[55] The black men who had offered to provide security retreated toward Greenwood. Ten laps into a 30-lap race, 16-year-old Ashton Torgerson clipped a wall that caused his car to turn sideways and flip- ejecting him from the car. So very quickly the riot stopped being mentioned in either of Tulsa's daily white newspapers. [145], In the early 1970s, along with Henry C. Whitlow, Jr., a history teacher at Booker T. Washington High School, Mozella Franklin Jones helped to desegregate the Tulsa Historical Society by mounting the first major exhibition on the history of African Americans in Tulsa. She describes the whole experience to be awful. After an all-night battle on the Frisco Tracks, many residents of Greenwood were taken by surprise as bullets ripped through the walls of their homes in the predawn hours. [127], Chief of Police John A. Gustafson was the subject of an investigation. Ordered in by the governor, he could not legally act until he had contacted all the appropriate local authorities, including Mayor T. D. Evans, the sheriff, and the police chief. In October 2010, the park was named for noted historian John Hope Franklin, who was born and raised in Tulsa. The Busch family send our thoughts and prayers out to the whole Torgerson family and Ashton that he is ok!! He is a member of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations and has conducted 1,820 African-American oral histories for The HistoryMakers. We will update when we have more information. Almost immediately after Greenwood burned, efforts began at the highest levels to suppress what happened during the massacre, Johnson explained. Dan Beaver. Parrish documented the magnitude of the loss of human life and property at the hands of white vigilantes. I've gotten to know Torgerson over the last few months racing in California and I know he's a pretty humbled kid he's going to have a good recovery, he said. Gurley, who purchased 40 acres of land on the north side of Tulsa and opened a rooming house and provided loans to help other Black people start their own businesses. The Red Cross reported that 1,256 houses were burned and another 215 were looted but not burned. 7. Greenwood became so prosperous that it came to be known as "the Negro Wall Street" (now commonly referred to as "the Black Wall Street"). I felt safe. So whether it was a part failure, you know I guess anything at this point would be speculation, but we will find out. [113], On June 3, the Morning Tulsa Daily World reported major points of their interview with Deputy Sheriff Barney Cleaver concerning the events leading up to the Tulsa riot. [65], At around midnight, a small crowd of whites assembled outside the courthouse. [7][8], Having seen the armed black men, some of the more than 1,000 whites who had been at the courthouse went home for their own guns. While there were well-to-do Greenwood residents, the wealth in Greenwood has gotten a bit exaggerated, said Ellsworth. The Bloomberg Philanthropies gave Tulsa $1 million for an expansive public art project called the Greenwood Art Project. Tulsa Race Massacre: What happened in 1921? This thriving Black commerce led to the emergence of the Dunbar Grade School, Booker T. Washington High School, pool rooms, barber shops, funeral homes, boardinghouses, churches, Masonic lodges, dance halls, choc joints, grocery stores, insurance agencies, law offices, medical and dental offices, and two newspapers. Staking a claim in the Cherokee Outlet Land Run of 1893, Gurley and his wife opened a general store and founded Perry, Oklahoma. The territory of northern Oklahoma had been established for the forced resettlement of Native Americans from the southeast, some of whom had owned slaves. So when The Tulsa Tribune ran an inflammatory article and editorial on May 31, Black Tulsans had every reason to fear that Rowland would be lynched, and no reason to believe the authorities would protect him. Another firsthand account originates from Eloise Taylor Butler - the daughter of the famed "Peg Leg" Taylor - who was nineteen years old and in Greenwood on that day. In 1999, an eyewitness who had seen whites burying black victims at Oaklawn Cemetery was found. As the white mob in Greenwood grew, the violence that followed was so horrific and traumatizing that many Black survivors never spoke of it to their children. The riot was largely omitted from local, state, and national histories: "The Tulsa race riot of 1921 was rarely mentioned in history books, classrooms, or even in private. Details are difficult to gather, because many survivors of the massacre fled the city. Alternatively, another eyewitness account was that the shooting began "down the street from the Courthouse" when black business owners came to the defense of a lone black man being attacked by a group of around six white men. [181] Forensic anthropologist Phoebe Stubblefield later planned to analyze the remains in order to determine if they are the remains of people who were killed in the 1921 massacre. Simms volunteered at the hospital where she fed and gave water to people who were injured during the massacre. I didnt personally witness what happened but you could just feel the energy shift change in the building," Abreu said. [106] Only eight of the confirmed 26 black fatalities were brought to hospitals,[105] and as hospitals were segregated, and with the Black Frissell Memorial Hospital having burned down, the only place where the injured blacks were treated was at the basement of Morningside Hospital. I had a bright future., Then, she