The Drexel Building 319 S. Main
Located at 319 S. Main, the Drexel Building once housed the local clothiers Renberg’s.The Drexel Building was four stories tall. Renberg’s Department Store occupied the first two floors, with offices and small businesses upstairs.The building was probably quiet that morning. It was Memorial Day and most downtown stores, including Renberg’s, were closed. Rain dampened the holiday activities, including a parade."We may never really know what actually happened in the elevator of the Drexel Building on Monday morning, May 30, 1921. A clerk in a nearby store thought there had been a sexual assault. Others believed that there had been a lovers’ quarrel between Sarah Page, the white seventeen-year-old elevator operator, and Dick Rowland, a black nineteen-year-old who worked in a shoeshine parlor one block away. But the most likely explanation is that when Rowland entered the elevator that day, he tripped and accidentally stepped on Page’s foot. And when she screamed, he fled." Hill, K The 1921 Race Massacre A Photographic History (pg 262) Although Dick Rowland seems to have been fairly well known, his true identity is a bit of a mystery. He is generally identified as the son of Dave and Alice “Ollie” Rowland, who operated a boarding house in the Piro Building on East Archer Street. Some sources, though, say his name was actually John or Johnny Rowland, and that he was the adopted son or even grandson of Dave Rowland. Damie Rowland, Dave and Alice’s daughter, said in a 1972 interview that she had taken in young Johnny while living in Vinita and that he had been born in Arkansas. The 1920 Census listing for the Rowland household includes an adopted son named John who had been born in Texas.Adding to the uncertainty is a slight age discrepancy. The Census recorded John Rowland’s age as 16 in 1920. Dick Rowland’s age, when he was arrested a year later, was given as 19.Almost nothing is known of Sarah Page. Originally described as a 17-year-old orphan working her way through business college, it later developed that she may have been as young as 15 and had come to Tulsa from Kansas City while waiting for a divorce to be finalized.Some, including Damie Rowland, have fostered the notion that Page and Rowland were romantically involved. People who knew Rowland said the elevator did not stop level with the third-floor threshold, causing him to trip as he entered the car and fall against Page. Police later said that whatever happened, it was almost certainly not intentional. In any case, Page’s cry caught the attention of a Renberg’s employee, who apparently summoned police. Rowland fled, but Page and the clerk, if not actually naming the man she said attacked her, supplied enough of a description that authorities had no difficulty locating him.Photo credit: Tulsa Historical Society
Tulsa Tribune Building
"The Tulsa Tribune decided otherwise. The next day, the afternoon newspaper ran an inflammatory front-page article claiming that Rowland had attempted to rape Page. More ominously, in a now lost editorial, the paper may have claimed that Rowland, who was now in police custody, would be lynched by whites that evening. The May 31, 1921, edition of the Tulsa Tribune rolled off the presses by three o’clock. Within an hour, there was—once again— lynch talk on the streets of Tulsa." Hill, K The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre (pg 262) Rowland’s arrest the next morning was reported in a front-page story in that afternoon’s Tulsa Tribune. Headlined “Nab Negro for Attacking Girl in Elevator,” the somewhat sensational account reported, accurately if perhaps imprudently, that Rowland was to be charged with attempted assault. It said Rowland scratched Page and tore her clothes.The mere suggestion of attempted assault, when it involved a white woman, had in the past triggered gruesome lynchings from Duluth, Minn., to the Florida swamps.This building was built in 1924. In October 1919 Richard Lloyd Jones, Sr., an Illinois native and former editor of Collier's and Cosmopolitan magazines and of the Wisconsin State Journal (Madison), purchased the Tulsa Democrat newspaper. Jones renamed it the Tulsa Tribune-Democrat on December 6, 1919, before finally titling it the Tulsa Tribune on January 1, 1920. The Tulsa Democrat, which was first published on September 27, 1904, had been preceded by the New Era begun in 1895. Tulsa business leaders, dissatisfied with the sensational reporting of the Indian Chief, had initiated the New Era to report positive news and the progress of Tulsa as a leading town in Indian Territory. In 1920 Tulsa's population stood at 72,075. The Democrat had 21,682 subscribers in November 1919. The daily evening newspaper was located in the Tribune Building at 20 East Archer Street until the 1940s. The newspaper then moved to the World Building at 315 South Boulder Avenue.The only known copies of the May 31, 1921, Tribune were an early “state” edition – essentially a reprint of the previous day’s last edition, and therefore of no use – and a microfilm image of a file copy, made in the 1940s. The front page arrest story had been torn from this paper and part of the back page – the editorial page – was missing. This has led to speculation that the inflammatory editorial was torn out along with the arrest story.The Tribune’s three loudest critics of the time – the rival Tulsa World, the Oklahoma City Black Dispatch and the NAACP – never mentioned an editorial in their attacks on the newspaper.Tulsa World FileThe Tribune was also known for its opposition to Oklahoma Governor Jack C. Walton, who in 1923 declared martial law as part of his efforts to investigate the Ku Klux Klan. Walton later placed a censor at the Tribune offices after it ran an advertisement encouraging Klan members to resist his declaration. Walton was ultimately impeached and removed from office for his declaration of absolute martial law, which forgo habeas corpus, illegal in the Oklahoma constitutionThe NAACP’s Walter White blamed the Tribune’s use of the word “assault.” The Black Dispatch reprinted the May 31 arrest story under the headline “The False Story which set Tulsa on Fire.” The World, on June 1, tweaked the Tribune for its “colored account” of the elevator incident.Larry O'Dell, "Walton, John Calloway (1881-1949)" Archived 2014-12-16 at the Wayback Machine at Oklahoma Historical Society Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture Archived 2008-12-21 at the Wayback Machine (retrieved September 16, 2009).
Tulsa County Courthouse Circa 1921
In 1910, Tulsa County built a courthouse in Tulsa on the northeast corner of Sixth Street and South Boulder Avenue. Yule marble was used in its construction. The land had previously been the site of a mansion owned by George Perryman and his wife. "As predicted, whites began to gather outside of the Tulsa County Courthouse, where Dick Rowland was being held, before sunset. The crowd soon grew into the hundreds. At 8:20 p.m., (May 30, 1921) three white men entered the courthouse and demanded that the authorities hand over Rowland, but they were turned away." Hill, K -1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Meanwhile, along Greenwood Avenue, in the heart of the African American commercial district, word of the impending lynching spread like wildfire. Cries of “We can’t let this happen here” were heard as black men and women anxiously discussed how to respond to the oncoming calamity. At nine o’clock, a group of twenty-five armed black men traveled by automobile to the courthouse. There, they offered their assistance to the authorities should the white mob attack the courthouse. Assured that Dick Rowland was safe, they returned to Greenwood. The arrival of the black men at the courthouse electrified the white mob, now more than a thousand strong. Whites without guns went home to retrieve them. One group of whites tried to break into the National Guard Armory, in order to gain access to the weapons stored inside. But a small contingent of armed National Guardsmen, threatening to open fire, turned the angry whites away. By 9:30 p.m. Tulsa was a city that was quickly spinning out of control. By half-past nine o’clock on Tuesday evening, the white mob outside the county courthouse had swollen to nearly two thousand persons. They blocked the sidewalks and the streets and spilled over onto the front yards of nearby residences. There were women as well as men, children as well as adults. And with each passing minute, there were more and more guns. Willard M. McCullough, Tulsa County’s new sheriff, tried to talk the would-be lynchers into going home, but the mob hooted him down. McCullough had, however, organized his handful of deputies into a defensive ring around Dick Rowland, who was being held in the jail on the top floor of the courthouse. The sheriff positioned six men, armed with rifles and shotguns, on the roof of the building. He also disabled the elevator and ordered his men at the top of the stairs to shoot any intruders on sight. Tulsa police chief John A. Gustafson later claimed that he, too, tried to talk the lynch mob into going home. But, at no time on the afternoon or evening of May 31st did he order a substantial number of his sixty-four-man police force to appear, fully armed, in front of the courthouse. Indeed, by 10:00 p.m., when the drama at the courthouse was nearing its climax, Gustafson was no longer at the scene but had returned to his office at Police Headquarters. In the city’s African American neighborhoods, meanwhile, tensions continued to mount over the deteriorating situation at the courthouse. (pg 262-3)
National Guard Armory
