ial depu ties as sheriff’s depu ties and some ev i dence men tions sheriffs depu ties, it appears that the pol ice were the only offi cials who com mis sioned spe cial dep u ties. I would like to thank Rob ert Norris and Rik Espinosa for clari fy ing this point with me. 29De fen dant’s Brief, supra note 2, at 207 (empha sis added). 30Charles F. Barrett, Oklahoma After Fifty Years, 1941.

170 31Testi mony of Lau rel Buck 30, Attor ney Gen eral’s Civil Case Files, RG 1-2, A-G Case No. 1062, Box 25 (Oklahoma State Ar chives). 32Testi mony of Lau rel Buck, supra note L1, at 32. See also “Witness Says Cop Urged Him to Kill Black”, Tulsa Tri bune, , 1921; “In struc tion is Denied by Court”, Tulsa World, , 1921, (sum ma riz ing Buck’s tes ti mony).

33Testi mony of John A. Oliphant, at 2, Attor ney General’s Civil Case Files, RG 1-2, A-G Case No. 1062, Box 25 (Oklahoma State Archives). 34Ibid., at 6. 35Ibid., at 7. 36Ibid., at 8. 37See “Weapons Must be Returned,” Tulsa World, June 4, 1921, (asking for return of weapons and threat en ing prose cu tion if weapons are not re turned). 38Frank Van Voorhis, “De tailed Re port of Negro Upris ing for Ser vice Company, 3rd In fan try Oklahoma Na tional Guard,” July 30, 1921. 39John W. McCuen, “Duty Per formed by Com pany 3rd In fan try Oklahoma Na tional Guard at Ne gro Up r is ing May 31, 1921" (un dated) Oklahoma State Archives. 40See “Rooney Ex plains Guard Op er a tion,” Tulsa World, June 4,1921; L .J. F. Rooney and Charles W. Daley to Adj. Gen. Bart lett, June 3, 1921 (Oklahoma State Ar chives) “I asked Ma jor Daley where [the ma chine gun) had come from and he said ‘we dug it up’ and I inferred that he meant it was the prop erty of the Police Depar tment of which Major Daley is an of fi cer.”. 41Brian Kirkpatrick, “Activ ities on night of May 31, 1921, at Tulsa, Oklahoma.” , 1921, Oklahoma State Ar chives “Af ter pa trols had been es tab lished . . . I es tab lished your head quar ters in the of fice of the Chief of Po lice.” 42Around 10:00 p.m. on the eve ning of May 31, Oklahoma’s Ad ju tant Gen eral, Charles Barrett, who later crit i cized the lo cal Tulsa author i ties, told Major By ron Kirkpatrick of Tulsa to “ren der such assis ta nce to the civil author i ties as might be re quired.” Kirkpatrick, supra note 41. 43Kirkpatrick, supra note 41 “I as sumed charge of a body of armed vol un teers, whom I un der stand were Le gion men, and marched them around into Main Street. There the outfit was di vided into two groups, placed un der the charge of of fi cers of their num ber who all had mil i tary ex pe ri ence, and or dered to pa trol the business sec tion and court-house, and to report back to the Police Station at in ter vals of fifteen min utes.”; C. W. Daley, “Infor ma tion on Activ ities during Ne gro Up ris ing May 31, 1921,” July 6, 1921, Oklahoma State Ar chives “There was a mob of 150 walk ing up the street in a col umn of squads. That crowd was as sem bled on the comer of Sec ond and Main and given in struc tions by my self that if they wished to as sist in main tain ing or der they must abide by in struc tions and fol low them to the let ter rather than run ning wild. This they agreed to do. They were split up at this time and placed in groups of 12 to 20 in charge of an ex-service man, with instruc tions to preserve order and to watch for snip ers from the tops of buildings and to assist in gather ing up all Ne groes bringing same to station and that no one was to fire a shot un less it was to pro tect life af ter all other methods had failed.”. 45Van Voorhis, su pra note 38, at 3. 46McCuen, supra note 39, at 2. 47See “Rooney Explains Guard Oper a tion”, Tulsa World, June 4, 1921. “None of my men used their rifles ex cept when fired upon from the east. The most visi ble point from which enemy shots came was the tower of the new brick church. This was some time just prior to daybreak.” 48There were fears, for ex am ple, that blacks were com ing from Muskogee to re in force the Green wood res i dents: “In re sponse to a call from Muskogee, in di cat ing sev eral hundred Ne groes were on their way to the city to assist Tulsa Ne groes should fight ing con tinue, a ma chine gun squad loaded on a truck, went east of the city with or ders to stop at all haz ards these armed men.” “Race War Rages for Hours Af ter Out break at Courthouse; Troops and Armed Men Pa trolling Streets”, Tulsa World, June 1, 1921. 49Ibid. See also Daley, supra note 43. “Upon receiv ing in for ma tion that large bod ies of Ne groes were com ing from Sand Springs, Muskogee and Mohawk, both by train and au to mo bile. [sic] This in for ma tion was imparted to the auto patrols with in struc tions to cover the roads which the Ne groes might in on. At this point we re ceived in for ma tion that a train load was com ing from Muskogee, so Col. Rooney and my self jumped into a car, as sem bled a company of Le gion men of about 100 from among the pa trols who were op er at ing over the city, and placed them in charge of Mr. Kinney a member of the Amer i can Le gion and directed him to bring men to the depot which was done in a very soldierly and or derly man ner. In struc tions were given that the men form a line on both sides of the track with in struc tions to al low no Negroes to unload but to hold them in the train by keeping them covered. The train proved to be a freight train and no one was on it but regu lar train crew.”

