1921 Tulsa Race Riot Reconnaissance Survey Final November 2005 National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 Summary Statement 1 Bac.ground and Purpose 1 HISTORIC CONTEXT 5 National Persp4l<live 5 1'k"Y v. f~u,on' World War I: 1896-1917 5 World W~r I and Postw~r ( r.: 1!1t7' EarIV 1920,; 8 Tulsa RaCR Riot 14 IIa<kground 14 TI\oe R~~ Riot 18 AIt. rmath 29 Socilot Political, lind Economic Impa<tsJRamlt;catlon, 32 INVENTORY 39 Survey Arf!a 39 Historic Greenwood Area 39 Anla Oubi" of HiOlorK G_nwood 40 The Tulsa Race Riot Maps 43 Slirvey Area Historic Resources 43 HI STORIC GREENWOOD AREA RESOURCeS 7J EVALUATION Of NATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE 91 Criteria for National Significance 91 Nalional Signifiunce EV;1lu;1tio.n 92 NMiol\ill Sionlflcao<e An.aIYS;s 92 Inl~ri ly E~alualion AnalY'is 95 {"",Iu,ion 98 Potenl l~1 M~na~menl Strategies for Resource Prote<tion 99 PREPARERS AND CONSULTANTS 103 BIBUOGRAPHY 105 APPENDIX A, Inventory of Elltant Cultural Resoun:es Associated with 1921 Tulsa Race Riot That Are Located Outside of Historic Greenwood Area 109 Maps 49 The African American S«tion. 1921 51 TI\oe Seed. of c..taotrophe 53 T.... Riot Erupt! SS ~I,.,t Blood 57 NiOhl Fiohlino 59 rM Inva.ion 01 iliad. TIll ... 61 TM fighl for Standp''''' Hill 63 W.II of fire 65 Arri~.. , of the Statl! Troop< 6 7 Fil'lal FiOlrtino ~nd M~,,;~I I.IIw 69 jii INTRODUCTION Summary Statement n~sed in its history. The summer Qf 19 19 has become known as ~ The Red Summer" because The period between 1896, when the u.s. of the bloodShed resulting from approximately Supreme Olurt providedlcgIIJ sanction to "Jim 2.5 race riots - Ihe lJlOSt serious lX:currins in Crow~ legislation in its historic I'lasy v. Chkago and Washington, D.C. - in which lYrguson dedsion, and the early 1920s wit­ more than 100 htacks were killed and thousands nessed one of Ihe greatest period _~ of racial vio­ were injured aod left homeless-.. Amid the social knee in American histury as whites sought 10 dislocation and the rise uf intensified racism, reestablish an ironclad system of whit", nativism, and i$Olationi~m of the postwar peri· supremacy following the African American od, both Nonhern and Southern whites re~ e ted surge toward equality during ReconstrucTion_ 11,1 the d.,mands uf the ~New Negro" fur radal Race riot:>, prim;'lrily an urban piM:numena, equality. RerumingAfrican American soldiers occurred in holh the North and The South, but and black home front war worker.;, ha~;ng will_ wen: more characteristic of the Norlh a~ ingly fought in the war orcurotributed to Allied increasing numbers of blacks migratl-d frum the ~ictory by worl:.ing in American industries, South to Nonhern cities to improve their living demon~trat ed rising TIlda! consciousness and conditions and take ad"antage of the economic increasin!; unwilll IIgtless to slip quietly back opportunities in the nation·s expanding indus­ into second cb ss citizenship. trial centers.lbe consequent displacemenTof some whites by ~I;s io jobs, housing. and On", of the must ~iolcnt incidents in t("rms of other public fllCilities resulted in CK01lating bloodshed and property loss during I~ post­ inTemcilal SOCial tensions which were frequent­ war years erupwd in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on May ly exacerbated by racist white ncwspalXr scn!;.ll­ 31-June I, 1921, as r-Jmpaging white mobs tionalism that hyped African Amuicun crime im-aded Greenwood, the d ty's segregated ll./"Id encouraged lynchingofbl.1cks. Mrican American community, durlngan 18- huUt period. Lured by Tulsa's oil·based boom Beginning with the fir.;t r.u:e riot tu crupt after l'COllomy, blacks had migrated to G~n\\-vod in RecO<lstruction in Wilmington, North Carolina, tV\:r increasing numbers for more fhan a in 1898, escalating racial ~iohmCt: continued d",cade. By 1921 th~ African Mennn cummu­ into the 20th century. In response to the vio­ nil)· of nearly 11,000 residents feawred a thri,,· lence, a group of young African Americans ing commercial district thaT boaSled some of organi~cd and incorpoNtted themsel"es as Ihe the finest black·owned businesses in the south­ Ni~ M.ovement in 1905 for ~ssive actiOll "'-estern United Stales. During the immed iate 10 secure full cUizenship for blacks.. Despite ~':lJ" years, Tulsa - a (ity with a nOfN"Orth)· these ..-ITons, however, \'ioleoce against blades reputatiO<l for hlwlcssntss, lynchiM{:. and Ntcial continued la~Jy unab;lted as major race riots "iolence - bcc3./llc a tinderbox as a result of erupted in Springfield, Ohio, nrown s~ilIe, postwar social and economic dislocatiun. Rising Texas, and Atlanta, Georgia, in 1906. Ntci~l tension~ fu!'