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| Daily Ardmoreite, 01-June-1921 |
100 years ago today, on 31-May-1921, a white mob in Tulsa, Oklahoma attacked the black-owned Greenwood District, destroying businesses, burning houses and killing people of color. The Tulsa Race Massacre may have been the worst single instance of racial violence in US history. No one knows how many African Americans died. "Frisco" refers to the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway.
Race War Rages in Tulsa Following Arrest of Negro Charged With
Assaulting Young White Girls; Number of Dead Increased With Late
Reports: Torch Leaves Fiery Trail Through "Little Africa" of the
Northeast Metropolis; State Troops Hold Muskogee Negroes at Bay
FIGHTING CONTINUES AFTER A DARK NIGHT OF TERROR;
BLACKS HERDED INTO CONVENTION HALL AND GUARDED
BY GRIM MEN HEAVILY ARMED; HEAVENS REFLECT GLOW
OF FLAMES WRITHING SKYWARD FROM "LITTLE AFRICA"
State Troops Patrol Streets of
Tulsa While Negroes Flee From
Burning Homes and Surrender to
Armed Guards; Over 3,000 Are
Now Held in Prison Camps
ENTIRE SECTION NEGRO TOWN
SEETHING, ROARING MASS OF
FLAMES; FIREMEN NOT
PERMITTED LAY HOSE.
Tulsa, Okla., June l.-- At 9 o'clock,
3,000 negroes had been gathered at
convention hall under guard. It was
filled as was also the police station.
The remainder of those gathered up
are being taken to the baseball park.
All are under armed guard.
The national guard got into action
about 11 o'clock last night about an
hour after the battle began at the
house, when a detachment appeared at
the police station under command of
Major Rooney. After driving away
the crowd which had broken into the
store of a sporting goods house, to
obtain arms and attempting to
disperse them from the block in front of
the police station, the guardsmen made
flying trips in trucks and automobiles
into outlying districts.
Later detachments were quartered
in various parts of town to suppress
possible, outbreaks and a large squad
with a machine gun, was sent to the
end of Admiral Boulevard, with
instructions to hold it at all hazards
against a reported invasion of 500
blacks from Muskogee, which failed
to materialize.
At 7:30 this morning, the entire
south side of the negro quarter,
on either side of Archer, extending
from Boston east to Elgin, was a mass
of flames.
Following the fighting last night,
white men everywhere were heard
threatening to wipe out "Little
Africa" forever, with the torch. The first
attempt was made at 1:30 last night,
when two houses at Archer and Boston,
which had been used as a garrison
by more than 50 negroes burst
into flame.
An alarm was sent in and the fire
department dashed to the scene. An
attempt to lay hose was quickly
stopped by 50 armed white men who had
assembled and the fire equipment was
returned to the station. While the
crowd turned again to exchanging
shots at long range with the negroes
who were slowly retreating to the
north and east behind the buildings
of the district.
The start to make good the threat
in earnest to burn negro town, was at
6:40 o'clock this morning. Almost
simultaneously fire began to steal
from the windows and doors of the
deserted shacks along Archer and
soon dense clouds of smoke were
enveloping the entire district. Under
the smoke veil, armed men scouted in
automobiles and as soon as their
cordon tightened about the place where
the negroes were stationed and
occasional firing gave warning that the
fight was still on.
Negroes remained in many of the
burning homes until they were
enveloped by fire and threatened to fall.
Then they could be seen by scores,
darting from doors with their hands
upraised and crying "Don't shoot," as
they dashed through the smoke to surrender
and be taken to the prison
camp established at convention hall.
State troops under command of Adjutant
General C. F. Barret arrived
here at 9 o'clock to take charge of
the riot resulting from a race war
when armed negroes and whites
engaged in battle. At this hour the
situation was reported quieter so far as
actual firing was concerned, but fires
were raging in all parts of the negro
section of the city. The flames were
spreading and threatened to wipe out
a considerable portion of white residence districts in the Standpipe
and Sunset Hill sections. It is believed
the whole negro section will be wiped
out.
Six white men are known to have
been killed. It is estimated that fifty
negroes, men and women and children,
have been killed. Scores have been
wounded.
Three thousand negroes had been
segregated in prison camps where they
are under armed guards.
NATIONAL GUARD
ASSUMES CONTROL
IN TULSA; MARTIAL
LAW IS IN EFFECT
COMPANIES RUSHED FROM MUSKOGEE
AND OTHER POINTS TO
SCENE OF RACE WAR, RIOTING
AND CONFLAGRATIONS.
(By the Associated Press)
Muskogee, June 1. -- Company A,
Muskogee and Company B of Wagoner,
Ola., national guards, were
ordered at 9:45 a. m. to proceed at
once to Tulsa. A special train is
being made up.
Tulsa, June 1. -- A war between negroes
and whites, starting over the arrest
of a negro charged with an assault
on a white woman, had continued early
Wednesday morning and national
guard troops were ordered to Tulsa to
aid in controlling the various factions
The exact number of killed and injured
was not known but the killed were
believed to total almost a hundred.
