Death in a Promised Land

by Scott Ellsworth

  Rumors and reports of what was happening at the courthouse spread through the city. Action followed. Major fames A. Bell of Tulsa’s National Guard units was informed at his home at about nine o’clock by two other guardsmen that a white lynch mob was forming outside of the courthouse. Bell then went to the National Guard armory and called Sheriff McCullough and Police Chief John Gustafson about the situation, and reportedly, they both informed him that matters were under control. Nevertheless, as a precautionary measure, Bell told the Guard officers at the armory to gather together all the arms and ammunition, and to start contacting the other guardsmen in case Governor Robertson called them out.14

  Major Bell then returned to his home to put on his uniform, but when he got there two runners informed him that a mob of whites was trying to break into the armory. Bell grabbed his pistol and returned to the armory, where he first spotted a group of white men trying to force a window on the side of the building. He ordered them away, and followed them to the front of the armory, where some three to four hundred whites had gathered. The crowd demanded rifles and ammunition. Bell refused. He later stated that they “continued to press forward in a threatening manner,” and that only by maintaining a firm stand with pistols drawn were he and a few others able to keep the crowd from entering the building. Bell told the crowd that the guardsmen inside would shoot any unauthorized visitors. The mob was finally dispersed, and Bell threw guards around the building.15

  Undoubtedly spurred on by more reports and by the growth of the white crowd in front of the courthouse—now consisting of 1,500 to 2,000 people—armed blacks visited the courthouse for a second time. It was approximately 10:30 P.M. They numbered, this time, between fifty and seventy-five men. Again they offered their services to the police, who were dwarfed by the white crowd, and again they were refused and asked to leave. By this time, Barney Cleaver had arrived and was trying to convince his fellow black Tulsans to go back home. Sheriff McCullough later stated that he disarmed one black man by himself, but did not order his deputies to conduct a general disarmament because he feared that this would start a riot. He stated that he wanted to get the blacks in a frame of mind to leave. Apparently, however, neither the sheriff nor Chief Gustafson had seriously attempted to disperse the crowd of whites or get them to leave, and there is evidence to suggest that Gustafson had not even called the entire police force to the scene. In any event, not all of Tulsa’s police were there.16

  Barney Cleaver, Tulsa’s first black police officer.

  Courtesy of the Tulsa County Historical Society

  Purportedly, the blacks were in the process of leaving when a white man approached one of their number. According to the version heard by Robert Fairchild, the white approached a tall black veteran who was carrying an Army issue 45-caliber and said, “Nigger, what are you doing with that pistol?”

  “I’m going to use it if I need to,” came the reply.

  “No, you give it to me.”

  “Like hell I will.”

  The white man then attempted to disarm the veteran and a shot was fired. Sheriff McCullough stated that from that moment “the race war was on and I was powerless to stop it.” Black and white Tulsans exchanged gunfire, and Walter White of the NAACP reported that a dozen people fell in this initial gunplay. Numerically overwhelmed by the whites, the blacks began to retreat toward Greenwood. After the battle had swung out of the range of the courthouse, white doctors and ambulance crews tried to assist a wounded black man who was lying on the sidewalk. But white crowd members would not allow them to aid him, and “he lay writhing on the sidewalk, under a billboard from which smiled winsomely the face of Mary Pickford, America’s sweetheart.”17

  II

  Reports of what was happening in Tulsa began to filter in to the state authorities in Oklahoma City as the evening wore on. Major Byron Kirkpatrick of the Tulsa National Guard units called Adjutant General Charles F. Barrett, who commanded Oklahoma’s National Guard, and told him that the situation was looking grim even before violence broke out at the courthouse. Governor James B. A. Robertson was informed by Tulsa Police Chief John Gustafson at 10:30 that the authorities in Tulsa could manage the situation. Chief Gustafson’s message to the governor was somewhat odd, because a half an hour earlier he had asked Major Bell if the Tulsa guardsmen could be used to assist the local authorities, but was informed by Bell that he would need an official order for this.18 The city broke out into open warfare within minutes after this call.

  After talking with Gustafson, Bell, and Robertson, Adjutant General Barrett ordered the mobilization of the Tulsa National Guard units. They were ordered to give the civil authorities in Tulsa any assistance necessary. Governor Robertson, however, felt that more action was needed, and since the Tulsa authorities were apparently content with matters as they stood, he took the initiative. Shortly after midnight, he ordered Major Kirkpatrick in Tulsa to draw up a telegram—addressed to the governor—requesting that the National Guard be sent into the city. He then ordered Kirkpatrick to get Gustafson, McCullough, and any district judge he could find to sign it, since at that time Oklahoma law required that a request for the National Guard to be sent into any area needed the signatures of the local police chief, the county sheriff, and a local judge. Kirkpatrick secured the signatures of Gustafson and Judge Valjean Biddison apparently with little difficulty, but had some trouble getting that of McCullough, as the sheriff was barricaded with some of his men— and Dick Rowland—inside the courthouse. Eventually, however, he completed his task, and by 3:00 A.M., June 1, the orders for the mobilization of National Guard troops in Oklahoma City to be sent to Tulsa had been announced.19