.led hy while newspaper sen­ sationalism and threats of an attempted lynch­ As the Unitl-d St:I.t.,s fntered World War I, ing. resulted in an explusion of dC\'astating "io­ deadly race nou erupted in East Sl LoJuis., lence that left $OtnC 35-40 square bI()Cks of Ill inois, and I louston, Texas, in 1917. The post­ Greenwood'$ residential area in smoking ruins, war years UShered in the greatest period of and nearly 9,000 Africll./"l Americans h omeles.~. interracial violence th~ r the nallon hnd wit. Virtually n-cry structure in Ihe Greemmod 1 oommercial district ....-as destroyed, and proper­ Background and Purpose ty darnaoe was estimated at nearly SI.S million. Allhough the exact number of riot-re lated e:J.Su ­ Recognition, commemoration, preservation, al ties is diffi cul! to detennine, ~ords indicate and interpretation of the ] 921 Tulsa race riot that more than 700 persons were injured and and its associated 1C$Ources have been dis­ estimates of deaths ranged between 36 and 300. cussed for mon: than t..... o decades. I'ursuant to ,·Iouse joint Resolution No. 1035 ( 1997). the The 1921 Tulsa race riOI illuf>lrates the key char­ Oklahoma state legislarure appointed iUl 11- acteristics of race riots during the 1896·early member Oklahoma Commission tu study the 1920s era. During this perind race riOtS ....'Cre Tu lsa race riO! of 192!. The commission was characterized by white mob assaults, often with direCted \0: (I) seek and locate survivors of the the aid or tacit permission of white law enforce­ race not; (2) ~i:\lIther information, identify and ment officials., against Afric.1n American com­ interview witnc s~ ... presnve testi!ll()ny and munities in defense of segregation and to com­ r«ords obtained ... land) examine and copy bat what whiles perceived as growing African documents ... having historical significanccr American aggressive allempts to aller the racial and (3) MdcV\"lop a historical record of the 1921 status quo. The white invasions o fbl~ck neigh­ Tul~a Race Riot.n The commission was also borhoods resulted In the ocating and killing of provided with the opponuniry to make ~specif­ large numbers of African Americans and the ic recommendations about whether or not d~ruction of oons id erab~ black residential reparations can or should be made" and Ihe and romlIl<!n:ial propeny. Badlyoutnumbercd, Mappropriate mcthods" for making such repara­ African Americans increasingly foughl back to tions payments. proteCltheir families and property. Tulsa ranks as one of th~ most devastating incidents of 111e commission's final report - ·tulsa Race RiQl: racial violence in American history. Moreover, A Rqx,rl by III ~ Ok/Clhoma Commission 10 Study Tulsa ser.. es as one of the most noteworthy th~ Tulsa R<lu Riot of 192 1- ..... as published on examples of this type of interracial violence for February 28, 2001. The report induded an undemanding and interpreting the tnagic chap­ overview history prep3rtd by Dr. John Hope tcr of America's race relations during this era. FllInklin,James B. Duke Profes~ r EmeriUls, J)uk~ University, and Scott EJbworth, author of As the last major l"llCe riot of the era, Tulsa rep­ DeClth in cl Promist d LClnd: Tht Til/sa Rare Riot resented the closingchllpter to the racial vio­ of /921 , the stlIndard documentary history of len~ that swept across Am~ri can durins the the race riOI published in 1982, and. a fanner !ate 19th;md early 20th centuries.. The: number historian at the National Museum of American of ITI9jor racial conflicts dediocd dlllmatically History, Smith§Onian Institution. The 2001 in the Uniled Stales after Tulsa, although 3 few rcPOTl also includcd a documented nartati,'c riots did occur in during the 1930s and 1940s, history of the race riot by Ellsworth a.~ well as most notably in Harlem (1935and 1943) and in riOI _related topical studies - role of airplanes, Detroit {1943}. Not until the 1960's would confirmed deaths, investigation o f potential another era of major racial violence appear. mass grave locatiuns, skeletal n:mains, property However, this latcr period ofviolcotc, includ­ loss., and assessment 01 Slate aod local legal cul­ ing riOIS in Walls, CaJifomla, ....-as of a cornplNC­ pability _ prepared by expert consultants and Iy different n~ture . ln Watts iUld ~I,;c:where in 6Cholars who worked under Ihe oormnission'~ America Ihese modern race riots w~re charac­ dire~1ion but were free to reach any cunclusions t~rized by African Americans vioJtntly venting they believed wen: justified. Also included with their frustrations with continuing discrimina­ the repon ",~re chronological maps of the race rion and pol'erty against white policeman and riot [hat were prepared by the Oklahoma the: unfortunate white people who ch/Illced to Hiswrical Socicty(OHS).