171 50McCuen, supra note 39, at 2. 51See, e.g., “Guards men at Cen ter of Riot Dis cus sion”, Daily Okla ho man, May 23, 2000, (re port ing de bate over role of National Guard’s role in riot). 52Mary Jones Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disas ter , p. 31, (circa 1921) (reprinted 1998). 53See Lee v. Washing ton , 390 U.S. 333, 1968. Affirming de seg re ga tion or der in Al a bama prison but observ ing that there might be instances where seg re ga tion was nec es sary to main tain order. The last time the United States Su preme Court upheld overt (non-remedial) racial dis tinc tion was Koremastu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214, 1944. That deci sions—and the United States gov ern ment’s will ful with hold ing of ev i dence show ing that such dis crim i na tion was unnec es sary—be came the basis for the Civil Rights Act of 1988. See Eric K. Yamamoto, “Ra cial Rep a ra tions: Japa nese Ameri cans and Afri can Amer i can Claims”, 40 Boston Col lege Law Review 477-523, 1998. 54See, e.g., Buchanan v. Warley, 245 U.S. 60, 1917 (in val i dat ing as uncon sti tu tional a zoning ordi nance that segre gat ed on the ba sis of race). While Pro fes sor Aoki has recently an a lyzed the early twenti eth century alien laws as impor tant pre cur sors to the in tern ment of Jap a nese-Americans dur ing World War II, Keith Aoki, “No Right to Own?: The Early Twenti eth-Century ”Alien Land Laws" as a Prelude to Intern ment", 40 Boston College Law Re view 37-72, 1998, no one has yet inter preted the intern ment of blacks during the Tulsa riot, which drew no legal , as a test ing ground for the idea of in tern ment. See “85 Whites and Ne groes Die in Tulsa Riots”, supra note at 2. “Guards surrounded the ar mory, while others assisted in rounding up Ne groes and seg re gat ing them in the deten tio n camps. A commis sion, composed of seven city offi cials and business men, was formed by Mayor Ev ans and Chief of Pol ice Gustafson, with the approval of General Banett, to pass upon the status of the Ne groes de tained." 55See Van Voorhis, supra note 38. 56320 U.S. 81, 1943. 57323 U.S. 214, 1944. 58323 U.S. 283, 1944. 59320 U.S. at 107. 60Ibid., at 111. 61Ibid., at 108. 62Ibid. at 113. 63323 U.S. at 302-03. 64323 U.S. at 220. 65Ibid., at 218-19. 66Ibid., at 231. 67323 U.S. at 226. 68212 U.S. 78 (1909). 69Ibid., at 85 “So long as arrests are made in good faith and in the hon est be lief that they are needed in or der to head the in sur rec tion off, the Gover nor is the fi nal judge and cannot be sub jected to an action af ter he is out of office. . ..” 70“Race War Rages for Hours Af ter Out break at Court house: Troops and Armed Men Pa trolling Streets, Tulsa World, June 1, 1921. ”Thou sands of per sons, both the inquis i tive in clud ing several hundred women, and men, armed with ev ery avail able weapon in the city taken from ev ery hard ware and sport ing goods store, swarmed on Sec ond street from Boulder to Boston av e nue watching the gather ing vol un teer army of fer ing their servi ces to the peace offi cers." 71“Race War Rages for Hours Af ter Outbreak at Court house: Troops and Armed Men Pa trolling Streets,” Tulsa World, June 1, 1921. 72“The Dis grace of Tulsa,” Tulsa World, June 2, 1921. 73“Ex-Police Bears Plots of Tulsans: Of fi cer of Law Tells Who Or dered Airplanes to De stroy Homes,” Chicago De fender,Oct. 25, 1921. See also: “At tor ney Scott Digs Up In side In for ma tion on Tulsa Riot,” Black Dis patch, Oc to ber 20, 1921. 74Plain tiffs Brief, supra note 6, at 67. 75See also Wal ter F. White, ‘The Eruption of Tulsa," The Na tion, June 29, 1921. Later White published an other ac count of the riot: “I Inves ti gate Lynch ings,” Ameri can Mercury , Janu ary, 1929. 76See, e.g.,"Act to Suppress Mob Vio lence," Illi nois, Hurd’s Revised Statutes , 1915-16 chap. 38, section 256a. 77See, e.g., City of Chicago v. Sturigs, 222 U.S. 323, 1908, (uphold ing consti tu tion al ity of Il li nois stat ute im pos ing li a bil ity on cit ies for three-quarters value of mob dam age, re gard less of fault); Ar nold v. City of Cen tral ia, 197 Ill. App.

172 73, 1915, (im pos ing lia bil ity without negli gence un der Il li nois statute, Hurd’s Revised Statutes , 1915-16 chap. 38, section 256a, on city that failed to protect citi zens against mob); Barnes v. City of Chi cago, 323 M. 203 (1926) (inter pret ing same stat ute and conclud ing that police of fi cer was not “lynched”). 78“City Not Li a ble for Riot Damage”, Tulsa World, August 7, 1921. 79221 Pacific Reporter, 929, 1926. 80State v. Rowland, Case No. 2239, Tulsa County District Court, 1921. 81See State v. Will Robin son et al, Case No. 2227, Tulsa County District Court, 1921. 82Tulsa World, June 26, 1921. 83“Judge Biddson’s Instruc tions to Grand Jury,” Tulsa Tribune June 9, 1921. 84“Grand Jury Blames Ne groes for In citing Race Rioting: Whites Clearly Ex on er ated,” Tulsa World, June 26, 1921. 85Ibid. 86Wal ter F. White, “The Eruption of Tulsa”, The Nation , 909 June 29, 1921. One justice on the Su preme Court ex plained the or i gins of an At lanta riot in this way: “This one thing of the street car em ploy ees be ing re quired by their po si tion to endure in pa tience the insults of Negro pas sen gers was, more largely than any other one thing, re spon si ble for the en gen der ing of the spirit which man i fested it self in the riot.” Georgia Railway & Elec. Co. v. Rich, 71 S.E. 759, 760 (Ga, 1911). 87See “Burned Dis trict in Fire Limits,” Tulsa World, June 8, 1921, (re port ing the “real es tate ex change” or ga ni za tion sup ported ex pan sion of fire lim its, be cause it would help con vert burned area into in dus trial area near the rail road tracks and would “be found desir able, in causing a wider sepa ra tion between Ne groes and whites”). 88“Negro Sues to Re build Waste Area,” Tulsa World, August 13, 1921; “Three Judges Hear Evi dence in Negro Suit,” Tulsa World, August 25, 1921. The three-judge panel upheld the ordi nance to the extent that it pro hib ited the build ing of per ma nent struc tures. But it al lowed the build ing of tem po rary struc tures. Ibid. The prop erty own ers ar gued that the city was depriv ing them of their property by such restric tive building reg u la tions and that the re stric tions en dan gered their health. See Pe ti tion in Lockard v. Ev ans, et al., Tulsa County Dis trict Court, Case 15,780 para graphs 6-7, August 12, 1921. Their ar gu ment was based, at least in part, on the emerging police power doctrine that the state could reg u late to pro mote health and mo ral ity. The pe ti tion ers ap plied a cor ol lary to that doc trine, ar gu ing that the city was pro hib ited from in ter fer ing with that protec tion. The judges granted first a tempo rary re strain ing or der against the ordi nance in August because there was in suf fi cient notice when it was passed. See “Can Rec on struct Re stricted Area, Dis trict Judges Grant Re straining Or der to Ne groes”, Tulsa World, Au gust 26, 1921. Then, fol low ing re-promulgation of the or di nance, the judges granted a per ma nent in junc tion against it, citing the or di nance’s ef fect on property rights. See “Cannot Enforce Fire Or di nance, Court Holds Uncon sti tu tional Act Against The Burned Dis trict,” Tulsa World, Sep tem ber 2, 1921. The judges’ opinion has been lost.

