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...