Death in a Promised Land (25 page)

37
. Interviews with Seymour Williams, June 2, 1978, Tulsa, W. D. Williams, June 7, 1978, Tulsa, Robert Fairchild, June 8, 1978, Tulsa, and V. H. Hodge, June 12, 1978, Tulsa; Henry Whitlow, “The History of the Greenwood Era in Tulsa,” a paper presented to the Tulsa County Historical Society, March 29,1973, p. 5. See also Tulsa
World,
June 15, 1921, p. 15; and Tulsa
Tribune,
June 2, 1921, p. 5.

38
. Tulsa
World,
June 4, p. 18, June 6, p. 9, June 12, pp. A4, A12, June 16, p. 9, June 24, p. 1, and June 27, 1921, pp. 1, 10; Gill, “The Tulsa Race Riot,” 74–75.

39
. Interview with W. D. Williams, June 7, 1978, Tulsa; Record of Commission Proceedings, City of Tulsa, September 6, p. 248, September 9, p. 251, September 13, p. 261, September 15, pp. 275–76, September 27, p. 301, and October 7, 1921, p. 338; Tulsa
World,
June 10, p. 3, June 16, p. 9, June 24, pp. 1, 3, July 8, p. 9, July 15, p. 3, July 20, p. 18, July 26, p. 3, August 6, p. 16, and August 12, 1921, p. 2; Gill, “The Tulsa Race Riot,” 73–77.

40
. White to Preus, October 25, 1921, in Oklahoma State Attorney Generals Collection, Oklahoma State Archives.

41
. Tulsa
World,
June 24, 1921, p. 9; Gill, “The Tulsa Race Riot,” 83–85.

42
. Interviews with W. D. Williams, June 7, 1978, Tulsa, and Robert Fairchild, June 8, 1978, Tulsa; Gill, “The Tulsa Race Riot,” 83–85.

43
. Tulsa
World,
June 2, 1921, p. 4.

44
. Tulsa
Tribune,
June 2, p. 11, June 3, p. 20, June 4, p. 7, June 5, p. B10, June 6, p. 12, and June 7, 1921, p. 16; “The Tulsa Race Riots,”
Independent,
CV (June 18, 1921), 647; Minutes of Directors’ Meetings, Tulsa Chamber of Commerce, July 2, 1921, pp. 146–47.

45
. Record of Commission Proceedings, City of Tulsa, July 8, p. 97, July 12, p. 110, August 2, p. 160, August 5, p. 165, August 9, p. 168, August 12, p. 173, August 26, p. 223, September 30, p. 310, October 11, p. 351, October 14, p. 360, October 21, p. 375, December 2, p. 486, December 6, p. 501, December 16, p. 527, December 30, 1921, p. 567, and January 24, 1922, p. 70; interviews with W. D. Williams, June 7, 1978, Tulsa, and Robert Fairchild, June 8, 1978, Tulsa, Tulsa
World,
June 2, 1921, p. 1; Tulsa
Tribune,
June 3, p. 8, June 8, p. 2, June 9, pp. 1, 4, June 10, p. 9; June 11, p. 2, and June 14, 1921, p. 8; “Race Riot Quickens Public Conscience,”
Harlow’s Weekly,
XX (June 10, 1921), 47; “Mob Fury and Race Hatred as a National Danger,”
Literary Digest,
LXIX (June 18, 1921), 7–9.

46
. Tulsa
World,
July 21, p. 2, and December 24, 1921, p.
9;
Parrish,
Events of the Tulsa Disaster,
19–20; Gill, “The Tulsa Race Riot,” 80–83.

47
. Interview with W. D. Williams, June 7,1978, Tulsa; Whitlow, “The History of the Greenwood Era in Tulsa,” p. 5.

48
. J. B. A. Robertson to S. P. Freeling, June 3, 1921, Civil Case 1062, Oklahoma State Attorney Generals Collection, Oklahoma State Archives; Tulsa
World,
June 3, pp. 1, 2, 8, June 5, p. A13, June 9, p. 16, June 10, p. 1, and June 24, 1921, p. 1; Tulsa
Tribune,
June 2, p. 1, June 3, p. 1, June 5, p. 1, June 7, p. 1, and June 8, 1921, p. 1.

