Content and Objectives
For this unit on the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, I want my students to know Tulsa's past, experience its present, and develop a vision for its future through reading, interpreting, analyzing, and creating texts. In keeping with 21 st century literacies, texts include books, newspaper, internet media, images, maps, symbols, places, and so much more. In our seminar on the literature and intangible heritage of New Orleans, I have been thinking about Tulsa as a character in a long-standing folktale. Each time the narrative is told and re-told, the telling changes slightly, but the heart of the story remains fixed and true. The Tulsa Race Riot is just once section of Tulsa's ongoing story—the climax where a century of building tension exploded into violence on the streets of Greenwood. But the dénouement is yet to be written as we work to heal the scars of the past. In this way, it is easy to see place as text—a narrative structured, told, restructured, and retold.
This unit tells Tulsa's story in six parts:
§ Pretext—the the tale of Tulsa before the riot
§ Plaintext—one perspective of the riot
§ Intertextuality—adding other narrative and visual texts to offer multiple perspectives of the riot
§ Subtext—the subtleties and social climate that led the violence in Tulsa and other cities
§ Context—visiting the place in order to connect the stories to place
§ Creating Texts: Maps of Desire and Civic Action—where my students write the dénouement to the story as they imagine Tulsa's future
Pretext
To understand what happened in Tulsa in 1921 we must travel back a century and across hundreds of miles into the southeastern United States. President James Monroe changed America's stance towards Native Americans, forcing tribes to sign treaties ceding their lands in the southeast for lands west of the Mississippi. This brought the first Creeks, Choctaws, and Cherokee to Oklahoma. 5 In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, forcing the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole (The Five Civilized Tribes) into Indian Territory (Oklahoma). 6 As a result of years of assimilation practices in the east, the Creeks and the Cherokee brought over 7,000 African American slaves 7 and many freedmen 8 with them to Oklahoma. Slavery continued in Indian Territory, even after the end of the Civil War, until the Five Civilized Tribes signed treaties with the United States' government in 1866. These treaties gave freedmen in Indian Territory the right to ask for tribal citizenship, 9 up to 100 acres of land, and an annuity. 10 Native Americans and African Americans had also married. 11 Today, many Black Oklahomans can easily trace their Native Americans roots and are registered members of local tribes.
For African Americans, Oklahoma territory represented freedom. Black politicians openly pushed for Oklahoma to enter the United States as an all-Black state. By 1907, the year of statehood, Oklahoma boasted 28 all-Black towns. 12 These came into being as a result of the Native American Black freedmen combining their land allotments and sheltering other freed slaves from violent racism in the South. 13 The openness of African American townships contrasted with the rest of the territory and the nation where lynchings and violence against Blacks were common.
Tulsa traces its roots to the small Creek Indian settlement of Tallasi. 14 While Blacks and Indians resided in the area, the first Whites did not arrive until the 1880's. 15 Tallasi became Tulsey Town, 16 and in 1898 was incorporated as Tulsa, nine years before Oklahoma's statehood. 17 Spurred on by oil strikes, Tulsa's population grew from around 1,300 people in 1900 to nearly 99,000 in 1921. 18 Tulsa's growth and prosperity continued, soon making it the "Oil Capital of the World." 19
In 1916, Tulsa passed a mandatory segregation law that prohibited African Americans (or any other ethnic group) from living in areas containing 75% or more Whites. 20 African Americans who came to Tulsa settled in the northeast corner of the city in a community called Greenwood, an area sold to African American settlers in 1905. 21 Greenwood grew along North Greenwood Avenue in downtown Tulsa. Segregation carved out Black Tulsa's unmarked borders along railroad tracks to the south and east and hills to the west. 22 By 1921, Tulsa's Greenwood district was a strong, prosperous, self-sustaining community with 10,000 residents. African-Americans owned businesses and beautiful homes and the economic boom within the community gave Greenwood Avenue the title of "Black Wall Street." 23
Mary Parish, a New York transplant, came to Tulsa in 1918. She was amazed at the variety of Black businesses and the number of lovely homes. 24 Greenwood boasted a confectionary, a movie theater, lawyers, doctors, restaurants, pool halls, beauty shops, grocery stores, and two newspapers, The Tulsa Star and The Oklahoma Eagle. 25 Many Blacks worked in Greenwood's businesses, while others worked as domestic staff for Tulsa's new oil barons. Although forced to do so by segregation, African Americans prospered by keeping their money within their own community. Greenwood became a symbol of pride for Tulsa's Black residents and symbol of envy for Tulsa's Whites, who called the area "Little Africa" or "Niggertown." 26 This racial segregation and animosity set the stage for the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot.
