Death in a Promised Land (22 page)

38
. Tulsa
Democrat,
November 10, 1917, p. 1; Tulsa
Times,
November 10, 1917, p. 1; Tulsa
World,
November 10,1917, p. 1; NCLB,
The “Knights of Liberty” Mob,
7–8, 13.

39
. In the version of this statement reprinted in Kornbluh,
Rebel Voices,
334, the detective is “named Blaine.” Tulsa
Democrat,
November 10,1917, p. 1; Tulsa
Times,
November 9, p. 1, and November 10, 1917, p. 1; Tulsa
World,
November 10, 1917, p. 1; NCLB,
The “Knights of Liberty” Mob,
8–9.

40
. NCLB,
The “Knights of Liberty” Mob,
13–14.

41
. Tulsa
World,
November 10, p. 1, and November 11, 1917, p. 1; Tulsa
Democrat,
November 10, p. 8, and November 11, 1917, p. 1; Tulsa
Times,
November 10, p. 6, and November 12, 1917, p. 7; NCLB,
The “Knights of Liberty” Mob,
15–16.

42
. Tulsa
World,
November 12, p. 4, and November 13, 1917, p. 4; Oklahoma
World,
November 22, 1917, p. 1; Tulsa
Democrat,
November 11, 1917, p. 3; NCLB,
The “Knights of Liberty” Mob,
15–16.

In December, 1917, Charles Krieger, a Tulsan, was arrested for bombing the Pew home. He was acquitted, owing to flimsy evidence and what appears to have been a fair-minded judge, but not until May, 1920—nearly two and one-half years after the bombing. Historians H. C. Peterson and Gilbert Fite wrote about Krieger: “It seems that he was luckier than many other I.W.W.’s because of the fairmindedness and impartiality of Judge R. S. Cole. Some judges refused to bow to the popular hysteria. In Oklahoma and elsewhere, however, there was a general state of mind reminiscent of the attitude of King James I, who said about the Puritans, ‘I will make them conform or I will harry them out of the land,’”
Opponents of War,
176. On this incident see also William T. Lampe (comp.),
Tulsa County in the World War
(Tulsa: Tulsa County Historical Society, 1919), 221–22.

43
. That all of the defendants were white is based on two sources of evidence. First, city directories for Tulsa during this period listed a person’s race, in addition to his name, home address, and occupation. Of those defendants whose names were included in the
Tulsa City Directory, 1917,
all were designated as white. Secondly, owing to the nature of their reporting during this period, it is simply inconceivable that either the
World,
the
Times,
or the
Democrat
would have failed to mention it if any of the defendants had been black, if any were. [None of the extant copies of Tulsa’s various black newspapers carried any material about this incident.]

44
. Tulsa
World,
March 18,1919, p. 1; Tulsa
Times,
March 18,1919, p. 1; Tulsa
Democrat,
March 18, 1919, p. 1.

45
. Tulsa
Democrat,
March 18, 1919, p. 1; Tulsa
World,
March 18, 1919, p. 1; Tulsa
Times,
March 18, 1919, p. 1. Unfortunately, no copies of the Tulsa
Star,
the city’s black newspaper, for March or April of 1919 could be located.

46
. Tulsa
Democrat,
March 19, p. 11, March 20, p. 9, and March 21, 1919, pp. 10, 16; Tulsa
Times,
March 20, p. 1, March 21, p. 1, and March 22,1919, p. 3; Tulsa
World,
March 21, 1919, p. 1. There is some evidence that blacks visited the courthouse twice. See Tulsa
Times,
March 22, 1919, p. 3.

47
. Tulsa
Democrat,
March 21, 1919, p. 16.

48
. Tulsa
World,
March 23, p. 1, March 24, p. 11, March 25, p. 15, and March 26,1919, p. 3.

49
. Tulsa
Times,
March 22, 1919, p. 3. The author located no evidence to support or contradict Abernathy’s “class analysis” of the group of blacks that went down to the city jail on the night of March 13, 1919. Two years later, however, when a similar situation developed in the case of Dick Rowland, “wealthy” blacks were included in the group that went down to the county courthouse after rumors of a possible lynching attempt were heard on the city’s streets. Interview with W. D. Williams, June 7, 1978, Tulsa.

50
. Tulsa
World,
August 22, p. 1, and August 24,1920, p. 1; Tulsa
Tribune,
August 22, p. 1, August 25, p. 1, August 27, p. 1, and August 28, 1920, p. 1.

51
. Tulsa
World,
August 22, p. 1, and August 24,1920, p. 1; Tulsa
Tribune,
August 22, p. 1, August 24, pp. 1, 4, and August 28, 1920, p. 1.

52
. Tulsa
World,
August 22, p. 1, and August 24,1920, p. 1. Tulsa
Tribune,
August 22, p. 1, August 24, pp. 1, 4, and August 25, 1920, p. 1. See also Tulsa
Star,
August 28, 1920, p. 1

53
. Tulsa
World,
August 27,1920, p. 1
,
Tulsa
Tribune,
August 28, 1920, p. 3. See also Tulsa
World,
August 22, p. 1, August 23, p. 10, August 24, p. 1, August 25, pp. 1,12, and August 28, 1920, p. 1; Tulsa
Tribune,
August 22, p. 1, August 23, p. 1, August 24, pp. 1, 4, August 25, p. 1, August 27,1920, p. 1; Tulsa
Star,
August 28, 1920, p. 1. The Tulsa
Times
had folded, and the
Tribune
was the successor to the
Democrat
.