173 174 Notes on Contrib u tors

Dr. John Hope Frank lin, a native of Rentiesville, is the James B. Duke Pro fes sor of History Emer i tus at Duke Univer sity. A mem ber of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, he is the au thor of nu mer ous books, inclu d ing From Slavery to Free dom, now in its eighth edition. His fa ther, the well-known Tulsa attor ney B. C. Franklin, sur vived the riot.

Dr. Scott Ellsworth was born and raised in Tulsa. The author of Death in a Prom ised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, he formerly served as a histo rian at the National Mu seum of Amer i can History, Smithso ni an In sti tu tion.

Dr. Rob ert L. Brooks is the Direc tor and State Archae ol o gist of the Oklahoma Ar che o log ical Survey. He is re spon si ble for the manage ment and pro tec tion of Oklahoma’s heri tage re sources, includ i ng un marked graves and burial sites.

Al fred L. Brophy is a pro fes sor of law at Oklahoma City Uni ver sity. A spe cial ist in prop erty law, he is presi dent of the board of direc tors of Oklahoma Indian Legal Services.

Dr. Danney Goble, a native Oklahoman, attained his Ph.D. at the University of Missouri. He has authored numerous books of regional history and the American South. He now is on the faculty at the .

Larry O’Dell is a histo rian with the Oklahoma Histor i cal So ci ety. Raised in New cas tle, he cur rently serves as a re search asso ci ate for the En cy clo pe dia of Oklahoma History and Culture pro ject.

Dr. Lesley Rankin-Hill is an asso ci ate pro fes sor of an thro pol ogy at the Uni ver sity of Oklahoma. A special ist in the study of burial re mains and historic ceme ter ies, she is the au thor of A Biohistory of 19th Cen tury Afro-Americans.

Dr. Clyde Snow, of Nor man, is an in ter na tion ally rec og nized fo ren sic an thro pol o gist. An ex pert in the iden ti fi ca tion of human skele tal remains, he cur rently serves as a consul tant to the Oklahoma State Medi c al Exam iner.

Phoebe Stubblefield is a Ph.D. candi date in an thro pol ogy at the Uni ver sity of Florida. A spe cial ist in foren sic anthro pol ogy, she is also the grandniece of survi vors of theTulsa race riot.

Richard S. Warner, a life long Tulsan, is a member of the board of di rec tors of the Tulsa Hist ori cal So ci ety. A well-known au thor ity on the his tory of Tulsa, he has con trib uted to the Chron i cles of Oklahoma and other profes sional pub li ca tions.

Dr. Alan H. Witten is the Schultz Pro fes sor of Geo phys ics at the Uni ver sity of Oklahoma. An ex pert in near-surface re mote sensing, he has coor di nated scien tific research for archae o log i cal inves ti ga tions both in the United States and overseas.

175

Ep i logue By State Sena tor Maxine Hor ner

There is an intergenerational ef fect from the and terror ized through seg re ga tion and rac ism. 1921 Tulsa race riot that is the un con scious He urged blacks “to pull themselves up by the trans mit tal of an ex pe ri ence that is most mys te- bootstraps.” In Tulsa they did. Staying in their ri ous and in trigu ing. In response to an in ci dent place did not ap pease whites or in spire the like the riot which in effect, was poten tially an friend ship forecasted by Washing ton. act of eth nic cleansing, the message was clear: Af ter the ep i taph for the black boule vard was “We ab hor you people and wish you were not written in flames, the af ter math led more toward here and in fact, are will ing to make that hap - a con spir acy to fur ther de hu man ize the suf fer ing pen.” pop u la tion than to dem on strate a jus tice to ward There are char ac ter is tics of peo ple who have its fel low cit i zens. That city gov ern ment offi - been through a shared expe ri ence such as the cials and real estate inter ests attempted to force Great De pres sion or in this case, the “riot” that blacks off their land and develop the pro pri eties emerged haunted as a re sult of that ex pe ri ence. as an indus trial area is a mat ter of record. The way they relate to their chil dren and Churches, schools, homes and busi ness enter - grandchil dren and the world around them is prises were destroyed. Men, women and ba bies not how they may have re lated had it not been were car ried away dead, to un known places, as for that ex pe ri ence. funer als were banned for not too mys te ri ous rea- If a peo ple have been terror ized to the de - sons. The Na tional Guard is sued Field Order 4 gree that North Tulsa sur vi vors and on June 2, that all able bodied Negro men were were, it could be expected that “required to render such service and per form they would not make themselves no ticed or be such la bor as re quired by the mil i tary commis - no ticed by the group that terror ized them in the sion.” In my view that is in vol un tary servi tude, . Al ter na tive ways of re lat ing and re- slav ery by Marshal Law. Why did the National sponding may have to be devel oped or adap ta - Guard not clear the area of all persons, black and tions made by both groups for good or ill will. white? Why were 6,000 Af ri can Ameri can cit i- It is that per spec tive that allowed the horror of zens placed in con cen tra tion camps and walked the riot in the first place. Since state hood and through the streets as a de feated enemy - when it be yond, Oklahoma has taken its black citi zens was in fact, a riot by whites? It was the black through intim i da tion, ste reo typ i cal condi tion - commu nity under at tack by terror ists. With es ti - ing, segre ga tion, and le gal and so cial en gi neer- mates of from 150 to 300 dead, it was at best ing. Some of those con ven tions were even shameful, at worse, a mas sa cre. trans mit ted by repre sen ta tives of the Af ri can This report does not answer all my questions, Ameri can com mu nity sug gest ing that they cast nor did I an tic i pate it would. It does draw a clear down their buckets where they were — to con- picture of the ra cial cli mate at the time, and of - form as sec ond-class citi zens. fers rea son able men and women, if they choose, Speaking in Boley, Oklahoma dur ing a con- ade quate infor ma tion to draw some con clu sion. vention of the Na tional Negro Busi ness On June 1, 1921, Lady Jus tice was blind. In - League, famed edu ca tor Booker T. Wash ing- deed, her eyes were gouged out. As signif i cant, ton, told the gath er ing not to worry about be ing accu mu la tion of wealth was halted and the com- seg re gated. He recom mended that in stead, munity was left to be gin again only with its own they build up the sec tion, which had been as - mea ger resources. What is owed this commu - signed to them, and they would make friends nity 80 years later is a repair ing — edu ca tion and be re spected by the whites. Wash ing ton and economic in cen tives and something more searched for an ac com mo da tion with whites, than sym bolic ges tures or an of fi cial re port as an and a com fort zone for blacks be ing held back apology ex tended to the survi vors. The cli mate

