35–36: Jim Crow laws: “Jim Crow Laws in Oklahoma,” Oklahoman, February 13, 2005, www.oklahoman.com/article/2884332/jim-crow-laws-in-oklahoma.
36–38: Cherokee Nation enslavers / Slave Revolt of 1842: Art T. Burton, “Slave Revolt of 1842,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=SL002.
39: Black Boomers: Ron Jackson, “Blacks among Boomers,” Oklahoman, February 18, 2001, www.oklahoman.com/article/2730943/blacks-among-boomers.
2. To Be Black in America
42: Julius Warren Scott quote: “Meet the Survivors,” Greenwood Cultural Center, John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation, www.jhfcenter.org/1921-race-massacre-survivors.
42: image: Tulsa Historical Society & Museum
44: “banned by the government”: “Black Soldiers in the U.S. Military During the Civil War,” National Archives, September 1, 2017, www.archives.gov/education/lessons/blacks-civil-war.
46: Frederick Douglass on Andrew Johnson: Frederick Douglass, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 2003), 264.
47: “a country for white men”: Hans L. Trefousse, Andrew Johnson, A Biography (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1989), 236.
49: image: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
58: Oregon passes “lash law,” bans Black people: “African Americans on the Oregon Trail,” National Park Service, updated February 1, 2021, www.nps.gov/articles/000/african-americans-on-the-oregon-trail.htm.
58: “full KKK regalia”: Tim Winkle, “When Watchmen Were Klansmen,” National Museum of American History (Kenneth E. Behring Center) blog, April 28, 2020, www.americanhistory.si.edu/blog/watchmen.
59: Oklahoma lynchings: Dianna Everett, “Lynching,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=LY001.
60: “Whites could not countenance”: Philip Dray, At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America (New York: The Modern Library, 2003), 64.
60: “lynch a thousand a week”: “Felton, Rebecca Latimer,” History, Art & Archives: United States House of Representatives, May 2, 2021, https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/F/FELTON,-Rebecca-Latimer-(F000069).
62: image: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
63: “one lone Negro”: Ida B. Wells, Crusade for Justice (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970), 316.
64–66: Roy Belton lynching: “Tulsa Race Riot: A Report by the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921,” February 28, 2001; Scott Ellsworth, Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1982), 50–53.
3. Fighting for Survival
71: “The world must be made safe for democracy”: “Echoes of the Great War: American Experiences of World War I,” Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/exhibitions/world-war-i-american-experiences/about-this-exhibition/arguing-over-war/for-or-against-war/wilson-before-congress.
72: “poor and inadequate”: Jami L. Bryan, “Fighting for Respect: African-American Soldiers in World War I,” Army Historical Foundation, www.armyhistory.org/fighting-for-respect-african-american-soldiers-in-wwi.
74: “first major race riot of the World War I period”: Olivia B. Waxman, “The Forgotten March That Started the National Civil Rights Movement Took Place 100 Years Ago,” Time, updated August 18, 2020, www.time.com/4828991/east-saint-louis-riots-1917.
76: image: Underwood Archives/Getty Images
79: “Lincoln freed you,” “no-gooders”: Harper Barnes, Never Been a Time: The 1917 Race Riot That Sparked the Civil Rights Movement (New York: Walker, 2008).
79–80: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People mission: “About the NAACP,” www.naacp.org/about-us.
79: image: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
80: “If it goes unchallenged”: Dorian Lynskey, “A Public Menace: How the Fight to Ban The Birth of a Nation Shaped the Nascent Civil Rights Movement,” Slate, March 31, 2015, www.slate.com/culture/2015/03/the-birth-of-a-nation-how-the-fight-to-censor-d-w-griffiths-film-shaped-american-history.html.
81: “‘Bring your gun home’”: Alexander DeConde, Gun Violence in America: The Struggle for Control (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2001), 73.
82–84: “One Florida law” / “Impress the Negro” / Daniel Mack: Equal Justice Initiative, “Lynching in America: Targeting Black Veterans,” 2017.
88: “round up” / “heavily armed” / “insurrection”: Francine Uenuma, “The Massacre of Black Sharecroppers That Led the Supreme Court to Curb the Racial Disparities of the Justice System,” Smithsonian Magazine, August 2, 2018, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/death-hundreds-elaine-massacre-led-supreme-court-take-major-step-toward-equal-justice-african-americans-180969863.
May 31, 1921
90: B. C. Franklin quote: Buck Colbert Franklin, “Read an Eyewitness Account of the Massacre That Opens Watchmen,” Slate, October 23, 2019, www.slate.com/culture/2019/10/watchmen-b-c-franklin-tulsa-massacre-account-full-text.html.
