Commentary on the Tulsa Oklahoma 1921 Massacre - echo opinion by Anna Badkhen

Tulsa Oklahoma Race Riot of 1921 and Charlottsville Virginia in 2017- A Tulsa World reader responded to an apparent apologists point of view, published by an Oklahoma history teacher named Donald W. Rominger, Jr., who objected to the use of the term "massacre", to describe the tragically incendiary murder of dozens of people during the incident.

Tulsa Oklahoma race riot 1921

The Tulsa race riot, sometimes referred to as the Tulsa massacre, Tulsa pogrom, or Tulsa race riot of 1921, took place on May 31 and June 1, 1921, when a mob of white citizens attacked residents and businesses of the African-American community of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma - non-fatal injuries = over 800. Total number of deaths = 36. Weapons used were an incendiary device, explosive and accounts of an air raid (!).

A mob of white citizens attacked residents and businesses of the African-American community of Greenwoodin Tulsa, Oklahoma.This is considered one of the worst incidents of racial violence in the history of the United States. The attack, carried out on the ground and by air, destroyed more than 35 blocks of the district, at the time the wealthiest black community in the U.S.

More than 800 people were admitted to hospitals and more than 6,000 black residents were arrested and detained, many for several days.The Oklahoma Bureau of Vital Statistics officially recorded 36 dead, but the American Red Cross declined to provide an estimate.

Photograph captioned Tulsa riot 6-1-21

The riot began over a Memorial Day weekend after 19-year-old Dick Rowland, a black shoeshiner, was accused of assaulting Sarah Page, the 17-year-old white elevator operator of the nearby Drexel Building. After he was taken into custody, rumors raced through the black community that he was at risk of being lynched. A group of armed African-American men rushed to the police station where the young suspect was held, to prevent a lynching, as a white crowd had gathered. A confrontation developed between black and white people; shots were fired, and twelve people were killed, ten white and two black.

As news of these deaths spread throughout the city, mob violence exploded. Thousands of white people rampaged through the black community that night and the next day, killing men and women, burning and looting stores and homes. About 10,000 black people were left homeless, and property damage amounted to more than $1.5 million in real estate and $750,000 in personal property ($31 million in 2018).

Many survivors left Tulsa. Both black and white residents who stayed in the city were silent for decades about the terror, violence, and losses of this event. The riot was largely omitted from local, state, as well as national, histories: "The Tulsa race riot of 1921 was rarely mentioned in history books, classrooms or even in private. Blacks and whites alike grew into middle age unaware of what had taken place."

Contradictory letter to Tulsa World from an opinion writer Anna Badkhen, of Tulsa, Oklahoma: 

As a former war correspondent and journalist, I value the need to present different sides of an argument. As a witness to genocidal campaigns and ethnic cleansings in Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq, among other geographies, I also appreciate the danger of seeking to portray balance, where there is none.

Don't whitewash the 1921 Tulsa race massacre

Historical record indicates that the 1921 massacre in Greenwood was a systemic, targeted campaign to extinguish black well-being and wealth in Tulsa, and that a white mob and an air raid murdered hundreds of people.

The letter's description of the tragedy as “26 black citizens and 10 whites…people of both races were arrested or detained” trivializes the death toll, omits the bombing and fudges the obscenity of hundreds of black residents being subsequently imprisoned in what newspapers defined as a concentration camp.

That letter is reminiscent of President Trump’s blaming “both sides” during the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia: despite the government’s assault on the freedom of speech, that Constitutional Amendment still stands.

What insults the dignity and sanity of Tulsa and Tulsans is that the Tulsa World found it fitting to publish the letter (by David W. Rominger, Jr.) as if it presented another side of an argument. It does not.

It signals to the conscientious citizens of this city, including the descendants of the massacre’s victims, that whitewashing history is still the norm in Oklahoma.

Editor's Note: Historians and records differ on details of the event. The death count of 36 comes from the number of death certificates issued, but some historians believe the count to be higher.