The Unit
The unit should take about a month. With the included content and activities I can address quite a few mandated objectives. We’ll work chronologically through the events and their representative texts. We will begin with the Tulsa Race Riot, reading Baldwin’s “A Report from Occupied Territory” about two thirds of the way through, following with our contemporary section, and finishing with reflecting and drawing conclusions. The plan is to finish the unit with a whole-class project (remember that my classes are small) like a curated wall museum or video production.
Content objectives
Five years ago Shanedra Nowell, another Tulsa Fellow, wrote a YNI unit about the Tulsa Race Riot. It is an excellent unit. I write this one to better accommodate the challenges of my classroom and to pair it with racially charged events occurring today. In such a short time the number of conflicts tied to race has increased; so also have demonstrations of tolerance and activism, as well as a proliferation of voices from many perspectives.
More and more often, the themes of social justice and social marginalization find their way into what I teach. These themes address quests for understanding among my students while also hopefully making them more aware of their own citizenship. Especially those involved in the justice system are at risk of developing permanent hostility to authority and the stereotypes of people and institutions they associate with it. There is challenge and risk in exploring the various hostilities and conflicts in the unit. How can I know I will not cause increased anger and further alienation? But what is the cost of ignoring these events and issues? We will discuss the current efforts of local historians and leaders to see Greenwood and more of North Tulsa as a people whose pride and perseverance caused not only a recovery but success on a larger scale than that of 1921 Greenwood. Included in our readings from the past and present are narratives that challenge hate and intolerance and encourage racial pride, stamina, and positive activism. We will end with an emphasis on solutions. The students will demonstrate their understanding of the histories and certain language arts concepts through their critical readings and their writings, which will encourage them to look carefully at what fact and truth we can learn from fiction, and what literary beauty and style we can experience in nonfiction.
The past
In 1921 Oklahoma had only been a state for fourteen years. All-black towns proliferated in the post-Reconstruction era; in fact, Oklahoma had more of them than any other state. Freedmen migrated north into Indian Territory looking for a fresh and fair start; others who had married into tribes in the east were part of the Indian Removal exodus in the 1830s (2). From the beginning, the territory had a rich African American history. But in the first part of the 20th century, oil was discovered south of Tulsa, and the city’s fate was sealed. It was a bit of the Wild West, with young men—black and white—flocking in to meet the great demand for work in the oil fields (3). Moneyed barons jockeyed for the hot spots where they would drill, pump, and ship, leaving the area scarred in their wake. As if in apology, in downtown Tulsa oil-funded art deco architectural masterpieces were going up, and stately homes surrounded them in nearly all directions. There were impressive homes to the north, but in a way, this was not Tulsa, it was Greenwood. Little Africa. Niggertown. The Frisco tracks and 1st Street divided the east part of downtown, white to the south, black to the north. In many ways it served as a mirror of industry, wealth, and community success. Other African-American communities around the country admired the area, also dubbed Black Wall Street or the Negro’s Wall Street. Scott Ellsworth notes, “…in the early years of the twentieth century, Tulsa became not one city, but two. Confined by law and by white racism, black Tulsa was a separate city, serving the needs of the black community. As Tulsa boomed, black Tulsa did too (4). While Jim Crow laws kept the races separate, most Greenwood area residents didn’t much mind; they had a thriving community with everything they needed and in which to operate freely. Like all cities, Greenwood had its share of unsavory characters and businesses, but the money remained local and buoyed the economy.
