Oklahoma Reader 57-1

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Shelley Martin-Young Out of the Shadows: Bringing the Tulsa Race Massacre to Light in Our Classrooms Introduction Take a walk in the Greenwood District of Tulsa today and you will be in the heart of the African American community. Here you can experience art, culture, theater, music, and more. You can visit the Greenwood Cultural Center or walk the labyrinth and view the bronze sculptures at the John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park. You can visit The Black Wall Street Gallery, eat lunch at Wanda J’s and even get a haircut at Tee’s Barbershop. However, you can also see burned bricks and a fragment of a church basement that serve as two of the very few reminders of the atrocities that happened here 100 years ago. On May 31 and June 1, 1921, 35 blocks of what was then known as Black Wall Street were looted and burned to the ground by white residents and society leaders. This event, the Tulsa Race Massacre, has been called “the single worst incidence of racial violence in American history” (Ellsworth, 2009). The Tulsa Race Massacre From the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum, you can learn the story of the Tulsa Race Massacre. In short, on the morning of May 30, 1921, there was an incident in an elevator between a young black man, Dick Rowland, and a young white woman, Sarah Page. The exact story of what happened in the elevator differs depending on the person. Some say Rowland and Page were in a relationship. Some say Rowland stepped on her foot and Page screamed. Some say Rowland tried to rape Page. Whatever you believe about the story, the headline in the Tulsa Tribune newspaper on May 31 read “Nab Negro for Attacking Girl in Elevator.” Tulsa police arrested Rowland on May 31 and began investigating the incident. The headline from the Tulsa Tribune fanned the growing flames of racism in Tulsa, and a confrontation between black and white armed mobs happened at the courthouse where Dick Rowland was being kept. Shots were fired, and the African Americans, being outnumbered, began retreating to Greenwood. On the morning of June 1, 1921, Greenwood “was looted and burned by white rioters. Governor Robertson declared martial law, and National Guard troops arrived in Tulsa” (Ellsworth, 2009). The Guardsmen helped put out fires and removed African Americans from the custody of the vigilantes, gathering up all other blacks, imprisoning over 6,000 people at the Convention Hall and the Fairgrouns for up to eight days. Twenty-four hours later and it was over: • 35 city blocks were burned to the ground. • 191 businesses, several churches, and a hospital were destroyed. • 1,256 houses were destroyed and another 215 were looted but not burned (Willows, M., 1921). • What was once reported as only 36 deaths are now believed to be over 300. Currently, mass graves are being searched for in Tulsa.

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