Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 Article

Tulsa Tribune, Friday 6-3-1921
City Edition
Page 1

U. S. ORDERS RACE RIOT INQUIRY
SHERIFF SAYS TELEPHONE CALL STARTED RIOT

Facts Disclosed in Talk with Newspaper Man

A telephone call to a motion picture show in the black quarter was the first cause of the arming of the blacks, according to a statement made by Sheriff McCullough to Clark Betts, a staff correspondent of St. Louis Post dispatch and one of the out-of-town newspapermen here assigned to determine the causes of the battle.

Call From Tulsa

"The telephone call came from some place in Tulsa proper," the sheriff said, "and it informed the negroes that an attempt was being made to lynch Rowland.

"Barney Cleaver and another negro officer called me up at once and asked me if they should come to the jail. I told them to stay in the black quarter and try to calm the negroes. Later they called me several times and finally I told Cleaver that he could slip over after while. He came over alone later.

"At 4 o'clock Police Commissioner Adkison called me and told me there was [sic]some reports around the city of an attempt to lynch Rowland. Adkison said then that the safe thing to do would be to get the negro out of town. At that time I didn't know the negro was in the jail.

Could Protect Jail

"There were no facts given me that the rumors had a basis and I didn't place much stock in them. I knew that I could protect the jail and that no mob could take a prisoner out of there. However, I stayed at the jail all evening and at 8:20 three men whom I did not know came into the corridor on the first floor of the courthouse. I went into the corridor and told them there had been some talk of a lynching and that they might as well get out for not one was going to get the negro. They went out and got into an auto on Boulder street. They sat there and talked loudly and gesticulated and soon a crowd gathered. Then I called all my white deputies and told them to run the elevator to the top of the building and to station themselves inside the jail and not to open the jail door under any circumstances. The mob could only gain access to the jail floor by going up a narrow stairway. The guards were behind the door at the top of the stairway.

"After this was done I went across the street and told the crowd to disperse. I was hooted and jeered but the auto in which the three men sat drove away. It returned soon, however, and the crowd kept growing. Not more than 100 of them could be termed members of a mob and I saw n oweapons [sic] among the whites.

"An hour later 25 armed negroes marched to the court house down Sixth street. I met them and urged them to disperse, that the negro prisoner was safe and would not be taken out of the jail. They went away be returned shortly with many more armed blacks. Cleaver had appeared meanwhile. I disarmed two of the negroes quietly but did not order my deputies to disarm all of them because I thought that would have meant a general riot at that time. I thought I could get them into a frame of mind to leave. Just then a negro on the Sixth street side of the court house fired a shot.

Race War Starts

"Instantly all the negroes began to fire into the air, running away as they fired. Then the whites who were armed drew their guns and I went back into the building. The race war was on and I was powerless to stop it. I took the negro prisoner away at 8 o'clock the next morning."

Betts continued his investigation by interviewing Chief of Police Gustafson.

"The chief told me that four telephone calls went to the sheriff from police officials Tuesday afternoon telling him to get the negro away, that there was talk of a mob," Betts said today.

Reprinted with permission from the Tulsa World.