A thriving Black neighborhood known as “Black Wall Street” lies in ruin following the Tulsa race riot of 1921.
Credit: Library of Congress

May 31, 2021, marked 100 years since the start of the Tulsa race riot of 1921. It was one of the deadliest acts of racial violence in United States history.

From May 31 to June 1, 1921, groups of armed white men attacked Black residents in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The riot began after white vigilantes gathered to lynch (put to death without a lawful trial) a Black man who had been accused of attacking a white woman. The riot probably caused about 300 deaths and destroyed Tulsa’s Black business district.

On May 30, 1921, Dick Rowland, a 19-year-old Black shoe shiner, entered an elevator in the Drexel Building in downtown Tulsa. He encountered Sarah Page, a 17-year-old white elevator operator. What occurred next is unclear. Many historians believe that Rowland may have either stepped on Page’s foot or tripped and grabbed Page’s arm to steady himself. Page screamed. A clerk from a nearby store, assuming that the girl had been the victim of an assault, called police. Rowland fled the scene and was arrested the next day.

Newspaper accounts and rumors about the incident led to widespread talk of lynching. On the evening of May 31, hundreds of white people, including many armed men, gathered near the courthouse where Rowland was held. Groups of armed Black men—many of them veterans of World War I—then arrived at the scene. They offered their services to the sheriff to help protect Rowland, but their offers were refused.

At around 10 p.m., shots were fired during a commotion near the courthouse. The Blacks who had gathered there were outnumbered, and they retreated. They went to Greenwood Avenue—the heart of the Black business district known as “Black Wall Street.” A white mob followed.

Scattered shootings then occurred near Greenwood Avenue in the early hours of June 1. Groups of armed Blacks assembled to hold off the white mob. Many Black residents fought to protect their businesses or families, while others fled to the countryside. Law enforcement officials deputized (appointed as agents of the law) hundreds of members of the mob. Members of the Oklahoma National Guard—all of whom were white—gathered near boundaries of Black and white neighborhoods. Among some whites, rumors attributed the violence to a “Negro uprising.” The mob grew to more than 5,000 white men.

Around 5 a.m., a whistle sounded, and thousands of armed white men marched into the Black business district. They burned and looted homes and businesses. National Guardsmen led thousands of Blacks at gunpoint to makeshift detention centers. Many who resisted were shot. Police did little to stop the arson and violence, and they spent most of their resources protecting white neighborhoods. In many instances, local members of the state National Guard joined in the attacks. Black eyewitnesses recalled white pilots firing on Black neighborhoods from airplanes above.

Thousands of armed white men burned and looted Black homes and businesses during the riot.
Credit: Library of Congress

Around 9 a.m., members of a National Guard regiment from Oklahoma City arrived in Tulsa. Locals called them the “state troops.” Order was restored around 11:30 a.m., when Governor James B. A. Robertson declared martial law (emergency military rule) in Tulsa County. By the time the riot ended, more than 1,200 structures—nearly the entire “Negro Quarter”—had been destroyed by fires.

There is documented evidence of at least 40 deaths in the Tulsa riot. Of this number, about two-thirds were Black. However, many historians estimate that around 300 people were killed. Some unidentified Black victims may have been interred in mass graves.

Authorities never brought criminal charges against Rowland. Authorities also brought no charges against white rioters. Neither the City of Tulsa nor insurance companies compensated Black property owners for losses. The Greenwood business district was eventually rebuilt, but many of its residents remained homeless for months.

Rebuilding begins in the Black neighborhood destroyed by the riot.
Credit: Library of Congress

Newspapers reported on the riot in the days and weeks after the event. Over time, however, the incident received little coverage. The riot was omitted from most Oklahoma history books and classroom lessons.

Blacks displaced by the neighborhood’s destruction line up outside a refugee camp at the Tulsa fairgrounds.
Credit: Library of Congress

In 1997, state officials formed the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. The commission released an extensive report about the event in 2001. Tulsa’s John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park commemorates the victims of the riot. The park, named for a leading Black scholar whose own father survived the riot, officially opened in 2010.

Ibram X. Kendi
Credit: © Stephen Voss

February is Black History Month, an annual observance of the achievements and culture of Black Americans. This month, Behind the Headlines will feature Black pioneers in a variety of areas.

