Sociology

Oklahoma had, since the beginning of the nineteenth century, become the residence of choice for thousands of African Americans. Originally, the area which was to become Tulsa was inhabited by the Creek and Cherokee Indians who owned black slaves. Following the declaration of Emancipation, the freed slaves chose to settle in the same area. By the close of the century, Tulsa had become a large city while the population of the state of Oklahoma had hit two million. By this time, the booming city had attracted white American emigrants, particularly from the south. With the coming of the white Americans and the expansion of the city, the freed slaves found it increasingly difficult to live side by side with their white counterparts. The law barred blacks from owning property or businesses in the city who were also supposed to leave the white zones of the city by sunset (Carter, n.d). Predictably then, black American population established their settlement apart from the now white dominated part of Tulsa. Greenwood was therefore the result of segregationist policy. As the black population got more and more empowered economically, the African-American neighbourhood became very prosperous, earning the title Black Wall Street.

In 1921, an event took place which altered the history of Greenwood- or the Black Wall Street- irreversably. On May 31, 1921, Dick Rowland, a nineteen-year-old black American boy was accused of sexually assaulting Sarah Page, a seventeen-year-old white female elevator operator in a building along Tulsas Main Street (Carrillo 4). Rowland, a shoe-shiner, had been riding the same elevator as Page, which he had done many times before (Carter). It is alleged that people heard Page scream when the elevator reached the lobby, and saw Rowland fleeing from the scene. Rowland was consequently arrested for raping a white woman on a public elevator in broad daylight (Oklahoma Commission iv).
It would help to shed light on some changes which prevailed in Tulsa around that time. The commissions appointed to investigate the murderous riots confirmed that the white supremacist outfit, the Klu Klux Klan, had been gaining popularity in Tulsa. In fact, the commission observed, that within months of the riot, Tulsas Klan chapter had become one of the nations largest and most powerful, able to dictate its will with the ballot as well as the whip (Oklahoma Commission 11).

On arrest, Rowland was locked in a cell at the citys county courthouse. Shortly afterwards, the Tulsa Tribune published a front-page article on the Rowland story which was accompanied by an editorial column titled To Lynch Negro Tonight. Not long after the paper was circulated in the city, white people started milling around the courthouse, determined to lynch the shoe-shining teenager. Agitated and equally determined to defend their own, the Blacks too joined the crowd outside the courthouse. As expected, tensions between the two agitated groups exploded and soon, gunshots rent the air as both groups turned their weapons on each other. While the Blacks were at first able to hold off the whites, they were soon overwhelmed by the white Americans who had more weapons and whom, as the Oklahoma Commission (11) established were given guns by the police and other public officials. Government officials were also found to have been directly involved in the destruction which accompanied the riots. The white invaders proceeded to the Greenwood district where they looted homes, killed and maimed people before setting their homes and business premises alight. In the end, an estimated 1, 256 homes had been destroyed, alongside a hospital, a library, churches, schools and businesses. Property then worth an estimated 1.8 million was destroyed. Approximately 300 people, most of them black, lost their lives during the riots (Carrillo 4 Oklahoma Commission 13).

The story would make it easy to dismiss Tulsas white population as intolerant and inhuman. However, thousands of white Americans from Tulsa and neighbouring region did much to help the grief-stricken victims of the riots. While the city authorities were opposed to any assistance to help the victims rebuild the city, and their lives, the American Red Cross, and individual white Tulsans provided the much needed assistance. Greenwood however never really recovered fully from the impact of the riots. Eventually, the African Americans rebuilt what they could and resettled. To this day however, Tulsas African American population lives on one side of the Interstate 244 (Brune).

Many would have expected that many or some of those who had taken part in the orgy of violence in Greenwood would be prosecuted, and punished, for their crimes. On the contrary, none of the rioters was prosecuted by government at any level, municipal, county, state or federal (Oklahoma Commission 13). Neither did the government of the day, or any later regimes make an attempt to compensate the victims of the Tulsa Riots. Over 80 years later, the Tulsa riots victims were yet to receive any form of compensation (The Crisis 11).