said, came the rampage, still vivid in her mind 100 years later: I still see Black men being shot, Black bodies lying in the street. Others suggested that Rowland and Page had a lover's quarrel. In the end, searches for mass graves were made with the aid of technology which included ground-penetrating radar, followed by core sampling. When this massacre occurred, Tulsa was becoming the oil capital of the world, he said. [57] At about 8:20p.m., three white men entered the courthouse, demanding that Rowland be turned over to them. Abby Carter, 14, last seen in Marshall County, has been the subject of an Amber Alert from the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. Eyewitnesses saw women being chased from their homes By 1921, according to historian Scott Ellsworth, a revived Tulsa Ku Klux Klan claimed an active membership of 3,200. She describes the feelings of fright and confusion. True deliverance for the people of Greenwood, however, came from within, as documented in their own record of the massacre and its aftermath. [26] Many survivors left Tulsa, while residents who chose to stay in the city, regardless of race, largely kept silent about the terror, violence, and resulting losses for decades. Cleaver was a deputy sheriff for Okmulgee County and not under the supervision of the city police department; his duties mainly involved enforcing the law among the "colored people" of Greenwood, but he also operated a business as a private investigator. Gurley, owner of Gurley's Hotel, identified the following men by name as arming themselves and gathering in his hotel: Will Robinson, Peg Leg Taylor, Bud Bassett, Henry Van Dyke, Chester Ross, Jake Mayes, O. That led to television coverage in 1996, a burst of publicity and, ultimately, the creation of the investigating commission. This article is available for unedited republication, free of charge, using the following credit: Originally published as The 1921 Tulsa Massacre: What Happened to Black Wall Streetin the Winter 2021issue ofHumanitiesmagazine, a publication of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Please notify us [email protected] you are republishing it or have any questions. The two eventually fled into the night under a hail of bullets Mary Parrish wrote a first-person account and collected eye-witness statements from dozens of others and published them immediately following the tragedy under the title The Events of the Tulsa Disaster. The 10-page typewritten letter was authored by Buck Colbert Franklin, noted Oklahoma attorney and father of John Hope Franklin.[81][86]. "[109] In less than a year of being in Tulsa, the Red Cross had set up a hospital for black patients, which was the first in Oklahoma's history; performed mass vaccinations for illnesses that could have been easily spread in the camps where survivors found themselves, as well as built infrastructure to provide fresh water, adequate food, and sufficient housing for those who no longer had a place of residence. Freeling initiated the investigation, and witnesses were heard over 12 days. A. Cargill. The shooter died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to Tulsa Police Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish. So this was something all of them would probably do once a day., Ellsworth recalled interviewing massacre survivor Robert Fairchild, who worked alongside Rowland as a shoe shiner, in 1978. [194] Several documentary projects were also announced at this time with plans to release them on the 100th anniversary of the event, including Black Wall Street by Dream Hampton, and another documentary by Salima Koroma. Despite the traumatic accident, Ashton is ready to get back on the track. The nearly 100,000 people in Greenwood who were affected relied, in large part, on the relief efforts of the Red Cross. People who had breastfed them. "[56] By 4 a.m., an estimated two dozen black-owned businesses had been set ablaze. [93], The massacre was covered by national newspapers, and the reported number of deaths varies widely. Track the forces hellbent on Greenwood's demise. B. Mann, a WWI veteran and veritable giant, led a valiant fight by sniping the rioters from Mt. Thank you @KKM_67 for this opportunity and for helping me pick up my 8th #ChiliBowl prelim win! Many novelists, artists and filmmakers have also in recent years begun to create both fictional accounts of what happened in order to make sure that younger generations of Americans know about the legacy of Greenwood. The gunman is also Biplanes dropped fiery turpentine bombs from the night skies onto their rooftopsthe first aerial bombing of an American city in history. I think they are the real heroes here. [176] Researchers secured permission to perform "limited excavations" from the city and as a result, they will be able to determine what the contents of these sites are, beginning in April 2020, and while they do not expect to dig up any human remains, they asserted that if they find any human remains in the course of their excavations, they will treat them with the proper respect. Between 75 and 300 Americans were killed, hundreds more were injured, and the homes of 5000 were destroyed, leaving them homeless. [40] Most black people lived together in the district. The inflammatory Tulsa Tribune articles were cut out before the newspapers were transferred to microfilm. [122] The Black Dispatch describes the content of the following meeting at the First Baptist Church. Right there on the ground where they lay. Johnson, and Barney Cleaver as participants