“Red Record of Lynching Map,” 1889-1921. (NARA ID 149268727).
“--- were dead. Figures are omitted [because] NO ONE KNOWS.” —Red Cross Report
People Standing Amid Rubble in the Greenwood District, 6/1/1921, Image from Tulsa Red Cross Photo Album of the Tulsa Massacre and Aftermath, NARA ID 157688056.
#OTD in 1921: The Tulsa Massacre
By Miriam Kleiman, Public Affairs. Even long after the Civil War, thousands of African Americans were hanged, burned and shot to death, beaten, and tortured by white mobs who celebrated these atrocities and were rarely prosecuted for their crimes. In 1918, Rep. Leonidas Dyer of Missouri submitted a bill (HR 13) to establish lynching as a federal crime. Dyer said that lynching—and the refusal by localities and states to prosecute the perpetrators—violated victims’ 14th Amendment rights.
Petition to Congress insisting on passage of the 1922 Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill. (National Archives Identifier 119652195).
Petitioners promised President Harding that by signing the anti-lynching bill into law, "you will immortalize your NAME like the illustrious Lincoln when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation."
Following congressional action on child labor and Prohibition, Rep. Dyer appealed to his Hill colleagues and questioned their priorities:
If Congress has felt its duty to do these things, why should it not also assume jurisdiction and enact laws to protect the lives of citizens of the United States against lynch law and mob violence? Are the rights of property, or what a citizen shall drink, or the ages and conditions under which children shall work, any more important to the Nation than life itself?
While his bill faltered, racial violence intensified and increased. Black servicemen who had fought for their country in World War I came home to an outbreak of racial violence known as the “Red Summer” because of the extent of bloodshed. The Tulsa Massacre of 1921 was one of the worst instances of mass racial violence in American history. The violence centered on Tulsa’s Greenwood District (aka “Black Wall Street”), a commercial area with many successful Black-owned businesses. In 24 hours, hundreds were killed, thousands displaced, and 35 city blocks were burned to ruins.
The Tulsa Chapter of the American Red Cross aided many victims and compiled a report with photos of riot scenes, devastated areas, National Guard troops, destroyed homes, dead victims, and massacre survivors in temporary housing. Warning: Some images are graphic and viewers might find them disturbing.
Black Wall Street: 100 Years Since the Tulsa Race Massacre
Featured Document Display, April 1–June 17, 2021.
Remembering the Tulsa Race Massacre, National Archives News
Learn more in Rediscovering Black History:
“Portal Spotlight: Civil Unrest and the Red Summer”
“When the Government Can’t Help”
Additional online resources:
National Archives Records on Civil Unrest and the Red Summer
U.S. House: Anti-Lynching Legislation Renewed
National Archives News special topics page: African American History
Resources for African American Research
Eyewitness account of the Tulsa massacre by attorney Buck Colbert Franklin (John Hope Franklin’s father) in Smithsonian Magazine
G.W. Hutchins v. City of Tulsa et. al.