In 1919 61 lynchings were recorded across the country. James Weldon Johnson of the NAACP called it the “Red Summer” (5). In the vacuum of law enforcement, in Tulsa in March, 1921, W.E.B. Dubois told the community, “We have suffered and cowered… When the armed lynchers come, we too must gather arms. When the mob moves, we propose to meet it with sticks and clubs and guns” (6). In Tulsa specifically, vigilantism had become norm. A series of events had led alleged criminals—both white and black—to fear their fate not only in the legal system but also at the hands of citizens. The last of a series of actions leading up to May, 1921, by “vigilance committees” was the lynching of white man Roy Belton, accused of hijacking and fatally shooting a cab driver. Tulsa Police Chief John Gustafson’s passive presence at the site allowed thousands to witness and participate by tearing bits of his clothing for keepsakes. The Chief did not interfere. This lynching of a white man seemed to secure the opinion of many Tulsans, especially black ones, that the justice system had fallen apart (7). Lynchings were an African-American reality; now it was clear than in these parts law enforcement was not likely to stop it. Add to this the resentment that some lower class whites had towards the black community. The events that follow are hardly a surprise.
Downtown Tulsa was a happening place in the Twenties. Money was to be made on both sides of the tracks, and a young man could make a pretty penny as a bootblack for while oilmen and executives downtown. Dick Rowland had dropped out of Booker T. Washington High School to make money doing just that, and he was successful. He and the other young men in his shine shop had permission to use the restroom in the nearby Drexel Building, accessed by a ride in an elevator run by white women. On May 30, he rode the elevator with Sarah Page. At some point she yelled and he ran from the elevator. Accumulated accounts now indicate that most likely she tripped and he grabbed her arm to prevent her fall. But the white newspapers in town reported the incident as intended rape. Rowland was arrested, and the evening Tribune ran the headline, “Nab Negro for Attacking Girl in Elevator” (8). Other accounts said the headline read “To Lynch Negro Tonight” (9). We’ll never know for sure. There appear to be no existing copies of that paper. They were quietly eliminated from the Tribune archives and other collections.
In any case, the taut line of racial tension in Tulsa had snapped, and white men by the dozens and eventually hundreds began to gather round the courthouse. The Tribune trumped up the story again and in the afternoon paper reported that a mob of white men was “forming in order to lynch the negro” (10). With the endorsement of the local press, there was sure to be trouble; Greenwood residents recalled the recent lynching of Roy Belton and general lawlessness condoned by local authorities. Men of Greenwood gathered and headed to the courthouse to offer assistance. Whether he wanted or solicited it or not, Sherriff McCullough never took it. He did lock the building and lock the elevator at the top floor so that Rowland inaccessible. When 50-75 Greenwood men returned to find 1500-2000 white men, they were again turned away, told to go back home. A shot was fired when a fight ensued between a white man who’d questioned a black veteran about his Army issue 45-caliber. Gunfire continued on both sides. Interest in Dick Rowland was eclipsed by a determination to take out the whole race in Tulsa. In fact, Rowland was slipped out of town by Sherriff McCullough the next morning and was never seen again. Sarah Page refused to prosecute, left town, and also disappeared (11).
Not long after midnight the burning began. The fighting held off near the Frisco station until about 6:00 AM. A whistle blew signaling the beginning of a battle Greenwood could never win. Hundreds of whites—those set upon wiping out black Tulsa—were deputized. With their inauspicious authority, they looted and burned houses, shot men, women, children, and elderly couples, and marched hundreds who hadn’t fled town to holding centers at the convention center, the ball park, and the fair grounds. When fire trucks arrived to put out the first fires, they were kept away by whites. At some point private planes appeared to support the attack. More than a thousand homes were burned; the business district was reduced to rubble; maybe upwards of 300 black and white Tulsans died. Many families fled never to return. There was no law enforcement they could appeal to until the National Guard arrived. They had been summoned soon after midnight June 1. They arrived at 9:15 the next morning, but it was much too late. The Red Cross and local institutions provided most of the help in the following weeks. City officials refused outside donations, glibly claiming the responsibility as their own. Furthermore, the city passed fire codes making it almost impossible for Greenwood residents and business owners to rebuild.
