Tulsa Race Riots
World Book Encyclopedia conspicuously fails to mention the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 in any of its entries; readers won't find it under "Oklahoma", "Tulsa", or "riots" ("Black Wall Street"). It did happen, though. For many victims, the Tulsa Race Riot is very much a reality still today. Their lives were forever changed on May 31, 1921. On this day, 19-year-old black man, Dick Rowland, was arrested and accused of trying to rape a white female elevator operator, Sarah Page, in Tulsa's Drexel Building. The local newspaper, the Tulsa Tribune, reporting on the story, inflamed area residents by declaring that Rowland had attacked Page and torn her clothes. On the back page, the Tribune carried an editorial with the headline, "To Lynch Negro Tonight", in which it talked about the fact that "mobs of Whites were forming in order to lynch the Negro" (Carrillo). White men soon began showing up outside the courthouse carrying guns and drinking liquor and demanding that Rowland be handed over. But local African American World War I veterans had weapons of their own, and they came to protect Rowland. After a single gun fired inadvertently, riot ensued. Thousands of Whites raided the 35-square block Greenwood distri
The Tulsa Race Riot was many things. It was Yellow Journalism at its worst. It was mob mentality at its strongest. And it was the reaction of a jealous white population to the extremely affluent "Black Wall Street", as it was called. Was it "terrorism", though? That is an issue of literary particularities and little else. Donald Hamilton, the deputy director of the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT) thinks the Tulsa incident should be classified as terrorism. He said, "I believe the survivors of the 1921 riot did survive a terrorist attack" (Brune). Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines "terrorism" as "the systematic us of terror esp. as a means of coercion". It defines "terror" as, among other things, "a state of intense fear" and "violence committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands" (Webster). It is possible to argue that the definition of "terrorism" does not stand because the "terror" was perhaps not as "systematic" or "coercive" as the definition intends. To split hairs over such matters, however, is to significantly cloud the important issues. Too many lives were lost, too many were left homeless, and too much history went up in flames. Any kind of compensation is bound and regulated and outlined and confused by an infinite number of laws and statutes. There is an Oklahoma law that prohibits the state from making reparations for any past mass crime committed by officials or even on the state's behalf. Oklahoma could also demand, through lawsuit, the $12,000 they were entitled to collect from the federal government in 1921 for the money they expended in restoring order after the Riot. This claim is not barred by the statute of limitations because it falls under the heading "assertion of public rights." With interest, this $12,000 has grown to more than $10 million; perhaps this money could be used to repay victims. And what about the statute of limitations, then? This legal maneuver makes it particularly difficult for action to be taken for or against any party after a certain amount of time has passed since an incident. Should the survivors of the Tulsa Race Riot sue the state of Oklahoma for damages, they will certainly encounter this as a major obstacle. But then, they may be
Some common words found in the essay are:
Tulsa Riot, Race Riot, Tulsa Islamists, Collegiate Dictionary, Trade Center, Tulsa Oklahoma, Thousands Whites, Tulsa Tribune, World War, Carrillo White, tulsa race, race riot, tulsa race riot, september 11th, sending message, september 11th attacks, living survivors, statute limitations, lives lost, definition terrorism, black wall, world trade center, black wall street, survivors tulsa race, wall street,
Approximate Word count = 1573
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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