Strange Times 153: Tulsa
Before we dive into today’s newsletter, take a moment to peruse the preview page for the forthcoming Deadball: Second Edition kickstarter campaign. I’ve been getting some invaluable feedback on the campaign and the updated rulebook, and I’d love to hear what you have to think as well! While you’re there, click on the little “Notify Me On Launch” button at the top of the page and you’ll get a prod (a push? A poke?) when the campaign goes live.
Today we take a tour of one of the grimmest days of 1921. Embrace the nightmare of…
June 2, 1921
Impoverished inventor William Gierth, of Newark, discovers $25,000 in a bank account that he’d forgotten he had. The bank, claiming it was left there by mistake, refuses to let him withdraw it, forcing Gierth to appeal to the state for release of the funds.
The Weather: Generally fair today and Friday; somewhat warmer; fresh northeast and east winds.
In Tulsa, a mob of armed whites attacks the Black neighborhood of Greenwood, burning 35 city blocks to the ground, destroying two hospitals, leaving thousands homeless and hundreds dead. Tulsa’s Black citizens receive no recompense. Their insurance claims are not paid; their stories are ignored. Over a century later, there remains no hospital in North Tulsa and the race massacre’s three surviving members, all over 100, are still fighting for reparations.
Rather than type up the Times’ main article on the story, which is fascinating and absolutely worth a read, I’ve chosen to include a short piece that ran alongside it, along with two other short items that were on the front page. Taken together, I think they give a precise picture of the world’s concerns on June 2, 1921—concerns that have changed little in the century that’s passed.
The hundredth anniversary of the massacre prompted a lot of worthwhile articles to appear online—this Times feature is worth a look, as is the page on the Tulsa Historical Society & Museum, which features audio, photos, documents, and suggestions for further reading.
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla., June 1.—Evidence of the fury of the race clash was borne by a St. Louis and San Francisco passenger train which arrived here today from the West. Many of the windows in one of the coaches had been shot out and the sides of the coaches were scarred by bullets fired upon the train as it passed through the negro quarter in Tulsa early today. None of the passengers was injured.
J.E. Lucas, a traveling salesman, who arrived here today from Tulsa, gave a vivid account of the fighting in the vicinity of the St. Louis and San Francisco passenger station.
“Pullman cars standing in the yards were fired on and the windows shattered,” he said. “Passengers left their berths and lay flat on the floor in the aisles.
“There was a lull in the firing when a passenger train pulled in and women and children alighted. Then the firing began again.
“Bodies of three negroes were lying in front of the station when the train arrived.”
Man, you know you’re rich when not only does your house have a name, but people talk about it like it’s a whole town.
AUBURN, June 1.—Speaking to his grandchildren, who accompanied him to his boyhood home, now the Van Arsdale place, four miles north of Moravia, John D. Rockefeller yesterday afternoon said:
“Here is where I earned my first dollar,” and he described to the children of John D. Jr. how he had raised a flock of turkeys back in 1848 and sold them as his own enterprise.
Mr. Rockefeller came to Moravia on appointment with J.B. Van Duyne, a cousin, and they motored up the hill over Owasco, where the oil magnate spent the happiest years of his childhood. After going through the old rooms and recalling familiar scenes the party returned to Moravia, after which Mr. Rockefeller and his kin motored back to Watkins Glen.
On departing from Moravia Mr. Rockefeller rewarded the Van Duyne youngsters with shiny new buffalo nickels. Mr. Rockefeller is now making annual visits to the Finger Lakes region.
Papillon was no exaggeration! Asphyxiating gas, good lord.
PARIS, June 1—Seven hundred convicts condemned to transportation for periods varying from five years to life left La Rochelle today for the penal settlement of Cayenne, French Guiana.
This is the first resumption of transportation since 1915, when the shortage of ships caused the abandonment of the practice. Ever since the armistice the French prison authorities have complained of overcrowding, with 5,000 desperate criminals awaiting removal to Cayenne.
A ship has at last been allocated for the purpose, the 5,000-ton ex-German freighter Duala, which will make the passage in upward of three weeks. Eight huge iron cages have been constructed between decks, where the human menagerie will be kept under a guard of fifty military warders.
Four “Black Holes,” iron chests six feet long, seven feet high and three wide, are provided where the worst thugs will soon be cowed into submission.
Finally, to stifle—it is an appropriate word—any attempt at organized mutiny, holes have been made in the roofs of the cages through which will be pumped cold water, steam or asphyxiating gas, according to the gravity of the outbreak.
Nevertheless, the great majority of the 700 are eagerly looking forward to the journey, for at Cayenne they will enjoy a considerable measure of liberty.