Book Review

On the morning of May 30, 1921, a 19-year-old African-American bootblack named Dick Rowland tripped while exiting the elevator of the Drexel Building in downtown Tulsa, Okla., stumbling into the 17-year-old white elevator operator, Sarah Page. Ms. Page screamed. Mr. Rowland was arrested and held in custody at the Tulsa courthouse. The following afternoon, the Tulsa Tribune published a sensational story claiming that a Negro had assaulted Ms. Page – a story later proved false when charges against Mr. Rowland were dropped – and probably also published an incendiary editorial entitled, “To Lynch Negro Tonight.” Within three hours a lynch mob of about 800 vigilantes had formed outside the courthouse.

The African-American community of Tulsa, segregated into a neighborhood called Greenwood, was well aware that people accused of violent crime in Oklahoma, especially black people accused of sexual assault, were frequently lynched before their trials. Moreover, local leaders, black-owned newspapers and national activists had recently exhorted the Greenwood community that they should use self-defense to prevent lynchings. Consequently, some 50 to 75 black men armed themselves and went downtown to protect Mr. Rowland. The white sheriff of Tulsa, Willard McCullough, rejected the black men’s offer of assistance, but nevertheless resigned himself to protect Mr. Rowland or die trying, by barricading himself in the courthouse and threatening to shoot any man who entered. He soon hit upon a different strategy – convincing the white crowd to disperse, while having his black deputy sheriff, Barney Cleaver, disperse the black defenders. During the tense negotiations, a white man tried to disarm a black man; a shot rang out; and running gun battles broke out between the two groups. The Tulsa race riot of 1921, one of the worst in U.S. history, had begun.