Remember the Victims of The Tulsa Race Massacre of May 31, 1921 One Hundred Years Ago Today May 31, 2021
Contributed
May 31, 2021
TULSA (AGN.NEWS) – Today marks the 100th anniversary of the darkest day of racial violence perpetrated against Black citizens in America’s history. It’s called the “Tulsa Race Massacre” that took place on May 31 and June 1, 1921. Historians, citizens, government, and victims alike have labeled it one of “the single worst incidents of racial violence in American history”.
Racists attacked Greenwood Neighborhood
It was May 31, 1921 when the Black community of Tulsa, Oklahoma experienced the terror of several thousand white men, including police and city officials, finally converged in mass, upon the tax paying helpless citizens of the Greenwood district.
Life in the Greenwood community
Greenwood was a thriving neighborhood of 35 blocks of homes, over 10,000 Black residents, over 1,000 businesses, shopping centers, and the largest Black-owned hotel in America (all valued at over $35,000,000 in today’s dollars).
This Greenwood neighborhood in Tulsa was the largest concentration of Black-owned homes and businesses in the United States called, “Black Wall Street.” A financially, self-sufficient $35 million dollar plus community of hard-working Black residents who were the envy of Tulsa’s other communities.
Lead up to Greenwood Massacre
What happened? There were many theories but one reality stands out. In 1921 segregated Tulsa, Black residents were not allowed to use “white Only” public restrooms. Black men and women had to use hard-to-find “Colored Only” restrooms in public spaces.
This explains why the downtown “Shoe Shine Boy”, 19-year-old Dick Rowland, had to take the elevator, operated by Sarah Page, the 17-year-old white elevator operator of the nearby Drexel Building, to use the “Colored Only” public restroom.
Rowland had go to another floor where the “Colored Only” restroom was located. As the manually-operated elevator was being lowered to the ground floor it jerked and the Black “Shoe Shine Boy” fell forward and touched the girl.
At that point the elevator door opened and the girl exited. At seeing this scene, white residents in the lobby started accusing the “Shoe Shine Boy” of attempting to rape the girl.
As innocent as this was, the “Shoe Shine Boy” was taken into custody and the local newspaper, operated by white Supremacists, ran the story of attempted rape and thereby pouring fuel on the fire of racial hatred in Tulsa.
After months of seeing each other in the building as employees and who knew each other, no one stopped to ask what really happened. The white mob’s only interest was to use an alleged assault of a white woman to destroy the prosperous Greenwood community.
There was no proof or testimony by Sarah Page that Rowland tried to rape her. The rumor mill churned out this outlandish story as an excuse to terrorized the prosperous Greenwood community.
What sparked the Greenwood Massacre?
Soon, over a thousand armed white men, many of them deputized and given weapons by city officials, gathered at the courthouse and prepared to lynch the “Shoe Shine Boy”.
When the Black community heard that Rowland was to be lynched around 75 Black men, including World War I veterans, armed themselves, hoping to prevent a lynching.
When they arrived at the courthouse and jail the sheriff told everyone to leave and that he had the situation under control. As the crowd tried to leave an elderly white man tried to disarm one of the Black veterans name O. B. Mann. In the struggle the gun fired one shot.
According to the reports of the sheriff, “all hell broke loose.” At the end of the firefight, 12 people were killed: 10 white and 2 Black.
The May 31, 1921 edition of the Tulsa Tribune, a white Supremacists affiliated newspaper, included an inflammatory front-page story entitled “Nab Negro for Attacking Girl in Elevator”, about an encounter between a white elevator operator, Sarah Page, and a Black teenager, Dick Rowland.
The Tulsa Tribune’s story is frequently named as a contributing factor in the Tulsa Race Massacre as the mob made reference to the article. As news of these deaths spread throughout the city, mob violence
exploded.
It has been claimed that the same issue of the Tulsa Tribune also contained a second article, or an editorial, reporting on plans by white residents to lynch Rowland.
All originals of this edition of the newspaper were apparently destroyed, and the relevant pages are also missing from the archived microfilm copy. The Tribune printed its last edition on September 30, 1992 and closed down.
Why was this done to Greenwood?
