Tulsa Race Riot survivors and their attorneys hold up copies of the brief that Charles Ogletree filed with the Supreme Court, appealing a ruling that stated that they, as Tulsa Race Riot survivors, were not entitled to reparations because of the statute of limitations. (Courtesy of the Tulsa World.)
From left to right are survivors Robert D. Holloway II, 87, accompanied by his wife, Anita Holloway; Thelma Thurman Knight, 89; and Otis G. Clark, 102, holding up copies of the brief that Charles Ogletree (behind, wearing glasses), filed with the Supreme Court. (Courtesy of the Tulsa World.)
1921 Tulsa Race Riot survivors, from left to right, Wes Young, Otis Clark, and Julius Scott, relax during a reception for the premiere of a documentary about the riot at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center on October 19, 2008. (Courtesy of the Tulsa world.)
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
RIOT SURVIVOR STORIES
The following excerpts from interviews by Tulsa historian Eddie Faye Gates illustrate the horrors of the riot.
J.B. BATES (JUNE 13, 1916–DECEMBER 17, 2008)
“I . . . remember that my mother was so frightened that I knew that something was terribly wrong. An airplane flew over real low and someone in the plane shot and killed [an] old man.”
KINNEY I. BOOKER (MARCH 21, 1913–MARCH 1, 2006)
“[We] lived at 320 North Hartford Avenue. We had a lovely home, filled with beautiful furniture, including a grand piano. All our clothes and personal belongings—just everything—were burned up during the riot.”
OTIS GRANDVILLE CLARK (FEBRUARY 13, 1903–MAY 21, 2012)
“I got caught right in the middle of that riot. Some white mobsters were holed up in the upper floor of the Ray Rhee Flour Mill on East Archer, and they were just gunning down black people, just picking them off like they were swatting flies.”
ERNESTINE GIBBS (DECEMBER 15, 1902–JULY 23, 2003)
“When daylight came, black people were moving down the train tracks like ants. We joined the fleeing people. . . . We had to run from there because someone warned us that whites were shooting down blacks who were fleeing along railroad tracks.”
LEROY LEON HATCHER (MAY 23, 1921–JANUARY 31, 2004)
“My mother . . . ran nine miles with me, a nine-day-old baby, in her arms, dodging bullets that were falling near her. After the riot was over, my mother looked and looked for my father, but she never found him. His loss haunted her the rest of her life, and it ruined my life, too.”
WILHELMINA GUESS HOWELL (APRIL 25, 1907–DECEMBER 18, 2003)
“My father, H.A. Guess, had a law office on Greenwood Avenue, and my mother’s brother was the famous Mayo-Clinic trained surgeon, Dr. A.C. Jackson, who was so brutally murdered by mobsters during the . . . riot. The fact that the riot destroyed my father’s office and led to the death of my uncle seemed very ironic to me. My relatives had come to Oklahoma to get away from racism, violence, and death in Tennessee.”
SIMON R. RICHARDSON (JANUARY 2, 1914–NOVEMBER 28, 2003)
“Men and boys were taken by the militia to the Convention Center. In all this commotion, my grandmother didn’t know where I was. I was missing from her for two days, and she was so worried. She was just sick with grief. She thought I had been killed. A few days after the riot, blacks were released from detention and most were reunited with their families.”
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