• Tulsa, Then and NowReflections on the Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre
• Hannibal B. Johnson (bio)

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Next year, 2021, will be the 100th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, a defining and defiling moment in our history. An essential question for Tulsa, as well as the USA, will be: What has Tulsa done in the interim between 1921 and 2021 to advance race relations and to build a unified, just community?

In 1921, Tulsa descended into madness. Some Tulsans preyed upon the least among us. The hours spanning May 31 and June 1, 1921, became a tragic, but illustrative, case study of the human potential for inhumanity. Fear and jealousy swelled within Tulsa's white community as African American economic successes, including home, business, and land ownership, mounted. For some white Tulsans, putting those "uppity Negroes" back in their place became a rallying cry. Land lust set in. White corporate and railroad interests coveted the turf on which the heart of the Greenwood District sat.

The Ku Klux Klan made its presence known. This notorious white supremacist cult grew exponentially in Oklahoma during the 1920s. Newspapers, the media of the day, fanned the flames of racial discord. One media outlet, the [End Page 181] Tulsa Tribune, a daily afternoon newspaper, published a series of inflammatory articles and editorials that denigrated Tulsa's Black citizens and fomented anti-Black hostility among white Tulsans.

A chance encounter between two teenagers on an elevator lit the fuse that ignited the Tulsa tinderbox and set Greenwood District alight. The girl, Sarah Page, recanted her original assault claim, refusing to bear witness against the boy, Dick Roland. Her recantation came too late. The Tulsa Tribune got wind of the incident. The paper's May 31, 1921, edition ran an article entitled "Nab Negro for Attacking Girl in an Elevator." That piece painted a scurrilous portrait of an attempted rape on a virtuous white girl by a villainous Black boy in broad daylight in a public building in downtown Tulsa.

Authorities arrested Dick Rowland and held him in a jail cell atop the courthouse. A burgeoning white mob threatened to lynch him. African American men, some armed, raced to Rowland's defense, marching to the courthouse on two separate occasions. Conflict ensued. A gun discharged. Chaos erupted. After an overnight gun battle, thousands of weapon-wielding white men, some deputized by local law enforcement, invaded and decimated the Greenwood District, employing a scorched-earth policy that left little unscathed.

After some sixteen hours, the National Guard quelled the violence and restored order. Ultimately, "order" included a declaration of martial law, the internment of Black Tulsans, and some still-mysterious burial processes that may have included mass graves. Property damage ran into the millions. Hundreds of people died, with still more injured. Some fled Tulsa, never to return.

Initially dubbed the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, but now widely known as the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, this man-made calamity might more accurately be labeled an assault, a disaster, a massacre, a pogrom, a holocaust, or any number of other ghastly descriptors. The Tulsa tragedy would remain a taboo topic for decades. African American Tulsans faced institutional resistance to rebuilding their beloved community: rejected insurance claims, the arrests of Black men for "inciting" the violence that leveled their community, efforts to take their land, and media attacks on their humanity. Still, Black Tulsa rose from the ashes, reconstructed with the sheer force of the indomitable human spirit.

Tulsa's African Americans resurrected their community. By the early 1940s, the Greenwood District boasted more than 200 Black-owned businesses. In subsequent decades, integration, urban renewal, and a host of social, political, and economic dynamics spurred a second decline, but Greenwood District denizens held fast to hope. Preservation, restoration, and reconciliation became watchwords as healing history became priority one.

Who were the men and women who laid the foundation for the success of the Greenwood District? What, specifically, did they create? How might we leverage this history in service of our community today? Many of the Greenwood District's...

