IV
RACE RIOTS
TULSA
The greatest race disturbance during 1921 took place at Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 1. On the afternoon of that date the City Editor of the New York Evening Post telephoned the National Office asking if it had any statement to make regarding the riot then taking place in Tulsa. At that time the National Office had no knowledge of the affair, but within six hours the Assistant Secretary was on his way to make an investigation for the Association. Meanwhile reports continued to come in which showed that one of the most serious race riots in the country's history was in progress. The newspapers reported that practically the entire colored residence section of Tulsa was in flames, that shooting was going on and that motor cars and airplanes were being used by the whites. The Secretary telegraphed Governor Robertson of Oklahoma asking that he use the powers of his office to stop the disorders and offering the full cooperation of the N. A. A. C. P.
The Assistant Secretary reported that the riot was caused by an unfounded charge of attempted criminal assault, lodged by an hysterical white girl against a colored boy of 19. She claimed that the attempt was made in broad daylight in the passenger elevator of a public office building located on one of the main streets of Tulsa, a thriving and bustling city of one hundred thousand inhabitants. On hearing the rumor, a mob set out to wreak its vengeance with out pausing to question the truth or plausibility of the story. In its wild rampage, lasting a night and a day, the mob destroyed forty-four square blocks of property, the entire colored district, valued at more than $1,500,000, and looted and plundered homes and business places before setting fire to them. A number of lives, white and colored, were lost in the fighting.
Back of the immediate cause of the riot were bitterness against Negro citizens of Tulsa and municipal inefficiency in checking the outburst. A number of colored men in Oklahoma had accumulated wealth through the oil wells and the business following new discoveries of producing wells. Poor whites were jealous of these members of a supposedly inferior race who had made greater economic progress than they. This was particularly true of Tulsa where there were a dozen colored men and women reported to be worth from $25,000 to $150,000. Another factor was the spirit of cooperation among the colored people and their refusal to do such business with white merchants as they could do with merchants of their own race. Combined with this was a determined attitude of aggression against disfranchisement, “Jim-Crowism,” peonage and lynching, which some of the whites thought was too outspoken.
The corrupt political conditions in Tulsa played their part. Tulsa was controlled by a vice ring and completely dominated by bootleggers, hold-up men, proprietors of houses of ill-fame and gambling dens, while decent citizens showed little or no interest in local politics. At the time of the riot there were thousands of cases awaiting trial in a county with a population of but little more than one hundred thousand. With something like one indictment against six out of every one hundred citizens, the court dockets were so clogged that criminals worked with impunity, knowing there was little or no chance of their ever being tried, if arrested and indicted.
A feud between the two local daily newspapers had contributed to the feeling of bitterness. One of them carried the story of the alleged assault as a scoop over the other paper, and it was this story that brought about the riot. A mob of whites formed around the jail to lynch the boy. On hearing of this, a group of colored men telephoned the sheriff offering to assist in protecting the jail and the prisoner. The sheriff refused the aid, but later, when reports reached the colored section of Tulsa that the mob was storming the jail, these colored men hurried over to disperse it.
A fight ensued when a member of the mob attempted to take a gun from one of the colored men, but it was short. Early next morning the mob, estimated at ten thousand, attacked the colored settlement in force with airplanes and bombs, with machine guns, rifles, pistols, cans of dynamite and of oil. The fighting was fierce, the colored men defending their homes bravely, but the odds were too great against them. Murder, arson, plundering and pillage went on until state troops were summoned late the next day.
The colored boy accused of assault was placed on trial in Tulsa soon after the riot and was completely exonerated. Yet this unfounded rumor caused the loss of one hundred lives and millions of dollars worth of property. The Assistant Secretary was enabled to make a thorough investigation through his good fortune in being able to secure an appointment as special deputy sheriff in Tulsa. This enabled him to secure the facts at first hand. His findings were published in dispatches to the New York Evening Post, in The Nation and in the press generally, being quoted in The Literary Digest of June.