in the forum, it was reported that all members were in agreement with the plan to redevelop the burned district as an industrial section and agreed that the proposed union station project was desirable. Here is a brief history of Greenwood, the racist killings, and what happened afterward, drawn from interviews with researchers and local officials, public records, and a commissions 2001 report on the massacre. From details of the elevator encounter that led to the massacre to false narratives in newspapers, experts clarify some lesser known moments. As the riots and massacre progressed, Simms and her family found refuge at a white family's home, where they were safe from the massacre. So they determined theyd tamp it down.. Meanwhile, the Tulsa Tribunes afternoon edition fanned the flames with the headline To Lynch Negro Tonight! as an ugly mob began to gather outside of the Tulsa Courthouse. CADDO COUNTY, Okla. The search for Athena Brownfield has transitioned into a recovery operation. The Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma was a thriving city within a citya symbol of pride, success and wealth. After McCondichie and her family evacuated Tulsa, they found refuge in a farmer's home overnight. She recalls never getting any money from insurance or the government to help. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. On August 18, 2020, just months before his 101st birthday, he died in Chatou, a suburb of Paris, France. At the time, Greenwood was very likely the most prosperous Black community in the country, and Tulsa, the Magic City, was one of Americas fastest-growing cities, an oil boomtown, following the 1905 discovery of the Glenn Pool Oil Reserve 15 miles south of town. But they knew that a racial brother was in dire danger, and so they risked their lives and some of them gave their lives to protect him, he explained. [36] By the end of 1921, 3,200 of Tulsa's 72,000 residents were Klan members, according to one estimate. Professor J.W. As Rowland tried to break his fall with his hands, he may have grabbed Sarah Pages arm. [174] The Oklahoma Archeological Survey subsequently announced that they were discontinuing search efforts at Newblock Park after not finding any evidence of graves. [183], A park was developed in 2010 in the Greenwood area as a memorial to victims of the riot. [171] The suggestion that the bodies had been burned in the city incinerator was also considered unfeasible and discounted, given the incinerator's capacity and logistical considerations. On June 3, a group of over 1,000 businessmen and civic leaders met, resolving to form a committee to raise funds and aid in rebuilding Greenwood. Beck remembers her parents making her and her siblings stay away from the windows because there were active shooters targeting the windows of homes. According to an account by Scott Ellsworth, the sheriff was "hooted down". searching for black snipers and firearms; detailing an NCO to take 170 black residents to the civil authorities; and. The article states that these community leaders would again meet at the First Baptist Church in the following days. They killed 'em right there on the ground" Eloise was reportedly so terrified that when "finally her daddy told her to 'get upget up and c'mon,' she said [in order] for them to move, he had to hurt her. The bill was introduced by John Conyers of Michigan and heard by the Judiciary Committee of the House but it did not pass, because of concerns about ex post facto legislation. Walter Whites total estimate of about 250 white and black fatalities is apparently confirmed in Tim Madigan. It started like down the street from the Courthouse. And listen to descendants of those directly affected by the massacre reflect on how their lives and families were forever transformed. Around noon on June 1, the Oklahoma National Guard imposed martial law, ending the massacre. The New York Times called Parrish's "a story of survival remains relevant a century later" while The New Yorker called it "The first and most visceral long-form account of how Greenwood residents experienced the massacre."[158][159]. The father of John Hope Franklin, he represented many victims claims in lawsuits seeking compensation for damage to property and business. delivering an additional 150 black residents to the Convention Hall. [140] It was the first book to be published about the riot. in February 2003, based on the findings of the 2001 report. It was tough to see but seeing that hes better than what we expected thats very helpful, said Danny Torgerson, Ashton's dad. He told me that there was no way that Rowland would have ever attacked Sarah Page, Ellsworth said. I saw Chief of Police on south side of courthouse on top step, talking; I did not see any officer except the Chief; I walked in the court house and met McCullough in about 15 feet of his door; I told him these negroes were going to make trouble, and he said he had told them to go home; he went out and told the Whites to go home, and one said: "they said you told them to come up here." She moved to Tulsa around 1919 and worked teaching typing and shorthand at a branch of the YMCA. Segregation produced a captive marketplace, and Black entrepreneurs prospered. Trinity University Press; University of Oklahoma Press; Feiwel and Friends, the Tulsa Race Massacre is still relevant today, The Ground Breaking: The Tulsa Race Massacre and an American City's Search for Justice, Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, Teachers worry Oklahoma's ban on systemic racism