"The arrival of the black men at the courthouse electrified the white mob, now more than a thousand strong. Whites without guns went home to retrieve them. One group of whites tried to break into the National Guard Armory, in order to gain access to the weapons stored inside. But a small contingent of armed National Guardsmen, threatening to open fire, turned the angry whites away." HIll, K 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre (pg 262) Later, after the authorities officially asked for the assistance of the National Guard, their primary responsibility lay in arresting all of the African Americans in Greenwood and holding them at various locations throughout the city. Another group of guardsmen assisted other whites in attacking groups of remaining African American men who were still defending their property, families, and community.The pre-dawn hours of June 1 also witnessed the first organized actions by Tulsa’s National Guard units. While perhaps as many as fifty guardsmen had gathered at the armory by 11:00 p.m., it was not until after midnight that the local commander received official authorization to call out his men to assist the civil authorities. Initially, the local guardsmen—all of whom were white—were deployed downtown. One detachment blocked off Second Street in front of Police Headquarters, while others led groups of armed whites on “patrols” of the business district. Police officials also presented the guardsmen with a machine gun, which Guard officers had mounted on the back of a truck. This particular gun, as it turned out, was in poor condition, and could only be fired one shot at a time. Taking the machine gun with them, about thirty guardsmen positioned themselves along Detroit Avenue between Brady Street and Standpipe Hill. There, they set up a “skirmish line” facing the African American district. They also began rounding up black civilians, whom they handed over—as prisoners—to the police. Guardsmen also briefly exchanged gunfire with gunmen to the east.Word of what was happening in Tulsa also had made its way to state officials in Oklahoma City. At 10:14 P.M., Adjutant General Charles F. Barrett, commandant of the Oklahoma National Guard, received a long-distance telephone call from Major Byron Kirkpatrick, a Tulsa Guard officer, advising him of the worsening conditions in the city. Kirkpatrick phoned again at 12:35 A.M., at which point he was instructed by Governor J. B. A. Robertson, who was also on the line, to send a telegram— signed by the police chief, the sheriff, and a judge—requesting that state troops be sent to Tulsa. Kirkpatrick had some difficulty, however, securing the required signatures, and it was not until 1:46 a.m. that the telegram was received at the State Capitol. At 2:15 a.m., Kirkpatrick spoke again with Adjutant General Barrett, who informed him that the governor had authorized the calling out of the state troops. A special train, carrying one hundred National Guard soldiers, would leave Oklahoma City, bound for Tulsa, at 5:00 a.m. HIll, K 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre (262, 265, 267)
Tulsa Police Station Location Circa 1921
"By half-past nine o’clock on Tuesday evening, the white mob outside the county courthouse had swollen to nearly two thousand persons. They blocked the sidewalks and the streets, and spilled over onto the front yards of nearby residences. There were women as well as men, children as well as adults. And with each passing minute, there were more and more guns. Willard M. McCullough, Tulsa County’s new sheriff, tried to talk the would-be lynchers into going home, but the mob hooted him down. McCullough had, however, organized his handful of deputies into a defensive ring around Dick Rowland, who was being held in the jail on the top floor of the courthouse. The sheriff positioned six men, armed with rifles and shotguns, on the roof of the building. He also disabled the elevator, and ordered his men at the top of the stairs to shoot any intruders on sight. Tulsa police chief John A. Gustafson later claimed that he, too, tried to talk the lynch mob into going home. But, at no time on the afternoon or evening of May 31st did he order a substantial number of his sixty-four-man police force to appear, fully armed, in front of the courthouse. Indeed, by 10:00 p.m., when the drama at the courthouse was nearing its climax, Gustafson was no longer at the scene, but had returned to his office at Police Headquarters." HIll, K- 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre (pg 263) Police Chief John Gustafson: Hired in April 1920 despite a previous dismissal from the force and a checkered background. He and the department were subjects of state attorney general investigation at the time of the race massacre.Tulsa County Sheriff W.M. McCullough: Served as sheriff twice previously and was elected again when voters turned out James Woolley in 1920 over the Belton lynching.