90: image: Tulsa Historical Society & Museum
95: image: Map from “Tulsa Race Riot: A Report by the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.”
97 / 100: “came back from France” / “the race war was on”: Scott Ellsworth, Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1982), 109, 61.
All other quotes: “Tulsa Race Riot: A Report by the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921,” February 28, 2001.
4. Black Wall Street Comes Alive
102: Delois Vaden Ramsey quote: “Meet the Survivors,” Greenwood Cultural Center, John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation, www.jhfcenter.org/1921-race-massacre-survivors.
102: image: Tulsa Historical Society & Museum
108: image: Tulsa Historical Society & Museum
109: “lined up waiting”: “Tulsa Race Riot: A Report by the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921,” February 28, 2001.
110: “colorful, flamboyant,” “a smooth talker”: Carlos Moreno, “The Victory of Greenwood: Simon Berry,” Tulsa Star, August 23, 2020, www.newtulsastar.com/2020/08/23/the-victory-of-greenwood-simon-berry.
110: “the first Black woman millionaire in America”: “Madam C. J. Walker,” History.com, updated January 26, 2021, www.history.com/topics/black-history/madame-c-j-walker.
111: “the promised land”: Pete Earley, “The Untold Story of One of America’s Worst Race Riots,” Washington Post, September 12, 1982, www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1982/09/12/the-untold-story-of-one-of-americas-worst-race-riots/e37fc963-71dd-45cc-8cb0-04ab8032bcd2.
113: image: Ruth Sigler Avery Collection-Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, Department of Special Collections and Archives, Oklahoma State University-Tulsa
114: “the most able Negro surgeon in America” / “not a decent living”: Ellsworth, Death in a Promised Land, 67, 10.
5. Extra! Extra! Read All About It!, or the Promise of a Lynching
118: Johnnie L. Grayson Brown quote: “Meet the Survivors,” Greenwood Cultural Center, John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation, www.jhfcenter.org/1921-race-massacre-survivors.
118: image: Tulsa Historical Society & Museum
120: “the most important Black journalist”: Henry Louis Gates Jr., “What Was the 1st Black American Newspaper?,” The Root, March 10, 2014, www.theroot.com/what-was-the-1st-black-american-newspaper-1790874894.
122: “the land of their fathers,” “unfavorable to”: “Africans in America: The American Colonization Society,” PBS, www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3p1521.html.
126: image: Tulsa Historical Society & Museum
129: “single most important force”: Scott Ellsworth, Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1982), 110.
130–131: “only bylined story”
/ “Without pausing”: Randy Krehbiel, “Tulsa Race Massacre: 1921 Tulsa Newspapers Fueled Racism, and One Story Is Cited for Sparking Greenwood’s Burning,” Tulsa World, May 31, 2019, www.tulsaworld.com/news/tulsa-race-massacre-1921-tulsa-newspapers-fueled-racism-and-one-story-is-cited-for-sparking/article_420593ee-8090-5cfc-873e-d2dd26d2054e.html.
June 1, 1921
134: Ernestine Gibbs quote: “Meet the Survivors,” Greenwood Cultural Center, John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation, www.jhfcenter.org/1921-race-massacre-survivors.
134: image: Tulsa Historical Society & Museum
136: “not a damn one”: Scott Ellsworth, Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1982), 63.
140–141: “but my mother witnessed”: Hannibal B. Johnson, Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District (Fort Worth, Texas: Eakin Press, 1998), 68.
141–142, 146: B. C. Franklin quotes: Buck Colbert Franklin, “Read an Eyewitness Account of the Massacre That Opens Watchmen,” Slate, October 23, 2019, www.slate.com/culture/2019/10/watchmen-b-c-franklin-tulsa-massacre-account-full-text.html.
143, 144, 147: images: Tulsa Historical Society & Museum
148, 149–150: “I had gone to bed” / “I remember we hid”: Johnson, Black Wall Street, 67, 76.
All other direct quotes: “Tulsa Race Riot: A Report by the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921,” February 28, 2001.
6. The Aftermath
152: Simon R. Richardson quote: “Meet the Survivors,” Greenwood Cultural Center, John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation, www.jhfcenter.org/1921-race-massacre-survivors.
152: image: Tulsa Historical Society & Museum
153–154: James T. West quotes: Scott Ellsworth, Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1982), 81.