You have probably heard of racism—and many of you have even experienced it—but have you heard of antiracism? A central idea of antiracism is that it is not enough for people to simply avoid racism. Rather, people must actively look for and work to eradicate racism in their own beliefs and in society’s institutions. Ibram X. Kendi (1982-…), an American author, historian, and activist, is a major advocate for antiracism. Kendi is known for his groundbreaking work as a scholar of race studies and Black history. His writings explore the idea of antiracism and the history of racism in America.

Ibram Henry Rogers was born in New York City on Aug. 13, 1982. He staged his first antiracist protest as a child in the third grade. He noticed that his teacher called on white students while ignoring non-white students. He witnessed her treating Black students disrespectfully. He protested his teacher’s racist behavior by refusing to return to class.

In 2004, he received a bachelor’s degree in journalism and African American studies from Florida A&M University. He received a Ph.D. degree in African American studies from Temple University in 2010. He married the American physician Sadiqa Edmonds in 2013. That year, the couple changed their last name to Kendi, and Ibram changed his middle name to Xolani. Kendi is a humanities professor at Boston University. He is also the founding director of the university’s Center for Antiracist Research.

Kendi has written several books focusing on racism, antiracism, and the Black American experience. His first book, The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstitution of Higher Education, 1965-1972, was published in 2012. In 2016, Kendi became the youngest person ever to receive the National Book Award for nonfiction for his book Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (2016). He went on to write the popular How to Be an Antiracist (2019) and Antiracist Baby (2020), a children’s picture book.

Kendi also wrote the introduction for an adaption of the book Stamped for middle school and teen readers written by Jason Reynolds (1983-…), a popular American author of books for young people. The adaptation is called Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You (2020). Reynolds writes novels and poetry for young adult and middle-grade readers. His works explore a variety of topics from a young person’s perspective. Such topics include the Black experience. They also include such issues as gun and gang violence.

Jason Reynolds
Credit: © Gary Gershoff, Getty Images

Reynolds became interested in poetry at a young age. An interest in rap music inspired him to explore literature. He advocates using rap and comic books as nontraditional ways to reach young readers. Reynolds’s first book, When I Was the Greatest, was published in 2014. It tells the story of three Black teenage boys growing up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, in New York City. Reynolds often chooses Black teenagers—particularly teenage boys—as his subjects. He portrays the uncertainty or fear many of the boys feel, to encourage young male readers to express their own emotions.

March 20, 2020

Tomorrow, March 21, marks 60 years since the Sharpeville Massacre took place in South Africa in 1960. On that day, South African police opened fire into a crowd of black demonstrators. The incident occurred in the township of Sharpeville, now part of the city of Vereeniging. The shooting left 69 people dead and more than 180 wounded.

People flee from gunfire during the Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa on March 21, 1960. Credit: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty images

The demonstration in Sharpeville was part of a nationwide protest against the pass laws. The pass laws required black adults to carry identity papers called passes. They also restricted the movement of black people around the country. The pass laws were part of a policy of rigid racial segregation called apartheid. The policy had existed in South Africa since 1948.

An antiapartheid group called the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) organized the protest. The group called on black South Africans to go to police stations without their passes on March 21, 1960, and peacefully submit to arrest. Only a few demonstrators responded in most cities. In Sharpeville, however, several thousand protesters gathered outside the police station. A few hundred police officers faced them from behind a wire fence surrounding the station. In the early afternoon, the officers began to fire, probably in confused reaction to a scuffle between police and protesters near the fence. Many demonstrators were shot in the back as they fled.

The events at Sharpeville had long-lasting effects on the antiapartheid campaign. At first, the shooting sparked large demonstrations in sympathy for the victims. The government then banned the PAC and the African National Congress (ANC), a larger antiapartheid organization. Forced underground, the organizations altered their tactics to include violent forms of protest. Outrage over the deaths at Sharpeville also helped spur an international antiapartheid movement.

Apartheid ended in South Africa during the early 1990’s. Today, South Africans honor March 21, the anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre, as Human Rights Day.