177 was real and of fi cial. The words of Mayor T.D. menace has been fully conquered, and that we Evans spo ken dur ing the June 14, 1921 meet - are go ing on in a nor mal con di tion. ing of the Tulsa City Commis sion are brought The mayor had his way. The con spir acy of si- to our at ten tion once again: lence was launched. We can be proud of our [T]his up ris ing was in ev i ta ble. If that be true and state for reex am in ing this blot on our state and this judgment had come upon us, then I say it was our con science, and for dar ing to place the light good gener al ship to let the destruc tion come to that from this re port on those dark days. This has sec tion where the trouble was hatched up, put in been an epic jour ney. It can be an epic be gin - mo tion and where it had its in cep tion. All re gret the ning. There are chap ters left to write. To face, wrongs that fell upon the inno cent Ne groes and not hide again, the shame from this evil. Some they should receive such help as we can give them. reme dial action is sug gested in this report and It...is true of any war fare that the for tunes of war oth ers are pre pared for statue in Sen ate Bills 751 fall upon the inno cent along with the guilty. This is and 788 and House Bills 1178 and 1901 and true on any con flict, in va sion, or up ris ing... House Joint Reso lu tions 1028 and 1029. The Let us im me di ately get to the out side the fact Oklahoma leg is la ture is now the care taker of that ev ery thing is quiet in our city, that this this past and may dis perse to the future for giv- ing, fair, kind, deserved and decent justice.

178 Tulsa Oklahoma

The African American section of Tulsa contained 191 businesses prior to the Race Riot of 1921, which included 15 doctors, a chiropractor, 2 dentists, and 3 lawyers. The residents also had access to a library, 2 schools, a hospital, and a Tulsa Public Health Service. ThePolk City Directory listed 159 businesses in 1920 and after the riot, in 1922, there were 120 businesses in the directory. In the City Directory in 1921 there were 1,149 residences and most of them were occupied by more than one person--or even one family; the 1920 directory reported 1,126 residences. After the riot,the 1922 directory listed 1,134 residences. The Red Cross reported that 1,256 houses were burned, 215 houses were looted but not burned, and the total number of buildings not burned but looted and robbed were 314. The Tulsa Real Estate Exchange estimated $1.5 million worth of damages and one-third of that in the Black business district. The Exchange claimed personal property loss at $750,000. Between June 14, 1921, and June 6, 1922, $1.8 million of claims were filed against the city of Tulsa and disallowed. The Tulsa Race Riot--Map Legend

Whites; white mob or crowd MG Machine gun - - in hands of Tulsa National Guard

Advancing or attacking whites MG Machine gun - - in hands of white rioters

White defensive or offensive lines State troops: out of town National Guard units

Blacks; black crowd Tulsa Police department officers

Retreating or advancing blacks Tulsa County Sheriff’s Department

Black defensive line Buildings or homes on fire

Black neighborhoods City blocks which have been burnes

Tulsa units of the National Guard Airplanes (all flown by whites)

Tulsa National Guard -- skirmish line “Battle” or gunfight Tulsa Race Riot--Map 1 The Seeds of Catastrophe Tulsa, Oklahoma

Office Katy Freight MAY 31, 1921

Katy R.R. Cameron Street 3:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Partly cloudy ~ High 87° Low 67° DreamLand Brady Street Theater Midland Valley R.R. Sunset 7:34 p.m. ~ South winds SantaFeR.R. t Elgin We may never really know what actually happened in the elevator of

MAIN Boston

Boulder

Detroit

Greenwood

Cheyenne Cincinnati theDrexel Building on Monday morning, May 30, 1921. A clerk in a

Frankfort Archer Street Hartford Ave nearby store thought there had been a . Others believed that there had been a lover’s quarrel between Sarah Page, the white seventeen- Tribune year-old elevator operator, and Dick Rowland, a black nineteen-year-old who worked in a shoe shine parlor one block away. But the most likely

Iroquois

Kenosha explanation is that when Rowland entered the elevator that day, he tripped and accidentally stepped on Page's foot. And when she screamed, he fled. Frisco-Santa Fe & A.V. & W. R.R. Frisco Tracks Passenger Depot Freight t TheTulsa Tribune decided otherwise. The next day, the afternoon ran an inflammatory front-page article claiming that Rowland had attempted to rape Page. More ominously, in a now lost editorial, the First Street paper may have claimed that Rowland, who was now in police custody, Police Santa Fe Freight would be lynched by whites that evening. The May 31, 1921 edition of Station theTulsa Tribune rolled off the presses by three o'clock. Within an hour, there was -- once again --lynch talk on the streets of Tulsa.

