By Gail H. Marshall Brown, Ph.D.,
Contributing Writer,
Historic photo of 1921 Massacre in Tulsa
When President Joe Biden emphatically stated, from Tulsa, Okla., “My fellow Americans, this was not a riot; this was a massacre,” his audience burst into applause June, 1.
The 46th President of the United States was in Tulsa to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre.
The May 31, 1921 massacre took place as a white mob violently attacked black residents, destroyed and burned their homes and businesses in the-then prosperous black Greenwood District and business hub known as “Black Wall Street.” After 16 hours of violence, the horrific event left as many as 300 dead, 35 city blocks destroyed and thousands of blacks displaced.
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One hundred years ago, violent white mobs launched a horrific siege on the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Okla., a predominantly Black business and residential district that came to be known as âBlack Wall Streetâ for its cultural and economic prowess in the 1910s.
Captured Negros on Way to Convention Hall - During Tulsa Race Riot, June 1st, 1921. Place: Greenwood District, Tulsa, Oklahoma | (Photo credit: DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University)
Following unfounded accusations that a Black man, Dick Rowland, had assaulted a white woman, Sarah Page, white Tulsans retaliated by taking up arms and attacking the Greenwood District. From May 31 to Jun. 1, 1921, they destroyed 35 city blocks, burned homes, looted, demolished businesses, schools, churches and a hospital and murdered and maimed hundreds of Black residents. Some scholars estimate 300 people were killed and 800 people were wounded. Tulsa resident Buck Colbert Franklin wrote of aerial attacks in his eyewitnes