February 3, 2020

Today, February 3, marks 100 years since the 1920 formation of the Negro National League (NNL), the first of the official professional baseball Negro leagues. The Negro leagues were for black players, who were barred from playing alongside white players because of racial segregation. The Negro leagues operated until 1962.

The 1919 Chicago American Giants pose for the official team photo. In 1920, the manager Rube Foster (top row without uniform) led the team to the inaugural Negro National League title. Credit: Public Domain

An all-black professional baseball team existed as early as 1885. For many years, black teams played one another as independent teams. They also played all-white teams in exhibition games. Rube Foster, a former pitcher and the owner and manager of a black team, the Chicago American Giants, met with seven other team owners in Kansas City to form the Negro National League in 1920. The first season, the league included Foster’s American Giants and a second Chicago team known simply as the Giants as well as the Cincinnati Cuban Stars, Dayton Marcos, Detroit Stars, Indianapolis ABC’s, Kansas City Monarchs, and—somewhat confusingly—another Giants ball club in St. Louis. The teams did not play the same amount of games, and opponents often included independent black ball clubs in other cities, but the Chicago American Giants won the first title with a 43-17-2 record against NNL opponents.

Jackie Robinson, shown here sliding into home plate, was the first African American player in modern Major League Baseball. Robinson played for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League before joining the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Credit: UPI/Corbis-Bettmann

The NNL operated successfully until 1931. After that, the two dominant leagues were a new Negro National League (1933-1948) and the Negro American League (1937-1962). The best players were featured in an annual all-star exhibition called the East-West Game, and from 1942 to 1948, the league champions met in the Negro World Series.

Satchel Paige pitched 18 seasons in the Negro leagues before entering Major League Baseball in 1948 at age 42. Credit: AP/Wide World

In 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first black player in modern Major League Baseball (MLB). After Robinson’s success with the Brooklyn Dodgers, MLB teams quickly signed star players from the Negro leagues, leading to the decline and eventual end of those leagues.

Larry Doby played for the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League before making his MLB debut with the Cleveland Indians on July 5, 1947. Credit: AP Photo

Baseball historians agree that many Negro league players would have succeeded in Major League Baseball. Such Negro league players as Roy Campanella, Larry Doby, and Satchel Paige later starred in MLB and were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Other Hall of Famers who spent their entire careers in the Negro leagues included Cool Papa Bell, Oscar Charleston, Josh Gibson, and Buck Leonard.

August 30, 2019

This Sunday, September 1, marks 80 years since Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Fighting in Asia had begun years earlier, but Germany’s invasion of Poland is considered the beginning of World War II, the most destructive war in history. World War II eventually drew in more than 50 nations, and more than 50 million people died before the war ended in September 1945.

German troops attack from a trench early in World War II. Germany started the war in Europe by attacking Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, 80 years ago this Sunday. Credit: AP Photo

Germany’s invasion of Poland came after years of problems and shifting attitudes in Germany. The nation’s defeat in World War I (1914-1918) resulted in dire economic and social problems in the 1920′s. Many people longed for the more prosperous pre-war days of the German Empire. In the early 1930′s, political unrest led to the rise of the Nazis, a fascist (extreme authoritarian) political group. The Nazis opposed democracy, Communism, socialism, feminism, and other political systems and movements that claimed to favor equality. The Nazis promised to make Germany great again by building a harmonious, orderly, and strong society. Instead, they brought terrorism, war, and genocide to Germany and other countries.

Adolf Hitler, far right, reviews German tanks as they parade through the streets of Warsaw, Poland, in 1939. Credit: AP/Wide World

In 1933, Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazis, was appointed chancellor of Germany. Hitler rapidly increased his own power, and preached that Germans were a “superior race.” He called Jews, Slavs, and other minority groups inferior. He began a campaign of hatred against Jews and Communists and promised to rid the country of them. In this time of distress and economic depression, Hitler’s version of nationalism (an extreme form of patriotism) appealed to many Germans.

Hitler built up Germany’s armed forces. In March 1938, German soldiers marched into neighboring Austria and united it with Germany. At the end of September, Germany seized part of Czechoslovakia. The Czechs came under complete Nazi control in March 1939. Germany’s September invasion of Poland took place after Hitler agreed to divide the country with the Soviet Union. After quick German advances in western Poland, the Soviets invaded Poland from the east on September 17. Attacked from both sides, Poland fell on October 6. The Germans went on to invade other countries (including the Soviet Union) and took control of much of Europe.

