the statement: the tulsa riot of 1921 that destroyed the city’s all-black district was the worst riot in america. history but cannot be found in any history book
a post on facebook made very specific claims about the tulsa race massacre, in particular an account of people killed, homes burned, the first use of an aircraft to bomb a us military. village. he also said that the event “can’t be found in any history book.”
Background: The Tulsa Riot broke out in the city’s all-black Greenwood district on May 31 and continued until the morning of June 1, 1921. It was sparked by the arrest of Dick Rowland, a 19-year-old African American. shoe shiner, who worked in the white commercial area of downtown tulsa. He was arrested for allegedly attempting to rape Sarah Page, a 17-year-old white elevator operator, at the nearby Drexel building.
Because black people were not allowed to use the restrooms in the area, they were given access to one at the top of an office building, accessible by elevator. details of the alleged assault were disjointed; They involved the screaming elevator operator and a witness who allegedly saw Rowland run out of the elevator.
You are reading: Why is tulsa massacre not in history books
The Oklahoma Historical Society says what happened is unclear, but “the most common explanation is that Rowland stepped on the footer as she entered the elevator, causing her to scream.” he was arrested later that day.
The riot broke out after an article about the incident was published in the Tulsa Tribune evening paper, which also said on its editorial page that a lynching was imminent. crowds of both black and white people gathered outside the courthouse. On two occasions, a group of armed African-American men, mostly World War I veterans, arrived at the scene fearing a lynching and offered to help the police protect Rowland. As they were leaving for the second time, a white man tried to disarm one of the black veterans and a shot was fired, setting off the riot, with whites pouring into the all-black Greenwood district.
An extensive review of the incident can be found in “Tulsa Race Riots, A Report of the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riots of 1921.” the official 2000 report is accompanied by detailed studies by various historians based on eyewitness accounts, public records, interviews, and newspaper reports.
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Additional information, source material, and research links on the Tulsa Race Massacre are also available through the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum.
What the Facebook post claims:
the riot left 15,000 blacks homeless
The official state report says that people, including some “government agents,” deliberately burned or destroyed 1,256 homes “along with virtually every other structure in the greenwood district, including churches, schools, businesses, even a hospital and a library.”
according to the tulsa historical society, 1,500 homes were burned to the ground and more than 600 black-owned businesses were bombed. the population of the district was around 10,000 people at the time of the riots.
At least 6,000 African Americans were interned by the National Guard over eight days at the convention hall and fairgrounds, according to the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum.
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between 300 and 3,000 dead, wounded and/or missing
The number of dead is difficult to pin down, and the claim is made even more difficult by combining dead, wounded, and missing into a single figure.
“although the exact total can never be determined, credible evidence makes it likely that many people, between 100 and 300, were killed during the massacre,” according to findings by the tulsa oklahoma official race riot commission.
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Historian John Hope Franklin, in a report accompanying the official state investigation, wrote: “one hundred and sixty-eight Oklahomas died that day. They were white and black, Native American and Hispanic, young and old.”
dr. Clyde Snow, a forensic anthropologist who served as a consultant to the Oklahoma State Medical Examiner, said in his findings for the official report that a “conservative estimate begins with 38 victims who could be individually identified.”
Danney Goble, a regional historian and professor at the University of Oklahoma, said in an overview of the official report that “an accurate death count would start at 38; could end in the hundreds.”
mayor g. t. bynum, who was elected mayor of tulsa in 2016, launched an investigation to follow up on oral histories of mass graves of black victims, which, if true, would add to the deaths. new information indicates the site of possibly three mass graves. researchers will conduct a test excavation at one site on July 13.
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albert broussard, a history professor at texas a&m university who has taught courses on race relations, including the tulsa race massacre, for four decades tells usa. Broussard, who has co-authored American history textbooks, says the notion that 300 or more died is “greatly exaggerated” and that it’s highly unlikely that mass graves will be found after all these years.
Scott Ellsworth, University of Michigan historian, Tulsa native, and author of “Death in the Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921,” flatly tells USA Today that “no one knows, no one knows.” Reasonable estimates may be as high as 300 based on a report by a local American Red Cross director at the time, he says. another contemporary estimate based on reports of gravediggers’ work would indicate at least 112 graves.
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the tulsa riot of 1921 was the worst riot in united states history
This designation is inevitably tied to the number of deaths, which is disputed.
“nope, not even close,” says broussard, who says the tulsa race massacre, while horrific, “will generally take a backseat to the major race riots that occurred in the summer of 1919.”
He says that the 1917 race riot on east st. Louis, in which 39 black and six white people died, was worse, as was the three-day riot in Los Angeles in 1991 that followed the acquittal of four police officers in the beating of Rodney King. more than 60 people were killed and the riots caused at least $1 billion in damage.
ellsworth, noting the deaths, the intensity of the riot, and the widespread destruction, calls the massacre “the largest incident of racial violence in American history.”
Tulsa was the first American city to be bombed by planes
While it is difficult to determine whether the use of aircraft during the Tulsa Massacre was the first such incident involving an American. town, there is no evidence to the contrary, particularly since flying was in his childhood.