Greenwood - Tulsa Daily Star Building 501 N. Greenwood
Perhaps nowhere else in America is there a single thoroughfare which registers such significance to the African-American diaspora as Greenwood Ave, “Black Wall Street” known for its prominence and progress during the early 20th century. By 1921, Tulsa’s African American population had grown to almost 11,000 residence and encompassed a bustling 35 square block of businesses and residential structures. Greenwood was bordered by the Frisco railroad yards to the south, by Lansing Street and the Midland Valley tracks to the east and by Standpipe and Sunset hills to the west. The section line, now known as Pine Street had for many years been the northernmost boundary of the African-American community.Ruins of the Tulsa Star newspaper building, 501 North Greenwood Street, after the Race Massacre, 1921. The Tulsa Star was Tulsa's primary Black-owned paper at the time. Publisher Andrew J. Smitherman's press, business, and residence were destroyed. (Photo courtesy Oklahoma Historical Society)."In the city’s African American neighborhoods, meanwhile, tensions continued to mount over the deteriorating situation at the courthouse. Outside of the offices of the Tulsa Star, the city’s leading black newspaper, a large group of men and women had gathered, debating what to do, and waiting on word of the latest developments downtown. Smaller groups of armed black men also began making brief forays downtown by car, both to try and determine what was happening at the courthouse, as well as to demonstrate their determination to whites that Dick Rowland would not be lynched." HIll, K 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre (pg 262)
Dreamland Theatre 127 N. Greenwood Ave.
127 N Greenwood Ave, Tulsa, OKDestroyed 1921, rebuilt 192?The 750-seat Williams Dreamland Theater was one of several businesses owned and operated by John and Loula Williams. Other enterprises included a rooming house, a confectionery, and a garage. Believed to be Tulsa's first movie theater, the Dreamland was a center for life and a symbol of affluence and success in pre-riot Greenwood. The theater showed live musical and theatrical revues as well as silent films. (featured prominently in the Watchman rendition of the Massacre) During the 1921 Race Riot, Greenwood District residents gathered at the Dreamland to plan a course of action. In the end, the riotous mob destroyed the venue.The Dreamland Theater was rebuilt after the destruction.
Frisco RR Tracks
"Outnumbered more than twenty to one, the black men quickly began retreating toward the African American district. With armed whites in close pursuit, heavy gunfire erupted along Fourth Street. A second—and deadlier—skirmish broke out at Second and Cincinnati, before the black men, their numbers seriously reduced, were able to head north across the Frisco tracks. No longer directly involved with the fate of Dick Rowland, the men were now fighting for their own lives. Meanwhile, at the courthouse, the sudden and unexpected turn of events had an electrifying effect, as groups of angry, vengeance-seeking whites took to the streets and sidewalks of downtown. At Police Headquarters on Second Street, nearly five hundred white men and boys— many of whom, only minutes earlier, had been members of the lynch mob—were sworn in as “Special Deputies.” According to Laurel G. Buck, a white bricklayer who was sworn in, the police instructed the new recruits to “Get a gun, and get a nigger.” Shortly thereafter, whites began breaking into downtown pawnshops and hardware stores, stealing guns and ammunition. Dick Bardon’s sporting goods store, at First and Main, was especially hard hit, as was J. W. Megee’s shop, located across the street from Police Headquarters. Eyewitnesses later testified that uniformed Tulsa policemen took part in some of the break-ins, handing out guns to whites...While darkness slowed the pace of the riot, sporadic fighting took place throughout the night of May 31 and June 1. The heaviest occurred along the Frisco tracks. From midnight until 1:30 a.m., scores—perhaps hundreds—of whites and blacks exchanged gunfire across the tracks. At one point during the fighting, an inbound train arrived, its passengers forced to take cover on the floor." Hill, K 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre (pg 264-265) “Train from Oklahoma city to Muskogee was stopped at the Katy Station about 10:45, May 31st, and was held until about 6:00 am, June 1st. Negroes were retreating from the south past the station. Armed white mob pursuing contained a large number of teenagers, women and men, many under the influence of whiskey, who were out of control and wildly shooting. The mob boarded the train and removed all Negroes from the segregated cars. Blacks trying to surrender and those in the streets were randomly killed” (Muskogee Democrat, 6-2-21, pg.10, as cited in O’Brien, W.M. Who speaks for us?)