154, 156: images: Tulsa Historical Society & Museum
156–157: J. W. Hughes quotes: Hannibal B. Johnson, Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District (Fort Worth, Texas: Eakin Press, 1998), 66.
157: Mary Elizabeth Jones Parrish quote: Ellsworth, Death in a Promised Land, 112.
159: “some bodies”: Johnson, Black Wall Street, 139.
159: image: Tulsa Historical Society & Museum
160: “decent burials” / grand jury report excerpt: Ellsworth, Death in a Promised Land, 79, 105.
162: “those employed regularly”: Ellsworth, Death in a Promised Land, 82.
162: “dereliction of duty”: Randy Krehbiel, “Tulsa Race Massacre: In Aftermath, No One Prosecuted for Killings, and Insurance Claims Were Rejected but Greenwood Persevered,” Tulsa World, May 31, 2020, www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/racemassacre/tulsa-race-massacre-in-aftermath-no-one-prosecuted-for-killings-and-insurance-claims-were-rejected/article_3ba23c3c-886d-5821-9970-02153261960a.html.
164: image: Tulsa Historical Society & Museum
165: “written request of Page”: Randy Krehbiel, “Tulsa Race Massacre: What Happened to Sarah Page and Dick Rowland Following the Massacre?” Tulsa World, May 31, 2020, www.tulsaworld.com/tulsa-race-massacre-what-happened-to-sarah-page-and-dick-rowland-following-the-massacre/article_67810913-0f34-58da-af38-f6a9ff8ea5e0.html.
7. The Legacy of Greenwood
166: Reverend Dr. Robert Turner quote: Maria Cramer, “Tulsa Massacre Survivors Sue City Nearly 100 Years After Attack,” New York Times, September 1, 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/09/01/us/tulsa-race-massacre-lawsuit.html.
166 image: Tulsa Historical Society & Museum
167: “horror,” “disgrace,”: “Tulsa Race Riot: A Report by the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921,” February 28, 2001.
168: image: Tulsa Historical Society & Museum
170, 172: All quotes: “Tulsa Race Riot: A Report by the Oklahoma Commission.”
173: image: Tulsa Historical Society & Museum
175: “historical significance”: “History,” Tulsa Public Schools: Booker T. Washington High School, www.btw.tulsaschools.org/about-us/history.
175: “fighting for”: Oklahoma Eagle, “Our Story,” theoklahomaeagle.net/about.
176–177: Michael Reed and John Gant quotes: Joseph Holloway, “Black Wall Street Plaques Tell the Story before Tulsa Race Massacre,” News on 6, August 27, 2020, www.newson6.com/story/5f4883594552fb4a5a2f3b82/black-wall-street-plaques-tell-the-story-before-tulsa-race-massacre.
179: “plaintiffs neither allege”: Chris Casteel and Jay Marks, “Race-Riot Recourse Blocked: Supreme Court Refuses Appeal after Decisions,” Oklahoman, May 17, 2005, www.oklahoman.com/article/2896719/race-riot-recourse-blocked-br-supreme-court-refuses-appeal-after-decisions.
180: image: Win McNamee/Getty Images
181: All quotes: “Tulsa Race Riot: A Report by the Oklahoma Commission.”
181–182: Susan Savage claim / G. T. Bynum quote: DeNeen L. Brown, “Tulsa Mayor Reopens Investigation into Possible Mass Graves from 1921 Race Massacre,” Washington Post, October 3, 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/local/tulsa-mayor-reopens-investigation-into-possible-mass-graves-from-1921-race-massacre/2018/10/02/df713c96-c68f-11e8-b2b5-79270f9cce17_story.html.
182: “unearthed eleven coffins,” “mass grave”: Ben Fenwick, “Mass Grave Unearthed in Tulsa During Search for Massacre Victims,” New York Times, October 21, 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/us/tulsa-massacre-coffins-grave.html.
184: “with the support”: Allison Keyes, “A Long-Lost Manuscript Contains a Searing Eyewitness Account of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921,” Smithsonian Magazine, May 27, 2016, www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/long-lost-manuscript-contains-searing-eyewitness-account-tulsa-race-massacre-1921-180959251.
185: “leverage the history”: Senator Kevin L. Matthews, “Tulsa Triumphs,” 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission, www.tulsa2021.org/our-vision.
185: “enhance the quality”: “Sherry Gamble-Smith and the Black Wall Street Chamber of Commerce,” Black Wall Street Times, September 9, 2019, www.theblackwallsttimes.com/2019/09/09/sherry-gamble-smith-and-the-black-wall-street-chamber-of-commerce.
