Olelo No'eau Quotes, Wausau Pd Police To Citizen, Articles W

Karlos K. Hill investigates the disturbing photographic legacy of this massacre and the resilience of Black Wall Street's residents. The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 did not, in a word often used to describe such events, "erupt." The city, probably more accurately, simply reached what now seems an inevitable breaking point. Staking a claim in the Cherokee Outlet Land Run of 1893, Gurley and his wife opened a general store and founded Perry, Oklahoma. A white clerk at a nearby clothing store heard what he thought was a scream and, thinking a young woman had been assaulted, contacted the authorities. Now that Tulsa has scratched its way into popular culture, it stands as a symbol of Black tragedy and also of resurrection and resilience. appearance, and a sprinkling of trappers, hunters, half-breeds, creoles and negroes of every hue. Black families, enslaved and freed, were among the Lochapoka Creeks, who were forced from Alabama during the Trail of Tears and founded Tulsa in 1836. All we are asking for is for the chance to be treated like a first-class citizen, that this is the land where there is liberty and justice for all. I had everything a child could need, Viola Ford Fletcher, 107, told the committee. The entire 35 blocks of the Greenwood commercial district were destroyed. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. Commonly known as the Trail of Tears, the Five Civilized Tribes were not the only ones forced across the country. It was the longest day for the neighborhood as the Tulsa Race Massacre occurred on May 31 and lasted for 18 long unbearable hours. In 1997 a Tulsa Race Riot Commission was formed by the state of Oklahoma to investigate the massacre and formally document the incident. rush street bars 1980. lutheran liturgical calendar 2022; . African Americans had been around Oklahoma for a long time. We didnt have much. Even by the lowest estimates, the Tulsa Race Massacre remains one of the deadliest racially inspired riots in U.S. history. The devil courts said we were too late. . The article headlined Nab Negro for Attacking Girl In an Elevator stated that Rowland attacked her, scratching her hands and face and tearing her clothes. The next morning Rowland was taken into police custody. Just before midnight, a smaller White lynch mob attempted to force its way into the courthouse but was turned away by sheriffs deputies. So trust is a real lingering issue, he said. This book examines the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, perhaps the most lethal and financially devastating instance of collective violence in early twentieth-century America. Post-Civil War massacres in New Orleans, Memphis, Wilmington, Charleston, the Atlanta, Georgia, massacre (1906), the Elaine, Arkansas, massacre (1919), and the Rosewood, Florida, massacre (1923) have been buried deep in the record, ignored in mainstream history books, and lost to national memory. In what some historians have called the single worst incident of racial violence in American history, residents and businesses of Tulsas predominantly Black Greenwood District were attacked on the ground and from the air by mobs of Whites angered by the financial prosperity of the residents of what was then known as the Black Wall Street. In less than 18 hours, at least 1,000 homes and businesses were destroyed, with hundreds of people killed. However, no legislative action was ever taken on the recommendation, and the commission had no power to force legislation. Another postcard showed the burning of an unidentified Black man in Durant, and was captioned Coon Cooking. In 1917, 17 white members of the International Workers of the World were flogged, tarred, feathered, and turned loose on the prairie by Knights of Liberty dressed in black robes and masks. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). In November 2018, the Commission was renamed the Tulsa Race Massacre Commission. The Guard helped round up and disarm at least four thousand African Americansmen, women, and childrenand marched them at gunpoint to makeshift detention camps at the Tulsa Convention Center and the McNulty Baseball Park as the mob in the early hours looted their homes. After the sheriff turned them away, some of the white mob tried unsuccessfully to break into the National Guard armory nearby. S. MacQueen, a bailiff and failed candidate for sheriff, grabbed a tall Black mans .45-caliber Army-issue handgun, leading to this exchange: N, where are you going with that pistol?. Police were unable or unwilling to stop the violence that quickly spread throughout Greenwood, as the police chief and other civil officials had sworn in over one hundred white men as special deputies. This work analyzes the massacre from a sociological perspective, extending an . Black community members tried to escape or hide, while white assailants broke into occupied homes, ordering people into the streets and forcing them to detention centers. The Newberry Library received, in 2018, a $200,000 grant