Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 Article

Tulsa Tribune, Wednesday, 6-1-1921
City Edition
Page 1

MARTIAL LAW HALTS RACE WAR

Nine Whites and 68 Blacks Slain in Race War
FIRE RAZES BLACK DISTRICT; ALL NEGROES INTERNED AS GUARDMEN PATROL CITY

With National Guardsmen under command of Adjutant General Barrett patrolling the negro section, now a smouldering mass of blackened ruins, at 2:30 this afternoon and with the city and county under martial law, order was rapidly being restored in all sections of the city following 18 hours of red terror, which took a death toll of nine white men and boys, 68 negroes, including men, women, and children. The figures are those given Governor Robertson by Chief of Police Gustafson.

At this hour a complete check on the total number of persons wounded had not been completed, but police officials estimated that at least 100 whites had been shot while it was believed that the negro wounded woul [sic] reach to twice that figure.

All of the hospitals are filled with victims of the clash between the whites and blacks which broke about 9 o'clock last night when a crowd of white men and women surrounded the courthouse in an attempt to seize Dick Rowland, charged with assault [paper torn] young white girl. Rowland was later removed by officials.

With the county under [paper torn] city and county officials late this afternoon turn [paper torn] toward a final check of the negroes slain in the [paper torn] was intermittently [blot] in various sections [paper torn] from Sixth and Main streets, on the south [paper torn] Standpipe Hill, on the north.

The bodies of half [blot] negroes, including men, women and children, are lying in the valley at the base of Standpipe Hill, according to reports reaching police headquarters. These blacks were killed in a three-hour engagement early this morning which finally ended when national guardsmen turned a deadly fire from two machine guns in the valley. The blacks, huddled in groups, hidden behind trees and small out buildings, returned the fire. Twenty minutes of withering machine gun fire ended the battle. The blacks hoisted a huge white cloth, which was the signal for hundreds of armed men to invade the "valley of black death" and disarm the hundreds of survivors, many of them wounded.

The negroes were formed in columns of two and marched to Convention hall and McNulty park, where they were interned. Mayor Evans estimated at noon today that 6,000 black men, women and children, race war refugees, are held in the various encampments. Several church workers fed the negroes.

At the National Guard armory approximately 50 wounded negroes are being cared for.

Nearly 200 negro refugees are being held under guard in a field about a mile northeast of the Arbon flying field. Several trucks loaded with food were sent to this camp at 1 o'clock.

A second special train bearing 100 members of Company A, national guardsmen, arrived from Oklahoma City at 1:10 o'clock. The guardsmen reported to Adjutant General Barrett and were assigned to patrol duty in the fire destroyed black belt. Including Company A the local Company B with the sanitary detachment together with Companies B and C which arrived from Oklahoma City on a special train at 9:05 o'clock brought the total of guardsmen on duty up to 450. Acting under orders of General Barrett nearly all white men who patrolled the city throughout last night and today had been disarmed at 2 0'clock this afternoon.

Fire Path 12 Blocks Wide

Hundreds of dwellings, scores of business blocks and shops, several [blot] , one public school and [blot] sheds and shacks were con[blot] in the fierce fire which raged [blot]out the colored district this [blot] sweeping a path of ruin and desolation 12 blocks wide and [blot]miles long between North Boston avenue and Madison avenue and [blot]ding from Archer street north to the open country.

Damage which has not yet been [blot]estimated by authorities but [blot] exceed half a million [blot]at a conservative estimate [blot] caused by the flames. By 2 o'clock this afternoon the fire had [blot] down to scattered heaps of ruins [blot] the main part of this area and reaching the outer edge of the circle to the north and east of the city.

The flames were checked at the [blot] of the white residential section on North Detroit avenue by the fire department, which worked heroically to prevent destruction of the wholesale grocery storehouses on Detroit and Cincinnati avenues at Brady and Cameron streets. To the north and east, however, the fire got a clean sweep, and fanned by the south wind, carried the flames from house to house in the district bounded on the east by the Midland Valley Tracks.