Fortunately the challenge to the fire codes was upheld, and maybe more remarkable than the massacre itself was the rebounding of the Greenwood area. When Dubois was back in Tulsa in 1926 he wrote, “Black Tulsa is a happy city. It has new clothes. It is young and gay and strong. Five little years ago fire and blood and robbery leveled it to the ground, flat raw, smoking. . .Yet it lived. . .Scars are there but the city is impudent and noisy. It believes in itself. Thank God for the Grit of Tulsa” (12). He was referring to the proliferation of retail, service, and entertainment business that continued to grow up to World War II. Again there were doctors’ offices, hotels, night spots, pool halls, drugstores, the rebuilt Dreamland Theater, barbershops, candy stores. The John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation and some of today’s community leaders are making a concerted effort to shift the current perception of Greenwood residents as victims to that of survivors and thrivers.
The present
While my students have been relatively ignorant of Tulsa’s racially conflicted past, they are acutely aware of the present. This spring a reserve officer accidentally and fatally shot Tulsan Eric Harris, an African-American, thinking the gun was his Taser. Investigation results suggest that our sheriff’s office is rife with nepotism, falsified documents, and disregard by some officers of black Tulsans. When I started writing this unit, it was the last of a string of seemingly racially charged events leading to death between African Americans and authorities across the country. Since then, Sandra Bland, roughly treated by officers after a minor driving infraction, died of an apparent suicide in questionable circumstances. My students have followed the stories of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Freddie Gray, but generally through their Facebook newsfeeds. When I was reading Race Riot narratives and analysis, I was struck with similarities—newly sprung up, it seems—with what I was reading in local and national reports in the present. These deaths—Martin, Gray, Brown, and Harris—have happened too recently to have been placed in a sound historical context; still, we can find similarities in theme and fact among these stories. In reflection, all sources I encountered gave as one of the greatest causes of the Tulsa Race Riot, if not the greatest cause, to be local lawlessness and vigilantism. Flaws in law enforcement or local authority have been at the root of each of these deaths. Said the Chicago Tribune in 1921: “Corrupt politics is directly responsible for race riot. Let us face that fact and not lose ourselves in secondary considerations. Race riots are not problems of race; they are problems of government” (13). It is a big leap from this statement to blaming these recent events on government or police corruption, but the fact is that in Oklahoma 2014 and 2007 were record-setting years for the number of deaths by police (14). Just as white and black papers influenced actions and reactions in 1921, journalism and the media have influenced young people today. Culture as it plays out on the internet is as productive as traditional journalism. The hip hop world has responded with protest lyrics; hip hop artists are releasing articulate statements in tribute to Brown, Martin, and Gray. Poems, song lyrics, memes, Ted Talks, blogs, and videos have appeared in unmanageable numbers on the Net. My students and I will read examples from past and present from a variety of these media.
Review of recent events
Between 2012 and the end of 2015, at least seventeen examples of deaths of African-Americans by law enforcement or other authorities have made news across the country. We discuss them online, at work, and at home. As of today, as with the OJ Simpson case, almost all Americans can tell you who Trayvon Martin is, who Michael Brown is, who Sandra Bland is. Others are less well-known nationally but have occupied significant time and space in the media. I’m including a synopsis of some of the better known incidents for future use. It is a challenge to write about these events objectively. But by the end of this list one cannot help but feel the accumulated sadness and importance of such a trend. All summaries were confirmed with reports from the New York Times published over the last two years.
In February of 2012 Trayvon Martin was shot by George Zimmerman who was patrolling the neighborhood on his crime watch shift. New to the neighborhood, Martin had set out to buy Skittles and a drink. Zimmerman followed him. The 911 operator told him not to. There were no witnesses except Zimmerman himself. In the end, while Zimmerman had minor injuries from a scuffle, the unarmed Trayvon Martin, who had apparently done nothing to provoke Zimmerman in the beginning, ended up dead.
In July, 2014, Eric Garner died while in police custody of cardiac arrest. They suspected him of selling untaxed cigarettes; he had been arrested before and was no stranger to Staten Island police. While he was a large man, four or five officers brought him down. One held him in an illegal choke hold and smashed his face into the concrete. They disregarded his cries that he could not breathe. New York Mayor DeBlasio called the incident “deeply troubling.”