from NEH for Chicago Reflects on the 1919 Race Riots to support a variety of projects, including a website, public events, a digital exhibition, and classroom resources. George Floyds is just the latest injustice against Black Americans. (2021, December 6). You have white people, some of whom are not doing well economically, who can look across those tracks and see Black people living in homes, driving cars, furnishing their homes with pianos, women wearing furs, all the trappings of economic success. By 1921, fueled by oil money, Tulsa was a growing, prosperous city with a population of more than 100,000 people. Minutes later, a White female clerk at a nearby store heard the 17-year-old White elevator operator, Sarah Page, scream and saw a young Black man running from the building. The commissions final report was published on February 28, 2001. Some still unidentified men in khakis, who come up frequently in the testimony, looked down and asked, Are you Dr. Jackson? Learning it was, indeed, Dr. Jackson on the ground, one of them said, Oh shit, those boys have done it now!. (Photo courtesy of the Tulsa Historical Society) As a result of that, there were lingering effects of slavery that showed up, that impacted and really formed the experience of African Americans in this state. Exactly 100 years ago Tulsa, Oklahoma, saw one of the biggest race massacres in American history. At the same time, members of the Black community had gathered at a Greenwood district hotel to discuss the situation at the courthouse. Tulsa was a sort of tinder box waiting on something really to ignite those smoldering embers. Zion Baptist Churchs bell tower until the church was engulfed in flames. Relief was sent in from around the country, from the Red Cross, churches, and other philanthropies, though Tulsa city officials attempted to block it. Benjamin Pap Singleton organized Exodusters and founded Nicodemus, Rattle Bone Hollow, Hoggstown, and many other towns in Kansas. Around 9 p.m., a group of about 25 armed Black menincluding many World War I veteranswent to the courthouse to offer help guarding Rowland. But the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre is an example of the inability to transfer wealth intergenerationally because of disruptors some of these wealthy Black men, their wealth was lost in the massacre, and it was not restored.. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. I still see Black men being shot, Black bodies lying in the street. Tulsa Massacre. a false account of the story with heavily sensationalized language. On May 19, 107-year-old Fletcher traveled to Washington, D.C., for the first time to share with Congress what she remembered of the Tulsa Race Massacre nearly a century ago. On average, North Tulsans live 14 years less than South Tulsans. The. Robert Longley is a U.S. government and history expert with over 30 years of experience in municipal government and urban planning. READ MORE: Tulsa's 'Black Wall Street' Flourished as a Self-Contained Hub in the Early 1900s. An archaeological survey team reported in December 2019 that a section of Tulsas Arkansas River might conceal the bodies of Black residents murdered in the Tulsa Race Massacre. By 1921, the Sunbelt region oil boom had turned Tulsa into a growing city of nearly 75,000 people, including a disproportionally large number of employed and affluent Black citizens. By 1919, white civic leaders sought Greenwoods land for a railroad depot or other uses. In, This time, the police, fearing a lynching, moved Rowland from the regular jail to the top floor of the Tulsa County Courthouse for safekeeping. The 2001 Oklahoma Commission Report notes that Rowland most likely tripped as he got onto the elevator, and as he tried to catch his fall, he grabbed onto Pages arm who then screamed. Seeing the growing crowd, the police panicked and began firing at any Black person on the street. A 107-year-old survivor of the massacre recently testified before Congress. And so there's that dissonance between what these people think ought to be, based on white supremacy, and what actually is. Longley, Robert. Despite attempts to suppress details of the rioting, the Commission stated that, These are not myths, not rumors, not speculations, not questioned. The destruction also included many businesses and community institutions: four hotels, eight churches, seven grocery stores, two Black hospitals, two candy stores, two pool halls, two Masonic lodges, real estate offices, undertakers, barber and beauty shops, doctors offices, drugstores, auto garages, and choc joints. Many of the mob members were recently returned World War I veterans trained in the use of firearms and are said to have shot African Americans on sight. Though overwhelmed, the Black residents fought back, killing at least six Whites. By the time peace was restored, as many as 6,000 black Greenwood residents had been interned at three local detention centers, and thousands more had fled the town. In April 2002 a private religious charity, the Tulsa Metropolitan Ministry, paid a total of $28,000 to the survivors, a little more than $200 each, using funds raised from private donations. Longley, Robert. MAJ. the people in his unit together (Report of Paul Brown, as given in Appendix IV of Haliburton). 