186: “eyewitness accounts”: “Gilcrease Museum to Receive Eddie Faye Gates Tulsa Race Massacre Collection,” Black Wall Street Times, updated January 12, 2021, www.theblackwallsttimes.com/2020/10/13/gilcrease-museum-to-receive-eddie-faye-gates-tulsa-race-massacre-collection.
186: “became her mission” / “create resources”: James D. Watts Jr., “Eddie Faye Gates’ Collection of Race Massacre History Donated to Gilcrease Museum,” Tulsa World, October 15, 2020, www.tulsaworld.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/eddie-faye-gates-collection-of-race-massacre-history-donated-to-gilcrease-museum/article_f5beef58-0d72-11eb-92a2-e7a31274f2eb.html.
187: “Someday”: “Timeline: The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre,” Tulsa World, May 25, 2020, www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/racemassacre/timeline-the-1921-tulsa-race-massacre/collection_f9a5ed17-68d7-5f6d-921e-8d4207f70d0f.html#1.
187–188: Julian Hayter / LaGarrett King quotes: Daniella Silva, “From Juneteenth to the Tulsa Massacre: What Isn’t Taught in Classrooms Has a Profound Effect,” NBC News, June 18, 2020, www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/juneteenth-tulsa-massacre-what-isn-t-taught-classrooms-has-profound-n1231442.
188: “The way to right wrongs”: Ida B. Wells, The Light of Truth: Writings of an Anti-Lynching Crusader (New York: Penguin Books, 2014), xix.
Afterword
191: “Wilson never”: Faith Karimi, “Before Trump Another US President Downplayed a Pandemic and Was Infected,” CNN, updated October 3, 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/10/03/us/woodrow-wilson-coronavirus-trnd/index.html.
191: J. Alexander Navarro quotes: George Petras and Karl Gelles, “100 Years Ago, Philadelphia Chose a Parade over Social Distancing during the 1918 Spanish Flu—and Paid a Heavy Price,” USA Today, updated May 25, 2020, www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/2020/05/22/second-wave-coronavirus-spanish-flu-1918-philadelphia-st-louis-influenza-deaths-cov
id-19/3085405001.
193: “woodland retreat”: Central Park Conservancy, “The Ramble,” www.centralparknyc.org/locations/the-ramble.
193: “an African-American man”: Sarah Maslin Nir, “The Bird Watcher, That Incident and His Feelings on the Woman’s Fate,” New York Times, updated September 9, 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/nyregion/amy-cooper-christian-central-park-video.html.
195: All quotes: Audra D. S. Burch, Weiyi Cai, Gabriel Gianordoli, Morrigan McCarthy and Jugal K. Patel, “How Black Lives Matter Reached Every Corner of America,” New York Times, June 13, 2020, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/13/us/george-floyd-protests-cities-photos.html.
197: “almost blasphemous”: DeNeen L. Brown, “Trump Rally in Tulsa, Site of a Race Massacre, on Juneteenth was ‘Almost Blasphemous,’ Historian Says,” Washington Post, June 12, 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/06/11/juneteenth-trump-rally-tulsa-race-massacre.
197–198: Johnson/Trump quotes: Manisha Sinha, “Donald Trump, Meet Your Precursor,” New York Times, November 19, 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/11/29/opinion/sunday/andrew-johnson-donald-trump.html.
199: “More Americans”: Kevin Schaul, Kate Rabinowitz, and Ted Mellnick, “2020 Turnout Is the Highest in Over a Century,” Washington Post, updated December 28, 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/elections/voter-turnout.
200: “inciting violence”: Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for High Crimes and Misdemeanors, H.R. 24, 117th Cong. (2021), www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-resolution/24/text.
201: All quotes: “First-Ever 50-State Survey on Holocaust Knowledge of American Millennials and Gen Z Reveals Shocking Results,” Claims Conference, September 16, 2020, www.claimscon.org/millennial-study.
About the Author
Photo credit Jessie Weinberg
BRANDY COLBERT is the critically acclaimed author of the novels Pointe, The Voting Booth, Finding Yvonne, The Revolution of Birdie Randolph, The Only Black Girls in Town, and the Stonewall Award winner Little & Lion. A trained journalist, she also worked with boundary-breaking ballet dancer Misty Copeland to adapt her memoir into the bestselling book Life in Motion: Young Readers Edition. Born and raised in Springfield, Missouri, Brandy now lives and writes in Los Angeles and is on the faculty at Hamline University’s MFA program for writing for children and young adults. You can find her online at www.brandycolbert.com.
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