Are You Aware? The Destruction of a Dream and the Race Massacre of Tulsa’s Black Wall Street
Source: National Archives.
This is part II in our Awareness Wednesday series for Black History Month 2021. Read the other posts in the series here.
After the Civil War, Blacks availed themselves of the opportunity to buy land. During the 1889 Land Rush, the “Unassigned Lands” (ceded Native territory) were the only lands approved to be sold to Blacks.
In 1868, John and Rosanna Gurley lived in Huntsville, Alabama. That year they welcomed their firstborn son — Ottowa. Eight years later, John and Rosanna relocated their family, including Ottowa and his three younger siblings, to Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
During this post-Civil War era, Black families were quick to take advantage of their newly obtained ability to receive an education. Ottowa went to school in Arkansas. Ottowa, or O.W. as he was called, worked for the federal government under President Grover Cleveland before striking out on his own. He became principal of the colored school in Perry, Oklahoma. He later started a store and married Emma Evans.
The beginnings of Tulsa’s Black “Wall Street”
In 1906, O.W. Gurley sold his store and land in Perry, then moved with his wife, Emma, to the oil boomtown of Tulsa. There he purchased 40 acres of land, which the U.S. government had stipulated as “only to be sold to colored.” This was a codification of mandatory segregation guaranteed to prevent Blacks and whites from living in the same neighborhoods. He began by building a boardinghouse. He soon added more buildings. Gurley assisted others financially in starting their businesses.
The railroad tracks were the dividing line between the white and Black sides of the area. A long strip of road also divided the area, which Gurley named Greenwood Avenue, after a city in Mississippi.
Other Black families began to settle in Greenwood. During the day, they worked on the white side of town but returned at night to the safety of Greenwood. Many well-to-do Black families settled in town. Business and home development for the Black residents increased. Gurley’s goal was to have a settlement for Black people built by Black people. He envisioned a community that was financially and socially independent.
Greenwood would boast two newspapers, a hospital, and a public library. It had doctors and lawyers, barber and beauty shops, two banks, and a real-estate agency. There was a 750-seat movie theater. The town even had a taxi company. More than 300 businesses flourished in Greenwood.
Greenwood had a superior school system, which provided excellent educational instruction for the town’s Black students. Booker T. Washington, noted black scholar, was the first to call Greenwood the “Negro Wall Street.” It later became known as “Black Wall Street.”
Segregation is the law of the land
Greenwood was to become a self-sustaining community. Because Black residents were financially successful — some even owned oil land — many had a very refined and luxurious lifestyle. Less affluent Black people lived in shanties and shacks. Greenwood grew to become a city of 10,000 people.
Many white Tulsans, on the other hand, did not enjoy Greenwood’s level of prosperity. The people of Greenwood spent their money in Greenwood. Little filtered back to the white section of town. Historians estimated that every dollar spent in Greenwood circulated through town businesses 36 times.
In later years, Gurley partnered with another Black entrepreneur, J. B. Stradford, also a son of former slaves. He built the Stradford Hotel, which became a fixture on Greenwood Avenue. The Stradford Hotel had 54 beds, a dining hall, a saloon, and regular live jazz performances. It was the largest Black-owned and Black-operated hotel in America.
Segregation was the law of the land. There was no social mixing. Greenwood had everything that was on the white side of Tulsa, and perhaps more.
By 1914, O.W. Gurley’s net worth was reported to be three million dollars. By 1921, Gurley owned more than 100 properties in Greenwood and had an estimated net worth of $13.6 million.
Racial tensions come to a head
Racial unrest was on the rise in America. The summer of 1919, which has been called Red Summer, saw a resurgence of racial violence across America. Most of these incidents, in the form of riots and mob violence, targeted Black communities. Twenty-five riots, killing hundreds of (mostly Black) people, occurred that summer.