Residential Homes Looted and Burned
"By 1:00 a.m., whites also had set the first fires in black neighborhoods. African American homes and businesses along Archer were the first targets, and when a crew from the Tulsa Fire Department prepared to douse the flames, rioters waved them off at gunpoint. By 4:00 a.m., more than two dozen homes and businesses, including the Midway Hotel, had been torched."
Standpipe HIll
"Even though it was after 10:00 P.M. when the riot broke out, news of the fighting spread quickly—and unevenly—across Tulsa. In the city’s African American neighborhoods, word of what had happened at the courthouse was followed by even more disturbing news. A light-skinned black man, who could “pass” for white, had mingled with some white rioters downtown. There, he overheard talk of attacking black neighborhoods. Returning home, he told what he had heard to Seymour Williams, a teacher at Booker T. Washington High School, who began spreading the word among his neighbors on Standpipe Hill. But along the southernmost edge of the black community, the oncoming gunfire had already confirmed that far more than a lynching was underway. While many black men and women began taking steps to protect their homes and businesses, others sat tight, hoping that daybreak would bring an end to the violence. A few others began to leave town. Some, like Billy Hudson, a laborer who lived with his family on Archer Street, were killed as they fled Tulsa." Hill, K 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre (pg 266) "June 1, 1921 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. As the wave of white rioters descended upon black Tulsa, a deadly pattern soon took shape. First, the armed whites broke into African American homes and businesses, forcing the occupants into the street, where, at gunpoint, they were marched off to Convention Hall. Anyone who resisted was shot, as were, it appears, men in homes where firearms were discovered. Next, the whites looted the homes, pocketing small valuables, and hauling away larger items on foot. Finally, the rioters set the homes on fire, using torches and oil-soaked rags. House by house, block by block, the wall of destruction moved northward. Some of the fires, it seems, were set by whites in uniform. Eyewitnesses later reported that white men clad in World War I army uniforms—probably members of the “Home Guard,” a loosely organized group of white veterans—were observed setting fires in Deep Greenwood. Others claimed that some Tulsa police officers set fire to black businesses along Archer. African Americans fought back. Black riflemen positioned themselves in the belfry of the newly completed Mount Zion Baptist Church, whose commanding view of the area below Standpipe Hill allowed them to temporarily stem the tide of the white invasion. But when whites set up a machine gun—perhaps the same weapon that was used at the granary—and riddled the church tower with its devastating fire, the black defenders were overwhelmed. Mount Zion was later torched. Black attempts to defend their homes and businesses were undercut by the actions of both the Tulsa police and the local National Guard units, who, rather than disarming and arresting the white rioters, instead began imprisoning black citizens. Guardsmen on Standpipe Hill made at least one eastward march early on the morning of June 1, rounding up African American civilians, before being fired upon off Greenwood Avenue. The guardsmen then returned to Sunset Hill, where they turned over the imprisoned black Tulsans to police officers. White civilians also took black prisoners, sometimes with murderous results. At about 8:00 A.M., Dr. A. C. Jackson, a nationally renowned African American surgeon, surrendered to a group of young white males at his home at 523 N. Detroit. “Here I am, I want to go with you,” he said, holding his hands above his head. But before he stepped off his front lawn, two of the men opened fire, killing him. Others went less quietly. A deadly firefight erupted at the site of an old clay pit off of Standpipe Hill, where several black defenders went to their deaths fighting. Stories have also been handed down over the years about Peg Leg Taylor, who is said to have singlehandedly fought off more than a dozen white invaders. And along the northern edge of Sunset Hill, the white guardsmen briefly found themselves under attack. Black Tulsa was not going [down] without a fight." (pg 268)
2nd/Lewis Gathering for Early A.M. invasion of Greenwood
"White neighborhoods were also the scenes of much activity. As word of what whites began calling the “negro uprising” spread across town, crowds of armed whites began to gather at hastily arranged meeting places. When one such crowd, perhaps three hundred strong, met at 15th and Boulder, a white man standing on top of a touring car told everyone to go to Second and Lewis, where another group was meeting. There, perhaps six hundred whites were told of plans to invade black Tulsa at dawn." Hill, K 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre (pg 266)
Katy Passenger Depot
