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“I could see planes circling in mid-air. They grew in number and hummed, darted and dipped low. I could hear something like hail falling upon the top of my office building. Down East Archer, I saw the old Mid-Way hotel on fire, burning from its top, and then another and another and another building began to burn from their top,” – Buck Colbert Franklin
Following World War I (1914-1918), Tulsa was recognized nationally for its affluent African American community known as the Greenwood District. This thriving business district and surrounding residential area was referred to as “Black Wall Street.” We can only imagine the hatred many whites harboured regarding this wealthy black township in the State of Oklahoma.
We can also envision how the whites schemed to get their hands on the assets of the African Americans who lived in Greenwood District at that time. Tulsa is the second-largest city in the State of Oklahoma. In June 1921, a series of events nearly destroyed the entire Greenwood area.
The Tulsa Race Massacre, which occurred over 18 hours from May 31 to June 1, 1921, is rarely spoken about outside of the Black community. The event remains one of the worst incidents of racial violence in the history of the United States of America, and, for an extended time, remained one of the least-known. News reports were largely censored, despite the fact that hundreds of people were killed and thousands left homeless and destitute.
Regrettably, the dreams and aspirations of these hardworking black folks went up in smoke on that Tuesday, 100 years ago. Sadly, this was the reality for many African American
who survived this genocide. Tulsa in 1921 was a highly segregated city.
Most of the city’s 10,000 Black residents lived in a neighborhood called Greenwood, which included a thriving business district sometimes referred to as the Black Wall Street.
History.com reported that on n May 30, 1921, a young Black teenager named Dick Rowland entered an elevator at the Drexel Building, an office building on South Main Street. At some point after that, the young white elevator operator, Sarah Page, screamed; Rowland fled the scene.
The police were called, and the next morning they arrested Rowland. Rumors of what supposedly happened on that elevator had circulated through the city’s white community. A front-page story in the Tulsa Tribune that afternoon reported that police had arrested Rowland for sexually assaulting Page.
As evening fell, an angry white mob was gathering outside the courthouse, demanding the sheriff hand over Rowland. Sheriff Willard McCullough refused, and his men barricaded the top floor to protect the Black teenager.
Around 9 p.m., a group of about 25 armed Black men including many World War I veterans went to the courthouse to offer help guarding Rowland. After the sheriff turned them away, some of the white mob tried unsuccessfully to break into the National Guard armory nearby.
The fear was that the black teenager would have been lynched. With rumours still swirling of a possible lynching, a group of around 75 armed Black men returned to the courthouse shortly after 10 pm, where they were met by some 1,500 white men, some of whom also carried weapons.
Franklin wrote that he left his law office, locked the door, and descended to the foot of the steps. “The side-walks were literally covered with burning turpentine balls.
I knew all too well where they came from, and I knew all too well why every burning building first caught from the top,” he continues. “I paused and waited for an opportune time to escape. ‘Where oh where is our splendid fire department with its half dozen stations?’ I asked myself.
‘Is the city in conspiracy with the mob?” One can only imagine the horror not only Rowland experienced as he was wrongly accused of a crime, but also the black community as they tried to understand the terror, paralyzing fear and panic which ensued in the aftermath of the Tulsa Massacre.
In the hours after the Tulsa Race Massacre, all charges against Dick Rowland were dropped. The police concluded that Rowland had most likely stumbled into Page, or stepped on her foot. Rowland left Tulsa the following morning and reportedly never returned.
Black Wall Street
Buck Colbert Franklin was a black lawyer who lived in Greenwood, Tulsa at the time of the massacre. He explained that Native Americans and African-Americans became wealthy thanks to the discovery of oil in the early 1900s on what had previously been seen as worthless land.
“That’s what leads to Greenwood being called the Black Wall Street. For decades, there were no public ceremonies, memorials for the dead or any efforts to remember the events of May 31-June 1, 1921. Instead, there was a conscious effort to rewrite history. It can be argued that even the media was complicit in this cover up of historical facts.
The Tulsa Tribune removed the front-page story of May 31 that sparked the chaos from its bound volumes, and scholars later discovered that police and state militia archives about the riot were missing as well. Until recently the Tulsa Race Massacre was rarely mentioned in history books, taught in schools or even talked about.
Scholars began to probe deeper into the story of the riot in the 1970’s, after its 50th anniversary had passed. According to History.com in 1996, on the riot’s 75th anniversary, a service was held at the Mount Zion Baptist Church, which rioters had burned to the ground, and a memorial was placed in front of Greenwood Cultural Center.
In 2001, the report of the Race Riot Commission concluded that between 100 and 300 people were killed and more than 8,000 people made homeless over those 18 hours in 1921. The issue of race and racism is still very much embedded in the social fabric of the American culture.
We have had countless numbers of African American, especially men who have been murdered due to the colour of their skin. One of the most recent murders is that of George Floyd. George Floyd, 46, died after being arrested by police outside a shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2020.
Video footage of the arrest on 25 May shows a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeling on Mr. Floyd’s neck while he was pinned to the ground. George Floyd said repeatedly that he could not breathe as he was restrained by white police officers.
Post- Slavery Societies
History has highlighted the fact that in post-slavery societies such as the United States of America, black lives are oftentimes devalued. Sadly, in many instances the colour of one’s skin is the sole indicator upon which one is unfairly judged. The policing of black bodies and racial profiling continue to be tools of white suppression and control.
The Black Lives Movement; a political and social movement originated among African Americans was formed to demand basic human rights and racial equality for Blacks. The mistrust many African Americans have for law enforcement is justified given the recent murders of African Americans.
Perhaps the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre will provide an opportunity for the American society to reconcile itself with its divisive racial past, which unfortunately is still very much present.
The conversation on race and race relations needs to be ongoing in an effort to bring about meaningful change. As we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre we must never forget the atrocities of the past as we build and forge ahead in the future.
In the words of Amanda Gorman, the new dawn blooms as we free it. For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.
Wayne Campbell is an educator and social commentator with an interest in development policies as they affect culture and or gender issues. waykam@yahoo.com
