June 14, 2021 • 9 mins
In 1921, white citizens of Tulsa stormed the prosperous Black district of the city, destroying homes and businesses and murdering a number of people still unknown today. Learn what's being done to recover and reintroduce this history in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/tulsa-race-massacre.htm
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.
Hey brain Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum here. This episode deals with
the events of the Tulsa massacre of and while we
don't get very graphic, it is a heavy episode, especially
for our black listeners who maybe don't feel up for
hearing about it today. Listener discretion is advised, and take
(00:24):
care of yourself, okay. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a group of
scientists and historians is on the verge of unearthing a
chunk of the city's past that has been long buried,
and one that some people may prefer to keep that way.
It's the worst incident of anti black violence in American history.
(00:44):
Beginning on May thirty one, thousands of armed white Tulson's
invaded the black section of that booming oil town, terrorizing
its residents, looting their homes and businesses, and burning to
the ground some thirty five square blocks of the city.
Before the rampage was over, more than ten thousand black
people were left houseless, and more than six thousand were
(01:06):
interned in camps where they'd stay in some cases for months.
Back in June of twenty for the article this episode
is based on how stuff Works spoke with Scott Ellsworth,
a native Toulson and a professor of American history at
the University of Michigan. Ellsworth is the author of two
book Death in a Promised Land, one of the first
(01:27):
books to take a comprehensive historical look at the Tulsa
Race massacre. Ellsworth said, to this day, we don't know
how many died. Reasonable estimates range from I would say
forty to as high as three hundred. In October of
twenty scientists found a mass grave with about eleven coffins
(01:48):
during four days of digging at the city owned Oakland Cemetery.
A full excavation began on June one, around the events
a hundredth anniversary, the Tulsa Race massacre of one did not,
in a word often used to describe such events, erupt. Rather,
the city reached what now seems an inevitable breaking point.
(02:11):
In early Pulsa was a wash with cash from the
oil boom. The good times reached into the north section
of the city, Greenwood, in which over ten thousand black
residents thrived. That area, sometimes called the Black Wall, Street,
contained a hundred nine businesses, including hotels, a feed store,
a roller rink cleaners, mom and pop stores, and restaurants,
(02:33):
plus offices for doctors, dentists, and lawyers. The area had
at least five churches, to a library, a movie theater,
and a hospital. Like the rest of the city at
the time, Greenwood had its problems. Alcohol, even under prohibition,
was readily available. Illegal drugs were easy to find two
as we're gambling and prostitution. The city as a whole,
(02:56):
not just Greenwood, struggled with crime and punishment. Less than
a year before, an angry white mob had lynched a
black man accused of robbing and assaulting a white woman.
Across the United States, racial violence against black people was commonplace. Segregation,
though technically against the law, was still a fact of life,
(03:17):
and the fact that at least tens of thousands of
black Americans had served alongside white servicemen in World War
One didn't help, and in some cases was part of
rising tensions. Some white servicemen returning from the war resented
that their jobs had been taken over by black people
while they were gone, and some white people resented that
many returning black servicemen were demanding more equitable pay and
(03:40):
job opportunities. Ellsworth wrote in a two thousand one report
commissioned by these state of Oklahoma, when the massacre was
still commonly referred to as a riot. Quote. During the
weeks and months leading up to the riot, there were
more than a few white Toulsons who not only feared
that the color line was in danger of being slowly erased,
but believed that this was already happening. Into that explosive situation,
(04:05):
a black teenaged boy working as a shoeshiner had a
brief run in with a white teenaged girl operating an elevator.