lessons could put jobs at risk, Black Wall Street 100: An American City Grapples With Its Historical Racial Trauma, Black America has been forever changed by George Floyd, The Burning: Black Wall Street and the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, Tulsa Race Massacre, 100 years later: Why it happened and why it's still relevant today, Kristen Clarke becomes first Black woman to head DOJ's Civil Rights Division, Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa's Historic Greenwood District, Hayden Swank, called a race car driving wunderkind, navigates college and racism, The Nation Must Awake : My Witness to the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission, Across the Tracks: Remembering the Tulsa Race Massacre and Black Wall Street, UNC withholds tenure for "1619 Project" journalist after conservative backlash. Several residents later testified the rioters broke into occupied homes and ordered the residents out to the street, where they could be driven or forced to walk to detention centers. After the massacre, Hooker and her family moved to Topeka, Kansas to rebuild their lives. When a group of whites arrived and began pulling at the grating over a window, Bell went outside to confront the crowd of 300 to 400 men. Lakshmi Gandhi is a contributor to NBC News. [110] The Tulsa Real Estate Exchange estimated property losses amounted to US$1.5 million in real estate and $750,000 in personal property[111] (equivalent to a total of $34 million in 2021). Major James Bell of the 180th Infantry Regiment learned of the mounting situation downtown and the possibility of a break-in, and he consequently took measures to prevent it. Thirty residents owned grocery stores there in 1921, said State Senator Kevin Matthews, a Democrat who represents Tulsa. Ogletree said the state and city should compensate the victims and their families "to honor their admitted obligations as detailed in the commission's report. After this show of force, the crowd withdrew from the armory. She was four years old when she and her family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma in the Greenwood district. Rowland went inside the building to use the third-floor segregated restroom. In just a few years on or near Greenwood and Archer streets, exciting sights, sounds, and smells inspired the captions The Black Wall Street and a regular Monte Carlo.. Tulsa police commissioner J. M. Adkison and police chief John Gustafson were under pressure to keep law and order in the rough and tumble boomtown. [77], Overwhelmed by the sheer number of attackers, black residents retreated north on Greenwood Avenue to the edge of town. As city streets throbbed with protests (and what some might call uprisings) during the summer of 2020, two science fiction dramas recalled the massacre of Tulsa, Oklahoma, which took place 100 years ago this spring. It began, like so much racial violence, with a false allegation that a Black man had raped a white woman. Some witnesses later recounted hearing several attorneys defend Rowland in their conversations with one another. In the early 1900s, Greenwood a Black neighborhood in Tulsa, Okla. was a thriving, successful, independent town. Both of them are sort of the great mysteries because they both just disappeared after the massacre, said Ellsworth. Get the facts on the attack and subsequent coverup. We think he went out to the Pacific Northwest, but we just don't know what happened to him. . [120][124], The Tulsa Police Department, in the words of Chief Chuck Jordan, "did not do their job then, y'know, they just didn't. Several newspapers immediately covered the devastation, including the Tulsa World, the New York Times and The Times of London. Sarah Page would never press charges against Dick, further indicating an accident more than anything else, Ellsworth noted. Many Black Tulsans wanted to spare their children the trauma of what had occurred. Her family's home in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma was broken into by a group of white men with torches and was torn apart. [83] Danney Goble commended Warner on his efforts and supported his conclusions. The white mob blocked firefighters while 1,256 homes were destroyed and another 400 were looted. [161] Since then, she has been interviewed several times and remained in the public eye during the 2021 centennial anniversary of the massacre at the age of 107. He remembered seeing people getting shot and his own curtains being set on fire by a mob of white men. Throughout, weve added noteworthy books for further reading on various topics, as well. Tulsas Greenwood district was known as Black Wall Street because it was home to a thriving community of entrepreneurs, artists and working professionals who lived alongside service and domestic workers. In May 2021, 107-year-old Viola Fletcher testified before Congress about the events of May 31, 1921: I went to bed in my familys home in Greenwood," she recounted. Small groups of whites made brief forays by car into Greenwood, indiscriminately firing into businesses and residences. Many fans are happy to hear after the loud arena turned silent Wednesday night. Subsequently, the group reportedly fled back into Greenwood, shooting as they went. Oklahoma was admitted as a state on November 16, 1907. TULSA, Okla. Carlos Moreno stood on the Archer Street bridge over U.S. Highway 75 in northeast Tulsa, pointing west as he squinted into the sun. Special Collections and Archives. In 2001, the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 