As part of Black History Month Park University will hold a virtual lecture about the Tulsa, Okla., Race Massacre as we approach the 100th anniversary.
The lecture will feature Tulsa World staff writer Randy Krehbiel, who has written a book Tulsa 1921: Reporting a Mass, about the event that took place on May 31 and June 1, 1921.
The lecture is part of Park University’s Spencer Cave Black History Month Lecture Series. The series is named for Cave, a man born into slavery at the start of the Civil War. After moving to Parkville, Mo., Cave worked for the university for more than 70 years before his death in 1947. In homage to Cave, Park University started this lecture series to expound on the many contributions African Americans have made toward our nation’s success. The lecture will take place at 3 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 22.
In 1997, the state of Oklahoma set up a commission to study the event and to report what happened. In 1999, the reporter at the Tulsa World who was assigned to the task of uncovering the facts behind the event left the paper, Krehbiel was assigned to the story.
“I knew it happened and I knew the general outline,” Krehbiel said about his knowledge and depth on the subject. “I didn’t know nearly as much as I thought I did. I don’t think I knew very much at all.”
For the longest time the event was referred to as the Tulsa Race Riot but has been recently changed to more reflect what actually happened.
Most reports about the event attribute its cause to a specific event involving a young black man named Dick Rowland. Rowland got onto an elevator with a white woman; she screamed and Rowland was quickly arrested after he ran.
One of the newspapers in Tulsa reported that Rowland assaulted the woman. Krehbiel said in those days the word assault had a much different meaning. In those days a charge like that referred to a sexual assault.
During this time most of Tulsa’s black population lived in an area called Greenwood. It was a prosperous neighborhood and was called “The Black Wall Street.”
With a mob forming around the jail wanting vigilante justice against Rowland many of the young black residents of Greenwood came to defend Rowland. A fight ensued and when the outnumbered black men retreated the mob followed.
What occurred over the next 12 hours was total destruction of the Greenwood neighborhood. Estimates have between 50 and 300 people being killed.
Krehbiel doesn’t know if the Tulsa Massacre is the most heinous of crimes against black people in American history but he knows it’s right up there.
Most of Krehbiel’s research involved digging through old microfilm. His goal was to set up a time line for the newspaper. The staff had one two-paragraph story from 1949 that was inaccurate and that was it.
“People had the impression that either the local papers had not covered it or that all of it had been destroyed,” Krehbiel said. “I found out to my surprise neither of those were the case.”
Krehbiel said the information he could find didn’t always match up.
“When things were pretty chaotic people weren’t checking their watches,” Krehbiel said.
Krehbiel said when reading the old newspapers he learned a lot about how racism worked in America. Krehbiel is white and like all other white people has never experienced racism. He said it taught him that racism was not just something people felt but it was ingrained in every aspect of society.
“I knew about racism and Jim Crow laws but I don’t think I fully comprehended it until I began reading all of these old newspapers,” Krehbiel said. “It wasn’t so much because of what happened with the destruction of Greenwood. When you hear about a riot, a massacre or a disaster, you know it’s bad. But the way people were treated because of race...”
Krehbiel said while working on the project he got a call from an older man whose father told him stories about the event. The man told him the “riot” started because young black men weren’t allowing white women to walk on the sidewalk. Krehbiel said the man’s story struck him.
“That really encapsulated a lot of what was going on,” Krehbiel said. “Black people were not even supposed to walk on the sidewalk. They were almost like not even there unless someone was needed to do a menial task.”
Krehbiel said a lot of his research also involved reading about other events that had no relation to the event; just to gauge what the community and people were like.
“What I tried to do was understand what happened and why,” Krehbiel said. “Newspapers really are the daily diary of the community. Some of the most revealing things that I found at the time they were written didn’t really relate to the massacre, but they helped me understand the people involved and what the community was like.”
One of the things Krehbiel discovered was a biracial commission that was established before the event but it was nothing more than window dressing and show.
“It was mainly a bunch of white people trying to figure out how to convince black people what a good deal they had,” Krehbiel said. “It’s like black people didn’t even matter.”
Krehbiel said the event on the elevator with Rowland had a part in what happened to Greenwood but it wasn’t the main factor in his opinion. Krehbiel said the fact those black men stood up for their neighborhood angered the white mob.
“Their anger was stocked because these black people had gone beyond their station, if you will, and had violated the social norms of the day by not just standing back,” Krehbiel said.
What the people of Greenwood had built was also a factor. Krehbiel said some white folks’ jealousy and fear played a role.
“It was a place where African Americans had a certain amount of independence and self determination,” Krehbiel said. “In the end it seemed like it kind of contributed to what happened.”
Krehbiel has been a journalist for several years and doesn’t consider himself a bleeding heart liberal or someone who lets his emotions get in the way, but this story is different. This story pulled at the conscience.
“It’s something that can really make you angry even if you don’t have a personal stake in it; even if it wasn’t your own family that was burned out,” Krehbiel said. “It makes you angry because it was such an injustice.
“In this case the facts and truth are what they are,” Krehbiel continued. “To learn to see the world through other people’s perspective has really been a gift to me. To be able to learn to do that has been really important to me. I’m glad I did that.”
Krehbiel said what he learned also has parallels to today’s world and many of the things that have been going on the last few years.
“It’s Tulsa’s story but it’s really America’s story,” Krehbiel said. “Things in the same vein occurred all over and some people will even see parallels to today.”
Krehbiel said in 1921 irresponsible reporting is the match that lit the fire in Greenwood. Krehbiel said newspapers had a responsibility in 1921 and we have a responsibility today.
“We’re in a period where people use really strong language and then are surprised when other people act on it,” Krehbiel said. “You have to be careful.”
Krehbiel said it’s also made him reflect personally.
“It made me a lot more careful of language,” Krehbiel said. “Working in newspapers, I thought I was careful anyways, but this really made me aware once something is out there you can’t bring it back.”