Plaintext
As my students come to understand the social and geographic complexities of Tulsa, before the riot, they must also learn about the events of the race riot. This presents a number of challenges. First, I wonder whose version of the story I should tell. I also question whether to call the horrific events a "Riot." The silence surrounding the events of May 31 st and June 1st, 1921 erased the public's memory, and survivors tell different stories of what actually happened. Some argue the systematic nature of the attack exposes some pre-planning on the part of the White assailants, and they refer to the 1921 race riot as the "Tulsa Disaster," 27 Race War, or the Tulsa Incident. The term plaintext comes out of cryptography and describes the decrypted, understandable message you want to communicate. So I offer the following description of the 1921Tulsa Race Riot is in my own words—formed from research, narratives, and historic texts—it cannot and does not represent the whole truth:
On Monday, May 30, 1921, "Diamond Dick" Rowland, a nicknamed earned from his diamond belt buckle, decided to take a break from his shoe shining job in downtown Tulsa. Dick Rowland, a 19-year-old Black man, seemed to negotiate the social structures and racial segregation in Tulsa through his work, earning the respect of his rich White customers in an area of town where Blacks were not allowed. Through his connections he was allowed to use the restroom in the Drexel Building, a privilege normally reserved for Whites. On this day, Dick was returning from the facilities when he entered the elevator. Here, the stories often diverge, but I usually teach that the elevator car and floor were uneven causing Dick to trip as he entered. Breaking his fall, he grabbed the 17-year-old White elevator operator, Sara Page. On being touched by a Black man, Sara screamed, alarming others in the building, mostly White office workers. Frightened, Dick ran from the building and Sara Page reported that she had been assaulted.
That evening an arrest warrant was issued for Dick Rowland and he was taken into custody the following day. Sheriff Willard McCullough took custody of Dick and decided to hold him in the courthouse in order to better protect him. Most Tulsans read about the incident in the Monday evening edition of the Tulsa Tribune, and many Whites were outraged. A. J. Smitherman, owner of Tulsa's Black newspaper, the Tulsa Star, was afraid the Whites would storm the courthouse and lynch Dick Rowland. He went through Greenwood recruiting men, mostly World War I veterans, and their rifles to go down to the courthouse to protect Rowland. When they arrived at the courthouse, Sheriff McCullough refused their help, knowing armed Black men in the streets would exacerbate the situation. Smitherman and his colleagues complied and returned to Greenwood.
Tuesday evening's edition of the Tulsa Tribune openly called for the lynching of Dick Rowland and soon the streets of downtown Tulsa were filled with armed White men. They surrounded the courthouse, but Sheriff McCullough's men prevented them from entering. Upon learning about the armed crowds downtown, Smitherman and the concerned men of Greenwood grabbed their guns and returned to the courthouse. Soon fights and gunfire broke out between Tulsa's Blacks and Whites and the full scale riot began.
Overnight the violence escalated as 10,000 Whites descended on Greenwood, systematically looting and burning hundreds of homes and businesses. Some families were awakened in the middle of the night by their neighbors warning them to get out before the violent mobs arrived. Others were forcibly dragged from their homes with nothing more than the clothes on their backs and marched to detention centers. These people were somewhat lucky because many were struck with bricks or clubs, shot, and killed without warning. Armed Blacks tried to protect their homes, but they were outnumbered. Many people ran north from Greenwood that night and never returned to their homes. Some were never seen or heard from again and were probably killed in the violence.