It’s noteworthy here to understand what 19th century and early 20th century history says was the number one justification used by white mobs to terrify and murder Black men via lynching actually was.
The number one reason used by white supremacists relates to a rumor of an assault or some other action related to disrespect of a white woman as in the case of Sarah Page and many, many others.
More often than not, there was no assault. Lynching was used to vent the mob’s hate, racism, or prejudice towards people of color.
Sometimes it was for economic reasons. Envy of Black economic success has been cited as a common reason to destroy Black-owned businesses. There was also theft of land or material assets, envy of successful African Americans, and theft of money from Black descendants.
Other common reasons that motivated the killing of people of color were: Jealousy of Black-owned communities, Black home ownership, Black people’s wealth, and ending generational wealth.
In the case of Sarah Page, there was no attack on the elevator, but the story sold papers and lifted the public profile of white Supremacists in Tulsa. This was the spark that ignited the flame of two days of racial terror, the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.
Violent white mob massacred residents
Soon there were several thousand angry white men, armed racists, with all types of guns and explosives walking through Greenwood shooting Black men, women, and children on-sight block by block.
They looted businesses, homes, and set fire to every home, automobile, truck, and business. The large Black-owned hotel was spared at the beginning because the Black owner and some of his friends stood guard with guns on the ready.
That changed when local companies who had airplanes starting using them to bomb the hotel from the air. Those airplanes used machine guns, fire bombs, dynamite, gas bombs, and other bombs on every building and home in Greenwood.
The white mob started to round up every Black man trying to flee the city. More than 800 people were admitted to hospitals, and as many as 6,000 Black residents were interned in large facilities, many of them for several days. Hundreds were detained while their wives and children tried to escape, some followed the railroad tracks out of town. Thousands were left homeless.
How many died in the massacre?
The “Official” record has been disputed. Many of the survivors and the state commission have said they believe at least 300 Blacks were murdered. No one was ever charged with those murders.
The record shows officially 26 Blacks and 13 whites. The true number may never be known. What is known is that many were buried in mass graves in an effort to cover up the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. It is also called the Black Wall Street Massacre.
City officials made every effort to erase the Tulsa Black Wall Street Massacre from history. No one wanted to talk about it. Not even the local white Supremacists newspaper, The Tulsa Tribune, printed a follow-up story of the false accusation leading to the murders.
Was there an official Tulsa apology?
City officials, newspapers, nor law enforcement ever acknowledged the victims and their suffering, property loss or the plight of the more than 6,000 in-custody Black citizens.
What about the families? The plight of the Black families who fled the terrorism in Tulsa was never addressed. No official apology was ever given to residents of Greenwood. The Black citizens, many of whom were former victims of slavery, were murdered in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Undoubtedly, many white Tulsa city officials were ashamed of the deadly terrorist attacks on Black Americans by white Americans – crimes committed by people who looked like them.
On Memorial Day, May 31, 1921, white rioters invaded Greenwood that night and the next morning, killing men, women, children, and burning and looting stores and homes. Around noon on June 1, the Oklahoma National Guard imposed martial law, ending the massacre.
When the white mob attacked Black residents, destroying homes, businesses, and murdering Black World War I veterans, it brought shame upon the city of Tulsa, its officials, and the state of Oklahoma.
The Tulsa Race Massacre is considered one of “the single worst incident of racial violence in American history” and has been described as one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the history of the United States.
Were Greenwood citizens compensated?
This racist attack on African Americans is called the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. It involved the murder of over 300 Black people in two days with millions of dollars in uncompensated property damage.
The attackers burned and destroyed more than 35 square blocks of the neighborhood—at the time one of the wealthiest Black communities in the United States, colloquially known as “Black Wall Street.”
By the end of 1922, largely, the Black residents’ homes had been rebuilt, but the city and real estate companies refused to compensate them. Reparation for the lives lost and the property losses have eluded the descendants of Greenwood.
To date, compensation for the lives lost and the massive property losses have gone unfulfilled. However, the city of Tulsa has taken positive steps to acknowledge the massacre.
President Harding addressed race relations
On October 26, 1921, three months after the Tulsa Race Massacre, President Warren G. Harding gave a speech in Birmingham, Alabama, to a segregated audience of 20,000 Whites and 10,000 Blacks.
