2:31 pm UTC May. 26, 2021
Editor s note: The following may include first-person accounts of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre contain graphic depictions and antiquated racial terminology. We have chosen not to edit these survivor accounts to leave their stories unencumbered by interpretation or exclusion. Mother, I see men with guns.
Mary Parrish was reading when her daughter alerted her to the violence coming to their doorstep. The daughter, Florence Mary, 6, called the young journalist and teacher to the window. Like many Black Tulsans in Greenwood, they fled as bullets flew and houses were set afire that night of May 31, 1921.
Built by the sons of slaves, Greenwood in the early 20th century grew into America s most prosperous Black community, only to be destroyed in 18 hours of murder and destruction by a white mob.