In August, 2014, eighteen-year-old Michael Brown was shot to death in Ferguson, Missouri. An altercation occurred when an officer in his car approached Brown and the man with him. Brown had physically assaulted the officer then, but he was unarmed. Brown was shot multiple times, and notably, was left in the street in the summer heat for four hours. In reaction to Brown’s death, black residents of Ferguson looted and rioted off and on for several days.
In November of 2014, someone called the police to report a boy with what was probably a fake gun. Soon after, twelve-year-old Tamir Rice was shot by police. He had pulled the toy from his waistband but had not aimed it at police. He had been told to raise his hands. The possibly ambiguous response caused his death. Protest signs afterwards declared “Danger Police in the Area” and “Police Terror: This Stops Today.” Both signs remind us of Baldwin’s “A Report from Occupied Territory.”
In April, 2015, in Baltimore, Freddie Gray was arrested by police and at the time had no apparent injuries. A week later he had died of spinal injuries while in custody. He was denied an inhaler; he may have been hauled and out of the police van for unknown reasons. There are still mysteries regarding his death. As in Ferguson, days of protests ensued after Gray’s death.
The death of Eric Harris in Tulsa in April, 2015, is described above.
Selection of texts and images
The increased emphasis on informational or non-fiction texts is not only in locations where Common Core Sate Standards are in use but in districts who have chosen other sets of academic standards, as well. Oklahoma’s existing standards for language arts emphasize literature and its extensive catalogue of forms, genres, subgenres, and literary elements. Fictional and informational texts share equal billing in the newly released draft of critical reading standards for Oklahoma. Language arts teachers know from experience that narrative is powerful. Janet Alsup sums up her research on the importance of narrative for cognitive and social development: “There is certainly evidence, both empirical and anecdotal, that such complex human development is nurtured through reading, and responding to, narrative fiction” (15). Legal treatises on reparations won’t reach the hearts of most students, but an emotional appeal with well-chosen narrative examples and literary quality just might. Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “The Case for Reparations” has both qualities. Recently Toni Morrison said of Coates, “I’ve been wondering who might fill the intellectual void that plagued me after James Baldwin died. Clearly it is Ta-Nehisi Coates” (16).
Not all informational texts—or texts of any kind—are going to be engaging, but in selecting them for my classroom, I will consider best practices for text selection for at-risk students that I’ve researched for previous units and used successfully in my classroom. First, it should be culturally sensitive to and reflective of the students; second, the content should be meaningful to their environments and home lives; third, the content should be readily engaging; and fourth, texts should be inclusive and respectful, avoiding middle class success stories and representing instead the "limits of resources of students and families within the curriculum, varying models of family systems" (17). For example, in the past I had assumed that my students would enjoy Animal Farm. I assumed that they would not touch Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. I discovered the opposite. The allegorical and somewhat fantastic world of talking animals baffled and frustrated my class. In Maggie they found class struggle, street fights for territory, abusive characters they understood, and colloquial language. They not only liked it, they identified with pieces of it and worked harder to understand the challenging vocabulary and historical context. There is no shortage of we’ll written non-fiction or historically significant writing. From Cullen to Coates, the content of this unit lends itself to a wide selection of both. My classroom challenges usually demand that I use shorter texts: short fiction, excerpts, essays, and articles, for example. I work hard to get as much meaning out of them as possible.
Fiction
Limited fiction exists about the Tulsa Race Riot. Rilla Askew’s Fire in Beulah is a novel about environment and conflicts that led to the event. It is almost 400 pages and has some mature content. A few of my seniors may be able or want to take on the whole thing. My plan is to use the last chapter, entitled “Greenwood.” While it inevitably brings all the key players together for resolution, the setting is the Greenwood area, and events are the riot itself, from beginning to end. This historical fiction provides extensive use of literary elements, emotional imagery, and character development. Tulsa Burning is a short novel for 4th and 5th graders that might be a resource. The story and issues are more emotionally simple, but it might still be appropriate for lowest or younger readers. I will consider excerpts from Richard Wright’s Black Boy if I feel I need additional fiction. Common themes would be anger, pride, race and self-image, and courage.
