05/31/2026
The Tulsa Race Massacre occurred between May 31 and June 1, 1921, when a white mob violently attacked the prosperous African American community of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, historically known as "Black Wall Street".
Over 35 square blocks were burned, leaving up to 300 people dead and thousands homeless.
The violence was ignited on May 30, 1921, after Dick Roland, a young Black shoe shiner, was accused of assaulting Sarah Paige, a white elevator operator in a downtown building.
Although the encounter was likely a misunderstanding and local police planned to dismiss the charges, inflammatory reports in the Tulsa Tribune newspaper incensed the local white community.
On the evening of May 31, an armed group of Black men, many of whom were World War I veterans went to the Tulsa courthouse to protect Roland from a lynch mob. A standoff ensued, shots were fired, and the vastly outnumbered Black men retreated to the Greenwood neighborhood.
Throughout the night and into the next day, armed mobs of white residents ,some deputized and armed by local officials invaded Greenwood. They looted, burned, and destroyed more than 1,400 Black-owned homes and businesses. Notably, rioters even utilized private airplanes to drop incendiary bombs on the neighborhood.
The Oklahoma governor subsequently declared martial law, and the National Guard arrived, detaining thousands of surviving Black residents in internment camps.
Contemporary news reports downplayed the event, and the tragic destruction was largely omitted from American history books for decades.
While exact casualty numbers were heavily obscured at the time, historians estimate that between 50 and 300 Black residents were killed.
