Tulsa riot

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Name: ________________ Date: ________
As Survivors Dwindle, Tulsa Confronts Past
Brandi Simons f or The New York Times
Wess Young, 94, fled w ith his mother and sister as armed w hite men rampaged through his neighborhood in 1921.
By A. G. SULZBERGER
Published: June19, 2011
TULSA, Okla. — With their guns firing, a mob of white men charged across the train
tracks that cut a racial border through this city. A 4-year-old boy named Wess Young
fled into the darkness with his mother and sister in search of safety, returning the
next day to discover that their once-thriving black community had burned to the
ground.
Ninety years later, Mr. Young lives not far from where he lost his home that day. He
is part of the dwindling ranks of the living who can recollect what may be the
deadliest occurrence of racial violence in United States history — an episode so
brutal that this city, in a bout of collective amnesia that extended more than a half-
century, simply chose to forget it ever happened.
The Tulsa race riot of 1921 was rarely mentioned in history books, classrooms or
even in private. Blacks and whites alike grew into middle age unaware of what had
taken place.

Ever since the story was unearthed by
historians and revealed in
uncompromising detail in a state
government report a decade ago — it
estimated that up to 300 people were
killed and more than 8,000 left
homeless — the black men and
women who lived through the events
have watched with renewed hope as others worked for some type of justice on their
behalf.
 What is Wes Young’s connection to the Tulsa Riot? When did the
Tulsa Riot happen?
 According to the official state report, how many were killed in the
Tulsa Riot? How many were left homeless?
But even as the city observed the 90th anniversary this month, the efforts to secure
recognition and compensation have produced a mixed record of success.
The riot will be taught for the first time in Tulsa public schools next year but remains
absent in many history textbooks across the United States. Civic leaders built
monuments to acknowledge the riot, including a new Reconciliation Park, but in the
wake of failed legislative and legal attempts, no payments were ever delivered for
what was lost.
Before becoming president, Barack Obama once met with some who lived through
the riot “to thank the survivors for surviving.” But fewer are surviving each year;
today the number is about 40. And before they die, some of their most dedicated
advocates continue to fight for greater awareness and compensation, even as they
lament that they no longer believe the effort has sufficient momentum.
“These people are still alive,” said Reggie Turner, who has toured the country with
the survivors, showing his film about the riot and the failed federal lawsuit to win
reparations from the city and state governments. “And despite their dwindling

numbers — in fact, because of their
dwindling numbers — it should be
easy for us to take care of them.”
“They are just looking for a better life
as they approach death,” he added.
 (Use context clues) What
year was this article written?
 What has been done to acknowledge the riot?
Some, like Otis Clark, the oldest survivor of the riot at 108 and one of those who
joined a federal lawsuit seeking compensation, are at peace. “God has a whole lot of
good things lined up for us when we’re by his side,” Mr. Clark said. “It ain’t going to
be very long before that is going to happen.”
Others, like Mr. Young and his wife, Cathryn, worry that their passing will simply
make the riot easier to forget. “I think they are trying to keep this hidden,” Ms. Young
said, referring to the white residents of Tulsa. “Don’t talk about it, don’t do nothing
about it until all these people are dead. Then they think it’ll be over with. But it
won’t.”
All that remains of that black community of 90 years ago, Greenwood, is a block of
red-brick storefronts in a neighborhood transformed by a new minor league ball
field, a university campus and an elevated highway. Metal plaques set in the sidewalk
describe the hundreds of businesses that were there when the area was a bustling
enclave in a statutorily segregated oil town. Within the black community, it was
known as the Negro Wall Street.
 (Use context clues) How old was Otis Clark when the riot
happened?

 Why does Carolyn Young think the survivors have not been
compensated for their losses?
 What was the official name of the former African American
neighborhood of Tulsa? What was its nickname?
Long before black
neighborhoods erupted in
rioting in cities across the
country during the 1960s and
1970s, a string of violent riots
were started by whites in the
years after World War I. As
with some of the others, the
Tulsa riot seemed to have
started with the explosive
accusation that a black man
had sexually assaulted a white woman. (The charges were dropped after the riot.)
On May 31, 1921, hundreds of armed white men gathered outside the courthouse
where the man was being held, and a group of armed black men arrived to prevent a
lynching. A shot was fired. The black men fled to Greenwood, and the white men
gave chase.
The battle that ensued, enabled by the Tulsa police chief, who deputized hundreds of
white men and commandeered gun shops to arm them, lasted through the night and
well into the next day.
 What started the Tulsa Riot? What happened at the courthouse?
 How did the police chief help make the riot happen?