White men and Black men coming back from World War I in 1918 were thrust into a nation fraught with racial tensions. The mid-1920s saw the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan, which had an estimated 100,000 members in Oklahoma. There was great cause for fear in the Black community
In response to the racial tensions, The Tulsa Star, a newspaper from Greenwood, encouraged Blacks to take up arms and to show up at courthouses and jails to make sure Blacks who were on trial were not taken and killed by white lynch mobs.
Dick Rowland, a Greenwood teenager, was well known and liked in the community. He shined shoes in front of Tulsa’s Drexel building. On the morning of May 30, Rowland stepped into the Drexel Building to use the restroom. The elevator operator was a young white girl named Sarah Page. A scream was heard from inside the elevator, and Rowland ran out. A person by the building saw Dick Rowland running out of the building and assumed that he had assaulted Page.
Rowland ran, was taken into custody, and denied the charge of sexual assault on Sarah Page. The word got out, and 1,500 white men went to the courthouse.
A rumor began circulating in Tulsa and Greenwood that Rowland was to be lynched. Hearing this, and remembering the admonition in the Tulsa Star, 75 Black ex-servicemen went to the jail and offered to help guard Rowland. Some of them were armed. The sheriff felt he had it under control and sent them home. As the men were leaving, it was reported that a white man in the crowd tried to disarm a Black man. A shot was fired and then the sheriff was reported to have said, “All hell broke loose!”
At the end of the firefight, 12 people were killed — 10 white and two Black. As news of these deaths spread throughout the city, mob violence exploded. The riot had begun. The Tulsa Massacre of 1921 was one of the worst instances of mass racial violence in American history. The attack occurred over 18 hours from May 31 to June 1. The violence focused on Tulsa’s Greenwood District. A white mob began to attack residents, homes, and businesses.
The mobs grew larger, reacting to a false belief that a Black insurrection was underway. Mobs of armed white men then descended on Greenwood, looting homes, burning down businesses, and shooting Black people dead on the spot.
Greenwood was also subjected to an attack by air. Men rushed to a nearby airport, which housed many planes from World War I. Pilots dropped gasoline bombs on top of houses and businesses.
By the time Governor James Robertson declared martial law and National Guard troops arrived in Tulsa at noon on June 1, the Greenwood District lay in ruins.
The aftermath
Within 24 hours, an estimated 300 Black residents were killed. Hundreds were injured, and between 8,000 and 10,000 people were left homeless, many displaced to detention centers. Thirty-five city blocks were destroyed. The massacre destroyed Greenwood.
What happened to Dick Rowland? During the riot Dick was kept in jail, under guard, for his safety. In court he said he had stepped on Sarah’s foot as he left the elevator causing her to yell. Sarah corroborated his story. All charges were dropped. It was reported that he left Tulsa the morning after the riot and never returned.
What about Ottowa W. Gurley? Many survivors said they saw him lying dead in the streets. Some said they saw him thrown in an unmarked grave. Actually, Gurley was arrested for inciting the conflict; he was later released after implicating two other Black leaders, J.B. Stradford (Gurley’s business associate in many financial ventures) and newspaper editor A.J. Smitherman.
Gurley and his wife fled to Los Angeles, where they ran a hotel. Gurley died 14 years later at the age of 67.
People were buried in unmarked graves. Local officials attempted to block efforts to rebuild. They destroyed a lot of the evidence, including newspapers and official law enforcement paperwork. No one spoke of the riot in either the Black or white populations. It was not in the history books. No one taught about it. It did not become part of the school curriculum in Oklahoma until 2000.
This May 21 will mark 100 years since the Tulsa Race Massacre. Some of the last known survivors have recently shared powerful testimonies of their experiences — Dr. Olivia Hooker, Hal Singer, and Viola Fletcher.
Most of the survivors of that day have died, but their stories and legacy will live on.
Tommie Montgomery Leydsman is a mother of four and grandmother of four. She is a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard and a retired educator (33 years) of grades 4–6. Originally from Pennsylvania, she is a prolific reader and a lover of history.
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