“Whether you like it or not,” Harding told his segregated audience, “unless our democracy is a lie, you must stand for that equality.” The White section of the audience listened in silence, while the Black section cheered.
One hundred years later, President Joe Biden issued an official proclamation about the Tulsa Race Massacre.
Oldest living survivor of Greenwood
Viola Fletcher (born May 5, 1914), also known as Mother Fletcher, is the oldest known survivor of the Tulsa race massacre. One hundred years after the massacre, she testified before Congress about the need for reparations.
Her family, including four of her siblings, was living in Greenwood, a wealthy Black neighborhood of Tulsa, at the time of the massacre. Fletcher was seven years old at the time of the massacre. She was in bed asleep on May 31, 1921, when the massacre began – her mother woke the family and they fled.
The family lost everything but the clothes they were wearing. She is the oldest known survivor of the massacre. Today, Mother Fletcher still sleeps sitting up on her couch with the lights on.
Fletcher, 107, one of the few living survivors from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, “I’m here seeking justice and asking my country to acknowledge what happened,” Fletcher said during the “Continuing injustice: The Centennial of the Tulsa-Greenwood Race Massacre” hearing in front of a House Judiciary subcommittee, calling for justice for the survivors.
Greenwood neighborhood was rebuilt
Greenwood residents who stayed worked hard and within 10 years Black residents had rebuilt many of the homes and businesses. City officials coordinated among themselves to change zoning laws to prevent Greenwood from becoming what it was in 1921.
Both Black and white residents in Tulsa refused to talk about the Tulsa Race Massacre of May 31 and June 1, 1921 for well over 50 years. Even young intellectuals in Tulsa had never heard of it in the 1970s and 1980s.
In 1996, 75 years after the massacre, a bipartisan group in the state legislature authorized formation of the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.
Greenwood Massacre no longer hidden
A 2001 report issued by a state legislature-appointed commission admitted that the state’s historians largely ignored the massacre and children did not learn about it in school.
Today, we remember the thousands of victims including the survivors of this massacre. Today, there are events in Tulsa to remember the many generations of traumatized victims on both sides of the massacre including a candlelight vigil.
The commemoration is slated to include a visit by President Joe Biden on Tuesday and the unveiling of the $20 million Greenwood Rising museum. Even though the museum is not ready to open since it is still under construction, it will tell the story of Greenwood and what actually happened. This museum is part of the process of the healing needed by the victims.
Today, we remember the many victims, both Black and white, who are finally able to feel comfortable speaking of the horrors of May 31 and June 1, 1921. Justice for the victims will speed the healing process.
President Biden’s Greenwood Proclamation
President Joe Biden issued a proclamation on Monday marking 100 years since a “violent white supremacist mob” descended on the thriving Black neighborhood of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on May 31, 1921, wrecking businesses, destroying homes and killing hundreds of Black people.
In the proclamation, Biden pointed to the racist mob that “raided, firebombed and destroyed … the thriving Black neighborhood of Greenwood.”
“Families and children were murdered in cold blood. Homes, businesses, and churches were burned. In all, as many as 300 Black Americans were killed,” the proclamation reads:
“Today, on this solemn centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre, I call on the American people to reflect on the deep roots of racial terror in our Nation and recommit to the work of rooting out systemic racism across our country.”
Race motivated hate crimes
When vigilantes met out their form of justice, there is a less than acceptable outcome for the perpetrators. America is a nation of laws. Laws that are being enforced by dedicated men and women in law enforcement. Today, America takes a very dim view of hate-based crimes.
Race-based hate crimes have no place in the United States. Hate crimes against people of color including Asians, Black citizens, Hispanic citizens, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, Caribbean Americans, or European American citizens can never again be part of the fabric of America as voiced by President Harding in 1921.
Speaking directly about the events in Tulsa, President Harding said, “God grant that, in the soberness, the fairness, and the justice of this country, we never see another spectacle like it.”
What makes America stand out in the world as a model of good governance is our unique view of law and order. As a nation of laws, America will bring to justice violators of the constitutional rights of its citizens.
Racism, racial hatred, and hate crimes in America never pays, it only costs America… a LOT!
#GoldOverBlack
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