Tulsa's police force did nothing to curb the violence and the state National Guard was called in from Oklahoma City 90 miles away. They arrived early Wednesday morning and declared martial law at 11:30 am. Thick clouds of smoke rose from Greenwood and over 300 people were dead. Another 10,000 were homeless. In the days following the riot, Tulsa's Blacks were blamed for the violence, some were even arrested. To add insult to injury, Greenwood residents were forced to clean up the damage caused by the riot. The Red Cross came in a set up tents to house the thousands of displaced residents and some families lived in these tents through the following winter. Many Blacks tried to recover quickly, filing their home insurance claims to recoup the damages. Their claims were denied because of riot clauses in their insurance policies. Through amazing stories of persistence and resilience, Tulsa's Greenwood returned to its beauty and strength within less than a decade and remained strong through years of the Great Depression. Black Tulsans supported and relied on each other to reclaim their lives and livelihoods.
Intertextuality
We often tell our students that history is written by the victors, and even recent events need verification. We live in an age where technology allows individuals to hear or see events from many different angles, but students need the skills to identify point of view and bias. When we teach students to point out stereotypes, racism, or bias in historical, informational, or literary texts, we are equipping them to peaceably promote civic action and social change. 28 While I presented one version of the Tulsa Race Riot, post-riot legal documents, 29 the official Race Riot Commission report, survivor's personal narratives, historical photographs, newspaper articles of the day, pieces of poetry and literature, and current reenactments from film documentaries all offer slightly different accounts and points of view on what happened. In our seminar we discussed how narratives, literature, and art make difficult social and political subjects more accessible to students. Intertextuality is a literary term referring to the act of comparing different texts in order to make meaning. 30 Offering students varied written, visual, literary, and narrative versions of the riot develops their interpretive, analytical, and literacy skills.
The Tulsa Race Riot Commission, a body appointed in 1997 by Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating to break the silence surrounding the riot and study the events, compiled a nearly 200 page report detailing what happened. Interestingly, the Commission confirmed the use of airplanes during the riot, although they questioned whether they were used as bombers. The report also supported reparations for the survivors and their families—although the current judicial system disagrees, claiming the statute of limitations is up for the riot crimes. 31 Mary Parish, a survivor, also saw the airplanes and reported of machine gun posts set up along the streets to mow down Blacks as they fled. She wrote down her experiences in her 1923 book Events of the Tulsa Disaster, which also contains the stories of dozens of survivors she spoke with in the days following the riot. Written 80 years later, the book Riot on Greenwood also contains personal narratives of the riot, but students should take into account that these stories have been tempered with time. In this book, one woman states that it was "common knowledge in the black community" that Dick Rowland and Sarah Page were lovers, even living together in Kansas City after the riot. 32 The book also documents over 40 accounts of the riot as told by White Tulsans, including accounts of Jewish businesses being destroyed. The book Greenwood Cultural Center: Jewel in the Crown also contains survivor narratives. These narratives, told by actual eyewitnesses, are considered primary sources, which are necessary in teaching historiography. Personal narratives also add a human dimension to history and allow students to connect actual voices and experiences to texts.
Visual texts offer powerful connections to our students too. The Tulsa City-County library, University of Tulsa, and the Tulsa and Oklahoma Historical Societies each have large archives of race riot photographs (Appendix B). These photos are visual primary source documents of their city and offer an unforgettable glimpse into Tulsa's history. I want to students to think and question the motives of the photographers in the context of the time period and draw conclusions as to how the photos may have been used. As a historical record they act as primary source documents, texts, writing prompts, ways to reinforce their visual analysis skills, and places along our maps of memory and desire. Videos, such as the History Channel's The Night Tulsa Burned 33 and the Emmy Award winning documentary Terror in Tulsa, 34 contextualize Tulsa's story with realistic visual reenactments that today's students easily connect with.
In the days and years following the riot, survivors and people emotionally moved by the riot wrote poems and novels about the events. One of the most powerful pieces was written by Tulsa Star owner A. J. Smitherman. His poem The Tulsa Riot and Massacre presents the riot as open warfare and memorializes the men who sacrificed their lives for the community. 35 Celebrated poet Sharon Olds wrote Race Riot, Tulsa, 1921after viewing photographs of the violence generations later. 36 Wynonia Murray Bailey, a survivor, penned the poem titled O Greenwood! Lest You Go Unheralded that describes the community as a once beautiful woman, but now old and forgotten. 37 Tulsa historian Hannibal Johnson wrote Black Wall Street, a beautiful poem that well represent place as text, depicting Greenwood in all its glory before the riot and the emotional scars left by the violence. 38 The novel Tulsa Burning by Anna Myers offers a longer alternate for secondary teachers and is written on a 4 th or 5 th grade reading level so it is accessible to struggling readers. The fictional story of the riot follows a young boy who goes to rescue a friend trapped by the violence of the Tulsa Race Riot. These short pieces of literature offer perspectives of the riot from survivors and members of the public, who experienced vivid emotional responses days and years after the smoke cleared.
Expanding our study to the role of the media in the events and the characteristics of objective versus biased media, Tulsa's newspapers offer additional viewpoints concerning the race riot. The Tulsa Tribune was well-known for its racist overtones, frequently calling Greenwood "Little Africa." 39 The day of Rowland's arrest the Tribune's story headline read "Negro Nabbed for Attacking Girl in Elevator" 4 0 and published an editorial calling for a lynching. To this day, many feel that the Tribune incited the riot. After the riot, the Tribune boasted how the state troops restored peace to the city, and that 9Whites and 68 Blacks died, in that order. 41 Tulsa's other mainstream newspaper, the Tulsa World, was slightly more objective. It accurately reported the decisions of the legal body seated to investigate the causes of the riot with a headline reading, "Negroes to Blame for Inciting Race Rioting; Whites Clearly Exonerated." 42 As a temperate voice for many White Tulsans, the World published articles encouraging Whites to support and rebuild Greenwood on the grounds that the entire Black community should not be blamed for the actions of the few who started the riot. 43 As for the African American newspaper the Tulsa Star, its offices in Greenwood were destroyed during the riot and owner A.J. Smitherman openly blamed Whites for riot. 44 While all three newspapers echoed the racial sentiments of the time, students need to understand point of view of each, and the idea that the media answer to their both their constituency and their owners. With today's media saturated world, it is more important than ever to teach students 21 st century literacy skills.
Subtext
Another literary term, subtext refers to the hidden, underlying meanings within texts. The subtexts within the narrative of the Tulsa Race Riot reveal the historical struggles this nation has faced when it comes to racial tension and socioeconomic inequities. Reading the John Kennedy Toole's Confederacy of Dunces and Brenda Osbey's All Saints in the seminar revealed these same unwritten tensions and inequalities that build over time and become inherent within the culture of a place. After learning about the events of the Tulsa Race Riot, I also want my students to understand that what happened in Tulsa was not an isolated event. This helps them see the Tulsa Race Riot's place in the larger scope of American History.
Tulsa was one of several race riots around the country with horrific events occurring in East St. Louis (Illinois) in 1917, Philadelphia in 1918, and Longview (Texas), Chicago, and Omaha in 1919. Students should compare the causes and effects of different racially charged events across the country. Historians blame these race riots on a number of circumstances including: the social effects of segregation, the New Negro Movement stemming from the Harlem Renaissance, the Black World War I veterans returning home with expectations of a different America, the expansion of Jim Crow laws, the rise of the Ku Klux clan, and early American anti-communist movements.
Segregation affected the soldiers serving in World War I, and seemed to worsen after the war as Whites reacted to the new levels of pride, affluence, education, and artistic expression many African Americans gained in the late 1910s and early 1920s. 45 The race riots in East St. Louis, Philadelphia, Longview, and Chicago were the direct result of either Whites or Blacks encroaching on areas appropriated for the opposing group. The riots in Tulsa and Omaha were both caused by groups attempting to prevent lynchings. This method of torturous execution was frequently practiced by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), a White Supremacist organization that came into being after the Civil War. 46 In Oklahoma there were over 100,000 Klan members by 1920 4 7 and 1921 rolls show approximately 3,200 KKK members in Tulsa. 48 The KKK had already been accused to various acts of violence against both Blacks and Whites, including whippings, lynchings, and cross burnings. 49 This racially charged atmosphere tainted the years surrounding the riots in Tulsa and other American communities.
