Max Abrahams
US History
April 18, 2023
Thesis Essay
Tulsa Race Massacre
Tulsa was home to over 10,000 black residents, Tulsa was a thriving community of commerce and family. Tulsa got the name Black Wall Street due to it being one of the wealthiest black communities in the United States. America's Black Wall Street did not last long, over 100 years ago on May 21, 1921, a heavily armed white mob of looters and arsonists came to Tulsa and caused absolute terror. What took years to build was erased in a 2-day long riot. Hundred of Greenwood residents were brutally killed and their homes and businesses were burned to the ground.
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On top of the deaths, the riot created 1.8 million dollars in property damage, adjusted for inflation of 27 million dollars in 2023. The Tulsa race massacre is considered one of the worst racial terror attacks in the history of the nation. The Tulsa Race massacre illustrates the rising white supremacy of the 1920s through the destruction of black wealth and community. In the 1920s white supremacy was the prevailing ideology in many parts of the world, the idea that white people were superior to people of other races was deeply ingrained in America's society leading all the back to manifest destiny. Through white supremacy, the Klu Klux Klan was born. During the 1920s, cultural conflict and modernization helped resuscitate the Ku Klux Klan. Whereas the original KKK was a violent, racist organization born in the post-Civil War South, the modern Klan was driven by somewhat different concerns. Many white, lower-middle-class, Protestant Americans in the North and Midwest were fearful that immigrants were changing traditional American …show more content…
In recent years there has been a renewed focus on the massacre, including efforts to excavate mass graves and provide reparations to survivors and their descendants. There has been a more significant push to acknowledge the race riot and its impact on the black community, and efforts are underway to uncover and preserve evidence of the
Word Count: 1296 Dylan Zemlin Carroll Winn HIST 1493 - 082 The deep-rooted effects of the Tulsa Race Massacre The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 stands to be one of the most violent and devastating attacks on the African American community in the history of the United States. The Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, often referred to as “The Black Wall Street”, was a community of African Americans that were known for their thriving business and energetic cultures. However, starting on May 31st, 1921, the community came under attack by mobs of people that looted, burned, and killed hundreds of citizens.
Social and economic disparities within the Cincinnati and Detroit communities led to civil unrest and riots. Although Detroit had a vast African American middle class, jobs weren’t abundant. Impoverishment caused racial stereotyping that infected the police department. In the summer of 1967, Detroit experienced five days of chaos including flames, looting, and deaths. Similarly, downtown Cincinnati in 2001 endured high-tension rioting from alleged police brutality and racial profiling.
The Tulsa Race Riot was the destruction of Black Wall Street in 1921, which was caused by an allegation of a white woman accusing a black man of rape. It lasted from May 31st to June 1st. The Tulsa Race Riot caused plenty of damage from “dozens of deaths [and] hundreds of injuries” to the destruction of Black Wall Street leading to unemployment of the black community (Hoberock n. pag.). An estimated property loss was over $2.3 million. This was an important event in our Nation’s history because “it teaches how far hatred [and violence] can go” (Hoberock n. pag.).
The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 was an extremely shocking and violent event in American history that unfortunately resulted in the absolute destruction of the prosperous African American neighborhood of Greenwood. In the book, "Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921," Scott Ellsworth provides the readers with a comprehensive account of the not just the riot, but also its causes, and most importantly, its aftermath. The author shifts his focus throughout the book about the economic, political, and social factors that contributed to the extremely high tensions between the African American and white communities that were in Tulsa. By doing so, light can be shined on what many believe was the root cause of this atrocity. He also vividly
Luis Cordon-Hernandez Mr. Green US History 1 12 April 2023 The Greenwood Massacre of 1921 A topic highly regarded as one of the worst race massacres in United States history is the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. As one of the wealthiest black neighborhoods then, it was soaring in every aspect of life. However, a rumor spread throughout Tulsa and white mobs formed outside a courthouse.
The focus of this study is on the 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma race riot. Although there was a major impact on the entire community, this paper will only focus on the riot’s impact on the “black” community and the local government’s actions in response to the impact. I will evaluate the extent of which the local government’s response to the race riot of 1921 increased the negative effects on the black community. I will compare the records the Red Cross, the National Guard, and other groups to find consistency between the recorded death tolls and other relevant information. Then, I will compare an interview with Olivia Hooker, a survivor of the riot, to online sources to better understand the social climate which the local government was operating
Police and emergency services were burned. Some cities with mixed races became more segregated and restrictive covenants became used. The riot was so tragic that police lost control of the mob and led to the courthouse being set on fire. The Omaha Bee published articles that angered the whites. The media posted information with many alleged attacks from black men on white women.
The Tulsa Massacre of 1921 was a tragic event in American history in which a white mob attacked and destroyed the thriving Greenwood District, also known as “Black Wall Street”, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The event resulted in the deaths of hundreds of African American residents and the displacement of thousands more. This massacre was a direct result of tensions breaking after the Great Migration, a movement of approximately six million African Americans from the southern to Midwest and Northeastern states. Effects of the Great Migration led to an enormous cultural and social change in the midwest and northeastern states, as the African American population increased by over 40% the culture in states like Oklahoma changed drastically. However, this increase in the population caused competition in the job market to increase, and as tensions rose, anger from the racist white community was directed toward people of color.
These were many casualties; it left somewhere between 30 to 300 people deceased. The district of Greenwood, or more commonly “Black Wall Street”, there was more than 1,000 homes and businesses destroyed. This massacre was ranked of the most lethal riots of all time. Many tried to sue Tulsa, but all charges got dropped. Due to the damage and loss.
The violence spread throughout the city, with mob violence, looting, and targeted attacks against African Americans. The riot lasted for three days, resulting
One of the things that led to the Tulsa Race Massacre was discrimination. Discrimination is a problem of the past, present, and future meaning there’s always going to be some sort of prejudice against anyone based on skin color, gender, age, disability, or sexuality no matter what. But the discrimination that caused the massacre was based on race which is why race is used in the name of the event. The white mob was simply prejudiced against the black residents that resided in the town of Tusla so they decided to act on this unjust prejudice and destroy the residents' lives. Based on their hate for the black race they decided to destroy everything the black built for themselves because they simply didn’t think they were worthy of such an amazing life.
Instead of their hatred turning to remorse after the devastating events, it only amplified, exemplifying where society was as a whole in the 1920’s; a cruel and bigoted era that failed to see people as color as anything less than human. It was only through the Tulsa Race Massacre that we can look back and analyze the consequences of racism and
The Impact of the Detroit Race Riot on Society Just imagine you are in the streets of Detroit in 1967. There are fires blazing all around you, people are being shot ruthlessly and police are using heavy force to stop the rioters. That is how the people of Detroit felt during one of the most deadly events in Detroit history. Some people even thought it was the start of a second revolution, This is a quote from Jeffrey Eugenides. “ In Detroit, in July of 1967,what happened was no less than a guerrilla uprising.
A total of eight people lost their life but this event effected everyone in the town of Rosewood, Florida. Although acts of race riots were quite common amongst American culture during this time, The Rosewood Massacre was one of the first to be acknowledged by the legal system and to have reparations paid to the descendants of the suffers of the
In Mark Bauerlein’s, Negrophobia: A Race Riot in Atlanta, 1906, the political and social events leading to the riot are analyzed. The center of events took place around and inside Atlanta in the early 1900’s. The riot broke out on the evening of September 22, 1906. Prior to the riot in 1906, elections were being held for a new Georgia governor. Bauerlein organizes his book in chronological order to effectively recount the events that led to the riot.