Over a hundred years ago, a tragedy happened in Tulsa. And it was so horrifying, it got so big and out of control, that we’re left wondering what exactly happened and how it got that far. A Black man and a white woman were in an elevator – teenagers. A clerk thought they heard her screaming and the man ran away. The clerk called the police to report a crime. When the police investigated, they determined that there had not been an assault. The woman did not want to press charges. The police picked up the man and held him for questioning. That afternoon, a sensationalist newspaper got wind of the story and decided it was an assault. They published a separate editorial warning that the man might be lynched that night. Later, the police chief was quoted as saying, “if the facts in the story as told the police had only been printed, I do not think there would have been any riot whatsoever.”1
Then the lines were drawn. A lot of white folks, out to secure mob justice against the man, armed themselves and pressed in on the courthouse. A lot of Black folks, scared of the violence, armed themselves and tried to get an idea of what was going on so that they could protect themselves. Those white folks saw those Black folks with guns and they got more guns, more support for their mob. The fear and misinformation made everything bigger and bigger until it blew up.2
Violence broke out, firing back and forth, mobs tore through Greenwood with oily rags lit on fire. Firefighters tried to go put the fires out and were stopped at gunpoint by white mobs. Stores were looted, houses and churches and hospitals burned to the ground, fiery turpentine balls rained from the sky. Rioters knocked on the doors of other white families who had hired Black folk in their homes and demanded that they turn their employees over to the mob. If they refused, the mob attacked and vandalized their homes.3
Eventually, the national guard quelled the violence. Casualty reports varied widely, but we know that more than 800 people had to go to hospitals, that around 10,000 Black people lost their homes, and that the property damage was massive. At the time, it amounted to more than 2 million dollars, which would equal about $32 million today.4 Then, over the years, the event was suppressed. It became a secret in white communities. It wasn’t taught, little or nothing was given to those who had lost so much, and things just moved forward. It is hard to uncover history like this. It’s hard to learn about things that we wish had never happened – that we can’t imagine that anyone would or could even do to another human being.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre