Tulsa riot

March 16, 2015People who

suffered in the past can be

compensated for their suffering.

Who should pay: everyone or just the people who

caused the suffering?

Objective: SWBAT examine sequencing of events IOT examine the issues around The Tulsa Riot of 1921. Why is it significant?

Tulsa, Oklahoma: 72,000 people

Jim Crow + 3,000 Klan members

Located near oil fields

Greenwood: African

American Tulsa Extremely

prosperous Hundreds of

Black owned businesses

The start: The arrest of a man

named either Dick Rowland or James Jones

Rowland, a shoe shiner, had to go up an elevator of a specific building to use a bathroom

It was not a colored only, it was in a business where the owner allowed Black people to use the bathroom

Accusation of Rape: Rowland

stumbled into the female elevator operator

This was observed by a white man in the building

Rowland is arrested for assault

Threat of lynching: Rowland’s life is

threatened Police try to

protect him Many lawyers,

who knew him from the shoeshine stand where he worked, defend his character

The fighting begins: An attempt is made to lynch

Rowland, but the police stop it Armed African Americans go to

the courthouse to help the police Whites see the armed African

Americans and believe an “Uprising” is happening, they get their guns

A shot is fired by an undetermined person

Several die: At least one white,

maybe five African Americans

The National Guard and local white citizens are on patrol

Some whites drive into Greenwood and exchange fire with residents

Fires are set in the business district:

African Americans had a choice – try to fight or flee

Nearly all of Greenwood was destroyed

Hundreds of African Americans are held prisoner

Mount Zion Baptist Church Before:

Mount Zion After:

Mount Zion Today:

A Synagogue burned in Nazi Germany 1938. Fair

comparison?

The Aftermath:

Up to 50 whites and 300 African Americans are killed

The Aftermath: It took until 2002

for Tulsa to admit this happened

Few survivors are still alive

No reparations have been paid

Tulsa was not the only race riot:

There were many, including earlier ones in Wilmington NC and Atlanta

Tulsa was likely the worst

Later, race riots happened in many cities