107-year-old survivor of Tulsa Massacre Viola Fletcher calls on U.S. to acknowledge 1921 event, Looking back at the Tulsa Race Massacre a century later, Tulsa newspapers swiftly published incendiary articles. Ottawa W. Gurley (known as O. It occurred in Tulsa, Oklahoma, beginning on May 31, 1921, and lasting for two days. Tulsa was also a highly segregated city: Most of the citys 10,000 Black residents lived in a neighborhood called Greenwood, which included a thriving business district sometimes referred to as the Black Wall Street. Around 11 p.m., troops from the Oklahoma National Guard, joined by members of the Tulsa chapter of the American Legion, surrounded the courthouse and police station. Since being granted statehood in 1907, Oklahoma had been the scene of the lynchings of at least 26 Black men and boys. On May 30, 1921, a young Black teenager named Dick Rowland entered an elevator at the Drexel Building, an office building on South Main Street. Black Wall Street did, eventually, rise from the ashes and Greenwood enjoyed another heyday in the 1940s, but integration and urban renewal in the 1960s and the 1970s led to new declines the neighborhood was unable to fully overcome, Johnson said. Today marks 101 years since the Tulsa Race Massacre. Technically, the attacks and riots happened from May 31- June 1, 1921. Their arrival sparked a great deal of shouting, harsh words and insults between the crowds of whites and the blacks (Tulsa World, 1 June 1921; Gill, 31-32). We want to know the identities of those individuals who proudly stood in front of cameras, taking pictures with their guns, dead Black bodies behind them, taking pictures burning down homes, because they knew they had the blessing and the protection of the police, of the sheriff, of the National Guard., congressman Rep. Hank Johnson introduced the Tulsa-Greenwood Massacre Claims Accountability Act to provide survivors and descendants access to the courts to seek restitution. By 1942, over 200 Black businesses were operating in Greenwood. As returning war veterans struggled to find jobs, Tulsas unemployed White residents grew to resent the working Black residents. It was in this supercharged atmosphere of racial animosity in which the events that ignited the Tulsa Race Massacre took place. Instead, there was a deliberate effort to cover them up. Units of the Oklahoma National Guard participated in the mass arrests of all or nearly all of Greenwoods residents., Black community members tried to escape or hide, while white assailants broke into occupied homes, ordering people into the streets and forcing them to detention centers. ThoughtCo. The police were called, and the next morning they arrested Rowland. On the left is I. H. Spears, Franklin's law partner. Thats Dr. Jackson, yelled Oliphant. Multiple Black men were armed at the scene and violent confrontations with white men and white police officers quickly erupted. At the time, Greenwood was very likely the most prosperous Black community in the country, and Tulsa, the Magic City, was one of Americas fastest-growing cities, an oil boomtown, following the 1905 discovery of the Glenn Pool Oil Reserve 15 miles south of town. READ MORE: 9 Entrepreneurs Who Helped Build 'Black Wall Street'. That evening mobs of both African Americans and whites descended on the courthouse where Rowland was being held. I still see Black businesses being burned. For Black people, Greenwood is a reminder of the need to stay vigilant. Green Currin, who participated in the Oklahoma Land Run of 1889, was elected to the Oklahoma Territorial Legislature in 1890. Later that afternoon, however, the white-owned newspaper. Learn about the current reparations lawsuit against the City of Tulsa. Within a week of the massacre, at least 6,000 of the remaining residents were detained in internment camps. A film by DeNeen L. Brown, Jonathan Silvers and Eric Stover. The Tulsa Tribune removed the front-page story of May 31 that sparked the chaos from its bound volumes, and scholars later discovered that police and state militia archives about the riot were missing as well. while they [other enslaved Blacks] was still licking the [white] masters boots in Texas. By the turn of the century, an estimated 37 percent of the Creeks were Blackmany with land rights. An entire street of burned homes in the Greenwood District following the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. With the Civil War still a sore spot, the white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan had resurfaced. So as Gurley opened a boarding house, grocery stores and sold land to other Black people, they secured their own houses and opened businesses. Here are five facts about the Tulsa Race Massacre that you didnt learn in history class. The Commission appointed historians and archaeologists to collect oral and written accounts, and