Page 28 - Tulsa 1921
P. 28

Tulsa race massacre 1921


                      1830s                                                          21.08.1920                                      31.05.1921                Along the way, bystanders, many of whom

                                                                                                                                                               were leaving a movie theater after a show,

                                                                                                                                                               Panic set in as the white mob began firing
            Oklahoma was Indiana land. The state’s                            The first lynching case took place in           Things got worse, when white mob came to   were caught off guard by the mobs and fled.
            name is derived from the Choctaw words                            Oklahoma, on a white guy, by white mob.         police station and required chief to lynch   on any black people in the crowd. The white
            okla and humma, meaning “red people”.                             All black Tulsans were very confused about      the black young boy. The rumor flied to   mob also shot and killed at least one white
                                                                              their safety. Who’s gonna protect them?         Greenwood, the black Tulsans took guns   man in the confusion. Some of these lynch
                                                                                                                              went to police station. And the gun fighting   mob were deputized by police and instructed
                                                                                                                                                               to “get a gun and get a nigger”.
                                                         1902                                                                 Greenwood with full armed and massacre
                                                                                                                              began. Numberous white Tulsans headed to

                                                                                                                              happened that night.
                                             In the early years of the 20  Century,
                                                                 th
                                             Oklahoma became a fertile land not only
                                             for jobs but also home to many blacks at                                                                                                                     Aftermath
                                             that time, by increasing oil extraction.
                                             Oklahoma became the US state, leading                                                                                                              Very few black Tulsans survived from the
                                             the country in oil production and pumping                                                                                                          massacre and they moved to others states.
                                             a quarter of its oil supply.                                                                                                                       Many blacks spent the winter of 1921–
                                                                                                                                                                        1.06.1921               1922 in tents as they worked to rebuild.





                1880s - 1890                                                                                                                                   Numerous eyewitnesses described airplanes
                                                                                                                                                               carrying white assailants, who fired rifles
                                                                                                                                                               and dropped firebombs on buildings, homes,
                                                                                                                                                               and fleeing families. The privately owned
            Oklahoma become land for both black                                                                                                                aircraft were dispatched from the nearby
            and white people to settle down and do                                                                                                             Curtiss-Southwest Field outside Tulsa.
            business. However, the Jim Crow laws
            turned out a barried to seperate the state
            into two. The west side of the city is                                  30.05.1921
            Greenwood - the black neighborhood.
                                                                              A young black shoeshiner went to a
                                                                              building which had restroom for black
                                                                              people only, he meet a white girl in
                                                                              elevator. After few minute, people heard
                                                                              her scream and  saw a young black man
                                                                              rushing from the building. The clerk
                                                                              went to the elevator and foundshe in
                                                                              what he said was a distraught state.
                                                                              Thinking she had been assaulted, he
                                                                              summoned the authorities.



        28                                                                                                                                                                                                                        29
   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33