Second Street t As predicted, whites began to gather outside of the Tulsa County Courthouse, where Dick Rowland was being held, before sunset. The crowd soon grew into the hundreds. At 8:20 p.m., three white men entered the courthouse and demanded that the authorities hand over Rowland, but Third Street they were turned away. t Drexel Meanwhile, alongGreenwood Avenue , in the heart of the African Building American commercial district, word of the impending lynching spread like wildfire. Cries of "We can't let this happen here" were heard as black men and women anxiously discussed how to respond to the oncoming Fourth Street Fourth calamity. At nine o'clock, a group of twenty-five armed black men traveled by automobile to the courthouse. There, they offered their assistance to the authorities should the white mob attack the Courthouse.

Kenosha Fifth Assured that Dick Rowland was safe, they returned to Greenwood. Fifth Street t The arrival of the black men at the courthouse electrified the white County Court mob, now more than a thousand strong. Whites without guns went home House Sixth to retrieve them. One group of whites tried to break into the National National Guard Guard Armory, in order to gain access to the weapons stored inside. But a Sixth Street Armory small contingent of armed National Guardsmen, threatening to open fire, turned the angry whites away. Seventh By 9:30 p.m. Tulsa was a city that was quickly spinning out of control.

Seventh Street

Tulsa Race Riot--Map 3 First Blood Tulsa, Oklahoma Tribune May 31 to June 1,1921

Frisco Tracks 10:30 p.m. to Midnight Frisco-Santa Fe & A.V. & W. R.R. Passenger Depot Freight Bardon’s w Although the first shot fired at the courthouse was perhaps unintentional, those that sporting goods followed were not. Almost immediately, members of the white mob--and possibly some law enforcement officers--opened fire on this second contingent of African American men, who returned volleys of their own. The initial gunplay lasted only a few seconds, First Street but when it was over, more than twenty people, both blacks and whites, lay dead or Police wounded. Headquarters w Outnumbered more than twenty-to-one, the black men quickly began retreating toward the African American district. With armed whites in close pursuit, heavy gunfire

Elgin

Detroit

Boulder

Cincinnati

Cheyenne erupted along Fourth Street. A second--and deadlier--skirmish broke out at Second and

Main Second Street Cincinnati, before the black men, their numbers seriously reduced, were able to head north across the Frisco tracks. No longer directly involved with the fate of Dick Rowland, the men were now fighting for their own lives. Megee’s sporting Library Hotel w Meanwhile at the courthouse, the sudden and unexpected turn of events had an goods Tulsa electrifying effect, as groups of angry, -seeking whites took to the streets and sidewalks of downtown. At police headquarters on Second Street, nearly five-hundred Third Street white men and boys--many of whom, only minutes earlier, had been members of the lynch mob--were sworn-in as “Special Deputies.” According to Laurel G. Buck, a white Drexel bricklayer who was sworn-in, the police instructed the new recruits to “Get a gun, and get a nigger.” Building

Boston w Shortly thereafter, whites began breaking into downtown pawnshops and hardware stores, stealing guns and ammunition. Dick Bardon’s sporting goods store, at First and Fourth St. Main, was especially hard hit, as was J. W. Megee’s shop, located across the street from police headquarters. Eyewitnesses later testified that uniformed Tulsa policemen took City part in some of the break-ins, handing out guns to whites. Royal Hall Theater w More bloodshed soon followed, as whites began gunning down any blacks who happened to be downtown. An unarmed African American man was chased down the alley which ran between Boulder and Main. Near Fourth Street, he ducked into the rear Fifth St. entrance of the Royal Theater, but whites caught up with him inside, where they County murdered him on stage. Not far away, a white man in an automobile was killed by a Court group of whites, who had mistook him to be black. House w Around midnight, a small crowd of whites gathered--once again--in front of the courthouse, yelling “Bring the rope!” And “get the nigger!,” But they did not rush the Sixth Street building. By then, most of Tulsa’s rioting whites no longer particularly cared about Dick Rowland anymore. They now had much bigger things in mind. 11:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. May 31 to June 1, 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma While darkness slowed the pace of the riot, sporadic fighting took place throughout the night of About 2:30 a.m., word spread that a trainload of armed blacks, from nearby towns, would be A half hour later, reports reached guard officers that white residences on Sunset Hill were being The heaviest occurred along the Frisco tracks. From midnight until 1:30 a.m., scores--perhaps A few carloads of whites also made “drive-by” shootings in black neighborhoods, firing By 1:00 a.m., whites also had set the first fires in black neighborhoods. African American The pre-dawn hours of June 1 also witnessed the first organized actions by Tulsa’s National Initially, the local guardsmen--all of whom were white--were deployed downtown. One Taking the machine gun with them, about thirty guardsmen positioned themselves along Detroit

May 31 and June 1. hundreds--of whites and blacks exchangedan gunfire inbound across train the arrived, tracks. its passengers At forced one to point take during cover the on fighting, the floor. indiscriminately into African American residences.a group There of were white also rioters moreand broke deliberate woman into murders. knelt one in When home, prayer, they the found whites an shot elderly them black both couple in inside. the back As of the the man homes head. and businesses along ArcherDepartment were prepared the to first douse targets, the andthan flames, when two rioters a dozen waved crew homes them from and off the businesses, at Tulsa including gunpoint. Fire the Midway By Hotel, 4:00 had been a.m., torched. more Guard units. While perhapswas as not many until as after fifty midnightmen guardsmen that to had the assist gathered local the at commander civil the received authorities. armory official by authorization 11:00 to call p.m., out it his detachment blocked off Second Streetarmed in whites front on of “patrols” police of headquarters,a the while machine business others gun, district. led which groups guardturned Police of officers out, officials had was also mounted in presented on poor the the condition, guardsmen back and of could with a only truck. be fired This one particular shot gun, at as a it Avenue time. between Brady Street andAfrican Standpipe American Hill. district. There, They theyprisoners--to also set the began up police. rounding a up “skirmish Guardsmen black line” also civilians, facing briefly whom the exchanged they gunfire handed with over--as gunmen to the east. arriving at the Midland Valleyproved railroad false. station. Guardsmen were rushed to the depot, but the rumor fired upon, resulting in thedeployed death along of the a crest white oflongest woman. Sunset night--and Hill. ushered Guardsmen, in with They its the were longest machine still day. gun, there were when then dawn brought an end to Tulsa’s w w w w w w w w

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AVE. HYNEAVE. CHEYENNE CHEYENNE DENVER MARSHALL ST. GOLDEN Tulsa Race Riot--Map 4 Tulsa, Oklahoma May 31 to June 1, 1921 11:00 p.m. To 5:00 a.m.