• 关于塔尔萨的历史，对1921年塔尔萨种族大屠杀的遗产进行时空反思
• 汉尼拔·约翰逊（生物）

道德世界的弧线很长，但它趋向正义。

--Dr。马丁路德金。

明年2021年将是1921年塔尔萨种族大屠杀100周年，这是我们历史上具有决定性意义的时刻。对于塔尔萨以及美国来说，一个基本问题将是：塔尔萨在1921年至2021年间的过渡期间做了什么工作，以促进种族关系并建立一个统一的公正社区？

1921年，塔尔萨（Tulsa）陷入疯狂。一些图尔桑人掠夺了我们当中最少的人。1921年5月31日至1921年6月1日这几个小时成为了人类非人性潜力的悲剧性但说明性的案例研究。随着非裔美国人在经济上取得的成功，包括住房，企业和土地所有权的激增，恐惧和嫉妒在塔尔萨的白人社区中泛滥成灾。对于一些白色的图尔桑人来说，将那些“卑鄙的黑人”放回原处成为一种集会的呼声。土地的欲望开始了。白人公司和铁路公司对格林伍德区中心地带的渴望垂涎。

Ku Klux Klan的知名度很高。这个臭名昭著的白人至上主义者在1920年代在俄克拉荷马州成倍增长。报纸，当今的媒体，煽动了种族不和的情绪。每日下午报纸[End Page 181] 塔尔萨论坛报（Tulsa Tribune）是一家媒体，刊登了一系列煽动性文章和社论，that毁了塔尔萨的黑人公民，并激起了白人图尔桑人之间的反黑人敌意。

两名少年在电梯上碰巧碰巧点燃了引爆塔尔萨火种箱的引信，并点燃了格林伍德区。女孩莎拉·佩奇（Sarah Page）撤回了她最初的袭击主张，拒绝为男孩迪克·罗兰（Dick Roland）作证。她的背书来不及了。在塔尔萨论坛得到了事件的风。该论文的1921年5月31日版刊登了一篇题为“纳布·黑人（Nab Negro）的电梯中袭击女孩”的文章。那幅画描绘了一个邪恶的黑人男孩在一个明亮的白天在塔尔萨市中心一幢公共建筑中企图强奸白人女孩的强奸未遂肖像。

当局逮捕了迪克·罗兰（Dick Rowland），并将其关押在法院大楼顶上的牢房中。一个新兴的白暴民扬言要私下处死他。非裔美国人（其中有一些武装）参加了罗兰德的辩护，两次分别前往法院。随之而来的冲突。枪开了。混乱爆发。经过一夜的枪战之后，数千名持武器的白人（其中一些人由当地执法机构任命）入侵并摧毁了格林伍德区，并采用了焦土政策，这丝毫没有受到任何损害。

大约十六小时后，国民警卫队平息了暴力并恢复了秩序。最终，“命令”包括戒严的宣言，黑塔尔桑斯的拘禁以及一些可能仍然包括大规模墓葬的神秘葬礼。财产损失达数百万。数百人死亡，更多人受伤。一些人逃离塔尔萨，再也没有回来。

最初被称为1921年塔尔萨族种族暴动，但现在被广泛称为1921年塔尔萨族种族大屠杀，这种人为的灾难可能更准确地被标记为袭击，灾难，大屠杀，大屠杀，大屠杀或其他许多可怕的事件描述符。塔尔萨（Tulsa）悲剧将成为数十年来的禁忌话题。非裔美国人图尔桑人在重建他们心爱的社区方面面临体制上的阻力：拒绝保险索赔，因“煽动”暴力使社区夷为平地而逮捕黑人，占领土地的努力以及媒体对人类的攻击。仍然，黑塔尔萨人从灰烬中复活，用顽强的人类精神的绝对力量重建。

塔尔萨的非裔美国人复活了他们的社区。到1940年代初，格林伍德区拥有200多家黑人拥有的企业。在随后的几十年中，融合，城市更新以及一系列的社会，政治和经济动力刺激了第二次下降，但是格林伍德区的居民却抱有希望。随着康复历史成为重中之重，保存，恢复和和解成为了口号。

谁为格林伍德区的成功奠定了基础？他们具体创造了什么？我们如何利用这一历史为当今的社区服务？格林伍德区的许多...