On May 31, 1921, a Tulsa Negro was accused of rape and arrested. Rumors of plans to lynch him raced through the city, but a group of armed blacks appeared at the jail to defend the would-be victim. When a gun fight broke out between them and the police, many whites went berserk. The blacks retreated to the ghetto district to defend themselves, while a small army of whites assaulted black neighborhoods. Held off at first by snipers, the whites, led by American Legionnaires, slowly gained ground. They set many fires, and repeatedly shot down blacks who attempted to escape the flames. Finally, martial law was declared, and black survivors were taken to detention camps for their safety. Almost the entire black district, one mile square, had been burned to the ground. Official counts list 85 men killed, 60 of them black, but O. T. Johnson, head of the Salvation Army, and director of a squad of black grave-diggers who buried the corpses and charred remains, declared that 150 had died.
The following account is taken from The New York Times, June 2, 1921. See Allen Grimshaw: “A Study in Social Violence: Urban Race Riots in the United States,” unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1959; Loren L. Gill: “The Tulsa Race Riot,” unpublished Master’s essay, University of Tulsa, 1946; and Walter F. White: “Eruption of Tulsa,” Nation, CXII (June 29, 1921), 909–10.
After twenty-four hours of one of the most disastrous race wars ever visited upon an American city, during which time eighty-five or more persons were killed and the Negro quarter of Tulsa comprising upward of thirty densely populated blocks, was wiped out by fire, the State militia had gained virtual control tonight and the rioting seems to have come to an end.
An official estimate early tonight was eighty-five of whom it was said twenty-five might be whites and sixty negroes. This followed a statement issued by Police Chief Daly, saying that he believed the probable ultimate to be 175, and that many persons lost their lives in the fires.
Events Developed Fast in the City’s Day of Tragedy
Dick Rowland, a Negro, was arrested late yesterday afternoon, accused of assault upon a orphan white girl. He was taken to the Court House and lodged in jail on the upper floor.
Apparently rumors of an attempt to lynch him got about, for about 7 o’clock motor cars containing armed negroes appeared on the principal streets, headed for the Court House.
Thereupon armed white men also began to gather in the same neighborhood. Soon the streets were filled with shouting, gesticulating men.
The first shooting affray came soon after dark, when a negro was stopped by a police officer and his gun taken away. He attempted to resist, according to the officer, and was shot dead.
Meanwhile a great crowd of whites gathered about the Court House steps, nearly all of them being unarmed.
As the minutes passed, the white men obtained more guns and began to assume a belligerent attitude themselves. Finally a verbal altercation between the factions began. E. S. MacQueen, detective, attempted to intervene.
Suddenly a shot rang out and instantly the firing became general and the crowd scattered in haste, while armed negroes began training their guns on the fleeing forms. At least one white man was killed in this affray.
The negroes finally retreated slowly up Boulder Street, the alley back of the Court House, which is on Boston Street, firing as they went. When they emerged on Fourth Street hot skirmishes ensued.
A second white man was killed about this time, according to the police, when a party of whites, passing in a motor car mistook him for a negro, and shot him. He died almost instantly.
Guardsmen Rushed to Scene
Soon after the Court House outbreak the authorities realized their inability to control the mobs with police alone and at 11 o’clock a call was sent to Governor Robertson for troops.
The Governor promptly directed Adjt. Gen. Charles I. Barrett to take any steps necessary to handle the trouble. The Adjutant General ordered out three companies of guardsmen here and sent instructions to commanding officers in several nearby towns to be prepared to rush men here on immediate notice. The local guardsmen were thrown about the Court House to prevent the crowd from breaking through.
The mob in this vicinity was finally dispersed early in the morning without any shooting. Rowland, the negro prisoner, was spirited away from the jail early in the day by deputies from the office of Sheriff McCullough, who refused to divulge his whereabouts.
Armed Forces Face Each Other
Throughout the early morning hours 500 white men and a thousand negroes faced each other across the railroad tracks. It was reported early to Police Headquarters that the bodies of six to ten negroes could be seen lying in a space described as “no man’s land.” The police also had a report that three railway switchmen and a brakeman had been shot to death. The trainmen were killed, it was said, because they refused to permit members of the opposing crowds to ride upon a switch engine passing between the lines. The engineer was reported to have escaped.
Attempts by white rioters to burn the negro quarter began early and were persistent.
Incendiarism and a New Battle
As the dawn broke sixty or seventy motor cars filled with armed white men formed a circle around the negro section. Half a dozen airplanes circled overhead. There was much shouting and shooting. About this hour (6:30 o’clock) incendiarism by wholesale was resumed. Almost simultaneously fire began to burst forth from the doors and windows of frame shacks along Archer Street. Soon dense clouds of black smoke enveloped the location.
The invaders were apparently supplied with inflammables. According to the police they set off altogether more than 25 separate fires.
As the fire enveloped houses, negroes would dart out with upraised hands, shouting “Don’t shoot!” As they dashed through the smoke they were ordered to surrender and were quickly removed to detention camps.
In an outbreak at 7:30 o’clock in the Stand Pipe Hill district in the extreme northern end of the negro quarters, Mrs. S. A. Gilmore, a white woman, was shot in the left arm and side. She was standing on the front porch of her home when she was shot by a negro. The heaviest fighting was in the northern section, where hundreds of negroes were concentrated in a valley. Fifty barricaded in a church.
Several massed attacks were launched against the church, but each time the attackers had to fall back on the fire of the negro defenders. Finally a torch was applied to the building and the occupants began to pour out, firing as they ran. Several of the negroes were killed.
Apparently the negroes were either expecting or preparing for trouble with the whites. In almost every second house burned there were explosions of boxes of shells. The police say that the I.W.W. and other malcontents had been stirring up animosity between the blacks and whites for months.…
It was found necessary very early to establish detention camps for the negroes who had fled from the blazing section where they had been living.
Convention Hall was thrown open to accommodate the terror-striken fugitives. Throughout the early morning long lines of negroes streamed westward along the streets leading to the hall. Many wore their night clothes and were barefooted. Their sunken eyes told of a sleepless night and their ashen faces bespoke gripping fear.
Men, women and children carried bundles of clothing on their heads and backs. The articles they saved were varied and in many cases would have been ludicrous but for the gravity of the situation. Here an old woman clung to a Bible, there a girl with dishevelled hair carried a wooly white dog under her arm and behind trotted a little girl with a big wax doll.
By 9 o’clock 2,000 negroes had been gathered at Convention Hall, all being under guard. Soon the edifice was filled, as was also the police station. The rest of those gathered up as fugitives or combatants were taken to the baseball park.