Context
In our seminar, the literature and stories we read and heard continually reminded us that in places like New Orleans and Tulsa, the past is present. Connecting to the notion of Deep Time, a place's geography, history, and culture is written on the landscape and is accessible to all who visit the place. In literature and in life, context describes the environment and setting surrounding people, places, and events. As we enter the post riot phase of the unit, I would take my students to the Greenwood district where the Tulsa Race Riot took place over 90 years ago. Only a few businesses remain on Black Wall Street, but the area gives students a glimpse into the past. To honor the hundreds of businesses that once stood in Greenwood, the city of Tulsa placed bronze plaques in the downtown sidewalks memorializing the place where each business stood. 50 Students can walk the same streets were a community once prospered, where a race war once raged, where a community showed its resilience, commitment, intangible heritage, and resurrected itself.
Built to break the culture of silence and preserve the tangible and intangible heritages of all Tulsans, the Greenwood Cultural Center houses a wonderful collection of artifacts, articles, and photos. Students can also see how well African American families lived before the riot by touring the Mabel Little Heritage House. The 1920s home is a replica of the Mackey family home was destroyed in the Tulsa Race Riot and then rebuilt with bricks to withstand fears of future violence or fires. 51 Complete with original furnishings, the house offers a glimpse into lives of Greenwood residents before and after the riot, illustrating the treasures and resiliency of Greenwood as an intangible heritage for all Tulsans.
Outside the Cultural Center, the riot's Memorial Wall bears the names of businesses destroyed by the event. Standing at the 8 foot tall black marble monument I would breach the topic of reparations. As mentioned earlier, the Tulsa Race Riot Commission recommended reparations, or monetary restitution for the crimes committed during the 1921 riot feeling that it would heal the rift between the Black and White communities. Immediately following the riot, Black Tulsans filed for over $4 million in property loss claims and all were denied. 52 The Race Riot Commission specifically recommended monetary payments to riot survivors and their descendents, establishing a scholarship funds for descendents of survivors, more economic development in Greenwood, and the reburial of riot victims found in mass graves. 53 Although the commission suggested reparations, they did not have the power to mandate them, and over a decade later no reparations have been paid. Some feel reparations have not been paid because the monetary settlements represent the acceptance of blame for the riot. 54
Towards the unmarked boundaries of Greenwood lies the newly dedicated John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park. 55 In the center of the park stands an obelisk that represents all the troubles and triumphs African Americans have experienced from slavery to the race riots. Here in the serene, cyclical park, I want my students to question and write about the culture of silence surrounding the Tulsa Race Riot. Through the 1920s south Tulsa prospered with the help of oil money. Tulsa built skyscrapers, a new airport, and schools, but the money was not spent to improve its Black community. While most families rebuilt their homes, streets, schools, and sewer systems fell into disrepair. 56 By the 1940s, most of Greenwood's businesses where rebuilt 57 and some measure of prosperity returned to the area, although not on the level as before because many of Greenwood's pre-riot residents never returned to Tulsa. Many of the survivors' narratives describe the fears of Greenwood residents that violent mobs would return if they spoke too loudly about the riot. Stories of the Tulsa incident became oral folktales passed down from the elders to the young. White Tulsans erased the event from their memory, considering the riot an unexplainable "act of nature." 58 The combination of forgetfulness, whisperings, and segregation pushed the two Tulsas further apart. In some ways, north Tulsa became a more closed community, and the silence of both Blacks and Whites neglected the lessons of the Tulsa Race Riot. Even after segregation and the civil rights movement, a general distrust existed between the two groups. Now 90 years removed from the violence of the riot, my students still live in two Tulsas, unequal in opportunities and economic development. Hopefully, walking the streets of Greenwood will make both the unfamiliar familiar and the familiar unfamiliar, urging them to take action to change their community.