About 40 blocks were destroyed,
including 1,256 homes, many of
which had been looted before they
were set alight. The death toll, most
likely never to be fully determined,
was estimated in the state report at
100 to 300. Survivors were rounded
up and interned by the National
Guard. Many of the homeless spent
the following year living in tents pitched in the ruins of the neighborhood.
A grand jury at the time blamed the black community for the riot. No one was
convicted of participating in the riot; no one was compensated for lost property.
Soon after, the story essentially disappeared — buried so deeply that people who
lived their entire lives here, including prominent leaders like mayors and district
attorneys, said they had never heard of the riot until recent decades.
 How many homes were destroyed? How many city blocks were
destroyed?
 Who was blamed for the riot? Who was charged for involvement in
the riot?
Don Ross is credited with helping to break that silence. A magazine he started
published the first article in decades about the riot, written by a local historian
around the time of the 50th anniversary. But it was not until 25 years later when Mr.
Ross was a state representative that the riot garnered nationwide attention. He
pushed for the formation of the riot state commission that produced the report and
became an unrelenting advocate for payments to the survivors because, he explained,
there is “no money in apologies.”
Since retiring, Mr. Ross has extracted himself from those efforts, believing that
neither blacks nor whites were committed to the task. He no longer even speaks to
the survivors. “I cut that connection,” he said. “It was too heartbreaking.”

The issue of payments to
survivors, like those paid to
the survivors of a similar riot
two years later in Rosewood,
Fla., was always difficult.
The Oklahoma Legislature
refused, saying it was
constitutionally prohibited.
The federal courts dismissed
a lawsuit on behalf of the
victims, saying the statute of limitations had expired. And efforts in Congress to
remove that legal obstacle have repeatedly failed, partly because of concerns that it
might open the door to reparations for slavery, though there are plans to reintroduce
the bill. Charles Ogletree, a Harvard law professor who represented the survivors in
the effort, called the case his “most disappointing and heartbreaking.”
Still, awareness has been growing. Three quarters of Tulsa residents in a recent
survey described themselves as very or somewhat knowledgeable about the riot.
 Who is Don Ross? What are the two things Ross did regarding the
riot?
 List two of the reasons given for refusing to compensate the riot
victims.
On a national level there is greater awareness, too. Of the three largest school
textbook publishers, one of them, Pearson, now mentions the riot in its books; two
others, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and McGraw-Hill, do not, though Houghton
Mifflin says it is planning to include the riot in future editions.
At the Greenwood Cultural Center, home to an extensive exhibit on the race riot,
Mechelle Brown, the program coordinator, walks along the wall of photos of
survivors and gestures despondently — almost every month another one dies.

“It seems at times that this is
how it’s going to end,” she said,
“with the survivors passing.”
This year, the center lost all of
its state financing, which
accounted for nearly half of its
annual budget. Ms. Brown said
it could be forced to close in a
matter of months. Just blocks
away is John Hope Franklin
Reconciliation Park, which opened last year with state backing and has several
memorials to the riot. (A center for racial reconciliation is planned for the grounds.)
But in a city still divided by those same railroad tracks, the theme of togetherness
bothers Ms. Brown, who called it premature. “You can’t forgive until someone asks
for forgiveness,” she said.
 Based on context clues, what does despondent mean?
 Why does Mechelle Brown call talk of togetherness premature?
Sitting inside the park, Julius Pegues, head of the park’s board, defended the focus
on reconciliation. He worried that in continuing to dwell on the riot — and the
compensation that has not come — the black community risked settling into
bitterness.
“If people have their heart in the right place, I think they could work out some fair
compensation for the victims of the race riots,” Mr. Pegues said. “But that does not
seem to be the case, so I’m not going to spend my life worrying about it.”
He added: “We intend to take the high road and move this city forward for both black
and white.”

A version of this article appeared in print on June 20, 2011, on page A16 of the New York edition w ith the headline:
As Survivors Dw indle, Tulsa Confronts Past.
The first picture is of
Mt. Zion Baptist
church. It was
destroyed during the
Tulsa Riot. Why
would someone want
to burn a church?
This is a synagogue
(Jewish Church)
destroyed by the
Nazis in 1938. What
is similar between
the two pictures?
What is different?
Reflect on these two pictures. Is the comparison between Germany and the US
valid?

Tulsa riot

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