The two may have been friends, there were rumors that
they were more, but a white clerk claimed that the
boy had grabbed her and the fuse was lit. The
boy was taken into custody. A group of more than
(04:25):
two thousand angry white people gathered on the courthouse steps,
some intent on lynching him, possibly promoted by an inflammatory
editorial in a white newspaper. A small group of armed
black war veterans and others squared off with them there,
and soon shots were fired. White people all over the
city began their march on the Greenwood area to tamp
(04:46):
down what many white people saw as an uprising. The
terror went on for eighteen hours into June one. The
atrocities too numerous to list. Families were murdered while praying
while fleeing, and the Tulsa Police, despite their sworn duty
to serve and protect, didn't assist. In fact, Tulsa police
(05:08):
officers helped set some fires, and an all white unit
of the National Guard joined the white invaders. Other public
officials provided guns and AMMO to the white men. The
KKK got involved, a semi functioning machine gun was used
on Black Pulson's airplanes dropped turpentine balls, destroying more buildings.
Despite being largely outnumbered, Black Pulson's fought to protect their
(05:31):
homes and businesses and most all of Greenwood, but in
the end, scores of black people and some white people too,
were killed and Greenwood was left in ruins. The exact
numbers of injured and dead, even after what's to be
uncovered in three suspected mass graves, may never be known.
(05:52):
It's still unclear looking back exactly what happened between Dick Roland,
the black shoeshiner, and Sarah Age, the white elevator operator,
to spark the massacre, but this is known. She refused
to bring charges. Roland survived the massacre and was vindicated.
(06:14):
For years, Tulsa refused to acknowledge in any meaningful way
what happened. In no one was ever charged or prosecuted
for the crimes that occurred during those eighteen or so hours.
Even those who grew up there, Ellsworth included, were not
taught that part of the city's history. The Tulsa Race
massacre became a terrible and closely held secret that began
(06:39):
to change with some earlier work and then Ellsworth's death
in a Promised Land in When members of the national
media descended on Oklahoma City after the bombing of the
Federal Building, they were informed of this other episode of
domestic terrorism in the state's history. More news accounts and
more books on the massacre followed, and in ty nineteen,
(07:00):
the HBO superhero series Watchman, inspired in part by the
events in Tulsa, enlightened many more to the story. Ellsworth
has a new book out that centers on Tulsa's decades
long cover up, titled The Groundbreaking An American City and
Its Search for Justice. It was released in May, and,
(07:23):
as alluded to before, in the process of all of this,
the terminology used to describe the event has changed for
many years. When it was mentioned, it was called the
Tulsa race riot, a term that muddies and lessons what happened.
Carlos Hill, the chair of the African American Studies Department
at the University of Oklahoma, told the publication The Tulsa
(07:43):
World in quote, what people in the community and historians
are trying to raise up is what happened in Tulsa
is a deliberate, coordinated, systematic assault on a community that
resulted in that community being completely destroyed. That is not
a race riot. This was a massacre. Referring to it
as a race riot is a euphemism. Tulsa's failure to
(08:08):
come to grips with its deadly past clearly has left
scars of its own. Ellsworth said, the city was robbed
of its honesty. You have entire generations growing up in
Tulsa who have never heard of this. You have people
growing up with a false reality, of false vision of
the land they were on. I mean, imagine if today,
right now, that you had young people growing up in
(08:29):
Manhattan who had never heard of nine eleven, that there
were no books to talk about nine eleven, that it's
as if it didn't exist. The Race Massacre was a
gigantic myth in the history of Tulsa. It was deliberately
buried for a long time. The full excavation will mark
another step in the long road to understanding and perhaps
(08:49):
one day, recovery. Ellsworth said, I know that this has
been a process that has been going on for a
while now. It's caused people to kind of re evaluate
how they look the past, how they look at their
town and what's going on. I think that's been a
liberating process for some people. It's been a very difficult
one for others. Today's episode is based on the article
(09:16):
what was the Tulsa Race Massacre and Why does it
still Haunt the City? On House to Forks dot com,
written by John Donovan. To learn more about the events
surrounding the massacre, check out the episode that we did
on one of my other shows, American Shadows. The episode
is called Divided Brain Stuff is production of by Heart
Radio in partnership with House to Forks dot com and
is produced by Tyler Client. Four more podcasts from my
(09:38):
Heart Radio visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.
