Misunderstanding the Tulsa Riot

I was disappointed to see Friday's editorial in the Daily Oklahoman about the recent tragic murders in Tulsa, provocatively titled "Circus accompanying Revs. Jackson, Sharpton is last thing Tulsa needs."  There are many things to say about the editorial.  For instance, it focuses animosity towards people who are rallying to protest what is now quite obviously a set of tragic, racially motivated killings and shootings.  I have rarely seen in recent years an editorial that is so insensitive to the cause of protesting racism. (I know, I know, the editorial board at the Daily Oklahoman will say, they support the "death sentence that cold-blooded killers are given in this state.")  But right now I want to focus on the editorial's misunderstanding of the 1921 Tulsa riot.  The editorial says this:

Connections have been made between last week's gunfire and the 1921 racial violence in Tulsa. What's the connection? None. In the earlier case, armed gangs divided along racial lines. It was certainly not a mass murder like the bombing or the Tulsa shootings. It was less a race riot than a race war.

It's one of the many continuing tragedies of the Tulsa riot -- which witnessed the destruction of much of the African American community of Greenwood (which was itself the result of racial zoning in Tulsa and then racially restrictive covenants) --  that it is remembered as a clash of white and black mobs.  As people at the time understood, the "riot" was a concerted action by the Tulsa authorities.  When some Greenwood residents appeared at the Tulsa County Courthouse to protect a young African American man being held there on sensationalized charges of assaulting  a young white woman, a confrontation set off the riot.  Over the next few hours, the riot gathered steam and in the morning of June 1, 1921, the police, local units of the National Guard, and hastily deputized special officers systematically disarmed and arrested African Americans.  They were taken to what newspapers referred to as "concentration camps" around the city.  Thence followed looting and burning of Greenwood -- often by the special deputies.  Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of people died.  It was the destruction of the dreamland that was the African American community in Tulsa.   

This story of official culpability in the riot is supported by such traditional sources as the Oklahoma Supreme Court in the 1926 case Redfearn v. American Central Insurance Company.  In Redfearn  a Native American property owner sought money from his insurance company and the Supreme Court discussed what happened during the riot.  

This was something in which the local officials, not just some angry white mob, had culpability.  Surely the people at the Daily Oklahoman, who lived there while the Tulsa riot commission did its extensive historical work, know the accurate history of the riot -- or ought to.

Comments

[Stephanie Farrior]

In 2007 a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) was submitted on behalf of survivors of the Tulsa race riots by Charles Ogletree and Gay McDougall/Global Rights. This webpage provides information and a link to the petition:
http://www.globalrights.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=3601.0

They argued that the survivors continued to suffer from the denial of the right to an effective remedy and their right to equality before the law. Their follow-up Response Submission to the IACHR is available here:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=993645

You can watch the video of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights hearing on the case here:
http://www.oas.org/OASpage/videosasf/2007/03/CIDH030207_1st.wmv

I also recommend the powerful documentary about the Tulsa race riot survivors, "Before They Die." Survivor Otis Clark was 104 years old and still seeking justice when he attended the Inter-American Commission hearing.
http://www.beforetheydiemovie.com/

This slide show is also well worth watching:
http://beforetheydie.wordpress.com/2007/12/23/tulsa-race-riot-historical-photos-slide-show/

[Stephanie Farrior]

P.S. In case some readers didn't click the link -- the phrase "destruction of the dreamland" in the blog post links to an important book on the subject:
Alfred Brophy, RECONSTRUCTING THE DREAMLAND: THE TULSA RIOT OF 1921: RACE, REPARATIONS, AND RECONCILIATION (Oxford Univ. Press 2003).

[Patrick S. O'Donnell]

So, what we have here, in a conventional and extended literal sense, is an attempt to whitewash history.

[Patrick S. O'Donnell]

I should have said: "a feeble attempt to...."

[Juan Perea]

Dear Al,
thanks for setting the record straight regarding the violence in Tulsa in 1921. Your book, Reconstructing the Dreamland, the Tulsa Riot of 1921, is an unflinching account of these events and I recommend it to the readership. It is so important to contest distorted accounts of where responsibility for such violence lies.

[Alfred Brophy]

Thanks for the kind words, Juan, I really appreciate them.

[A Facebook User]

A motivated misreading on the Daily Oklahoman's editorial page? You don't say.

Perhaps the only good thing about the collapse of the newspaper industry in this country is that it appears to be taking down the DOK, just like everyone else.

[Kevin]

Perhaps, the daily oklahoman was voted America's worst paper for a reason.

[Tamara Piety]

Al - Good for your for calling this out. I have been distressed by some of the commentary by readers on the Tulsa World's coverage of this story. Sadly I don't think you can trust that the editorial board of the Daily Oklahoman *do* know much about what happened here in 1921. We just had Jennifer Eberhardt of Stanford psychology come do the Annual Buck Colbert Franklin Memorial Civil Rights lecture talking about her work on stereotypes and unconscious bias and the way vicious imagery and racist memes continue to infect the culture. I gave her a mini-tour of Tulsa around Greenwood but I sure wish I could have had your insights. We recently dug up Buck Colbert Franklin's autobiography edited by John Hope Franklin and John Whittington Franklin. I just started reading it. It is really moving. Got to get yours next.

[Tamara Piety]

Stephanie thanks for posting all those links. I was here for the movie's showing in Tulsa. Very moving. The time is overdue for an official apology I think.

[Alfred Brophy]

Thanks for the kind words, Tamara. It never ceases to surprise me the scope of the Tulsa tragedy and how long a shadow it -- and Jim Crow more generally -- casts over our nation's history.