Creating Texts: Maps of Desire and Civic Action
Today Greenwood is beginning to prosper once again for the benefit of all Tulsans. It holds a satellite college campus, a small strip of business and restaurants, a television station, and ONEOK field, our city's new Minor League baseball park. The small plaques cemented into the sidewalk are a small reminder of where Tulsa's Black business district stood, but even these small memorials tell a story. By walking the streets of Greenwood, I want students to question why the prosperous business district fell into ruin years even after it was resurrected from the ashes of the riot. Seeing Greenwood as it stands today and knowing what it once was, I want my students to envision what Greenwood and all of North Tulsa can be in the future.
The effects of the race riot on Tulsa were political, economic, cultural, and long-lasting. Tulsa remains segregated—Blacks in the north, Whites in the south, Asians and Latinos in the east—with different parts of the city experiencing disproportionate economic growth. My students live in all areas of the city, and many have never questioned the unmarked boundaries delineating race and class. Some of my African-American students from north Tulsa never venture any farther south than our school, which sits in midtown. Much like the divisions of race and class that exist in New Orleans and that came to the nation's attentions by the natural and manmade disaster of Hurricane Katrina, disenfranchised Tulsans sit by, waiting for something to change—something to improve their lives and livelihoods. I believe my students can affect this change.
Over the last decade, areas of north Tulsa continue to be neglected and lack services like grocery stores, medical offices, hospitals, and city transit. Several projects to develop areas of north Tulsa have failed because residents and politicians from other parts of the city fail to support them. In the final days of this curriculum unit, I want students to collaborate and create realistic plans to re-develop Greenwood and north Tulsa. Using existing maps and internet programs like Google Earth, students can assess the economic, cultural, and social needs of north Tulsa by comparing it to other areas of the city. With this information students can build their own maps of desire by imagining changes to the current landscape that would bring opportunities and greater prosperity to struggling communities. Working together students can present development plans to their teachers, parents, peers, and community leaders. After learning about Tulsa's pasts, connecting to its history by walking its present-day streets, and collaborating to develop plans for its future, students should have the knowledge and confidence to petition local government with their projects. By demonstrating their knowledge to affect real change in the community, hopefully my students will walk away from this unit with the new experiences of their not-so-familiar city, an appreciation of its intangible heritage, a deeper understanding of its complicated history, and promising visions for its future.
Moving Beyond Texts: Towards Speech and Action
Through this unit I want my students to connect with the city of Tulsa in new ways, connecting the real city to its past and to the map of their desires and imagination. Ninety years ago, Veneice Sims—a high school student much like them—had all she owned ripped away from her during the Tulsa Race Riot. She and her siblings were playing in the yard of their house overlooking Greenwood Avenue when they started to hear gunfire. Bullets bounced off their roof and hit the side of the house. In terror they decided to run away from the violent mobs driving north up Greenwood. Running for their lives, they saw a White man racing towards them in his car. As he came closer, they realized it was their father's boss coming to rescue them. He took Veneice and her whole family to his house south of downtown where they could see the fire and smoke rising from Greenwood all night. Returning to Greenwood after the riot, Veneice found the blue dress, blue shoes, and pearl necklace she had chosen for the prom burned, along with her house and her family's belongings. Forced to move in with family in Oklahoma City, Veneice never attended prom and she never saw her prom date again—he moved to Detroit following the riot. Her father stayed in Greenwood, rebuilding the family home and Veneice moved back to Tulsa in 1924. Even with all the anger, sadness, and disappointment, she did not want to leave the city she loved forever. 59
In 2000, the students of Booker T. Washington invited Veneice Sims, then 95 years old, to their senior prom. Of course, she joyfully accepted since she never attended her high school prom. 60 At the event, Veneice noticed that many things had changed—especially the ethnic makeup of the school, now 40% Black and 40% White. In 1921, the idea of Blacks and Whites at the same school together, let alone dancing together, seemed impossible. These students represent my dreams for Tulsa—a generation of young people connected to the city's past, who honor its intangible heritage, and are committed to social change within their community.
Comments: