The Tulsa Race Massacre of African Americans

 The Tulsa Race Massacre of African Americans

During World War I, the influence of Black Americans was rising, particularly in areas like Wall Street. Black neighborhoods, such as the well-known Black Wall Street in Greenwood, were prospering financially. White Americans largely tolerated this at the time, as Black Americans were needed to serve as soldiers in the war.

On November 11, 1918, World War I officially ended. With the war over, the need that had driven this temporary tolerance also came to an end.

Tensions escalated soon after.

On May 30, 1921, Dick Rowland, a young African American shoe shiner, was falsely accused of assaulting a white elevator operator named Sarah Page in a building in downtown Tulsa. The next day, the Tulsa Tribune published a story claiming that Rowland had attempted to rape Page, along with an editorial suggesting that a lynching might take place that night.

That evening, both Black and white crowds gathered outside the courthouse where Rowland was being held. During a confrontation between an armed Black man, who was there to protect Rowland, and a white protester, a shot was fired and the protester was killed. This incident ignited what became known as the Tulsa Race Massacre.

Over the next two days, white mobs looted and burned Black homes and businesses across Tulsa, Oklahoma, particularly in the Greenwood District.

When the violence ended on June 1, the official death toll was recorded as 10 white people and 26 Black people. However, many historians now estimate that at least 300 people were killed. In the aftermath, there was a brief official inquiry, but many records disappeared, and the event was largely omitted from history books for decades.

In 1997, the state of Oklahoma formed the Tulsa Race Riot Commission to investigate and document the massacre. The commission collected survivor testimonies, historical documents, and other evidence. Using witness accounts and ground-penetrating radar, researchers identified possible mass graves near Oaklawn Cemetery, suggesting the actual death toll may have been significantly higher.

The commission recommended that the state provide $33 million in restitution, including compensation for 121 identified survivors. However, no legislative action was taken. The final report was published on February 28, 2001.

In April 2002, a private religious charity, the Tulsa Metropolitan Ministry, distributed $28,000 among survivors—just over $200 each—through private donations.

In 2010, the John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park was opened in the Greenwood District to commemorate the victims. Named after historian and civil rights advocate John Hope Franklin, whose father survived the massacre, the park features the Tower of Reconciliation.

In 2021, Greenwood Rising, a history center dedicated to Black Wall Street and the victims of the massacre, was established by the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission.

This remains one of the most devastating and long-suppressed episodes in American history.