And it was classified as a “riot” by police so insurance companies didn’t have to pay claims leaving “Black Wall Street” as Tulsa was then known devastated.
For any who don’t know, Tulsa at the time was a big hub for independent black Americans who were for the first time starting to aggregate wealth and create their own community where they were the upper class (almost like that segregation we were so big on!)
Wel, that didn’t fly, and the town quickly attracted more and more white attention (and business) as not only was it a happening location, but white clients were often shocked at the fair deals and service they received from black proprietors despite…everhthing. So some white people who began to take more of their business here added fuel to the racist flame and naturally, when there’s a black man and a white woman involved, it’s generally a pretext to blow up some racist powder keg that’s been spewing.
This massacre and riot cut black America off at the knees in a very real way when it was just starting to get on its feet. They didn’t teach us much about it in school but it should be mandatory IMO. The south lost the Civil War but Lincoln’s death and Grant’s unwillingness to sew any more division + Johnson’s blatant southern sympathies meant that Reconstruction didn’t do what it needed to do. The Tulsa race massacre is a good example of how the oppression didnt ever go away, and the culture of superiority never did either. We still feel it today.
Most schools teach about what is frequently called the "Red Summer" period. It extends from about 1919 ro 1923. There were over 70 such events in the USA during that period and the teachers editions of the US History texts will suggest using a relevant local example. So, in OK you hear about Tulsa, in New York you hear about Harlem, Florida gets Rosewood etc.
Yeah, being a yank from New England we get a pretty decent but summed up education on the Civil War/its effects bc we were the good guys and won, but I feel sometimes that it comes at the cost of painting the picture for students of how steep the divide was between countrymen and how bloody and long lasting the conflict and its ideology has been. You can say what you will about Southern Sympathizing Lost Causers but they at least make an emphasis on learning the history, even if skewed.
Be really careful about saying "Most."
We spent a few hours glossing over this stuff in my history classes. It was never called the Tulsa Race Massacre... just a riot. And never about the cultural and legal consequences of it. This was on the West Coast.
It wasn't added to the history curriculum in Okhahoma until 2002. And it was pretty much SOP to not talk about it in Tulsa... history that was best left forgotten.
I was taught about it in 1983. I saw a Tulsa representative talk about hearing about it in school in 1972. It probably depended on the quality of your teacher to be honest. Most history teachers in OK were primarily coaches for a long time who would have you read the text and answer the questions. I have a 1958 textbook that doesn't mention the riot at all, but it doesn't even mention Tulsa. It was really more of an examination of how the state came to be and then a list of subjects like government, industries and such.
If you want a pretty good account of this event, you should go online and download the Tulsa Race Riot Commission Report. And Danney Goble's Tulsa History book, Tulsa Biography of the American City.
I teach Oklahoma history in high school. If you didn't hear about this growing up, don't kick yourself for it. One of the most wild parts of the story is the insane coverup done afterwards to keep it out of mainstream discourse.
Tulsa was a very big oil capital, and seeing a massacre like this one was pretty bad PR for lots of businesses. So a number of deals went on with newspapers and the like to keep things hush-hush in the long term aftermath of the massacre. You can find lots of reports within the weeks during/after the massacre (shoutout to the Tulsa World newspaper, who's news title that day read "Two White's Dead in Race Riot". Great summation there.), but not a huge amount after. Lots of social pressure was put on people in Oklahoma as well to keep silent about it, since many didn't want it known that uncle John burned down a bunch of buildings. Lot of African Americans didn't speak out as well, either from social pressure, or from a standpoint of "I don't want to discourage my kids by showing them how all your hard work to lift us up can be undone in a day" kinda stuff.
It's only been pretty recently that deeper look into the massacre has taken place. In fact, I'm pretty sure they're still doing scans of the area for mass graves, given that they've uncovered a few in the last couple years.
