Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 Article
Tulsa Daily World, Wednesday, 6-1-1921
Second Extra
Page 1
MANY MORE WHITES ARE SHOT
WHITES ADVANCING INTO 'LITTLE AFRICA;' NEGRO
DEATH LIST IS ABOUT 15
[The same article appeared in the Extra and Third Extra editions of the 6-1-1921 Tulsa Daily World. The Second Extra version of this article added the first sentence shown here.]
There was an unconfirmed report at 6 0'clock that three more white men had been killed in the latest clash with the blacks, but it could not be verified.
With the coming of dawn this morning, following a night of race rioting and death, hundreds of armed white men in motor cars formed a circle of steel about "Little Africa," and a continuous rattlle [sic] of rifle and revolver fire could be heard.
Sixty or seventy automobiles filled with armed men were in the line drawn about the black belt and there were many reports to the effect that they planned to range through the negro settlement and "clean it out."
At 5:30 the death list was estimated as high as fifteen. Though no whites were known to be killed save two unidentified men listed in The World, reports to police headquarters from members of the white bands who had been at "the front" between the line of armed whites and "Little Africa" said they had counted the bodies of more than a dozen negroes stretched in the streets.
While the bands of armed white men in motor cars were surrounding the negro district, six airplanes were circling over the section. Scattered along the Frisco tracks and in streets immediately south were between 500 and 1,000 more armed white men. Talk of driving into "Little Africa" could be heard on all sides.
At 5:45 the white forces were pushing into "Little Africa" from the south, bands of white riflemen being reported at Elgin and Archer. They were reported to be shooting into houses and at all negroes in sight. There was no report of the extent of casualties. The negroes were not returning the fire very spiritedly, it was reported, but negro snipers were shooting from housetops and windows.
Shortly after 2 o'clock this morning, the row of frame buildings on the east side of Boston avenue north of the Frisco tracks was fired, but because there was no wind, the flames burned themselves out and did not spread to the Cincinnati avenue block which sheltered several hundred negroes.
At 3 o'clock the fire had gained sufficient headway to destroy all the buildings except the residence on the north end of the block. When this building was burned, six negroes who had been firing from the house at the whites were driven from cover and five of the six who ran from the house were killed. White men who took up their station at Archer and Boston before 3 o'clock succeeded in pushing their line almost to Cincinnati avenue in the face of fire from the negroes. The negroes, however, made no dashes from their places of hiding and except for the firing of a few shots at intervals, did not attempt to dislodge whites in the negro section of the city.
Members of the crowd of 500 whites around the Frisco depot about 5 o'clock this morning engaged in a spirited battle with several negroes perched on housetops. However, the aim of the blacks was bad and no whites were injured, but three negroes were killed within a short space of time.
One of the blacks was perched on a two-story brick building on Archer. He raised up to fire but one of the whites with an army rifle beat him to it and the black toppled, apparently dead. The other two blacks were hiding on Archer and were dropped by the white sharpshooters.
Three other black bodies were lying near the depot at daylight this morning. Two bodies had been removed.
Tate Brady, proprietor of the Brady hotel, who was a member of white men on guard duty along North Main street all night, said he counted the bodies of five negroes.
One negro was dragged behind an automobile, with a rope about his neck, through the business district.
Reports that three Frisco switchmen and a fireman, members of a switching crew, had been shot to death by negroes because they refused to haul the blacks out of town could not be verified.
A report from the Oklahoma hospital at 5:30 said three new wounded white men had been brought there, but that none were seriously injured. The names were not secured.
At 5:45 a negro house at ElEgin [sic] and Archer was reported burning.
SCORES BADLY WOUNDED
REMOEED [SIC] TO HOSPITALS; THREE DIE ON THE WAY
[The same article also appeared in the Third Extra edition of the 6-1-1921 Tulsa Daily World.]
The battle that broke out just after when hundreds of armed men started into "Little Africa" has resulted in scores of casualties among the whites in addition to probably scores killed ports [sic] from hospitals.
A report from the Tulsa hospital at 7:15 said that within the last 20 to 25 minutes badly wounded white men had been brought in by mabulances [sic] and that more were arriving. One of the wounded men died on the way to the hospital attendants said. He was not identified at that time, and attendants had no time to get names of wounded.
At the Oklahoma hospital about eight or ten new victimes [sic] had been received since the morning battle opened one of the wounded dieing [sic] in an ambulance just before reaching the hospital.
These men were all believed to have been shot by snipers firing from houses in the "black belt" during the invasion of the negro district.
One man died and another badly injured had just been received at the P. and S. hospital in t ehlast [sic] hour, attendants reported.
Negroes Fleeing From City; List of Dead Mounts
With hundreds of armed white men pushing into the "black belt" setting fire to scores of houses and shooting down negro after negro in houses where snipers are observed, reports reaching police headquarters at 6:45 indicate that the negro death list will mount far higher than any estimates.
Two thousand or more negroes are reported walking out of town to the north, where no armed whites were barring the way.
Every negro seen on the streets this morning was promptly put under guard. The city jail was quickly filled and the police then began taking them to Convention hall, where more than three hundred are now confined. Blacks picked up in various parts of the city offered no opposition, but most of them seemed glad to get the protection of the law.
Hundreds of automobiles early this morning were dashing through the streets, practically every one with one or more rifles sticking out the sides.
Six badly wounded negroes were among those brought to the police station.
Reprinted with permission from the Tulsa World.
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