Even though it was after 10 p. m. when the riot broke out, news of the fighting spread quickly--and unevenly--across Tulsa.

w In the city’s African American neighborhoods, word of what had happened at the courthouse was followed by even more disturbing news. A light-skinned black man, who could “pass” for white, had mingled with some white rioters downtown. There, he overheard talk of attacking black neighborhoods. Returning home, he told what he had heard to Seymour Williams, a teacher at Booker T. Washington High School, who began spreading the word among his neighbors on Standpipe Hill.

w But along the southernmost edge of the black community, the oncoming gunfire had already confirmed that far more than a lynching was underway. While many black men and women began taking steps to protect their homes and businesses, others sat tight, hoping that daybreak would bring an end to the violence. A few others began to leave town. Some, like Billy Hudson, a laborer who lived with his family on Archer Street, were killed as they fled Tulsa.

w White neighborhoods were also the scenes of much activity. As word of what whites began calling the “negro uprising” spread across town, crowds of armed whites began to gather at hastily-arranged meeting places. When one such crowd, perhaps three-hundred strong, met at 15th and Boulder, a white man standing on top of a touring car told everyone to go to Second and Lewis, where another group was meeting. There, perhaps six-hundred whites were told of plans to invade black Tulsa at dawn.

w The Tulsa police, meanwhile, were scattered all over town. Officers had been sent to guard roads leading into the city, including a half dozen policemen who were positioned at the Ice Plant by the 11th Street bridge. Local National Guard soldiers were dispatched to guard the City Water Works and the Public Service Company’s power plant on First Street.

w Word of what was happening in Tulsa also had made its way to state officials in Oklahoma City. At 10:14 p.m., Adjutant General Charles F. Barrett, commandant of the Oklahoma National Guard, received a long ICE 11th ST. PLANT distance telephone call from Major Byron Kirkpatrick, a Tulsa guard ST.. 12th ST

AVE.

AVE. officer, advising him of the worsening conditions in the city. Kirkpatrick

ON AVE.

LOUIS 12th ST. QUAKER 13th ST. QUINCY ROCKFORD ST LOUIS TRINTON phoned again at 12:35 a.m., at which point he was instructed by Governor

HOUSTONHOUST AVE.

13th PL. FRISCO AVE. ELWOOD AVE. J. B. A. Robertson, who was also on the line, to send a telegram--signed by

AVE.

AVE.

GALVESTON AVE. AVE. AVE. AVE. the police chief, the sheriff, and a judge--requesting that state troops be

AVE.

14th ST. AVE. 14th ST.

ARKANSAS RIVER TTI AVE. sent to Tulsa. Kirkpatrick had some difficulty, however, securing the

DETROIT AVE. 14th PL.

14th PL. DENVER AVE.

CHEYENNE AVE. required signatures, and it was not until 1:46 a.m. that was

BOuLDER AVE.

GUTHRIE AVE.

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15th ST. MAIN AVE. 15th ST. received at the State Capitol. 16th ST. White rioters gather andandare sent to tojoin join anotheranothergroup at at 2nd and Lewis w At 2:15 a.m., Kirkpatrick spoke again with Adjutant General Barrett, 2nd and Lewis 16th ST. who informed him that the governor had authorized the calling out of the 17th ST. 17th ST. state troops. A special train, carrying one-hundred National Guard soldiers,

17th PL. 17th PL. would leave Oklahoma City, bound for Tulsa, at 5 a.m..

MADISON

18th ST. SWAN

19th ST. Tulsa Race Riot--Map 6 The Invasion of Black Tulsa Tulsa, Oklahoma June 1, 1921 MARSHALL ST. AVE. 5:08 a.m. LATIMER CT.

PL.

DETROIT AVE. LATIMER PL. Any hope that daybreak would bring an end to the violence was soon laid to rest.

LATIMERLATIMER PL.PL. AVE. LATIMER PL. w BOSTON PL. During the final pre-dawn hours of June 1, thousands of armed whites had gathered along the fringes LATIMER ST. of downtown. They were divided into three main groups. One crowd assembled behind the Frisco freight LATIMER ST. depot, while another waited nearby at the Frisco and Santa Fe passenger station. A third crowd had ELGIN AVE. assembled at the Katy passenger depot. All told, the white rioters may have numbered as many as 10,000.

KING HARTFORD AVE. KING w Smaller bands of whites had also been active. One such group hauled a machine gun to the top floor

LANSING

PEORIA TI AVE. of the Middle States Milling Company grain elevator off First Street, setting up the gun to fire north along

AVE. JASPER MG Greenwood Avenue. JASPER w CINCINNATICINCINNA AVE. INDEPENDENCE Shortly before daybreak, five white men in a green Franklin automobile approached the whites who INDEPENDENCE PL. AVE.

AVE. were massed behind the Frisco freight depot. “What the hell are you waitin’ on?,” one of the men hollered, Brick AVE. Yard “Let’s go get ‘em.” But the crowd would not budge, and the men in the car set off alone toward Deep

FRANKFORT AVE.

PL. HASKELL PL. . Greenwood. Their bodies, and the -ridden Franklin, were later seen in the middle of Archer, near Booker T. Frankfort.

Washington KENOSHA AVE. LANSING AVE.

ELGIN PL. School HASKELL ST.

GREENWOOD AVE. ELGIN PL w Several eyewitnesses later recalled that when dawn came, at 5:08 a.m., an unusual whistle or siren was sounded, perhaps as a signal for the invasion to begin. In any event, the white mobs soon made their move. . EASTON ST. While the machine gun in the granary opened fire, the white rioters poured across the Frisco tracks. Up at the Katy depot, the stream of whites on foot was soon joined by dozens of others in cars, heading east on FAIRVIEW ST EASTON ARCHER Brady and Cameron. Zion Mt Zion

NORFOLK

EASTON church MADISON w While fought hard to protect the black commercial district, the sheer numerical TI

ELGIN

DETROIT advantage of the whites soon proved overwhelming. John Williams, an entrepreneur who resided in the

N. N. ELGIN

N. N. DETROIT

ON DAVENPORT family-owned Williams Building at Greenwood and Archer, held off the white invaders with both a rifle

E. DAVENPORT and a shotgun before he fled north, along the Midland Valley tracks. Mary E. Jones Parrish, who later CINCINNATI

BOSTON

N. CINCINNA N. wrote the first book about the riot, also fled. Dodging , she and her young daughter ran north up

MAIN N. BOST

N. ADMIRAL PL. Greenwood Avenue toward the section line at Pine Street.

N. N. MAIN w Soon, however, other perils appeared. As whites poured into the southern end of the African American Katy CAMERON district, as many as six airplanes, manned by whites, appeared overhead, firing on black refugees and, in Railroad Station some cases, dropping explosives. 1st ST.

