Tulsa Riots: The Deadliest Racial Massacre in U.S. history
Photo: Tulsa Race Riot, June 1st, 1921.
#OnThisDay in 1921, the deadliest racial massacre in U.S. history occurred in the Greenwood African American district of Tulsa, Oklahoma.This section of Tulsa was a thriving community known as “Black Wall Street’ and included several groceries, two independent newspapers, two movie theaters, nightclubs, and numerous churches.
See our timeline of events leading up to the massacre below.
Photo: Photograph of the Cotten family, 1902, Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of the Families of Anita Williams Christopher and David Owen Williams.
In the 1830s the first African Americans came to the Oklahoma Territory with Native Americans along the Trail of Tears. Some were enslaved, and some were free. After Emancipation, they settled throughout the territory and founded several all-black towns. By 1900 African Americans composed 7 percent of the combined Oklahoma and Native American Territories and 5 percent of Tula’s population.
Photo: Photographic print of Eunice Jackson, Owen William and an unidentified woman, Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Princetta R. Newman.
Downtown Greenwood was the center of African American life in Tulsa, and one of the first sections of the city that sold to African American settlers. The successful community including several groceries, two independent newspapers, two movie theaters, nightclubs, dozens of businesses, and numerous churches. The thriving community led Booker T. Washington to call Greenwood, “The Negro’s Wall Street” and the moniker stuck.
Ku Klux Klan & Race Laws: 1907
Photo: Three Ku Klux Klan members standing beside automobile driven by Klan members at a Ku Klux Klan parade through counties in Northern Virginia bordering on the District of Columbia, 18 March 1922, Library of Congress, National Photo Company Collection.
In 1907 Oklahoma was admitted into the United States, and the legislature immediately began implementing restrictive race laws. By the 1920s many elected officials, law-enforcement authorities, judges, business leaders, and teachers were members of the state’s Ku Klux Klan. Tulsa’s section boasted a woman’s auxiliary and youth chapter.
Oil Fields near Tulsa: 1912
Dubbed the “Oil Capital of the World,” Tulsa experienced booming growth and prosperity during the 1900s. Immigration followed this economic good fortune. African Americans arrived from all over the country, including some from other parts of the Oklahoma Territory.
Veterans in Greenwood: 1919
Photo: “Some of the colored men of the 369th (15th N.Y.) who won the Croix de Guerre for gallantry in action.” Left to right. Front row: Pvt. Ed Williams, Herbert Taylor, Pvt. Leon Fraitor, Pvt. Ralph Hawkins. Back Row: Sgt. H. D. Prinas, Sgt. Dan Strorms, Pvt. Joe Williams, Pvt. Alfred Hanley, and Cpl. T. W. Taylor. 1998 print. Records of the War Department General and Special. Staffs. (165-WW-127-8), 1919, U.S. National Archives.
After returning from Europe at the end of World War 1, many black veterans worked to secure freedom and equality at home. Their efforts alarmed white supremacists, contributing to a growing wave of fear and violence nationwide. Armed black veterans were among the staunchest defenders of Greenwood during the riot.
Photo: Tulsa Race Riot, June 1st, 1921.
The imprisonment of Dick Rowland, a black man falsely accused of assaulting a white woman, sparked the Tulsa race riot. A lynch mob gathered to hang Rowland, but black Tulsans hurried to the courthouse to protect him. Between May 31 and June 1, 1921, white Ku Klux Klan members and white Tulsans attacked the black residents of Greenwood in a 16 hour race riot. At least 35 city blocks, containing over 1,000 homes, were destroyed by fire. Historians estimate that nearly 300 men, women, and children were killed.
Riot Postcards: 1921 (Post Riots)
Photo: Tulsa Race Riot, June 1st, 1921.
Photo postcards of the Tulsa race riot were widely distributed following the massacre in 1921. Like postcards depicting lynchings, these souvenir cards were powerful declarations of white racial power and control. Decades later, the cards served as evidence for community members working to recover the forgotten history of the riot and secure justice for its victims and their descendants.
Photo: B.C. Franklin (right) and his partner I.H. Spears practice law with their secretary Effie Thompson on June 6, 1921, in a Red Cross tent five days after the riot.
Dozens of black-owned businesses were rebuilt in Greenwood within a year of the riot, and hundreds more followed over the next three decades. This rapid rebuilding illustrates the energy and resiliency of the community. But the riot’s repercussions—and questions of race, memory, and repair—continue to resonate in Tulsa and across the nation. An interracial movement in the city for education, justice, and reconciliation persists today.
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