Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum here. This episode deals with
Speaker 1: the events of the Tulsa massacre of and while we
Speaker 1: don't get very graphic, it is a heavy episode, especially
Speaker 1: for our black listeners who maybe don't feel up for
Speaker 1: hearing about it today. Listener discretion is advised, and take
Speaker 1: care of yourself, okay. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a group of
Speaker 1: scientists and historians is on the verge of unearthing a
Speaker 1: chunk of the city's past that has been long buried,
Speaker 1: and one that some people may prefer to keep that way.
Speaker 1: It's the worst incident of anti black violence in American history.
Speaker 1: Beginning on May thirty one, thousands of armed white Tulson's
Speaker 1: invaded the black section of that booming oil town, terrorizing
Speaker 1: its residents, looting their homes and businesses, and burning to
Speaker 1: the ground some thirty five square blocks of the city.
Speaker 1: Before the rampage was over, more than ten thousand black
Speaker 1: people were left houseless, and more than six thousand were
Speaker 1: interned in camps where they'd stay in some cases for months.
Speaker 1: Back in June of twenty for the article this episode
Speaker 1: is based on how stuff Works spoke with Scott Ellsworth,
Speaker 1: a native Toulson and a professor of American history at
Speaker 1: the University of Michigan. Ellsworth is the author of two
Speaker 1: book Death in a Promised Land, one of the first
Speaker 1: books to take a comprehensive historical look at the Tulsa
Speaker 1: Race massacre. Ellsworth said, to this day, we don't know
Speaker 1: how many died. Reasonable estimates range from I would say
Speaker 1: forty to as high as three hundred. In October of
Speaker 1: twenty scientists found a mass grave with about eleven coffins
Speaker 1: during four days of digging at the city owned Oakland Cemetery.
Speaker 1: A full excavation began on June one, around the events
Speaker 1: a hundredth anniversary, the Tulsa Race massacre of one did not,
Speaker 1: in a word often used to describe such events, erupt. Rather,
Speaker 1: the city reached what now seems an inevitable breaking point.
Speaker 1: In early Pulsa was a wash with cash from the
Speaker 1: oil boom. The good times reached into the north section
Speaker 1: of the city, Greenwood, in which over ten thousand black
Speaker 1: residents thrived. That area, sometimes called the Black Wall, Street,
Speaker 1: contained a hundred nine businesses, including hotels, a feed store,
Speaker 1: a roller rink cleaners, mom and pop stores, and restaurants,
Speaker 1: plus offices for doctors, dentists, and lawyers. The area had
Speaker 1: at least five churches, to a library, a movie theater,
Speaker 1: and a hospital. Like the rest of the city at
Speaker 1: the time, Greenwood had its problems. Alcohol, even under prohibition,
Speaker 1: was readily available. Illegal drugs were easy to find two
Speaker 1: as we're gambling and prostitution. The city as a whole,
Speaker 1: not just Greenwood, struggled with crime and punishment. Less than
Speaker 1: a year before, an angry white mob had lynched a
Speaker 1: black man accused of robbing and assaulting a white woman.
Speaker 1: Across the United States, racial violence against black people was commonplace. Segregation,
Speaker 1: though technically against the law, was still a fact of life,
Speaker 1: and the fact that at least tens of thousands of
Speaker 1: black Americans had served alongside white servicemen in World War
Speaker 1: One didn't help, and in some cases was part of
Speaker 1: rising tensions. Some white servicemen returning from the war resented
Speaker 1: that their jobs had been taken over by black people
Speaker 1: while they were gone, and some white people resented that
Speaker 1: many returning black servicemen were demanding more equitable pay and
Speaker 1: job opportunities. Ellsworth wrote in a two thousand one report
Speaker 1: commissioned by these state of Oklahoma, when the massacre was
Speaker 1: still commonly referred to as a riot. Quote. During the
Speaker 1: weeks and months leading up to the riot, there were
Speaker 1: more than a few white Toulsons who not only feared
Speaker 1: that the color line was in danger of being slowly erased,
Speaker 1: but believed that this was already happening. Into that explosive situation,
Speaker 1: a black teenaged boy working as a shoeshiner had a
Speaker 1: brief run in with a white teenaged girl operating an elevator.
Speaker 1: The two may have been friends, there were rumors that
Speaker 1: they were more, but a white clerk claimed that the
Speaker 1: boy had grabbed her and the fuse was lit. The
Speaker 1: boy was taken into custody. A group of more than
Speaker 1: two thousand angry white people gathered on the courthouse steps,
Speaker 1: some intent on lynching him, possibly promoted by an inflammatory
Speaker 1: editorial in a white newspaper. A small group of armed
Speaker 1: black war veterans and others squared off with them there,
Speaker 1: and soon shots were fired. White people all over the
Speaker 1: city began their march on the Greenwood area to tamp
Speaker 1: down what many white people saw as an uprising. The
Speaker 1: terror went on for eighteen hours into June one. The
Speaker 1: atrocities too numerous to list. Families were murdered while praying
Speaker 1: while fleeing, and the Tulsa Police, despite their sworn duty
Speaker 1: to serve and protect, didn't assist. In fact, Tulsa police
Speaker 1: officers helped set some fires, and an all white unit
Speaker 1: of the National Guard joined the white invaders. Other public
Speaker 1: officials provided guns and AMMO to the white men. The
Speaker 1: KKK got involved, a semi functioning machine gun was used
Speaker 1: on Black Pulson's airplanes dropped turpentine balls, destroying more buildings.