to search for possible locations of mass graves of Black victims. The Tulsa newspapers swiftly published incendiary articles about the allegation, prompting a group of mostly white men to descend on the courthouse to lynch Rowland. The lawyer leading the charge was Buck Colbert Franklin, the father of famed historian John Hope Franklin, the late professor emeritus at Duke University. This method became custom whenever Black people were on trial as they usually faced lynchings. The Oklahoma National Guard, called in by the governor to restore order, did so by joining the fray against the outnumbered and outgunned Black community. It should teach us to Look Up, Lift Up and Lend a Helping Hand, and remember that we cannot rise higher than our weakest brother. So they created their own insular economy in the Greenwood district and blossomed because dollars were able to circulate and recirculate within the confines of the community because there really was not much of an option, given the segregation that existed here and elsewhere.. An African American man lies dead after large parts of the city were destroyed by white rioters. I still hear airplanes flying overhead. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. North Greenwood Ave. in Tulsa, Okla., prior to the 1921 Tulsa massacre. The difference in mortality rate in North Tulsa is 11 percent fewer years than whites in South Tulsa. A portrait of lawyer Buck Colbert Franklin, taken some years before he moved to Tulsa, where he opened a practice shortly before the 1921 massacre. The law firm of Spears, Franklin & Chappelle provided legal assistance to victims. Lansana, who has also authored a childrens book, Opals Greenwood Oasis, is quick to point out the scars and hurdles that continue to plague Tulsa: The legacy of Oklahoma is that the place remains deeply segregated, even today. At some. A. Robertson had declared martial law shortly before noon, the riot had effectively ended. Seeing the crowd turning into a lynch mob, McCullough ordered several armed deputies to barricade the top floor of the courthouse, disabled the buildings elevator, and ordered the deputies to shoot any intruders on sight. I live through the massacre every day. The 2001 Oklahoma Commission Report states, Deputies did not stem the violence but added to it, often through overt acts that were themselves illegal. Fast Facts: 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Short Description: Little-known riot that resulted in one of the most deadly and destructive acts of racially motivated violence in US history. A disguised light-skinned African-American Tulsan overheard an ad hoc meeting of city officials plan a Greenwood invasion that night. Forensic scientists and archaeologists scanned the area with ground penetrating radar and found subterranean areas consistent with mass graves. After McCullough convinced them to go home, some members of the White mob unsuccessfully tried to steal rifles from the nearby National Guard armory. Archaeologists identified four likely locations of such graves. Im going to use it, if I have to was the retort. Details are difficult to gather, because many survivors of the massacre fled the city. The Greenwood district, a comparably prosperous black community spanning thirty-five city blocks, was set afire and destroyed by white rioters. Other historical acts of racist terrormob attacks on Black communities in Detroit, Cincinnati, Dayton, and New Yorkoccurred prior to the Civil War. Johnson said the inability of Black people to accumulate wealth and transfer it intergenerationally is the root cause. The Oklahoma Bureau of Vital Statistics officially recorded 36 dead. A Mississippi native who had come to Tulsa via Rochester, Parrish has disappeared from the record. what happened directly following the 1921 tulsa massacre? 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. Black people had money and needed places to spend it. Chief of Detectives James Patton attributed the cause of the riots entirely to the newspapers account and, If the facts in the story as told by the police had only been printed I do not think there would have been any riot whatsoever., Police were unable or unwilling to stop the violence that quickly spread throughout Greenwood, as the police chief and other civil officials had sworn in over one hundred white men as special deputies. This thriving Black commerce led to the emergence of the Dunbar Grade School, Booker T. Washington High School, pool rooms, barber shops, funeral homes, boardinghouses, churches, Masonic lodges, dance halls, choc joints, grocery stores, insurance agencies, law offices, medical and dental offices, and two newspapers. A front-page story in the Tulsa Tribune that afternoon reported that police had arrested Rowland for sexually assaulting Page. Sheriff McCullough, hunkered down in the County Court House, kept Dick Rowland safe as the mobs fury was aimed at a Negro revolt in Greenwood. Now that Tulsa has scratched its way into popular culture, it stands as a symbol of Black tragedy and also of