BOULDER MG w Gunfire also erupted along the western edge of the black community. Particularly fierce fighting

N. N. BOULDER BRADY broke out along Standpipe Hill, where 40 to 50 National Guard soldiers traded fire with African American Railroad Depots 2nd ST. riflemen, who had set up defensive lines off of Elgin and Elgin Place. On Sunset Hill, the white guardsmen Midland ARCHER Valley opened fire on black neighborhoods to the east, using both their standard issue 30-caliber 1906 Springfield Frisco & S.F. RailroadFreight Depots Railroad Station rifles, as well as the semi-defective machine gun given them by the Tulsa Police Department. 3rd ST. Passenger Tulsa Race Riot--Map 7 The Fight for Standpipe Hill Tulsa, Oklahoma MARSHALL ST. June 1, 1921 LATIMER CT.

PL.

AVE. LATIMER PL.

TI AVE.

AVE. 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. LATIMER PL.

ELGIN AVE. LATIMER PL.

DETROIT AVE. BOSTON PL. w As the wave of white rioters descended upon black Tulsa, a deadly pattern soon took shape. LATIMER PL. LATIMER ST.

CINCINNATICINCINNA AVE. LATIMER ST. w First, the armed whites broke into African American homes and businesses, forcing the occupants into the street, where, at gunpoint, they were marched off to Convention Hall. Anyone KING HARTFORD AVE. who resisted was shot, as were, it appears, men in homes where firearms were discovered. KING

AVE. SUNSETHILL LANSING w Next, the whites looted the homes, pocketing small valuables, and hauling away larger items JASPER MG on foot. JASPER w Finally, the rioters set the homes on fire, using torches and oil soaked rags. House by house, INDEPENDENCE PL. INDEPENDENCE block by block, the wall of destruction moved northward.

AVE.

AVE.

FRANKFORT AVE. Brick w Yard HASKELL PL. Some of the fires, it seems, were set by whites in uniform. Eyewitnesses later reported that . white men clad in World War I army uniforms—probably members of the ‘Home Guard,’ a loosely Booker T. organized group of white veterans— were observed setting fires in Deep Greenwood. Others

KENOSHA AVE. LANSING AVE. Washington AVE. School HASKELL ST.

ELGIN PL claimed that some Tulsa police officers set fire to black businesses along Archer. Clay w Pit EASTON African Americans fought back. Black riflemen positioned themselves in the belfry of the ST. newly completed Mount Zion Baptist Church, whose commanding view of the area below FAIRVIEW ST. Standpipe Hill allowed them to temporarily stem the tide of the white invasion. But when whites GREENWOOD AVE. ARCHER set-up a machine gun—perhaps the same weapon that was used at the granary—and riddled the EASTON Zion church tower with its devastating fire, the black defenders were overwhelmed. Mount Zion was EASTON Mt Zion STANDPIPEHILL church MADISON later torched.

MG w Black attempts to defend their homes and businesses were undercut by the actions of both the Tulsa police and the local National Guard units, who, rather than disarming and arresting the white

CINCINNATI DAVENPORT rioters, instead began imprisoning black citizens. Guardsmen on Standpipe Hill made at least one

BOSTON E. DAVENPORT

N. N. CINCINNATI

MAIN eastward march early on the morning of June 1, rounding up African American civilians, before

N. N. BOSTON

ELGIN

N. MAIN N. being fired upon off Greenwood Avenue. The guardsmen then returned to Sunset Hill, where they

N. ELGIN N. turned over the imprisoned black Tulsans to police officers.

DETROIT N. DETROIT N. w White civilians also took black prisoners, sometimes with murderous results. At about 8:00

Convention a.m., Dr. A.C. Jackson, a nationally renowned African American surgeon, surrendered to a group of Hall CAMERON young white males at his home at 523 N. Detroit. “Here I am, I want to go with you,” he said, holding his hands above his head. But before he stepped off his front lawn, two of the men opened fire, killing him. BRADY Railroad Depots

Midland w BOULDER Others went less quietly. A deadly firefight erupted at the site of an old clay pit off of Valley

ARCHER Frisco & S.F. RailroadFreight Depots Railroad

N. BOULDER N. Standpipe Hill, where several black defenders went to their deaths fighting. Stories have also been Station handed down over the years about Peg Leg Taylor, who is said to have singlehandedly fought off Passenger more than a dozen white invaders. And along the northern edge of Sunset Hill, the white guardsmen briefly found themselves under attack. Black Tulsa was not going without a fight. June 1, 1921 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m Tulsa, Oklahoma Despite a valiant effort, black Tulsans were simply outgunned and outnumbered. As the whites moved north, they set fire to practically every building in the African American The fighting, meanwhile, continued--though now with a startling new development. After Initially, the guardsmen met with little armed resistance. About halfway across the district, As black Tulsans fled the city, new dangers sometimes appeared. Stories have persisted for Not all whites shared the racial hatred of the rioters. Mary Korte, a maid for a wealthy Tulsa As the battle for black Tulsa raged northward, it soon became evident--even in Downtown, at the all-white Central High School, several white students bolted from class And along the city’s southern edge, in the well-to-do neighborhood off of 21st Street, Even miles away out in the country, people knew that something was happening in Tulsa. The smoke was still there, four hours later, when the state troops finally arrived in town.