Speaker 1: Despite being largely outnumbered, Black Pulson's fought to protect their
Speaker 1: homes and businesses and most all of Greenwood, but in
Speaker 1: the end, scores of black people and some white people too,
Speaker 1: were killed and Greenwood was left in ruins. The exact
Speaker 1: numbers of injured and dead, even after what's to be
Speaker 1: uncovered in three suspected mass graves, may never be known.
Speaker 1: It's still unclear looking back exactly what happened between Dick Roland,
Speaker 1: the black shoeshiner, and Sarah Age, the white elevator operator,
Speaker 1: to spark the massacre, but this is known. She refused
Speaker 1: to bring charges. Roland survived the massacre and was vindicated.
Speaker 1: For years, Tulsa refused to acknowledge in any meaningful way
Speaker 1: what happened. In no one was ever charged or prosecuted
Speaker 1: for the crimes that occurred during those eighteen or so hours.
Speaker 1: Even those who grew up there, Ellsworth included, were not
Speaker 1: taught that part of the city's history. The Tulsa Race
Speaker 1: massacre became a terrible and closely held secret that began
Speaker 1: to change with some earlier work and then Ellsworth's death
Speaker 1: in a Promised Land in When members of the national
Speaker 1: media descended on Oklahoma City after the bombing of the
Speaker 1: Federal Building, they were informed of this other episode of
Speaker 1: domestic terrorism in the state's history. More news accounts and
Speaker 1: more books on the massacre followed, and in ty nineteen,
Speaker 1: the HBO superhero series Watchman, inspired in part by the
Speaker 1: events in Tulsa, enlightened many more to the story. Ellsworth
Speaker 1: has a new book out that centers on Tulsa's decades
Speaker 1: long cover up, titled The Groundbreaking An American City and
Speaker 1: Its Search for Justice. It was released in May, and,
Speaker 1: as alluded to before, in the process of all of this,
Speaker 1: the terminology used to describe the event has changed for
Speaker 1: many years. When it was mentioned, it was called the
Speaker 1: Tulsa race riot, a term that muddies and lessons what happened.
Speaker 1: Carlos Hill, the chair of the African American Studies Department
Speaker 1: at the University of Oklahoma, told the publication The Tulsa
Speaker 1: World in quote, what people in the community and historians
Speaker 1: are trying to raise up is what happened in Tulsa
Speaker 1: is a deliberate, coordinated, systematic assault on a community that
Speaker 1: resulted in that community being completely destroyed. That is not
Speaker 1: a race riot. This was a massacre. Referring to it
Speaker 1: as a race riot is a euphemism. Tulsa's failure to
Speaker 1: come to grips with its deadly past clearly has left
Speaker 1: scars of its own. Ellsworth said, the city was robbed
Speaker 1: of its honesty. You have entire generations growing up in
Speaker 1: Tulsa who have never heard of this. You have people
Speaker 1: growing up with a false reality, of false vision of
Speaker 1: the land they were on. I mean, imagine if today,
Speaker 1: right now, that you had young people growing up in
Speaker 1: Manhattan who had never heard of nine eleven, that there
Speaker 1: were no books to talk about nine eleven, that it's
Speaker 1: as if it didn't exist. The Race Massacre was a
Speaker 1: gigantic myth in the history of Tulsa. It was deliberately
Speaker 1: buried for a long time. The full excavation will mark
Speaker 1: another step in the long road to understanding and perhaps
Speaker 1: one day, recovery. Ellsworth said, I know that this has
Speaker 1: been a process that has been going on for a
Speaker 1: while now. It's caused people to kind of re evaluate
Speaker 1: how they look the past, how they look at their
Speaker 1: town and what's going on. I think that's been a
Speaker 1: liberating process for some people. It's been a very difficult
Speaker 1: one for others. Today's episode is based on the article
Speaker 1: what was the Tulsa Race Massacre and Why does it
Speaker 1: still Haunt the City? On House to Forks dot com,
Speaker 1: written by John Donovan. To learn more about the events
Speaker 1: surrounding the massacre, check out the episode that we did
Speaker 1: on one of my other shows, American Shadows. The episode
Speaker 1: is called Divided Brain Stuff is production of by Heart
Speaker 1: Radio in partnership with House to Forks dot com and
Speaker 1: is produced by Tyler Client. Four more podcasts from my
Speaker 1: Heart Radio visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
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