  Meanwhile, Tulsa had been the scene of various “mobilization” activities, too. After the initial fighting had moved away from the courthouse, the Tulsa police deputized scores of whites—many of whom had been part of the crowd in front of the courthouse. At a meeting held by these “special deputies” a very light-skinned black Tulsan, who could “pass” for white learned that they planned to invade the Greenwood district from the west. He then returned to black Tulsa and told his roommate, Seymour Williams, what he had learned. Williams, an Army veteran who had been wounded in France, who was then a teacher at the Booker T. Washington School, went home and got his Army revolver. He then went down to Greenwood Avenue, which was a scene of commotion, and spread the word. But, he recalled, “not a damn one” would come along with him, and he spent the entire night guarding an intersection that his roommate had told him was to be a key invasion spot for the whites. Although Williams did not stem the invasion into black Tulsa, the information proved to be correct, as the spot was visited several times by whites, including a policeman.20

  Shortly before 11:00 P.M., the order for the mobilization of the Tulsa National Guard units was received, and two Guard officers took some of the local guardsmen whom they had assembled down to the police station. At some point along the way, they received a report that a group of whites had broken into McGee’s Hardware Store, stealing guns and ammunition. The owner of the store, however, later stated that he thought that Captain George H. Blaine of the Tulsa police force was the one who broke into his store and dealt out the guns. The guardsmen finally arrived at the store, which was located directly across from the police station, removed what was left of the crowd of whites, and locked it up. McGee’s store was not the only one broken into by whites in their search for weapons, as fifteen other hardware stores and pawnshops reported break-ins on the night of May 31, and some $42,923 worth of merchandise was stolen.21

  There was still a crowd of whites in front of the courthouse when Police Inspector C. W. Daley arrived there at midnight from out of town. The attention of the whites, however, was no longer focused entirely on Dick Rowland, but had come to include most of Tulsa’s black citizenry. These first few hours of the riot, from its inception until around 1:00 A.M. (June 1), were primarily marked by preparation: any whites who had been without guns now secured them. Some blacks prepared f
or a possible onslaught, while some may have left town. Some Tulsans, of course, were unaware of what was happening. Many blacks in this category, however, soon learned, as the initial period was not without its violence. The slow, retreating battle which some blacks were fighting with the whites soon approached black Tulsa’s doorstep.22

  The first fire broke out at about 1:00 A.M. at the intersection of Archer Street and Boston Avenue along the fringe of the black district. The fire department arrived at the scene, but a mob of some five hundred whites prevented the firemen from working and soon forced them to return with their equipment to the station. By this time the battle had begun to encroach upon black Tulsa, and armed blacks were now in their home territory. Occasionally, a car full of armed whites roared down the street in a black neighborhood, guns blazing indiscriminately. White rioters attempting to cross the rail-yard and invade the black district had to contend with the gunfire of black residents defending their property. Black Tulsans were outnumbered, but had the advantage of being in defensive positions on well-known ground. Probably the most active fighting that night occurred along the Frisco Railroad tracks, located between First and Archer streets, which formed an important boundary between black and white Tulsa.23

  About the hour of daybreak—4:30 A.M.—Police Inspector Daley arrived at the Frisco Railroad station, where he found that the guards he had previously posted there were engulfed by a mob of whites preparing to enter the black district. Daley drew his pistol and threatened to shoot any member of the crowd who tried to advance. He instructed a friend to call the police station for assistance, but was informed that all of the police were either in the hills outside of town, or out rounding up and interning blacks. The combination of Daley and the armed black residents of the area managed to hold back this Frisco station crowd for about one and a half hours. But around 6:00 A.M. they rushed past Daley en masse and invaded black Tulsa.24

  White rioters breaking into the home of a well-to-do black Tulsan...

  Courtesy of the Metropolitan nlsa Chamber of Commerce

  ... and setting it on fire.

  Courtesy of the Metropolitan Tulsa Chamber of Commerce

  In these early morning hours of June 1, 1921, the wholesale burning and looting of black Tulsa began. Fighting continued, but black defenders were hampered by the fact that they were greatly outnumbered, and because the police were either nowhere to be found or were busy disarming and interning black Tulsans. Some of the fires in the Greenwood business district were probably started just prior to the mass invasion of the whites. O. W. Gurley stated that “early in the morning” he looked out of a window of his three-story brick hotel and saw a few white men in khaki clothing set fire to it and other brick buildings along Greenwood Avenue. Upon seeing this, he and his wife ran from their hotel. A black man running ahead of them was gunned down by whites. Mrs. Gurley then fell and her husband, thinking she was dead, ran on alone a few blocks to the Dunbar School. Hidden in the basement, Gurley reported seeing over one thousand white people pass by on the street. They set fire to the school, but he stayed in it until the roof caved in. “Then I thought it was death to stay and death to go,” Gurley said, “but I finally crawled out and was taken to the ball park by a white gentleman.”25