Automobiles Wrecked

Throughout the black belt the embers of houses and their contents were smoking and belching sparks in a haze of terrific heat early this afternoon. North Greenwood avenue, the principal thoroughfare of the colored district, resembled the ruins of a town hit simultaneously by fire and tornado. Electric wires and telephone lines hung in tangled loops across the pavement and between the shattered walls of brick buildings. Office chairs, sowing machines, trunks, the wrecks of automobiles and piles of clothing and h household goods lay in trails of ruin along the street.

The Dunbar school and Mount Zion Baptist church were marked by piles of brick and warped steel beams and girders. The Booker T. Washington school, a large brick building of the Tulsa school type, was the only important building in the north end of the district which was not damaged by fire. Separated from nearby houses by a considerable gap, it escaped the flames and was the haven of ten or twenty negro women and their families.

The landmarks of what formerly had been a section closely covered with small frame houses this afternoon were chimney columns and gate posts. Water pipes spurted forth streams of water into the smoking ashes all along the rows of ruined houses. Piles of groceries and merchandise in the general stores still burned fiercely, while every few minutes a barrel of oil or gasoline burst into a roaring chute of fire.

Survey Made Today

The only occupants of the area shortly after noon today were the uniformed and volunteer guards who patrolled the streets and the occasional groups of negro women who clung to their household effects on street corners where the heat was not too severe. As the flames swept north and east, the cars on the switching tracks of the Midland Balley roads were being hauled out to less hazardous points, and trucks were being placed in readiness to haul away loads of manufactured goods and office fixtures from small factories along the railroad right of way.

Cyrus S. Avery, Lee Levering and Harry Heinzman, appointed as a investigating committee of the relief organization formed by the civic clubs today made a preliminary survey of the fire-swept area early this afternoon. They were followed by representatives of insurance companies and credit organizations.

A few frame houses on the corner of North Elgin avenue and East Easton street, extending back into the block a short distance, escaped the direct path of the fire, and another group directly south of Sunset Hill near the Booker Washington school also were not burned. The blocks between the Frisco tracks and Archer street at North Boston avenue, and east of Cincinnati avenue on Archer, were demolished early this morning. The fire spread rapidly from them and leapt into the North Greenwood business area shortly after 6 o'clock.
Following a night of rioting, sniping and open clashes between whites and blacks hundreds of armed men invaded the negro district to remove the menace the blacks there offered. At 5 o'clock scores of armed men in automobiles drove to the north side of the black belt in the vicinity of Standpipe hill. These white fighters formed one wing of an encircling movement, entirely surrounding the negro district. Hundreds of pedestrians advanced on the black belt from the south and west. Hundreds of shots were fired. Many negroes were reported to have been wounded while [sic] a number of whites were taken to hospitals with wounds.

The heaviest fighting this morning was in the extreme northern section of the black belt. Hundreds of negroes were concentrated in a valley at the base of Sunset hill. Fifty were barricaded in a church.

Machine Guns in Use

Deadly volleys of steel were poured into the ranks of the whites as they advanced in open formation against the blacks who stood their ground. Finally the whites were forced to retreat. A call was sent to police headquarters for reinforcements. A number of guardsmen with two machine guns were rushed in automobiles to the scene of the fighting. The machine guns were set up and for [tear] minutes poured a stream of [tear] the negroes who sought refuge behind buildings, telephone poles, and in ditches.

The heavy firing came to a sudden halt when a huge white cloth was raised aloft by the negroes. The church where many negroes were barricaded was riddled with bullets it was said.

Hundreds of negroes with hands held high in the air walked from the valley under the guard of armed civilians. They were taken to Convention hall and McNulty park where they were interned.

Whites who returned from the battle-swept valley said that at least 50 negroes, including men, women and children, were lying dead. At 10 o'clock authorities had been unable to make a check of the black losses in this battle.

Most of the blacks who were killed met death in the early morning fighting in the negro section near the frisco tracks.

Reprinted with permission from the Tulsa World.