May 31, to June 1, 1921 11:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m."Any hope that daybreak would bring an end to the violence was soon laid to rest. During the final pre-dawn hours of June 1, thousands of armed whites had gathered along the fringes of downtown. They were divided into three main groups. One crowd assembled behind the Frisco freight depot, while another waited nearby at the Frisco and Santa Fe passenger station. A third crowd had assembled at the Katy passenger depot.All told, the white rioters may have numbered as many as 10,000. Smaller bands of whites had also been active. One such group hauled a machine gun to the top floor of the Middle States Milling Company grain elevator off First Street, setting up the gun to fire north along Greenwood Avenue. Shortly before daybreak, five white men in a green Franklin automobile approached the whites who were massed behind the Frisco freight depot. “What the hell are you waitin’ on?” one of the men hollered. “Let’s go get ’em.” But the crowd would not budge, and the men in the car set off alone toward Deep Greenwood. Their bodies, and the bullet-ridden Franklin, were later seen in the middle of Archer, near Frankfort. Several eyewitnesses later recalled that when dawn came, at 5:08 a.m., an unusual whistle or siren was sounded, perhaps as a signal for the invasion to begin. In any event, the white mobs soon made their move. While the machine gun in the granary opened fire, the white rioters poured across the Frisco tracks.Up at the Katy depot, the stream of whites on foot was soon joined by dozens of others in cars, heading east on Brady and Cameron. While African Americans fought hard to protect the black commercial district, the sheer numerical advantage of the whites soon proved overwhelming. John Williams, an entrepreneur who resided in the family-owned Williams Building at Greenwood and Archer, held off the white invaders with both a rifle and a shotgun before he fled north, along the Midland Valley tracks. Mary E. Jones Parrish, who later wrote the first book about the riot, also fled. Dodging bullets, she and her young daughter ran north up Greenwood Avenue toward the section line at Pine Street. Soon, however, other perils appeared. As whites poured into the southern end of the African American district, as many as six airplanes, manned by whites, appeared overhead, firing on black refugees and, in some cases, dropping explosives. Gunfire also erupted along the western edge of the black community. Particularly fierce fighting broke out along Standpipe Hill, where forty to fifty National Guard soldiers traded fire with African American riflemen, who had set up defensive lines off of Elgin and Elgin Place. On Sunset Hill, the white guardsmen opened fire on black neighborhoods to the east, using both their standard-issue 30-caliber 1906 Springfield rifles, as well as the semi-defective machine gun given them by the Tulsa Police Department." HIll, K 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre (pg 267)
Sunset Hill
June 1, 1921 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.Despite a valiant effort, black Tulsans were simply outgunned and outnumbered. As the whites moved north, they set fire to practically every building in the African American community, including a dozen churches, 5 hotels, 31 restaurants, 4 drug stores, 8 doctors’ offices, more than two dozen grocery stores, and the black public library. More than a thousand homes were torched, the fires becoming so hot that nearby trees and outbuildings also burst into flame.The fighting, meanwhile, continued— though now with a startling new development. After the firefight with African American gunmen to the north, the National Guard troops on Sunset Hill then joined in the invasion of black Tulsa, one detachment heading north, the other to the northeast. Initially, the guardsmen met with little armed resistance. About halfway across the district, however, they exchanged fire with black defenders in houses. A second skirmish broke out near the section line, where guardsmen joined with white rioters in assaulting a group of African Americans who were holed up in a concrete store. As black Tulsans fled the city, new dangers sometimes appeared. Stories have persisted for years that in some of the small towns outside Tulsa, local whites assaulted black refugees.Not all whites shared the racial hatred of the rioters. Mary Korte, a maid for a wealthy Tulsa family, hid African American refugees at her family’s farm east of the city, while on the Sand Springs highway, one white man opened his home to a terrified group of black strangers fleeing Tulsa. When a recent immigrant from Mexico saw an airplane flown by white gunmen bearing down on two lost African American boys walking along North Peoria Avenue, the woman ran out into the street and scooped the children up into her arms, saving their lives. As the battle for black Tulsa raged northward, it soon became evident—even in neighborhoods far from the fighting— that on June 1, there would be no business as usual. One white assistant grocer arrived at work that morning only to find the owner locking up the store. It was “Nigger Day,” the boss declared, heading off with a rifle in hand. Downtown, at the all-white Central High School, several white students bolted from class when gunfire was heard nearby. Running north, toward black Tulsa, an elderly white man—headed in the opposite direction—handed one of the boys his gun, saying that he was finished shooting for the day.And along the city’s southern edge, in the well-to-do neighborhood off of 21st Street, carloads of white vigilantes started going from house to house, rounding up African American maids and butlers at gunpoint, and hauling them off toward downtown. Even miles away out in the country, people knew that something was happening in Tulsa. Ever since daybreak, huge columns of dark smoke had been rising up, hundreds of feet in the air, above Tulsa. The smoke was still there, four hours later, when the state troops finally arrived in town.