49
. Tulsa
World,
June 8, pp. 8, 18, June 9, p. 16, June 10, pp. 1, 8, June 11, p. 3, June 14, p. 13, June 16, p. 16, June 17, p. 1, June 19, p. 2, June 24, p. 1, and June 25,1921, p. 1; Records for District Court Cases Nos. 2227, 2236, 2238–59, 2263, and 2265–66, in the Office of the Court Clerk, Tulsa County Courthouse, Tulsa.

50
. Tulsa
World,
June 26,1921, pp. 1, 8. Six months before the race riot, an editorial in the Tulsa
Star
dealt with the “issue” of “social equality.” In part, the
Star
stated: “We are not demanding ’social equality’—that’s something that regulates itself between individuals—but we are demanding all that any citizen of our country has a right to demand—Equality without discrimination” (November 27, 1920, p. 8).

51
. Tulsa
World,
June 26,1921, p. 8.

52
.
Ibid
.

53
.
Ibid
. This report was also published in the Tulsa
Tribune,
June 25,1921, p. 1. Unfortunately, neither the original copy of the report, nor any materials associated with the grand jury could be located.

54
. Victor E. Harlow, “Let Action Conform to Words,”
Harlow’s Weekly,
July 1, 1921, p. 1.

55
. Records for District Court Cases Nos. 2227, 2236, 2238–2259, 2263, and 2265–2266, in the Office of the Court Clerk, Tulsa County Courthouse, Tulsa. Some black Tulsans, including hotel proprietor J. B. Stratford, fled the state, most likely to avoid possible arrest. Tulsa
Tribune,
June 16, p. 1, and June 20,1921, p. 5; Gill, “The Tulsa Race Riot,” 95–97; James E. Markham to S. P. Freeling, October 31,1921, and, S. P. Freeling to James E. Markham, November 2,1921, in Civil Case 1062, Oklahoma State Attorney Generals Collection, Oklahoma State Archives.

56
. Records for District Court Cases Nos. 2227, 2236, 2238–2259, 2263, and 2265–2266, Office of the Court Clerk, Tulsa County Courthouse.

57
. Gill, citing interviews he performed, believed that the Gustafson case might have been politically influenced by the dispute over the future water supply for Tulsa which was then in progress, and which, of course, involved the current city administration. He stated that “many were of the opinion that the purpose of the trial was to embarrass the city administration.” Gill, “The Tulsa Race Riot,” 100.

The Tulsa
Tribune
reported on June 18, 1921 that one “Garfield Thompson,” black, had been convicted of carrying a concealed weapon during the riot, and was to serve thirty days in the county jail (p. 10). The author could not locate a person by that name among those indicted in the cases initiated by the grand jury (one Oscar Thompson, however, was located), and if such a person was convicted and sentenced, it may have been outside of the District Court. Tulsa
World,
June 11, 1921, p. 3.

One other case which concerned the riot was initiated in May, 1923, that of
William Redfearn, Plaintiff,
v.
the City of Tulsa, et al,
which named the principal 1921 city and county government officials, plus three insurance companies, as defendants. The case was brought for loss and damages totaling $85,618.85, plus interest at 10 percent per annum. It was dismissed on February 11,1937, for failure to prosecute.

The initiation of the
Redfearn
case in 1923 was by no means, however, the last time the race riot was heard of in Tulsa’s courtrooms. Dr. John Hope Franklin, son of attorney B. C. Franklin (who played a key role in the defeat of the city’s fire ordinance in 1921), informed the author that as a young man in Tulsa he would often go with his father to the courthouse. More than once on these occasions, Dr. Franklin stated, did he hear of litigations involving persons who had died “on or around” May 31 or June 1, 1921.

58
. Records for Court Case No. 2239, Office of the Court Clerk, Tulsa County Courthouse.

