The United States is no stranger to racial violence.
Recent protests have been launched against police brutality as a disproportionate number of Black Americans continue to die at the hands of law enforcement. (See: policeviolencereport.org)
During the summer of 2020, protesters across the globe marched to draw attention to this issue.
In Oklahoma, the conversation about these current events drew connections between past ones, most especially the Tulsa Race Massacre.
For many years, the Tulsa Race Massacre was known as the Tulsa Race Riot. The name stemmed from original newspaper articles on the event written primarily by White Tulsans.
Today, this tragedy is known as the Tulsa Race Massacre.
Initially, it was termed a riot, akin to similar acts of violence that befell Black communities across the nation. The term was also strategically used by insurance companies who did not want to compensate victims for their property damages.
In 2018, the centennial commission tasked with studying, preserving, and commemorating this event, dropped riot from its name to use massacre.
Rephrasing the Tulsa Race Massacre, is not arbitrary, but rather a necessary change to highlight that Black Greenwood was burned down by those who did not call it home.
While the Tulsa Race Massacre is one of the few events in American history with this namesake, it is indeed a part of a much longer, bloodier history.
It can be contextualized as a continuation of the “Red Summer,” the name that James Weldon Johnson, the director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, gave to the summer following the First World War.
A War for Democracy
In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson began declaring World War I as “A War for Democracy.” This narrative was accepted by Black Americans, only not in the way white Americans hoped.
Many Black Americans, including Black Tulsans supported the war effort and several Black men from the area served in France.
For African Americans, the War was about bringing democracy home much as it was about bringing it to the rest of the world. The difference in treatment of Black and white veterans during this period could not have been more polarized. White veterans were respected as great heroes while Black veterans were treated as “dangerous malcontents.”
As a result of their war experience, many African Americans expressed greater confidence in demanding to enjoy the rights of any Americans. Black American veterans most especially returned home deeply frustrated with their oppression and second-rate treatment. This assertiveness which showed in art, jazz, and political and social organizing is historically known as the “New Negro” movement.
The strong sense of independence that many Greenwood men claimed was further elevated by the New Negro Movement that followed World War I.
Many hoped that by showing their loyalty and fighting for their country “in the war for democracy,” they might return to their nation ready to do the work to ensure equality for all.
“New Negroes,” showed their disappointment their optimism, and their militancy through multiple means including song, literature, and activism.
One of the most famous works that captures this period, Claude McKay’s 1919 protest poem “If We Must Die,“came from Harlem. The poem expressed pride in Black heritage and called for Black men to fight back rather than to continue being denied their rights.
This outlook was clear in Tulsa as well.
Several White Americans responded with backlash. All over the country, lynchings surged. There were 83 reported lynchings in 1919, compared to 64 in 1918. Due to poor documentation, or none at all, it is more likely that there were many more.
Several large American cities broke out in historic violence, where American citizens lost their lives, their homes, and their livelihoods. Akin to the Tulsa Race Massacre, these events were labeled as “riots.”
Several were sparked by unsubstantiated allegations of sexual assault that claimed Black men as aggressors who endangered White womanhood.
A number were the result of White workers, both native and immigrant, lashing out against Black workers. Employers, who often denied Black Americans jobs at these plants in the first places, sometimes hired these workers at much lower wages in order to break a strike or to maintain profits in the economic downturn that followed the war.
Chicago
Perhaps the most well-known attack occurred in Chicago in the July of 1919.
Due to its rich selection of jobs, Chicago attracted many migrants and especially people of color. Competition for jobs among white and Black residents was intense and racial tensions skyrocketed.
When Eugene Williams, a seventeen-year-old Black man, drifted close to a “whites only” beach, he was stoned and killed. This event sparked a week of violence, which included the burning of homes and businesses, and the murder of thirty eight people – twenty three of whom were Black.
Many Black Chicagoans were forced to leave town.
The University of Chicago created a digital mapping project over the Chicago riots as well as more information on them which can be found here: https://news.uchicago.edu/story/mapping-chicagos-1919-race-riots.
A map plotting the violence can be found here: Race Riots of 1919 – The Red Summer
While the Tulsa Race Massacre occurred two years after the Red Summer, there is no doubt that it was a part of an era of mob violence against African Americans.
While the Tulsa Race Massacre occurred two years after the Red Summer, there is no doubt that it was a part of an era of mob violence against African Americans.
We know this because some of the circumstances of this tragedy were hauntingly similar to earlier events.
Makayla Swanson
Bibliography:
Randy Krehbiel, Tulsa 1921: Reporting a Massacre (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019).
Kendrick Marshall, “Tulsa Race Massacre: For years it Was Called A Riot. Not anymore. Here’s how it changed,” Tulsa World, May 31, 2020. https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/racemassacre/tulsa-race-massacre-for-years-it-was-called-a-riot-not-anymore-heres-how-it/article_47d28f77-2a7e-5b79-bf5f-bdfc4d6f976f.html
“Red Summer: The Race Riots of 1919,” https://www.theworldwar.org/learn/wwi/red-summer
“1919 Race Riot,” Homicide in Chicago 1870-1930“ https://homicide.northwestern.edu/historical/movements/race-riot/
Citation:
The following (as per The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition) is the preferred citation for articles: Makayla Swanson, “History of American Race Riots,” in Women of Black Wall Street, 2021, Brandy Thomas Wells, Ed. https://blackwallstreetwomen.com/background-essays/
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