Mt. Zion Baptist Church
Mt. Zion Baptist Church was founded in 1909 under the leadership of Rev. Sandy Lyons. The original site of the church was a one-room framed schoolhouse. Mt. Zion had just opened its new church and held its first service on April 4, 1921. Because it was the newest building in the neighborhood, rioters burned it down on June 1, 1921 during the Race Massacre.Mount Zion was organized in 1909 and held services at several temporary locations before breaking ground for a church site at Easton Street and Elgin Avenue (two blocks west of Greenwood). After starting the project without a penny in 1914, the congregation raised funds, and the impressive church was finally finished in May of 1921, only two weeks before it was burned to the ground during the Tulsa Race Massacre. The congregation, which had gone $50,000 into debt to finance the original construction, began rebuilding immediately at the same site and completed reconstruction in 1948. The church was dedicated in 1952, at which time the original $50,000 riot debt was paid in full.
Vernon A.M.E.
IN 1908 THE TRUSTEES PURCHASEDthe present site, 307 N. Greenwood Avenue, for $290.00, with a down payment of $100.00. By this time, many members were added. The congregation voted to change the name from “Burton Chapel” to “Vernon,” honoring Registrar of the Treasury, W. T. Vernon who was appointed by then President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and reappointed by President William Howard Taft in 1910.In the years leading up to the Massacre, Vernon had purchased additional land, which encompasses all of the present church. By 1914, the old church was torn down and the brick basement for the new church was paid for and constructed. The events of June 1, 1921 left this new brick basement in ruins.Courtesy of Tulsa Historical Society & MuseumTHE HISTORIC VERNON AME CHURCHplayed a pivotal role during this time of destruction. The church became an important monument to the community. While homes, schools, and businesses were destroyed, Vernon was still able to open its doors and allow events to carry on as planned. For instance, not long after the massacre, Vernon opened its doors to the Booker T. Washington graduating class of 1921, which allowed these young men and women to have a place for graduation. The church property was also used for various community events; trying to give some normalcy after a tragic event.
Convention Hall
After Arrival of State troops, final fighting and martial law,"Yet even with an end to the violence, for black Tulsans, a whole new set of ordeals had just begun. Thousands had fled to the country, hiding in the woods, while hundreds more had gathered near Golden Gate Park. Homeless, penniless, and often unsure of the fate of loved ones, those who began to venture back to town soon found themselves placed under armed guard. Convention Hall having been filled to capacity, black Tulsans were also taken to the fairgrounds and to McNulty baseball park. A few blacks also found refuge at First Presbyterian Church, and other white churches downtown. Crowds of whites often cheered as the imprisoned African Americans were led away. White Tulsans as a whole, meanwhile, were sluggish in their response to martial law. While sporadic looting continued along the edges of the African American community, crowds of whites continued their search for African American maids and butlers—though not always with success. Several white families hid blacks inside their homes. Additional detachments of State Troops—namely, National Guard units from other Oklahoma towns—arrived in Tulsa throughout the day, and with their help, the streets were finally cleared. All businesses were ordered to close by 6:00 p.m., and one hour later, only members of the military or civil authorities—or physicians and relief workers—were allowed on the streets. Adjutant General Barrett later claimed that by 8:00 p.m. order had been restored. Normalcy, however, was another matter. For some, it would never return. Upward of ten thousand black Tulsans were without homes or businesses, their lifetime possessions either consumed by fire or carried away by whites. New struggles—first to get free, then to protect their land, and finally, to rebuild their community—loomed ahead." Hill, K- 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre (pg 271)
Fairgrounds
Internment site for those who were displaced during the massacre.