Buck Colbert Franklin, a prominent black attorney, described the air raids, according to the Smithsonian magazine. Franklin’s 10-page typewritten first-person account of the incident was discovered in 2015 and donated to the Smithsonian Museum of African American History.
Franklin was the father of African-American historian John Hope Franklin, former president of the American Historical Association and Phi Beta Kappa, and author of a summary of the massacre accompanying the official state investigation.
“I could see planes circling in the air,” the elder franklin wrote. “they grew in number and buzzed, rushed and descended. I could hear something like hail falling on top of my office building. in east archer, i saw the old midway hotel on fire, burning from the top, and then another and another and another building started burning from the top.”
the tulsa attorney said he left his office and went down the street.
“the sidewalks were literally covered in burning balls of turpentine. he knew very well where they came from and he knew very well why each burning building was first set on fire from above, ”he continues.
an extensive report on the air raid by richard warner, a member of the board of directors of the tulsa historical society, accompanies the official oklahoma investigation into the riots. Warner is more cautious in assessing reports of air raids: “It is reasonable that there was some shooting from planes and even the dropping of firebombs, but the evidence would seem to indicate that it was minor in nature and had no real effect.” in the riot.”
pointed out that the police certainly used planes for reconnaissance, along with photographers and tourists, adding that “there were probably some targets shooting guns from planes or throwing gas bottles or something like that.”
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A footnote to the report again expresses skepticism about the widespread use of aerial incendiary devices, but says “evidence indicates that some form of aerial bombardment took place in Tulsa on the morning of June 1, 1921, making Tulsa, in all likelihood, the first American city to be bombed from the air.”
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more people died on this day than in any other event since the civil war
This is difficult to assess as the exact death toll is unknown.
no reference to the tulsa riots can be found in any history book
while the riot received considerable local and national coverage at the time, it quickly faded in the public mind: “so quiet was the mention of the subject that many declared him the final victim of a conspiracy, this is a conspiracy of silence”. goble wrote in his summary of the official report.
The silence was particularly acute in Oklahoma. the race riot report notes that the tulsa tribune, in his popular “fifteen years ago” column in june 1936 and his “25 years ago” column in 1946, completely ignored the massacre and focused instead on social news local.
Although the state finally produced an official report in 2001, no one has ever been prosecuted or punished by the government at any level (municipal, county, state or federal) for criminal acts related to the massacre, notes the historical society.
broussard, of texas a&m, says historians who teach race relations have “talked about this for decades,” but adds that it “will generally take a backseat to the major race riots that occurred over the summer of 1919”.
“There’s been a lot more awareness of Tulsa in the last two decades, but in general, most people probably don’t know anything more about it,” says Broussard.
in oklahoma, a tulsa riot curriculum was created last year to teach in all oklahoma schools, including videos of interviews with survivors. It was based on a pilot program that was already being taught in Tulsa schools.
Paul Gardullo, curator of an exhibit on the Tulsa Race Massacre at the African-American Museum of History in Washington, says there are “many silences” in American history that have to do with racial violence, whether it’s widespread rioting or more mundane cases than “people hide and don’t speak”.
“Frankly, the places where most people are learning their history are not in the books,” he tells usa. today. “It is the museum’s responsibility to tell the unvarnished truth about these events.”
Regarding specific history books that address the issue, Tyler Reed, Senior Director of Communications at McGraw-Hill Publishers, tells USA. the 1920s and includes an image of Tulsa in flames and talks about the massacre.
the tulsa massacre is also mentioned in higher education textbooks published by cengage, in particular, “mind tap for u.s. history”, copyright 2016; “hist”, copyright 2018; and “Making America: A United States Story,” an updated forward location edition copyrighted 2019, according to Kristina Massari, director of public and media relations at cengage.
Also, Ellsworth’s book “Death in the Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921”, is dedicated to the massacre, was originally published in 1982 and has never been out of print.
ellsworth notes, however, that it is “ridiculous and incorrect that this is not commonly mentioned in history texts.”
our rating: partially false
the claim that the tulsa race massacre is the worst riot in the us. uu. the story, and it cannot be found in any history book, is rated in part as false, according to our research. While it is true that the event was devastating to the black community and to Tulsa, differing opinions on the number of victims make it difficult to classify the massacre as the worst riot in the country’s history. the claim that it is missing from the history books is false. The State of Oklahoma has a curriculum on the massacre, it is included in national textbooks, and a historical account has been published since 1982.
our fact checking sources:
- the tulsa race riot a report of the oklahoma commission to study the tulsa race riot of 1921
- tulsa museum and historical society website, tulsa race massacre of 1921
- Scott Ellsworth, “Death in the Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921”
- Interviews with Historians Scott Ellsworth and Albert Broussard; paul gardullo, curator of the smithsonian museum of black history
- smithsonian magazine, “a long-lost manuscript contains an eyewitness account of the 1921 tulsa race massacre”
- downtown oklahoma history, tulsa race riot 1 day lesson
- new york magazine, “oklahoma will require its schools to teach the 1921 tulsa race massacre”
- mcgraw -Hill, Experience Story Summary: Interpreting America’s Past
- Smithsonian Magazine, “East St. Louis race riot left dozens dead and devastated a growing community”
- history.com, los angeles riots
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