resurrection and resilience. Black wealth is generally one-tenth of white wealth. Sources: The Tulsa World has published many articles that were examined for the writing of this piece; Tulsa History Museum digital exhibit 1921 Tulsa Race MassacreTulsa Historical Society & Museum; A Long-Lost Manuscript Contains a Searing Eyewitness Account of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 May 27, 2016, Smithsonian magazine; Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 by Scott Ellsworth; From Slaves to Soldiers and Beyond by Tina Cahalan Jones; Tulsa, 1921: Reporting a Massacre by Randy Krehbiel and Karlos K. Hill; Fire on Mount Zion: My Life and History As a Black Woman in America by M. B. The Tulsa Race. According to Tim Madigans. The Tulsa Real Estate Exchange estimated total real estate and personal property losses at $2.25 million, the equivalent of nearly $30 million in 2020. The looting, though hurried, was methodical, with mobsters taking furniture, Victrolas, and pianos. I am here asking my country to acknowledge what happened in Tulsa in 1921,. Shortly after, Governor James B.A. 2156, which would prevent most of the victims from rebuilding and the insurance companies from paying for damage caused by the massacre, even as white pawnshop and hardware store owners were compensated for damages to their shops. Homes and businesses were either destroyed or burned by fire. On May 30, 1921, a young Black teenager named Dick Rowland entered an elevator at the Drexel Building, an office building on South Main Street. Were going to go downtown and stop this lynching. True to their word, an armed contingent of 25 Black men went to the Tulsa County Courthouse. The only African American in the legislature, Currin authored Oklahomas first civil rights bill, which lost ratification by one vote as the territorial government proceeded to disenfranchise Blacks and pass its first Jim Crow laws. MAJ. Damaged properties and smoke coming from buildings following the Tulsa Race Massacre, Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 1921. Justice in America, Randle said, is always so slow or not possible for Black people and we are made to feel crazy just for asking for things to be made right.. thurgood marshall school of law apparel Projetos; bubble buster 2048 town Blog; . Dreisen Heath, a researcher at Human Rights Watch who authored the report, said law enforcements involvement in the massacre illustrates the demands of racial justice movements a century later. Follow NBCBLK on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Courtesy It emerged that neither of these descriptions was entirely warranted. During this 2021 centennial of the Tulsa disaster we are reminded of the shameful legacy of white racism in Tulsa and other Black communities not that long ago. Two of the last known survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Viola Fletcher, 108, and Hughes Van Ellis, 102 became citizens of Ghana in a ceremony Tuesday. what happened directly following the 1921 tulsa massacre? As a result, until recently the Tulsa Race Massacre was rarely mentioned in history books, taught in schools or even talked about. Rowland went inside the building to use the third-floor segregated restroom. Watchmen and Lovecraft Country, both on HBO, filled television screens with imagery of Tulsas Black neighborhood of GreenwoodBooker T. Washington nicknamed it Negro Wall Street, which morphed into Black Wall Streetas it was shot up, torched, and bombed from the air by white vigilantes. And it wasn't until 1997 that the Oklahoma legislature established the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Commission (in 2018 the panel was officially renamed the 1921 Race Massacre Commission). A Greenwood legend, Peg Leg Taylor, a veteran of the Spanish-American War, was said to have shot a dozen white men from a sniper position on Standpipe Hill. We were made to feel that our struggle was unworthy of justice and that we were less valued than whites, that we weren't fully American., Fletcher served white families for most of her life as a domestic worker. The fact that after the disaster none of them were convicted of crimes vindicates that position. William Loren Katzs Black Indians and Art Burtons Black, Red, and Deadly cite an early Black presence in Oklahoma, then called Indian Territory. Randy Krehbiels Tulsa 1921: Reporting a Massacre quotes Washington Irvings 1835 eyewitness description of the Creeks, which confirms an early Black presence: quite Oriental in . The first grocery store since the 1940s or 1950s is just now under construction in North Tulsa! Many people in the white mob that destroyed the Greenwood community back in 1921 were deputized by local law enforcement. In 1925, Booker T. Washingtons National Negro Business League held its annual meeting in Tulsas partially restored business district. A furious mob of thousands of white men then surged over Black homes, killing, destroying, and snatching everything from dining room furniture to piggy banks. Despite its severity and destructiveness, the