Former Site of Booker T. Washington High School
Used as a make shift Hospital after the Massacre.Booker T. Washington High School was founded in Tulsa in 1913, with a class of 14 students and a staff of two teachers. The principal was Ellis Walker Woods, a native of Louisville, Mississippi, who had recently moved to Tulsa from Memphis, Tennessee. The school has been housed in three buildings over its long history. An original four-room frame building was located at the corner of Easton Street and Elgin Place in the Greenwood District. The location we've pinned here marks the location of the 1919 three-story brick building (the historic photo) at Frankfort Avenue and Haskell Street, neither of which exists in 2020 at this location. A memorial to Principal Ellis Walker Woods and the classes which were graduated during his tenure now stands at the site. The school served African American high school students during segregation. It was named after the African-American education pioneer Booker T. Washington. Since Oklahoma statehood, black children were required to attend segregated schools until desegregation, which began in about 1955 in Tulsa.The three-story brick building continued to operate for nearly three decades. It escaped destruction during the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot/Pogrom. Immediately after the massacre, the American Red Cross used the building as its headquarters for relief activities. About 2,000 people were temporarily sheltered there. A hospital facility was set up, along with a dental clinic and a medical dispensary. The Red Cross also inoculated about 1,800 riot victims against tetanus, typhoid, and smallpox.The historic building was torn down in about 1990 to build the University Center at Tulsa campus, which then became Oklahoma State University--Tulsa in 1999.
Greenwood Cultural Center
A tour of historic Greenwood must begin at the Greenwood Cultural Center. The building’s most valuable contribution is an impressive collection of historic black and white photos of the survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre, newspaper articles from around the world, and an additional collection of black and white photos. Photos of Indian Territory, Oklahoma statehood, Black Wall Street, 1921 Tulsa Race Riot/Massacre during, and the rebuilding of the Greenwood District are on permanent display. An exhibition of the Survivors speaks of their memory of the Race Massacre can be found in the Goodwin-Chappelle Gallery. These images give visitors an enlightened view of our historically significant contributions by these early pioneers.
Mabel B. Little Heritage House
The historical home of Sam and Lucy Mackey is our only example of the homes that were rebuilt after the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot/Massacre. The Mackeys made their living doing domestic work and yard work for prominent white Tulsans. Their first home on Greenwood was a white frame house, one of more than 1,000 homes destroyed during the attack. The Mackeys completed construction of the stately two-story brick home in 1926 with the same prairie style architecture and it became an integral part of the community's life force for special occasions. Mabel B. Little also a survivor of the massacre went on to own and operate The Little Rose Beauty Shop on Greenwood. She lived her life to be a fine example to others and was instrumental in salvaging the house after years of decay.
Ellis Walker Woods Memorial
The Ellis Walker Woods Memorial honors the first principal of Tulsa's Booker T. Washington High School. A labor of love for more than 30 years, the conception, fundraising, and construction of the memorial was guided by a dedicated committee of Booker T. Washington alumni and supporters. The memorial was dedicated on August 16, 2019.
Greenwood Rising
Greenwood Rising is the specific story of the dignity of a people who turned trials, tribulations, and tragedy into a triumph of the human spirit.Meet the people behind Greenwood’s early success, exploring personal stories of entrepreneurship and bringing Historic Greenwood to life through oral and written histories.We highlight and connect the men and women who built the Greenwood District, including O. W. Gurley, J. B. Stradford, Simon Berry, A. C. Jackson, B. C. Franklin, John and Loula Williams, Mabel B. Little, A. J. Smitherman, Ellis Walker Woods, and J. D. Mann.