Rowland was spirited out of town at
2 o'clock this morning by deputies from
Sheriff O'ccullough's office. They
refused to divulge his whereabouts.
Officers said the black would be
given a speedy trial just as soon as the
situation quiets down to permit it, and
the case will be transferred to another
jurisdiction if it is found impossible to
try it here. They gave assurance he
would be fully punished if found guilty
of the charge.
Rowland is accused of attacking an
orphan girl in an elevator.
Adjutant General Barret has taken
up headquarters at the city hall and
announced that Col. B. H. Markham.
Oklahoma City, would be in command
of field operations.
Two companies from Muskogee and
one from Wagoner were ordered by
Barrett to entrain at once. Another
company will arrive from Oklahoma
City at 1 o'clock. Martial law has not
yet been declared and only developments
will determine if it is to be invoked,
Barrett added. He is working
under direction of the sheriff, the mayor
and chief of police until such time as
he deems it necessary to change
command, the adjutant general said. The
troops are to be stationed at once in
the negro district.
In a fresh outbreak in the Standpipe
Hill district in the extreme northern
section of the black belt, Mrs. S. A.
Gilmore, 225 East King street, a white
woman, was shot in the left arm and
side, at 7:30 o'clock. Mrs. Gilmore was
standing on the front porch of her home
when she was picked off by a black
sniper, one of a score or more
barricaded in a church.
Hundreds of armed white men are
being rushed to the district in
automobiles. An open battle is believed
imminent.
A white girl was reported killed on
North Peoria in the vicinity of a
refinery. The report could not be
verified at 10 o'clock. At 10 o'clock it was
reported two carloads of negroes from
Muskogee had passed Kendall college,
located in the eastern part of the city.
A 20 year old white boy, thought to
be named Olson and living at Sapulpa
died at 8:30 o'clock, following a
battle an hour earlier at the Frisco depot
in which negroes are reported to have
been killed. Olson's body was removed
to undertaking parlors where it awaits
positive identification.
MARTIAL LAW TO
BE DELCLARED IN
TULSA; ACTION IS
HOURLY EXPECTED
GOVERNOR SAYS CANNOT
UNDERSTAND HOW CITIZENS OF RACE
RIOT TOWN LOST CONTROL OF
SITUATION.
Oklahoma City, June 1. -- Martial
law will be invoked In Tulsa unless
the situation there is relieved, and
under control within the next hour
or two, governor Robertson said
at 11:45 o'clock following long
distance conversation with officials at
Tulsa. Attorney General Freeling
will go to Tulsa this afternoon.
"The situation at Tulsa seems
peculiar to me," Governor Robertson
said. "With power vested in all
city and county officials there to
deputize and put into the law
enforcement every citizen of the city
if necessary, I cannot understand
how this trouble was allowed to get
such a start."
Conversation with Adjutant
General Barret was to the effect that
it was impossible for the fire
department to enter the negro section
and that the flames were raging unabated.
Would Mean Firemen's Life
Tulsa, Okla., June 1. -- "We can't
use the equipment we have and for
that reason have not asked for fire
apparatus from other cities," R C.
Alder, fire chief, said at ten o'clock
this morning.
"It would mean a fireman's life
to turn a stream of water on one
of those negro buildings. They shot
at us all morning when we were
trying to do something but none of
my men were hit. There is not a
chance in the world to get through
that mob into the negro district.
"We have five lines protecting
the warehouses on the Katy
railroad and I think we have them
saved. If the wind should change
the white residence section east of
the negro district would be menaced.
"The fire has swept Greenwood
street, where the negro business
section was located and is sweeping
around the hill north. So far the
white residence section on the north
has not been touched."
Chief Alder indicated that he was
prepared to call for outside assistance
in case it became necessary.
FIGHTING CONTINUES AFTER A DARK NIGHT OF TERROR;
BLACKS HERDED INTO CONVENTION HALL AND GUARDED
BY GRIM MEN HEAVILY ARMED; HEAVENS REFLECT GLOW
OF FLAMES WRITING SKYWARD FROM "LITTLE AFRICA"
Officers Spirit Brute
Accused of Crime to Place
of Safety; Street Car
Traffic Suspends; Business
Houses Close
CITIZENS GUARD ALL
APPROACHES TO CITY.
WHITE WOMAN WOUNDED BY
STRAY BULLET: RIOT
ASSUMES DANGEROUS
PROPORTIONS -- DETERMINED TO
WIPE OUT BELT.
(By The Associated Press)
Tulsa, June 1. -- Pandemonium
reigns throughout Tulsa today, following
a night of rioting between the
whites and blacks, which had its
inception when a negro shot a white
man in the crowd which had assembled
about the county jail in which was
confined Dick Rowland, a negro
charged with assault upon a white
girl.
A full half hundred negroes are
been rounded up and are now held
under a strong guard. Fires are
springing up in all sections of that
portion of Tulsa settled by negroes
and known as "Little Africa."
State troops from Oklahoma City,
arrived on the scene early this morning
and the situation is reported well
in hand, by the mayor and chief of
police, both of whom, however, have
appealed to citizens to remain within
doors and not to gather upon the
streets.
