Race Riots

a. The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921
b. There is no question or argument that on May 31- June 1921, a race riot took place in Tulsa that ultimately left an unknown number of people dead, and many more than even the highest estimates of those who killed homeless, humiliated, and horribly in debt. That these people in the next decade, during one of the worst periods of racism against them, overcame all that and succeeded in rebuilding is amazing. These are people, living and dead, are people to honored and recognized in the future. They really had a problem with crops, prices of gas, and crime rate.
c. In early 1921, the price of oil dropped suddenly to $1.00 per barrel of crude from nearly $3.00 a barrel. Without any warning white workers, previously employed in the oil fields, were placed in direct competition with blacks, particularly the dispossessed sharecroppers, for the few remaining jobs. This economic fluctuation did not strike everyone in Tulsa, but in a community whose economic foundation was the price of oil, nearly everyone felt some of the tension.
d. With the high level of unemployment, the crime rate also rose. The police department applied pressure, first on the criminal class, much of whom existed on the border between black and white Tulsa. The police then spread their pressure gradually into the entire black community. The police had been warned of the possibility of a riot months before it occurred. However, the civil authorities had either been totally unconcerned about the problem, or else unable to understand what was happening. An entirely new city administration had been elected. Possibly, the socioeconomic dynamics of this complex situation were beyond the comprehension of the new administration, and their ignorance of the threat potentials led them to ignore the warnings.
e.