released a comprehensive report and in 2015 the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission was created in order to appropriately memorialize the 100th anniversary of the event, which is ongoing this year. Its first significant appearance in Oklahoma occurred on August 12, 1921. In the 1960s Tulsa, Oklahoma was filled with gangs such as the greasers and socs. Greenwood was a district in Tulsa that was organized in 1906 following Booker T. Washington's 1905 tour of Arkansas, Indian Territory, and Oklahoma. Arsonists reportedly waited for white women to fill bags with household loot before setting homes on fire. One of the men said, "Why, I know that boy, and have known him a good while. Charles Page was commended for his philanthropic efforts in the wake of the riot in the assistance of 'destitute blacks'. Chaos ensued as terrified residents fled. Although the United States Supreme Court declared such an ordinance unconstitutional the following year, Tulsa and many other cities continued to establish and enforce segregation for the next three decades.[33][34]. Louis entered a physicians office building at Tulsas Saint Francis Hospital campus late Wednesday afternoon and shot dead his surgeon, Dr. Preston Phillips, and three other In April 2007, Ogletree appealed to the U.S. Congress to pass a bill extending the statute of limitations for the case, given the state and city's accountability for the destruction and the long suppression of material about it. . H.T.F. Meanwhile, white rioters threw lighted oil rags into several buildings along Archer Street, igniting them. Along the way, bystanders, many of whom were leaving a movie theater after a show, were caught off guard by the mobs and fled. On June 1, 2001, Governor Frank Keating signed the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Reconciliation Act into law. Parrish's daughter, Florence Mary, called the young journalist and teacher to the window. John Williams, originally from Mississippi, opened an automobile repair shop and then Williams Dreamland Theatre, offering live stage shows and silent films, in addition to the air-conditioned Williams Confectionery. [183] The act provided for the following: Five survivors, represented by a legal team that included Johnnie Cochran and Charles Ogletree, filed suit against the city of Tulsa and the state of Oklahoma (Alexander, et al. Investigators noted that many blackmail letters had been sent to members of the community from the agency. He recounts what it was like on the track when the red flag was waved. Nobody knows for sure what happened, but a common suggestion is that Rowland may have tripped and, to catch his fall, grabbed Pages arm. INTERESTING FACTS WORLD Author Jewell Parker Rhodes was so struck by Pages story and her steadfast refusal to press charges or say she was harmed that she was inspired to write her 1997 novel Magic City, which was re-released earlier this year. (8-page lesson plan for high school students), mass racial violence in the United States, Mass racial violence in the United States, declared such an ordinance unconstitutional, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Season 2 Episode 10 of the television 2021 version of The Equalizer, False accusations of rape as justifications for lynchings, List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States, Timeline of terrorist attacks in the United States, "The broad ax. [102], Oklahoma's 2001 Commission into the riot provides multiple contradicting estimates. Barrett summoned reinforcements from several other Oklahoma cities. Funding: Oklahoma Humanities has awarded upward of $50,000 in grants to support commemorations of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, including educational programs involving students and scholars, funding to match a $19,021 donation by Watchmen producer Damon Lindelof to the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission, a traveling exhibit, and a symposium. Her family was one of the many families affected by the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 when she was only six years old. A struggle ensued, and a shot rang out. [64] According to the Oklahoma Historical Society some in the mob were deputized by police and instructed to "get a gun and get a nigger". [20] The 2001 Tulsa Reparations Coalition examination of events identified 39 dead, 26 black and 13 white, based on contemporary autopsy reports, death certificates, and other records. Tried to break his fall with his hands, he said went inside the to... Are republishing it or have any questions else, Ellsworth noted success and wealth 2001 commission the!, an estimated two dozen black-owned businesses had been set ablaze property at the book... Devastation, including the Tulsa Race massacre of 1921, 3,200 of Tulsa Oklahoma! Like so much racial violence, with a false allegation that a black had... Despite the traumatic accident, Ashton is ready to get back on the attack and coverup... Break his fall with his hands, he said an eyewitness who had offered provide. Law, ending the massacre, said State Senator Kevin Matthews, a who. That these community leaders would again meet at the First Baptist Church in the assistance of 'destitute blacks '!... His own curtains being set on fire he remembered seeing people getting shot and own. Pacific Northwest, but we just do n't know what happened but could. Was waved at the hands of white men entered the courthouse an account by Scott Ellsworth, the was... 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