Chapter 5: The Segregation of Memory

1
. In the early 1920s, Klansmen in Tulsa included the city’s postmaster and, for a short time, the publisher of the Tulsa
Tribune
. There is also evidence to suggest that many white police officers belonged to the Klan. Charles C. Alexander,
The Ku Klux Klan in the Southwest
(Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1965), 265; Kenneth T. Jackson,
The Ku Klux Klan in the City
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1967), 239; interview with I. S. Pittman, July 28, 1978, Tulsa.

2
. San Francisco
Chronicle,
June 4, 1921, p. 3; interviews with Seymour Williams, June 2, 1978, Tulsa, W. D. Williams, June 7, 1978, Tulsa, Robert Fairchild, June 8, 1978, Tulsa, and V. H. Hodge, June 12, 1978, Tulsa.

3
. Alexander,
The Ku Klux Klan in the Southwest,
98, 108, and 216. Arrell M. Gibson stated that the nationwide recession of 1921 “developed into a full-blown depression in Oklahoma,”
Oklahoma: A History of Five Centuries
(Norman: Harlow Publishing Company, 1965), 358. Oklahoma’s economy at that time was geared toward petroleum, cotton, and wheat, and each of these commodities took serious price falls from 1920 to 1921. In 1920, the average wholesale price of wheat was about $2.50 per bushel; in 1921, $1.33. A pound of raw cotton on the wholesale market averaged about $.34 in 1920; one year later, the average was only slightly above $.15 per pound. In 1920 and 1921, the average wholesale prices for a barrel of crude oil nationwide were, respectively, $3.07 and $1.73. The drop in price of crude oil in Oklahoma was even more dramatic. The price per barrel of 36-degrees Mid-Continent crude was around $3.50 in December 1920; eight months later, it was about $1.00 per barrel. These price falls led to some production stoppages, unemployment, and migration of the unemployed to the state’s cities, including Tulsa.
Harlow’s Weekly,
December 17,1920, p. 6, and September 16, 1921, pp. 8, 13; Ralph Cassady, Jr.,
Price Making and Price Behavior in the Petroleum Industry
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1954), 136; United States Bureau of the Census,
Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970
(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1975), II, 208; Record of Commission Proceedings, City of Tulsa, August 26, 1921, p. 220; and January 20,1922, p. 55.

4
. “Federal Vice Report on Vice Conditions in Tulsa,” by Agent T. G. F., April 22–26, 1921, Civil Case 1062, Oklahoma State Attorney Generals Collection, Oklahoma State Archives.

5
.
Ibid;
Tulsa
Star,
November 20, 1920, p. 8; Amy Comstock, “‘Over There,’ Another View of the Tulsa Riots,”
Survey,
XLVI (July 2, 1921), 406; interview with W. D. Williams, June 7, 1978, Tulsa. See also James M. Mitchell, “Politics in a Boom Town: Tulsa From 1906 to 1930” (M.A. thesis, University of Tulsa, 1950), 31–33, 85–86, and “Local Findings on Record of Jno. A. Gustafson,” Civil Case 1062, Oklahoma State Attorney Generals Collection, Oklahoma State Archives.

6
. The harassment of black citizens by white police officers was not confined to black Tulsa; A. J. Smitherman reported that white officers threatened him downtown. Tulsa
Star,
September 4, p. 2, October 23, p. 1, November 20, 1920, p. 8, January 1, pp. 1, 8, and January 15, 1921, p. 2.

7
. Kuznets and Thomas,
Population Redistribution and Economic Growth,
I, 576; United States Bureau of the Census,
Negroes in the United States, 1920–1932
(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1935), 793.

8
. See Chapter 2.

9
. Tulsa
Tribune,
May 31,1921, in Loren L. Gill, “The Tulsa Race Riot” (M.A. thesis, University of Tulsa, 1946), p. 22 (italics added).

10
. Alexander,
The Ku Klux Klan in the Southwest,
66,142–58, 228; David M. Chalmers,
Hooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux Klan
(Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1965), 52–55; “K.K.K. Again,”
New Statesman,
XXXII (1923), 135; Bruce Bliven, “From the Oklahoma Front,”
New Republic
(October 17,1923), 202.

11
. Mary E. Jones Parrish,
Events of the Tulsa Disaster
(n.p., n.p., n.d.), 21–23.