Hey brain Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum here. This episode deals with
the events of the Tulsa massacre of and while we
don't get very graphic, it is a heavy episode, especially
for our black listeners who maybe don't feel up for
hearing about it today. Listener discretion is advised, and take
(00:24):
care of yourself, okay. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a group of
scientists and historians is on the verge of unearthing a
chunk of the city's past that has been long buried,
and one that some people may prefer to keep that way.
It's the worst incident of anti black violence in American history.
(00:44):
Beginning on May thirty one, thousands of armed white Tulson's
invaded the black section of that booming oil town, terrorizing
its residents, looting their homes and businesses, and burning to
the ground some thirty five square blocks of the city.
Before the rampage was over, more than ten thousand black
people were left houseless, and more than six thousand were
(01:06):
interned in camps where they'd stay in some cases for months.
Back in June of twenty for the article this episode
is based on how stuff Works spoke with Scott Ellsworth,
a native Toulson and a professor of American history at
the University of Michigan. Ellsworth is the author of two
book Death in a Promised Land, one of the first
(01:27):
books to take a comprehensive historical look at the Tulsa
Race massacre. Ellsworth said, to this day, we don't know
how many died. Reasonable estimates range from I would say
forty to as high as three hundred. In October of
twenty scientists found a mass grave with about eleven coffins
(01:48):
during four days of digging at the city owned Oakland Cemetery.
A full excavation began on June one, around the events
a hundredth anniversary, the Tulsa Race massacre of one did not,
in a word often used to describe such events, erupt. Rather,
the city reached what now seems an inevitable breaking point.
(02:11):
In early Pulsa was a wash with cash from the
oil boom. The good times reached into the north section
of the city, Greenwood, in which over ten thousand black
residents thrived. That area, sometimes called the Black Wall, Street,
contained a hundred nine businesses, including hotels, a feed store,
a roller rink cleaners, mom and pop stores, and restaurants,
(02:33):
plus offices for doctors, dentists, and lawyers. The area had
at least five churches, to a library, a movie theater,
and a hospital. Like the rest of the city at
the time, Greenwood had its problems. Alcohol, even under prohibition,
was readily available. Illegal drugs were easy to find two
as we're gambling and prostitution. The city as a whole,
(02:56):
not just Greenwood, struggled with crime and punishment. Less than
a year before, an angry white mob had lynched a
black man accused of robbing and assaulting a white woman.
Across the United States, racial violence against black people was commonplace. Segregation,
though technically against the law, was still a fact of life,
(03:17):
and the fact that at least tens of thousands of
black Americans had served alongside white servicemen in World War
One didn't help, and in some cases was part of
rising tensions. Some white servicemen returning from the war resented
that their jobs had been taken over by black people
while they were gone, and some white people resented that
many returning black servicemen were demanding more equitable pay and
(03:40):
job opportunities. Ellsworth wrote in a two thousand one report
commissioned by these state of Oklahoma, when the massacre was
still commonly referred to as a riot. Quote. During the
weeks and months leading up to the riot, there were
more than a few white Toulsons who not only feared
that the color line was in danger of being slowly erased,
but believed that this was already happening. Into that explosive situation,
(04:05):
a black teenaged boy working as a shoeshiner had a
brief run in with a white teenaged girl operating an elevator.
