The Tulsa Race Massacre, May 31 and June 1, 1921

Tulsa Race Massacre, the bloodiest attack on African-Americans in U.S. history. During the Tulsa Oil Boom, which occurred during the Great Migration, many African-Americans moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma.

A large increase in racial tensions would eventually lead to conflict. After an African-American man was accused of assaulting a white woman, a mob formed to lynch him. Many African-Americans came to his defense, and after a shot was fired, a massacre began.

At least 300 people (predominantly African-American) were killed, with upwards of 10,000 people left homeless. Within a 24 hour period, a 42 block area was burned to the ground, destroying 35 blocks of the prosperous Greenwood neighborhood, wiping out 1100 homes and businesses and robbing Black families of generational wealth and the opportunities that come with it.

Event Overview

1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, Tulsa Historical Society and Museum

Tulsa Race Massacre, Oklahoma Historical Society

Tulsa Isn't the Only Race Massacre You Were Never Taught in School. Here are the Others, The Washington Post (June 1, 2021)

American Red Cross Disaster Relief Headquarters, Tulsa

 Primary Sources

A Proclamation on the Day of Remembrance: 100 Years after the Tulsa Race Massacre, The White House (May 31, 2021)

Tulsa Race Riot Photographs by Mary E. Jones Parrish

Oklahoma State University Library Collections on Tulsa Race Massacre

Tulsa Massacre Documents from the National Archives

 Women's History

The Women Who Preserved the Story of the Tulsa Race Massacre, The New Yorker (May 28, 2021)

Events of the Tulsa Disaster, Mary E. Jones Parrish (1923)

 Multimedia Materials

Tulsa 1921: An American Tragedy, CBS News

Video Clip of the Greenwood District of Tulsa and the Tulsa Race Massacre, Smithsonian Channel on YouTube