Historic Tulsa

CHAPTER III
P ICKING U P T HE P IECES
World War I had a major impact on Tulsa. Thousands of Tulsans answered the call of their
country and volunteered to fight in the war in Europe. Tulsans formed an ambulance company in
the Army’s Forty-Second Division and students from Kendall College, now the University of Tulsa,
formed Company D, Second Battalion of the 111th Army Engineers.
Oil became the lifeblood of the Allies effort in winning World War I. One Allied leader said,
“The Allies floated to victory on a sea of oil.” The increased demand for oil caused prices to shoot
from 40 cents a barrel to $2.25 a barrel by the end of the conflict. Production in the fields around
Tulsa increased accordingly, reaching 180 million barrels per year by 1918. Oklahoma supplied
one-third of the nation’s oil during World War I.
Tulsans who did not leave to fight did their part at home. Under the guidance of Chamber of
Commerce President Robert McFarland and bankers Newton Graham and J. M. Berry, five Liberty
Loan bond campaigns raised more than $32 million in Tulsa County for the war effort.
After World War I, black immigrants from surrounding states continued to be drawn to the
Greenwood District of north Tulsa, named for Greenwood, Arkansas, the home of the Patton
brothers who made Tulsa’s first survey. Tulsa’s black population increased from 1,429 at statehood
to 8,803 in 1919, making Greenwood larger than most Oklahoma towns. The area was served by
businesses in modern buildings and Greenwood’s citizens enjoyed a reasonably good life with
handsome churches and schools.
Tulsa, and America, lived double lives in 1921. Schools for whites and blacks were separate, but
certainly not equal. Black teachers earned slightly more than half of that of a white teacher. A large
police force patrolled south Tulsa, but only one officer was assigned to Greenwood, and he could
not arrest a white person. A city ordinance prevented blacks from moving into all white
neighborhoods. Tulsa was a segregated city.
On May 30, 1921, a fateful event occurred in an elevator at Renberg’s, a fashionable clothing
store located in the Drexel Building on South Main Street. Dick Rowland, a black young man,
stepped onto the elevator that was occupied by a 17-year-old white girl, Sarah Page. No one except
Rowland and Page really know what happened, but the girl ran screaming from the elevator,
claiming she had been assaulted. Rowland said he had stumbled and bumped into the girl.
The following day, Rowland was arrested and rumors circulated that he would be lynched for
the crime. Up to 100 black men gathered around the county jail to prevent a lynching. When a
large group of whites arrived, the air was tense. It began with frightened talk—then at least one
shot rang out.
During the night, armed gangs of angry whites invaded the Greenwood district and took guns
and ammunition from sixteen pawn shops and hardware stores. Black resistance was ineffective to
stop the rampage as mobs shot, robbed, and burned their way through the Greenwood District.
Oklahoma Governor J. B. A. Robertson declared martial law. National Guard troops arrived the
following morning to help restore order. However, the damage had been done.
Thirty five blocks of Greenwood had been looted or burned. More than eleven hundred black
families were homeless. Six thousand blacks were rounded up by special deputies appointed by
Tulsa Mayor T. D. Evans and placed in holding areas. In the first 24 hours after the National Guard
arrived, more than 200 black and white citizens required surgery. The Red Cross rendered medical
assistance to another 531.
The reporting of the 1921 Tulsa race riot is the most controversial single event among historians
in Oklahoma. Estimates of those killed in the riot range from 36 to 300. The New York Times reported,
“The entire black belt of Tulsa is now only a smoldering heap of blacked ruins. Hardly a negro shanty
✧
Black smoke covered the Greenwood District
in north Tulsa on June 1, 1921, as thirtyfive
blocks of the all-black neighborhood
were looted or burned.
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