community, including a dozen churches,doctor’s five offices, hotels, more 31 than restaurants, two fourthousand dozen drug homes grocery stores, weretorched, stores, eight the and fires theburst becoming black into so public flame. hot library. that nearby More trees than and a outbuildings also the firefight with African AmericansHill gunmen then to joined the in north, the thenortheast. invasion National of Guard black troops Tulsa, on one Sunset detachment heading north, the other to the however, they exchanged fire withthe black section defenders line, in where houses. guardsmenAmericans joined A who second with were skirmish white holed broke rioters up out in in near assaulting a a concrete group store. of African years that in some of the small towns outside Tulsa, local whites assaulted black refugees. family, hid African refugees athighway, her one family’s white farm man east opened ofWwhen his the a home city, recent while to immigrant on a from the terrifiedon Sand group two saw Springs of lost an African black American airplane strangersthe boys flown fleeing street walking by Tulsa. and along white scooped North gunmen the Peoria bearing Avenue, children down the up woman into ran her out arms, into saving their lives. neighborhoods far from the fighting--thatwhite on assistant June grocer 1, arrived there atwas would work ‘Nigger be that Day,’ no the morning business boss only as declared, to usual. heading find off the One with owner a locking rifle up in the hand. store. It when gunfire was heard nearby.headed in Running the north, opposite toward direction--handed blackshooting one Tulsa, for of an the the elderly day. boys white his man-- gun, saying that he was finished carloads of white vigilantes startedmaids going and from butlers house at to gunpoint, house, and rounding hauling up them African off American toward downtown. Ever since daybreak, huge columnsabove of Tulsa. dark smoke had been rising up, hundreds of feet in the air, w w w w w w w w w w w

ROCKFORD ROCKFORD

GROUNDS

QUINCY QUINCY ST. CIRCUS GROUNDS

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OTNAVE. AVE. BOSTON BOSTON

ARIWST FAIRVIEW OKLAHOMA ST. FAIRVIEW Tulsa Race Riot--Map 8 Tulsa RaceArrival Riot--Map 9 of the State Troops Tulsa, Oklahoma June 1, 1921

JASPER

AVE. INDEPENDENCE

INDEPENDENCE PL. AVE.

AVE. 9:15 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

AVE.

HASKELL PL. HASKELL PL. w . The special train from Oklahoma City carrying Adjutant General Charles F. Barrett and

Booker T. QUAKER the 109 soldiers under his command pulled into the bullet-scarred Frisco passenger station at Washington KENOSHA AVE. LANSING AVE. 9:15 a.m. The soldiers, who arrived armed and in uniform, were all members of an

FRANKFORT AVE. HASKELL ST.

GREENWOOD AVE.

HASKELL ST. ELGIN PL School Oklahoma City-based National Guard unit. But in Tulsa they came to be known, by both GOLDEN blacks and whites, as simply the “State Troops.” All of them were white. EASTON ST. w FAIRVIEW ST. By the time the State Troops arrived in town, Tulsa’s devastating racial conflagration A.

AVE. ARCHER John A. EASTON was already ten and one-half hours old. Much, if not most, of the African American Oliphant community had been put to the torch. Scores and scores of blacks and whites had already

NORFOLK

Residence MADISON DETROIT been killed, while the city’s four remaining hospitals--Frisssell Memorial Hospital, which

EASTON

N. DETROIT

N. was black, had already been burned--were filled with the wounded. CHEYENNE AVE. CINCINNATI DAVENPORT

E. DAVENPORT w While the majority of black Tulsans had either fled to the countryside, or were being N. N. CINCINNATI

BOSTON

ELGIN held against their will at one of a handful of internment centers, there were still pockets of

MAIN

N. N. BOSTON

N. ELGIN

N. ADMIRAL PL. armed resistance to the white invasion along the northern edge of the African American

N. N. MAIN

BOULDER district. Perhaps one-third of black Tulsa’s homes and businesses were standing.

N. N. BOULDER

CHEYENNE ADMIRAL BLVD..

N. N. CHEYENNE

DENVER w The State Troops did not, however, immediately proceed to where the fighting was still N. DENVER

N. in progress. Led by Adjutant General Barrett, one detachment marched to the Tulsa County 1st ST. Courthouse, where an unsuccessful attempt was made to contact Sheriff McCullough. Others began taking over custody of imprisoned African Americans--largely domestic CAMERON s workers who lived in quarters on the Southside---from armed white vigilantes. One account BRADY Depots 2nd ST. of the race riot also claims that the State Troops also broke ranks and ate breakfast. . RailroadRailroad Depot & S.F. Frisco & S.F Freight ARCHER w They certainly had the time. After the failed visit to the courthouse, Adjutant General 3rd ST. Passenger Barrett then went to City Hall, where after conferring with city officials, he contacted Governor J. B. A. Robertson and asked that he be given authority to proclaim martial law.

ST. 4th ST. 1st ST. . w

ST. Remarkably, while the State Troops were occupied downtown, some of the finest Train TI Police 2nd ST African American homes in Tulsa had still escaped the torches of the rioters. Located along Special Train Headquarters 5th ST. Detroit Avenue, near Easton, they included the homes of some of Tulsa’s most prominent Carrying State Troops From Oklahoma City black citizens, among them those of Dr. R. T. Bridgewater,Tulsa Star editor A. J.

. CINCINNATI Smitherman, and Booker T. Washington High School principal Ellis W. Woods.

ST. 5th PL. S. CINCINNA 3rd ST S. City w For several hours that morning, John A. Oliphant, a retired white attroney who lived . Hall ST. Armory nearby, had been telephoning police headquarters. Even though the homes had already been

4th ST FRANKFORT 6th ST.

ELGIN looted, they had not yet been burned. Oliphant believed if a handful of officers could be sent

S. S. FRANKFORT

ON

S. S. ELGIN

MAIN over, the homes could be spared. But, so far, he had not any luck.

CENTRAL

S. S. MAIN

DETROIT 7th ST. PARK

. BOSTON S. DETROIT

ST. S. w

S. BOST 5th ST S. Oliphant’s hopes were raised when he observed the arrival of the State Troops, figuring

Court . they would soon enter the neighborhood. Instead, Oliphant later testified, between 10:15 BOULDER ST.

House 7th ST a.m. and 10:30 a.m. four Tulsa police officers finally arrived on the scene. Rather than S. S. BOULDER . 8th ST. protecting the homes, the officers set them on fire. ST. 6th ST w By the time the State Troops finally marched up the hill, it was too late. The houses were already gone.