Stores remain closed throughout the
morning, while street car and interurban
traffic is at a standstill, and railway
trains are detoured around the
city. Strongly armed bodies of men
are guarding all the roads which lead
out of and into the city.
While it is known that several white
men have died from bullets fired by
negroes, it is estimated that fully half
a hundred blacks have been slain, and
it is generally conceded that this number will be materially augmented before
the smoke of battle finally clears
away. Information as to the exact
number of fatalities is unavailable at
the present hour, but it is known that
many, both whites and blacks, have
been wounded, some of them seriously.
Appeals were issued to the citizens
by chief of Police Gustafson and Mayor
L. F. J. Rooney in command of
the local guard units to remain indoors.
They expressed the hope at the
same time that the situation was being
gotten under control, and expected to
have it well in hand with the arrival
of more troops from Oklahoma City at
8:30.
Superintendent E. E. Obernoltzer
announced that schools in the danger
zone would not convene today. He
said those remote from seats of trouble
would continue as usual but no attempt
whatever would be made to hold classes
in sections where there might be
danger to the pupils going and coming
from the schools.
At 8:30 two white men killed in the
riot had been identified.
Carl D. Lotpeisch, 28, Randall, Kansas,
was shot through the breast and
taken to a hospital at 6:30 o'clock this
morning. He died shortly afterward.
An unidentified white man, about 28;
light brown hair, light brown eyes, five
feet ten inches, 160 pounds at undertaking
parlor now.
F. L. Curry, age 26, and son of
Judge F. Z. Curry, was slightly wounded
in the neck by a flying bullet at
Fifth and Boston, at 11 o'clock last
night. He had stopped his car at the
filling station at Fifth and Boston and
was standing by it unconscious of the
impending trouble when the battle at
the court house broke and one of the
first bullets struck him. His
wound was pronounced not serious.
A. B. Stick, age 29, city clerk of
Sapulpa, is near death from a bullet
wound entering the back and going
entirely through the body. Stick was
standing on the Cincinnati avenue
steps of a leading hotel watching the
fight when a stray bullet struck him
down.
G. T. Prunkard, aged 34, also of Sapulpa,
a Frisco conductor was in the
caboose of a Frisco train when shots
fired by negroes at the crowd, went
wild and pierced him in the right
shoulder, chin and forehead. His wounds
are not believed fatal, although very
painful. The shots were from a shotgun
and of a small size.
Lee Fischer, age 21, a truck driver,
was shot in the left leg and thigh while
at First and Cincinnati during the battle
in that quarter at 10:20 last night.
He will recover.
L. C. Slinkard, age 25, West Tulsa
car inspector for the Frisco, was crossing
Main street at the Frisco tracks,
a few minutes before the first firing
took place when a speeding automobile
filled with armed negroes ran him
down, fracturing his middle thigh and
left leg.
Armed Whites Roundup Blacks
Tulsa, Okla., June 1. -- Firing continued here today
after a night of race war.
Hundreds of armed white men were rounding up all
negroes in the negro section of the city, segregating them
under guard.
Innumerable fires also were burning in the negro
section of the city.
No estimate was possible early this morning of the
dead, but it was known that at least seven white men
had been killed and scores wounded. The hospitals were
filled to their capacity.
A number of negroes are dead and it is estimated
that the total death toil may reach beyond a score.
Talk of driving into "Little Africa," as the negro
section of the city is known, was heard on all sides.
As these threats were heard the torch was set to all
sections on the district and fires were soon burning
throughout the black belt.
The trouble began Tuesday night with the gathering
of a mob of whites at the county courthouse, where Dick
Rowland, a negro, was held on a charge of attempted
assault on a white girl.
Soon armed blacks came on the scene after the whites
and blacks had faced each other for some time, the first
shot was repotted fired by a black when a white man
attempted to wrest a gun from a negro. The whites
were reported to have been unarmed.
A fusillade of bullets followed, which continued
throughout the night. Stores were broken into and all
guns and ammunition seized and passed out.
All roads and bridges were under guard by armed
posses. Street car service was suspended and business
places were closed.
As the negroes were rounded up they were herded
into Convention Hall under guard.
The police station was filled to overcrowding with
blacks and it was then that they were taken to Convention
Hall.
Automobiles were returning from the negro section
loaded with men and women.
Gangs of negro men were driven in solid formation
through the streets to places of safety where they could
be guarded.
Reports were heard that Muskogee negroes were
arming to come here, but a long-distance telephone
message to the Tribune disproved it, and added that
three companies of state troops were held in readiness to
proceed here.
Reports were piling up as the morning wore on of
additional fatalities, but definite information was un-
available.
Governor Robertson Has
Declared Martial Law
To Control Tulsa Trouble
Oklahoma City, June 1. -- Martial
law in Tulsa was ordered by Governor
Robertson at 11:15 o'clock
and Adjutant General Barrett placed
in command of the city. The order
was given over the long distance
telephone and a proclamation to this
effect is being prepared and will be
issued immediately.
