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Memory, Violence, and Resistance in Greenwood, North Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1907-1980

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Memory, Violence, and Resistance in Greenwood, North Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1907-1980 Portland State University PDXScholar Dissertations and Theses Dissertations and Theses Summer 9-18-2018 "The Battling Ground": Memory, Violence, and Resistance in Greenwood, North Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1907-1980 Greta Katherine Smith Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds Part of the History Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Smith, Greta Katherine, ""The Battling Ground": Memory, Violence, and Resistance in Greenwood, North Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1907-1980" (2018). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 4559. https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.6444 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. “The Battling Ground”: Memory, Violence, and Resistance in Greenwood, North Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1907-1980. by Greta Katherine Smith A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History Thesis Committee: Katrine Barber, Chair Catherine McNeur David Johnson Karen Gibson Portland State University 2018 © 2018 Greta Katherine Smith Abstract Tulsa, Oklahoma's historically African American neighborhood of Greenwood in North Tulsa has long been contested terrain. Built by black settlers beginning in the late nineteenth-century, the neighborhood evolved into a vibrant community challenged by waves of violence—segregation at statehood in 1907, the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, ongoing disinvestment, and processes of urban renewal beginning in the late 1950s—that contributed to the erosion of the neighborhood and the eventual displacement of many area residents into remote housing projects further into North Tulsa. These waves of violence were propelled by Oklahoma lawmakers, local Tulsa government officials, members of the Ku Klux Klan, and private white citizens who worked to expand the city’s color line by controlling the placement and visibility of black people in Tulsa and gain ownership of Greenwood—as the neighborhood was, and is, located on desirable land. The people of Greenwood met these waves of violence with acts of resistance. They organized and lobbied against segregation at statehood, fought to save their community during the Tulsa Race Riot, and galvanized to rebuild almost immediately after. They maintained a culture of interdependence that contributed to strength in community and economy. Beginning in the late 1950s, they protested their displacement. However, by the late 1980s, the ravages of slum clearance and expressway building had rendered much of Greenwood unlivable and many residents had no choice but to relocate. The loss of historic place and increased distance between community members made it difficult to maintain their shared identity and culture of interdependence. i Taken altogether, these four waves of violence functioned as tools to carry out the city of Tulsa’s longstanding agenda of reclaiming the prime urban real estate of Greenwood while broadening the area of land that segregated black & white Tulsa. At the root existed white supremacy: the belief in the inherent superiority of the white race and its fundamental right to dominate society. ii To Tulsa. iii Acknowledgements I saved writing this part for the last, because I have long had a swirling mass of ideas I envisioned writing—the people and sets of circumstances I wanted to acknowledge that helped move me to the position of extreme privilege I know that I embody in writing this thesis. I toyed with starting with my fourth-grade teacher, whose name I can no longer remember, but who understood the challenges I encountered every day in the classroom (even though I still cannot pinpoint them myself) and advocated for me. I wanted to move up through a litany of teachers and others who helped lift me up, including my high school art teacher Greg de Verges, who helped my dreams extend beyond the plains. I decided that would be too much, but I cannot help but to give a nod to them here. As I put this thesis to bed, I am conflicted. I look forward to finishing, but in a way, I will miss it very much. To be able to focus so deeply on a subject is something that many people never get the chance to do and is something that I might never be able to do again. I hope I have done this subject justice here even though in my eyes it is far from finished. I am glad to move beyond my life as a student, but how I feel closing this chapter is something I do not know how to put into words. I will say that I feel beyond fortunate that people believed in me enough to support me in this effort. I want to first thank Professor Katrine Barber for the unwavering support and guidance she has provided me with as my thesis advisor. Our conversations are the bedrock of this thesis. I first took a class with Dr. Barber during my first quarter at Portland State University. I had this crazy idea that I might like to go in to public history and have since taken countless classes with her as the professor, but I always think about iv that first one. In that class, I learned that to do this work you have to consider the real- world ramifications, and I struggled with paralysis where that is concerned. This is an ongoing struggle and Dr. Barber has gotten me over many of these humps. She has taught me to ask questions and to listen. That in knowledge lies responsibility—a responsibility to hear as well as to speak to certain truths—and that above all, you have to be brave. This has been the best lesson. Thank you, Dr. Barber. I want to thank Eliza Canty Jones and Erin Brasell at the Oregon Historical Quarterly for choosing me to be the Rose Tucker Fellow for 2015-2017. I applied thinking I probably would not make the cut and began making other plans, but then they did choose me. Their decision is the only way I would have been able to go to graduate school. I would not be writing these words otherwise. I learned so much during my time there about writing, editing, and public history that I will not try to recount them here. I will just say that the Rose Tucker Fellowship was my favorite part about grad school. Next, I want to thank the members of my thesis committee—Professor David Johnson, Professor Catherine McNeur, and Professor Karen Gibson. All of whom extended to me their support, guidance, and generosity of time. The lessons, conversations, and resources each of them provided me with helped to ground this work and encouraged me to get it done. I also want to thank the Portland State University History Department—Andrea Janda, Jeff Brown, and Professor Tim Garrison, in particular—for answering my often endless stream of questions as I navigated the program. I want to extend a special thank you to Dr. Garrison for providing me with funding to take a research trip to Tulsa during the summer of 2016. That trip helped me reconnect with the landscape and people that are the subject this thesis, as well as the v chance to dive into the archives at Tulsa City-County Library, the University of Tulsa, and the Oklahoma State University-Tulsa. The people I was able to talk with and the materials I collected in visiting the archives are foundational components of this work. I also want to acknowledge and express my deep appreciation for the Tulsa Race Riot scholars who did much of the work that I have built upon with this thesis. Thank you to Hannibal B. Johnson, Esq., of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Centennial Commission and Ray Pearcey of the Oklahoma Eagle for taking the time to talk with me when I was in Tulsa. Our conversations helped me to understand the history of Greenwood as well as my place in attempting to add my voice to the story as an outsider. One of the things Dr. Johnson said to me when we met at his office in Greenwood is something that I tried to hold at the center of this work. That is, first, not to try to tell the African American community in Tulsa what their history is, and second, that this story is not one that is special to Tulsa, but that it is repeated in black communities across the country. In writing this thesis, I have made it a priority to let the voices of the Greenwood community stand and tell their own story as much as possible. The interviews done in the 1990s by Eddie Faye Gates have proved an invaluable resource and I want to express my deep gratitude to Ms. Gates for her work both as an oral historian and as a scholar. Thank you also to University of Tulsa Archivist and Tulsa Race Riot historian, I. Marc Carlson for meeting with me and taking me on a driving tour of Tulsa Race Riot sites and to Dr. Scott Ellsworth for speaking with me over the phone when I was still an undergraduate and just beginning to grapple with this history. I also want to extend a special thank you to Michael Bates for communicating with me extensively through email and sharing resources. Our communication as well as Mr. Bates’ work, in particular his article “Steps vi to Nowhere,” was highly influential in this work and is, I believe, of great significance. Finally, I want to thank Lee Roy Chapman, who is no longer with us, but whose 2012 article “Nightmare in Dreamland,” set my own inquiry in motion.
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