  Initially, much of the looting and burning by the whites centered upon the southernmost sections of black Tulsa, which included its business district and some of its poorer neighborhoods. At around 6:40 A.M., fires were started in the shanties along Archer Street, and one hour later, both sides of Archer from Boston to Elgin streets were burning. “Deep Greenwood” was soon looted and put to the torch. The Mt. Zion Baptist Church, an impressive structure which had only recently been built, was burned by white Tulsans after a gun battle took place outside of it. One elderly black woman sat in front of her home on Latimer Street and refused to leave when a group of whites came. She told them that they would burn her house if she left, and if they were going to do that, they might as well kill her then and there. She stayed, and lived, and her house was not burned. There is also evidence that white owners of structures in black areas stood in front of them to ward off the rioters’ torch.26

  White rioter and the burning homes of black Tulsans.

  Courtesy of the Metropolltan Tulsa Chamber of Commerce

  Church members rush to save the furnishings of the Mt. Zion Baptist Church. White Tulsans later tried to justify their destruction of the newly built church by circulating false reports that it contained an “arsenal.”

  Courtesy of the Metropolitan Tulsa Chamber of Commerce

  White rioters and onlookers were given a free reign of the city’s streets while the predominantly white police force occupied its time imprisoning black citizens.

  Courtesy of McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa

  There were many atrocities. An elderly black couple was murdered on their way home from church. Dr. A. C. Jackson, named by the Mayo brothers as “the most able Negro surgeon in America,” was murdered by whites after he had surrendered to one group of whites who had promised him protection, and were escorting him to Convention Hall for internment. A white man was mistaken for a black by a group of whites and was summarily killed. A white woman was shot on the porch of her home at about 7:30 A.M. One black was murdered in front of Convention Hall after he had surrendered. At one point, an incoming passenger train, unaware of the situation in Tulsa, arrived on one of the railway lines where heavy fighting was in progress. No one on the train was injured, but its windows were shattered by bullets.27

  In spite of the fires, white rioters could still be found in black areas off Archer at 9:00 A.M. Many black Tulsans, rounded up at random by the police, were being taken prisoner by this time. Many were forcibly removed from their homes by the police, by National Guardsmen, by numerous “special deputies,” and by various unauthorized whites. Some of these “arrests” were made by white women. Although some whites drove blacks around downtown in vehicles, the majority of the prisoners were taken to three improvised internment centers: Convention Hall, McNulty [baseball] Park, and the fairgrounds. All of these actions, needless to say, rendered the defense of black property impossible. In general, police actions played right into the hands of the white rioters who were looting and burning. The internment process did not occur without black opposition, but again, black Tulsans were simply outnumbered.28

  Efforts by some whites to limit the destructiveness of the riot failed. As the white rioters moved further north, they entered more of black Tulsa’s residential districts. At 9:30 A.M., John P. Richards, the white principal of the Sequoyah School, called the police about the stretch of black homes along part of North Detroit Avenue, perhaps black Tulsa’s wealthiest neighborhood. He told the police that this area was still untouched by violence, and that a few police officers—if dispatched immediately—could protect this area from destruction. Richards stated that the police said they would send a few men, but they never came. Shortly after his call, a group of whites came to the area, looted, and set fire to each of these homes.29

  Calm amid the storm.

  Courtesy of the Metropolltan Tulsa Chamber of Commerce

  Black Tulsa engulfed by flames, June 1, 1921. A northerly view looking toward “Deep Greenwood” from across the Frisco railyards.

  Courtesy of the McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa

  The destruction of June 1, seen from probably the northeast, with either the Santa Fe or Midland Valley tracks in the foreground.

  Courtesy of the Metropolltan Tulsa Chamber of Commerce

  Looking west toward Greenwood. The Red Cross estimated that over one thousand homes were burned by the white rioters.

  Courtesy of the McFarlin Llbrary, University of Tulsa

  III

  Adjutant General Barrett and the National Guard troops from Oklahoma City arrived in Tulsa by train at about 9:15 A.M. By that time, much of the gunplay between blacks and whites had died down, though looting continued. Black Tulsa was burning. For many blac
k citizens, there was literally no place to hide. Some fled the city and received rough treatment at the hands of whites in some of the smaller towns outside of Tulsa. Some white vigilantes even roamed affluent white neighborhoods to round up black live-in domestic workers. One carload of whites dragged a black corpse around the streets of downtown. And in the downtown area, as well as in some of the white neighborhoods, trucks loaded with corpses were observed by some residents. Sheriff McCullough slipped out of town with Dick Rowland at about eight o’clock.30

  When the National Guardsmen arrived, they did not immediately take to the streets. Barrett went to City Hall and set up his headquarters, while his troops prepared and ate breakfast. In light of the disorder in Tulsa, Barrett called Governor Robertson and requested that he decree martial law throughout the city. Robertson agreed, and martial law was declared at 11:29 A.M. Barrett had circulars announcing the decree posted throughout the city.31