Tulsa Race Massacre

In 1921, an act of terrorism would turn a once thriving Black community to ash and rubble overnight. It was an event so horrific that many historians now call it the single worst incident of racist violence in U.S. history. But what led up to that fateful day? And why were folks so intent to forget it ever happened? Today’s episode explores the importance of history and the ways violence can stretch — touching us all even a century later.

Please be aware that today’s episode discusses anti-Black racist violence, murder, and sexual assault.

A full transcript of this episode is available here.

Action Items Related to Today’s Episode:

Check out + support the  Eddie Faye Gates Tulsa Race Massacre Collection at the Gilcrease Museum

Key Researched Mentioned:

Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921: Tulsa Race Riot A Report by the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921

Audio Used:

YouTube: Tulsa Race Riot (Massacre) Commissions Interviews Tape 1, by the Oklahoma Historical Society Audio Archives

YouTube: Tulsa Race Riot (Massacre) Commissions Interviews Tape 3, by the Oklahoma Historical Society Audio Archives 

Sources Used:

The Tulsa Star: Tulsa Colored Business Directory

Youtube: A Century Later: Tulsa’s Search for 1921 Race Massacre Graves, by City of Tulsa

United States Census Bureau: Quick Facts Oklahoma

The Root: What We Lost In the Fire: Black Wall Street Before the Tulsa Race Massacre by Michael Harriot

The Washington Post: The Untold Story of One of American’s Worst Race Riots, by Pete Earley

Smithsonian Magazine: How Native American Slaveholders Complicated the Trail of Tears Narrative, by Ryan P. Smith

Oklahoma Historical Society: African Americans

The Washington Post: ‘We lived like we were Wall Street,’ by DeNeen L. Brown

History Channel Documentary: Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre

Wikipedia: Tulsa Race Massacre*

History: Tulsa Race Massacre, by History.com Editors

Beinecke Library: Events of the Tulsa Disaster by Mrs. Mary E. Jones Parrish

Tulsa World: Two White Dead in Race Riot, Many More Whites are Shot

History: How the Tulsa Race Massacre was Covered up by Alexis Clark

Oklahoma Historical Society: The Tulsa Race Massacre

Economic Policy Institute: Housing discrimination underpins the staggering wealth gap between blacks and whites, by Pedro da Costa

The Atlantic: How The Tulsa Race Massacre Caused Decades of Harm, by Jeremy Cook and Jason Long

LSU Press: Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, by Scott Ellsworth

Tulsa World: Tulsa Race Massacre: Exhumation of mass grave to begin June 1; DNA analysis to follow, by Tim Stanley

*Indicates a source that is speculative and/or otherwise unofficial. These sources are used for gathering general information related to the story and are then independently verified by our team. We want to give credit to these sources for pointing us in the right direction of more official sources and/or being the first source to present us with information. With any source, it’s always important to fact-check the information.