54
. For one week after the Nida shooting, Roy Belton was identified in the newspapers as “T. M. Owens,” which may have been an alias which he gave to the police. His age was also given as seventeen and nineteen. Tulsa
World,
August 22, p. 1, August 24, p. 1, August 29, p. 9, September 1, p. 12, and September 2, 1920, p. 9; Tulsa
Tribune,
August 23, p. 1, August 24, p. 1, and August 28, 1920, p. 1.

55
. Tulsa
Tribune,
August 23, p. 1, August 24, p. 1, and August 27, 1920, p. 1; Tulsa
World,
August 24, p. 1, and September 2, 1920, p. 1.

56
. Tulsa
Tribune,
August 25, p. 1, and August 27, 1920, p. 1; Tulsa
World,
August 25, pp. 1, 12, August 28, pp. 1, 9, August 29, p. 9, August 30, p. 1, and September 2, 1920, p. 1.

57
. The jail was located on the top floor of the building, and, in a situation that was to be repeated the next year, the Sheriff ordered that the elevator be sent to the top floor each night. Tulsa
World,
August 25, p. 12, and August 31, 1920, p. 4; Tulsa
Tribune,
August 28, 1920, p. 1.

58
. Tulsa
Tribune,
August 27, 1920, p. 1; Tulsa
World,
August 28, 1920, p. 1.

59
. Raymond Sharp said that he did not know how to plea, and the not-guilty plea was entered for him. Tulsa
Tribune,
August 28, 1920,
p
. 1; Tulsa
World,
August 28, pp. 1, 9, and August 29, 1920, p. 9.

60
. Tulsa
World,
August 29, p. 1, and August 30,1920, p. 3; Tulsa
Tribune,
August 29, 1920, pp. 1–2.

61
. After Roy Belton was abducted, Sheriff Woolley took Harmon and Sharp by automobile to the jail in Muskogee. Tulsa
World,
August 29, p. 1, and August 30,1920, pp. 1–3; Tulsa
Tribune,
August 29, 1920, pp. 1–2.

62
. The crowd that viewed the lynching was estimated at two thousand people and higher. Tulsa
World,
August 30, 1920, pp. 1–3; Tulsa
Tribune,
August 29, 1920, p. 1; Tulsa
Star,
September 4, 1920, p. 1; White, “The Eruption of Tulsa,” 909.

63
. Tulsa
World,
August 29, p. 1, and August 30,1920, p. 1; Tulsa
Tribune,
August 29, 1920, p. 1.

64
. Tulsa
Tribune,
August 29, 1920, p. 2.

65
. Tulsa
World,
August 29, 1920, p. 1.

66
.
Ibid.;
Tulsa
Tribune,
August 29, 1920, p. 3. A collection of clippings about this incident are located in the Administrative Files, Box C-364 [Lynching—Oklahoma], NAACP Papers, Library of Congress.

67
. Gustafson’s and Woolley’s statements on the lynching were almost identical. Tulsa
World,
August 30, 1920, pp. 1–3.

68
. Tulsa
World,
August 30, p. 4, August 31, pp. 1, 4, September 1, pp. 1, 4, 12, September 2, pp. 1, 4, September 3, pp. 1, 18, September 5, p. A1, September 6, p. 1, and September 10, 1920, pp. 1, 13; Tulsa
Tribune,
August 31, p. 12, September 6, p. 1, September 9, p. 1, September 10, p. 1, September 21, p. 2, September 24, p. 1, and September 29, 1920, p. 1.

69
. Tulsa
Star,
September 4, 1920, pp. 1, 4.

Chapter 3: Race Riot

1
. Interviews with W. D. Williams, June 7,1978, Tulsa, and Robert Fairchild, June 8, 1978, Tulsa;
Tulsa City Directory, 1921
(Tulsa: Polk-Hoffhine Directory Company, 1921); “Alumni Roster” for Booker T. Washington High School, 1916–1929, courtesy of W. D. Williams.

2
. Interviews with W. D. Williams, June 7, 1978, Tulsa, and Robert Fairchild, June 8, 1978, Tulsa; Tulsa
Tribune,
May 31, 1921 [incorrectly cited as June 1, 1921], in Loren L. Gill, “The Tulsa Race Riot” (M.A. thesis, University of Tulsa, 1946), 22.

3
. Walter White wrote in the New York
Evening Post:
“The immediate cause of the riot was a white girl who claimed that Dick Rowland, a colored youth of nineteen, attempted to assault her.... The following day the Tulsa
Tribune
told of the charge and the arrest of Rowland. Chief of Police John A. Gustafson, Sheriff McCullough, Mayor T. D. Evans, and a number of reputable citizens, among them a prominent oil operator, all declared that the girl had not been molested; that no attempt at criminal assault had been made. Victor F. Barnett, managing editor of the
Tribune
stated that his paper had since learned that the original story that the girl’s face was scratched and her clothes torn was untrue,” quoted in “Mob Fury and Race Hatred as a National Danger,”
Literary Digest,
LXIX (June 18, 1921), 8; Tulsa
World,
June 2, 1921, p. 2; Mary E. Jones Parrish,
Events of the Tulsa Disaster
(n.p., n.p., n.d.), 7, 29.

4
. Tulsa
World,
June 2, 1921, pp. 1–5; Interviews with W. D. Williams, June 7, 1978, Tulsa, and Robert Fairchild, June 8, 1978, Tulsa; Walter White, “The Eruption of Tulsa,”
Nation,
CXII (June 29, 1921), 909. Tulsa police reports for this period no longer exist.