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On May 31, 1921, the United States witnessed one of the worst racially-motivated massacres in its history. A white mob attacked and killed more than 300 people in Greenwood, Oklahoma. Outnumbered and overpowered, the prominent black community north of Tulsa experienced death and destruction for two days.
One-hundred-and-one years after this devastating incident, we pay our respects to the lives lost and offer our patrons resources to learn more about the events that transpired. We will not forget.
White mobs destroyed “Black Wall Street” in 1921. But where are the victims’ bodies? Help our reporting on hidden histories. Submit a story idea here: http://bit.ly/2RhjxMy 100 years ago, a white mob destroyed an American neighborhood called “Black Wall Street,” murdering an estimated 300 people in Tulsa, Oklahoma. That incident — known as the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre — has been largely left out of US history books. Today, a century later, the city still has a lot of questions. For one, where are the bodies of the victims? As the city’s mayor re-opens the search for mass graves, we take a look at what happened back in 1921…and why finding these graves still matters to the people of Tulsa.
[Tulsa Historical Society and Museum] 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre
[Reuters] Judge rules that Tulsa massacre lawsuit seeking reparations can proceed
The three known living survivors of the 1921 Tulsa massacre that saw a white mob murder scores of Blacks and raze much of their neighborhood can proceed with a lawsuit seeking reparations for the death and destruction, a judge in Oklahoma ruled on Monday.
Tulsa County District Judge Caroline Wall rejected motions by the defendants, which include the city of Tulsa, to dismiss the case. The next legal steps were unclear.
[NYTimes] What the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Destroyed
The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 killed hundreds of residents, burned more than 1,250 homes and erased years of Black success.
[Harvard Business School Working Knowledge] The Tulsa Massacre: Is Racial Justice Possible 100 Years Later?
A new Harvard Business School case by Mihir Desai examines the Tulsa Massacre of 1921, and asks difficult questions about what reparations America owes to its Black citizens.
[NPR] A Century After The Race Massacre, Tulsa Confronts Its Bloody Past
It’s been 100 years since the Tulsa Race Massacre — one of the worst episodes of racial violence in U.S. history. An armed white mob attacked Greenwood, a prosperous Black community in Tulsa, Okla., killing as many as 300 people. What was known as Black Wall Street was burned to the ground.
[National Endowment for the Humanities] The 1921 Tulsa Massacre
As city streets throbbed with protests (and what some might call uprisings) during the summer of 2020, two science fiction dramas recalled the massacre of Tulsa, Oklahoma, which took place 100 years ago this spring. Watchmen and Lovecraft Country, both on HBO, filled television screens with imagery of Tulsa’s Black neighborhood of Greenwood—Booker T. Washington nicknamed it Negro Wall Street, which morphed into Black Wall Street—as it was shot up, torched, and bombed from the air by white vigilantes. Viewers wondered if the events depicted were more fiction than science. Social media was abuzz with people trying to find out more about Tulsa. Among African Americans, however, the memory had not completely faded.
[Smithsonian Magazine] A Long-Lost Manuscript Contains a Searing Eyewitness Account of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921
The ten-page manuscript is typewritten, on yellowed legal paper, and folded in thirds. But the words, an eyewitness account of the May 31, 1921, racial massacre that destroyed what was known as Tulsa, Oklahoma’s “Black Wall Street,” are searing.
[Smithsonian Magazine] The Tulsa Race Riot and Three of Its Victims
[The Washington Post] ‘They was killing black people’
In Tulsa, one of the worst episodes of racial violence in U.S. history still haunts the city with unresolved questions, even as ‘Black Wall Street’ gentrifies
[The Atlantic] The Massacre of Black Wall Street
[Oklahoma Digital Prairie] Tulsa Race Massacre
The documents in this collection describe one of the darkest episodes in American history. The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 constituted two days of violence that left an unconfirmed number of dead citizens and destroyed 35 square blocks of the prosperous Greenwood neighborhood. The Tulsa Race Massacre has also been known as the “Tulsa Race Riot” and the “Greenwood Massacre.”
This collection features documents and images from various Oklahoma state government agencies, such as the Governor’s office and the Attorney General’s office, regarding the investigation into the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. The collection includes eye-witness testimony, letters, telegrams, police reports, and court cases. Additionally, some documents relate to prostitution, gambling, and illegal alcohol in Tulsa during the early 1920s.
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