Poetry
Poems for the unit will include Countee Cullen’s “Incident” (from our seminar) paired with Mari Evans’s “Alarm Clock.” Both illustrate a moment’s shift from innocence to racial separateness and awareness of their narrators. The second pairing will be Claude McKay’s “If We Must Die” and A.J. Smitherman’s “Thinking He Can Whip the World” (18). The first is a cry to arms if necessary; there is dignity fighting for the cause of race even in the face of loss. It echoes one of Dubois’s statements about facing the growing racial violence. He was speaking to a black audience in Tulsa two months before the riot. A.J. Smitherman edited the Greenwood paper the Daily Tulsa Star and is a character in Fire in Beulah. His poem, like McKay’s, celebrates pride and courage of race in the face of war. Finally, we’ll look at the lyrics of the song “Baltimore” that Prince wrote in tribute to the city after the death of Freddie Gray. We’ll find contrasts and comparisons in tone, images, and form with the McKay and Smitherman poems. Anastasia Tolbert’s poem “What to Tell My Sons after Trayvon Martin” is a beautiful and sad cataloging if what a young black man may or may not do in public, visually reducing his rights to nothing. This poem can be found through a Google search for the title and author at KUOW radio station.
Non-fiction
Eighteen years ago I had in my class the grandson of George Monroe who was at that time one of the few remaining survivors of the 1921 violence. He came to school events and conferences, and I did not then recognize the potential resource he might have been. With no living survivors today, first-hand accounts of the riot will come from two main sources, Riot on Greenwood and Events of the Tulsa Disaster, both of which have many accounts to choose from. There are parallels (Rilla Askew is basing some of her novel on accounts present in Parrish’s Death in a Promised Land and other resources) among texts that provide clear examples of how we might be affected by fictional and factual accounts of singular events. The basic narrative accounts in the books by Johnson, Parrish, Ellsworth, and Brophy are similar. Shanedra Nowell’s unit takes a closer look at differences and their significance. We will read the alleged and controversial content of the May 31 Tribune article which incited the riot (19). I will pair this with the American Red Cross “Narrative Report as of December 31st, 1921.” It contradicts the Tribune article and “places the blame upon ‘the lack of law enforcement’” (20). Keeping my students in mind, these texts cover a variety of reading levels.
Corrupt law enforcement is the problem in James Baldwin’s 1966 “A Report from Occupied Territory.” We’ll look at his varied tones and narrators as well as connections to present events and those we will have just studied. I stumbled upon a piece in the New York Times this week that covers the deaths of six black or mixed men and boys who died at the hand of police violence recently. Each gives a brief summary of salient points for the case and the family’s reaction. Some reflect sentiments of post-riot Tulsa/Greenwood. The last thing we’ll read for the unit is an interview with Dan Smolen, the attorney for the family of Eric Harris who died at the hands of a reserve deputy in Tulsa recently. He looks into problems faced by the disenfranchised like the poor, minorities, and the homeless when they encounter police.
Images
For Images of the Tulsa 1921 disaster, I will use two technology-friendly sources. The first is an app created by the Tulsa Historical Society (available through app stores). It is full of images and other reproduced primary source materials. The other is Politico Magazine online. Its photo essay “Before Ferguson, There Was Tulsa,” by Tim Madigan, another riot authority contains thirteen large, clear photos with commentary. Both are readily available for teacher use and are excellent quality. Finally, we’ll look at readily available riot images from Baltimore in the last year. Contrasting 1921 photos and those from Baltimore, we’ll discuss the nature of the words riot, massacre, and disaster and try to decide how best to apply them to the two events. I also want students to use their social media to collect memes from recent events where black Americans might be perceived to have been victims of authority because of their race. Students will provide these images.
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