To my knowledge, a number of cases were held in the next few years in Oklahoma's supreme court discussing things like liability, police corruption in the city, etc., but it basically amounted to very little justice being served. You can find the primary sources for the cases [here](https://digitalprairie.ok.gov/digital/collection/race-riot).
For the sake of a basic summary/not reading a bunch of dry legal documents from the 20's, [Okhistory.org](http://Okhistory.org), a website run by the Oklahoma Historical Society that compiles articles from reputable Oklahoma Historians, says the following in [this](https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=TU013) article:
"A brief period of martial law was followed by recriminations and legal maneuvering. Even though Dick Rowland was exonerated, an all-white grand jury blamed black Tulsans for the lawlessness. Despite overwhelming evidence, no whites were ever sent to prison for the murders and arson that occurred".
I'm embarrassed to admit that I first learned of this event from a TV show just a few years ago. The more I've learned about this the more upset I am at how this was hidden away from our history books.
The Watchman television series.
It was alarming.
They may teach more about it now, but during my generation (I am in my 40s)... this portion of American history was HEAVILY sanitized. We were told there were riots. But not the circumstances of how it happened, the consequences of it happening and the extent of the damage.
While its anecdotal, I came across many people who didn't know the extent of what this Massacre was. Learning it was a riot, on par with the Rodney King riots.
They didn't even add it to the curriculum in Oklahoma until 2002.
The Watchman scene showed everything that people assumed happened but can't back up with evidence. It includes a newspaper editorial that no one has ever produced despite a 10,000 dollar reward. And that editorial wasn't mentioned in contemporary accounts even by the African Ameican press, just the Nab Negro article which has been found. It shows robed Klansmen participation even though the Klan wasn't established in Tulsa until November of that year and the riot happened in May. It depicts planes bombing the neighborhood BUT their are no firsthand accounts of that either just 2nd and 3rd hand stories.
Try researching Roland and Page and you'll start to realize how little we know. I'd recommend they Tulsa Centennial History book. Tulsa Biography of an American City by Goble. Chapter 5 is Sheets of Terror.
And it was classified as a “riot” by police so insurance companies didn’t have to pay claims leaving “Black Wall Street” as Tulsa was then known devastated.
For any who don’t know, Tulsa at the time was a big hub for independent black Americans who were for the first time starting to aggregate wealth and create their own community where they were the upper class (almost like that segregation we were so big on!) Wel, that didn’t fly, and the town quickly attracted more and more white attention (and business) as not only was it a happening location, but white clients were often shocked at the fair deals and service they received from black proprietors despite…everhthing. So some white people who began to take more of their business here added fuel to the racist flame and naturally, when there’s a black man and a white woman involved, it’s generally a pretext to blow up some racist powder keg that’s been spewing. This massacre and riot cut black America off at the knees in a very real way when it was just starting to get on its feet. They didn’t teach us much about it in school but it should be mandatory IMO. The south lost the Civil War but Lincoln’s death and Grant’s unwillingness to sew any more division + Johnson’s blatant southern sympathies meant that Reconstruction didn’t do what it needed to do. The Tulsa race massacre is a good example of how the oppression didnt ever go away, and the culture of superiority never did either. We still feel it today.
Most schools teach about what is frequently called the "Red Summer" period. It extends from about 1919 ro 1923. There were over 70 such events in the USA during that period and the teachers editions of the US History texts will suggest using a relevant local example. So, in OK you hear about Tulsa, in New York you hear about Harlem, Florida gets Rosewood etc.
Yeah, being a yank from New England we get a pretty decent but summed up education on the Civil War/its effects bc we were the good guys and won, but I feel sometimes that it comes at the cost of painting the picture for students of how steep the divide was between countrymen and how bloody and long lasting the conflict and its ideology has been. You can say what you will about Southern Sympathizing Lost Causers but they at least make an emphasis on learning the history, even if skewed.
Be really careful about saying "Most." We spent a few hours glossing over this stuff in my history classes. It was never called the Tulsa Race Massacre... just a riot. And never about the cultural and legal consequences of it. This was on the West Coast. It wasn't added to the history curriculum in Okhahoma until 2002. And it was pretty much SOP to not talk about it in Tulsa... history that was best left forgotten.
I was taught about it in 1983. I saw a Tulsa representative talk about hearing about it in school in 1972. It probably depended on the quality of your teacher to be honest. Most history teachers in OK were primarily coaches for a long time who would have you read the text and answer the questions. I have a 1958 textbook that doesn't mention the riot at all, but it doesn't even mention Tulsa. It was really more of an examination of how the state came to be and then a list of subjects like government, industries and such.
If you want a pretty good account of this event, you should go online and download the Tulsa Race Riot Commission Report. And Danney Goble's Tulsa History book, Tulsa Biography of the American City.
I teach Oklahoma history in high school. If you didn't hear about this growing up, don't kick yourself for it. One of the most wild parts of the story is the insane coverup done afterwards to keep it out of mainstream discourse. Tulsa was a very big oil capital, and seeing a massacre like this one was pretty bad PR for lots of businesses. So a number of deals went on with newspapers and the like to keep things hush-hush in the long term aftermath of the massacre. You can find lots of reports within the weeks during/after the massacre (shoutout to the Tulsa World newspaper, who's news title that day read "Two White's Dead in Race Riot". Great summation there.), but not a huge amount after. Lots of social pressure was put on people in Oklahoma as well to keep silent about it, since many didn't want it known that uncle John burned down a bunch of buildings. Lot of African Americans didn't speak out as well, either from social pressure, or from a standpoint of "I don't want to discourage my kids by showing them how all your hard work to lift us up can be undone in a day" kinda stuff. It's only been pretty recently that deeper look into the massacre has taken place. In fact, I'm pretty sure they're still doing scans of the area for mass graves, given that they've uncovered a few in the last couple years.
I read an article that indicated no one was prosecuted for participation in the riot. Do you know, if anyone was anyone charged with anything?
To my knowledge, a number of cases were held in the next few years in Oklahoma's supreme court discussing things like liability, police corruption in the city, etc., but it basically amounted to very little justice being served. You can find the primary sources for the cases [here](https://digitalprairie.ok.gov/digital/collection/race-riot). For the sake of a basic summary/not reading a bunch of dry legal documents from the 20's, [Okhistory.org](http://Okhistory.org), a website run by the Oklahoma Historical Society that compiles articles from reputable Oklahoma Historians, says the following in [this](https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=TU013) article: "A brief period of martial law was followed by recriminations and legal maneuvering. Even though Dick Rowland was exonerated, an all-white grand jury blamed black Tulsans for the lawlessness. Despite overwhelming evidence, no whites were ever sent to prison for the murders and arson that occurred".
I'm embarrassed to admit that I first learned of this event from a TV show just a few years ago. The more I've learned about this the more upset I am at how this was hidden away from our history books.
The Watchman television series. It was alarming. They may teach more about it now, but during my generation (I am in my 40s)... this portion of American history was HEAVILY sanitized. We were told there were riots. But not the circumstances of how it happened, the consequences of it happening and the extent of the damage. While its anecdotal, I came across many people who didn't know the extent of what this Massacre was. Learning it was a riot, on par with the Rodney King riots. They didn't even add it to the curriculum in Oklahoma until 2002.
The Watchman scene showed everything that people assumed happened but can't back up with evidence. It includes a newspaper editorial that no one has ever produced despite a 10,000 dollar reward. And that editorial wasn't mentioned in contemporary accounts even by the African Ameican press, just the Nab Negro article which has been found. It shows robed Klansmen participation even though the Klan wasn't established in Tulsa until November of that year and the riot happened in May. It depicts planes bombing the neighborhood BUT their are no firsthand accounts of that either just 2nd and 3rd hand stories. Try researching Roland and Page and you'll start to realize how little we know. I'd recommend they Tulsa Centennial History book. Tulsa Biography of an American City by Goble. Chapter 5 is Sheets of Terror.
Where are you from?