Tulsa race massacre was barely mentioned in history books until the late 1990s, when a state commission was formed to document the incident. what happened directly following the 1921 tulsa massacre? A furious mob of thousands of white men then surged over Black homes, killing, destroying, and snatching everything from dining room furniture to piggy banks. So, promises broken. Thousands of African-American families moved in and helped found 30 Black towns, including Boley, Clearview, Tatum, Lima, and Langston, where McCabe himself helped found Langston College in 1897. We are asking for justice for a lifetime of ongoing harm.. Original Production Funding provided in part by The Derfner Foundation, A. W. Fong, Joseph and Diane Steinberg, Elaine and W. Weldon Wilson, Carolyn Patty Blum, Darian Swig, Neal and Ashley Robin, the Albert A. Robin Family Foundation, and Craig Mowry. The treaty also set aside a large tract of land for them to settle, giving each Freedmen household 160 acres. As many as 300 people were killed in 1921 when a white mob attacked the Greenwood district of Tulsa, a thriving Black community, and burned it to the ground. By the end of the next day, June 1, 1921, more than 35 square blocks of the once-prosperous Greenwood district had been destroyed. Attacks by air followed with numerous eyewitnesses. In the Tulsa City Commission report issued two weeks after the massacre, Mayor T.D Evens unequivocally stated, Let this blame for this Negro uprising go right where it belongs, on those armed negroes who started this trouble and who instigated it.. They are the historical record., In its final report, the Commission recommended the payment of over $33 million in reparations to the 121 verified Black survivors and the descendants of the survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre. The Williams Building, no.2 on Greenwood Ave., site of the Dreamland Theater, June 1, 1921, in Tulsa, Okla. Department of Special Collections, McFarlin Library, The University of Tulsa. The Black Wall Street Massacre memorial is shown June 18, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Over the course of 18 hours, from May 31 to June 1, 1921, a white mob attacked residents, homes and businesses in the read more, During the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, a devastating and violent riot obliterated Tulsas Greenwood district, commonly referred to as Black Wall Street for its concentration of Black-owned businesses and prosperity. According to the State Department of Education, it has required the topic in Oklahoma history classes since 2000 and U.S. history classes since 2004, and the incident has been included in Oklahoma history books since 2009. This wasnt the case for us. Tulsa city officials eventually dropped all charges against those who participated in the violence . True deliverance for the people of Greenwood, however, came from within, as documented in their own record of the massacre and its aftermath. Late in the battle as gunfire was sporadic, Jackson walked back to his home, after attending to victims, with his hands up. Fletcher's brother Hughes Van Ellis, 100, and a World War II veteran, said his childhood was hard as his family recovered from the massacre. Several eyewitnesses reported seeing a dozen or more airplanes carrying White attackers firing rifles at fleeing Black families and dropping burning turpentine balls bombs on Greenwood district homes and businesses. Over the next several hours, groups of white Tulsanssome of whom were deputized and given weapons by city officialscommitted numerous acts of violence against Black people, including shooting an unarmed man in a movie theater. As the white mob reached nearly a thousand, a new contingent of 50 or more Black men, feeling anxious, arrived to protect Rowland, but they, too, were persuaded to leave at about 10:30 p.m. Then, as they walked awayaccording to Scott Ellsworths interview with seventy-eight-year-old survivor Robert FairchildE. I will never forget the violence of the hate mob when we left our home. The other lingering issue is how Black wealth is generally one-tenth of white wealth. These African-American lawyers filed claims against the city of Tulsa and against its new Fire Ordinance No. In early September 2020, survivors of the 1921 massacre and their descendants filed a new lawsuit in Oklahoma state court against the City of Tulsa and other defendants. His name was Dick Rowland. It explains, "The 1921 Tulsa race massacre was one of the most serious instances of racial violence in US history. 9. A year before the massacre, an association of medical professionals, visiting Tulsa for a conference, lined up for a panoramic photo in front of Williams Dreamland Theatre. In much of the country, the years following World War I saw a spike in racial tensions, including the resurgence of the white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan, numerous lynchings and other acts of racially motivated violence, as well as efforts by African Americans to prevent such attacks on their communities.