The two may have been friends, there were rumors that
they were more, but a white clerk claimed that the
boy had grabbed her and the fuse was lit. The
boy was taken into custody. A group of more than
(04:25):
two thousand angry white people gathered on the courthouse steps,
some intent on lynching him, possibly promoted by an inflammatory
editorial in a white newspaper. A small group of armed
black war veterans and others squared off with them there,
and soon shots were fired. White people all over the
city began their march on the Greenwood area to tamp
(04:46):
down what many white people saw as an uprising. The
terror went on for eighteen hours into June one. The
atrocities too numerous to list. Families were murdered while praying
while fleeing, and the Tulsa Police, despite their sworn duty
to serve and protect, didn't assist. In fact, Tulsa police
(05:08):
officers helped set some fires, and an all white unit
of the National Guard joined the white invaders. Other public
officials provided guns and AMMO to the white men. The
KKK got involved, a semi functioning machine gun was used
on Black Pulson's airplanes dropped turpentine balls, destroying more buildings.
Despite being largely outnumbered, Black Pulson's fought to protect their
(05:31):
homes and businesses and most all of Greenwood, but in
the end, scores of black people and some white people too,
were killed and Greenwood was left in ruins. The exact
numbers of injured and dead, even after what's to be
uncovered in three suspected mass graves, may never be known.
(05:52):
It's still unclear looking back exactly what happened between Dick Roland,
the black shoeshiner, and Sarah Age, the white elevator operator,
to spark the massacre, but this is known. She refused
to bring charges. Roland survived the massacre and was vindicated.
(06:14):
For years, Tulsa refused to acknowledge in any meaningful way
what happened. In no one was ever charged or prosecuted
for the crimes that occurred during those eighteen or so hours.
Even those who grew up there, Ellsworth included, were not
taught that part of the city's history. The Tulsa Race
massacre became a terrible and closely held secret that began
(06:39):
to change with some earlier work and then Ellsworth's death
in a Promised Land in When members of the national
media descended on Oklahoma City after the bombing of the
Federal Building, they were informed of this other episode of
domestic terrorism in the state's history. More news accounts and
more books on the massacre followed, and in ty nineteen,
(07:00):
the HBO superhero series Watchman, inspired in part by the
events in Tulsa, enlightened many more to the story. Ellsworth
has a new book out that centers on Tulsa's decades
long cover up, titled The Groundbreaking An American City and
Its Search for Justice. It was released in May, and,
(07:23):
as alluded to before, in the process of all of this,
the terminology used to describe the event has changed for
many years. When it was mentioned, it was called the
Tulsa race riot, a term that muddies and lessons what happened.
Carlos Hill, the chair of the African American Studies Department
at the University of Oklahoma, told the publication The Tulsa
(07:43):
World in quote, what people in the community and historians
are trying to raise up is what happened in Tulsa
is a deliberate, coordinated, systematic assault on a community that
resulted in that community being completely destroyed. That is not
a race riot. This was a massacre. Referring to it
as a race riot is a euphemism. Tulsa's failure to
(08:08):
come to grips with its deadly past clearly has left
scars of its own. Ellsworth said, the city was robbed
of its honesty. You have entire generations growing up in
Tulsa who have never heard of this. You have people
growing up with a false reality, of false vision of
the land they were on. I mean, imagine if today,
right now, that you had young people growing up in
(08:29):
Manhattan who had never heard of nine eleven, that there
were no books to talk about nine eleven, that it's
as if it didn't exist. The Race Massacre was a
gigantic myth in the history of Tulsa. It was deliberately
buried for a long time. The full excavation will mark
another step in the long road to understanding and perhaps
(08:49):
one day, recovery. Ellsworth said, I know that this has
been a process that has been going on for a
while now. It's caused people to kind of re evaluate
how they look the past, how they look at their
town and what's going on. I think that's been a
liberating process for some people. It's been a very difficult
one for others. Today's episode is based on the article
(09:16):
what was the Tulsa Race Massacre and Why does it
still Haunt the City? On House to Forks dot com,
written by John Donovan. To learn more about the events
surrounding the massacre, check out the episode that we did
on one of my other shows, American Shadows. The episode
is called Divided Brain Stuff is production of by Heart
Radio in partnership with House to Forks dot com and
is produced by Tyler Client. Four more podcasts from my
(09:38):
Heart Radio visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,
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