The Tulsa race massacre of 1921 was one of the most severe incidents of racial violence in U.S. history. The event is also called the Tulsa race riot. It occurred in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on May 31 and June 1, 1921. The massacre left between 30 and 300 people—mostly African Americans—dead. It also destroyed Tulsa’s prosperous Black neighborhood of Greenwood, known as the “Black Wall Street.” White rioters burned more than 1,400 homes and businesses, leaving nearly 10,000 people homeless.
On May 30, 1921, Dick Rowland, a young African American, was riding an elevator in a building in downtown Tulsa. White elevator operator Sarah Page was running the elevator. While the two were enclosed together, Page screamed. When the doors opened, Rowland ran off. People immediately began speculating on Rowland’s behavior, and the rumors spread. Police subsequently arrested Rowland.
On May 31, the Tulsa Tribune printed a story saying that Rowland had tried to assault Page. An accompanying editorial stated that a lynching was planned for that night. A lynching was a violent attack on a Black person—often an execution—by a mob of white people, supposedly to extract justice. That evening mobs of both African Americans and whites met at the courthouse where Rowland was being held. A confrontation between an armed African American man, there to protect Rowland, and a white man resulted in the death of the white man. The white mob was incensed, and the Tulsa massacre began.
Mobs of white people looted and set fire to African American businesses and homes throughout the city. Many of the mob members were recently returned World War I veterans trained in the use of firearms. Reports indicate that they shot African Americans on sight. Some survivors even claimed that people in airplanes dropped bombs. White officials did little to stop the violence.
When the massacre ended on June 1, the official death toll was recorded at 10 whites and 26 African Americans. However, many experts now believe at least 300 people were killed. Shortly after the massacre there was a brief official inquiry, but documents related to the massacre disappeared soon afterward. The event never received widespread attention. History books used to teach Oklahoma schoolchildren also left out the incident.
In 1997 the state of Oklahoma formed a Tulsa Race Riot Commission. Its purpose was to investigate the massacre and formally document the incident. Members of the commission talked with survivors who were still alive. They also gathered documents from individuals who witnessed the massacre but had since died. Scholars used radar to locate a potential mass grave just outside Tulsa’s Oaklawn Cemetery. This grave suggested that the death toll may have been much higher than the original records indicate.
The commission suggested that the state of Oklahoma pay $33 million in restitution. Some of it was to go to the 121 surviving victims who had been located. However, no legislative action was ever taken on the recommendation. In April 2002 a private religious charity, the Tulsa Metropolitan Ministry, paid a total of $28,000 to the survivors. That amounted to a little more than $200 each. The ministry used funds raised from private donations.