The Nazis instituted the Holocaust, the systematic, state-sponsored murder of Jews and other people the Nazis judged politically dangerous or racially or mentally inferior. Historians estimate that the Nazis killed as many as 11 million people, including some 6 million Jews.

The war eventually turned against Nazi Germany, and the Nazis lost control of all areas—including Germany, which was badly damaged in the fighting. Around 5 million Germans died during World War II. Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945. Germany surrendered on May 8, ending the war in Europe. Despite the death and destruction brought by Hitler and the Nazis, far-right Neo-Nazi (new Nazi) groups formed after the war in Germany and elsewhere. Neo-Nazis continue to threaten and attack Jews and members of other minority groups.

Nazism and fascism (which also thrived in Italy and Spain) were not unique to Europe. In the United States in the 1930′s, the German American Bund and other groups actively supported the Nazis. The Bund gained a large membership, and in February 1939, it held a rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. Some 20,000 people attended the radical Bund rally as around 1,500 police officers held back crowds of anti-fascist protesters outside. The Bund collapsed with the U.S. entry into World War II in December 1941—against Nazi Germany (and Japan).

August 23, 2019

This weekend, August 23 to 25, a somber anniversary is taking place at the Chesapeake Bay city of Hampton, Virginia. It was there, at the town once known as Point Comfort, that African slaves were first brought to England’s American colonies in August 1619. Those first slaves, captured from Portuguese slave traders, were brought to Virginia 400 years ago in the English ship White Lion. Colonial officials traded food and supplies for the “20 and odd” Africans, beginning an ugly legacy of slavery. Slavery did not end in the United States until 1865, and its effects are felt to this day.

A historical marker details the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in English North America at Point Comfort, Virginia, in August 1619. Credit: National Park Service

Commemorative events in Hampton begin today with a ceremony at the Tucker Family Cemetery, where William Tucker, the first child born (in 1624) of those first slaves, is buried. William was the son of Anthony and Isabella, who, like their fellow captives, had been brought from the Kingdom of Ndongo in what is now the southwest African nation of Angola. Tomorrow, a new Commemoration and Visitor Center telling the story of those first slaves will open at Fort Monroe, the historic army fort in Hampton that is now a national monument. There will also be Black Heritage Tours, an educational African Landing Day Program, and a Commemoration Concert at the Hampton Coliseum. Sunday, a gospel music festival will highlight a “Day of Healing,” and the ceremonies will end with the release of butterflies and a nationwide ringing of bells. In addition, the Hampton History Museum is hosting events, and its traveling exhibit “1619: Arrival of the First Africans” is making its way around churches, community groups, libraries, and schools in Virginia.

Slaves were sold at public auctions in the southern United States. Pictures of blacks being sold like merchandise stirred much resentment in the North against slavery. Credit: Detail of The Slave Auction (1862), an oil painting on canvas by Eyre Crowe; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York City

That first group of captive Africans in Virginia were classed along with indentured servants, because the colony did not yet have rules regarding slavery. Most indentured servants had a contract to work without wages for a master for four to seven years, after which they became free. Blacks brought in as slaves, however, had no right to eventual freedom, and they were sold at auction. Some Africans did gain their freedom, however, settling in the colonies and buying property. But racial prejudice among white colonists forced most free blacks to remain in the lowest levels of colonial society.

The slave population in America increased rapidly during the 1700′s as newly established colonies in the South created a great demand for plantation workers. By 1750, about 200,000 slaves lived mostly in the southern American colonies. The American Revolution (1775-1783) led to the birth of the United States, but all Americans were not yet considered “created equal.” By the early 1800′s, most Northern states had taken steps to end slavery, but more than 700,000 slaves lived in the South, and the numbers continued to increase. By 1860, the South held some 4 million slaves.

Many white Americans grew to feel that slavery was evil and violated the ideals of democracy. Such ideas were particularly widespread in the North, where slavery was less common. However, plantation owners and other supporters of slavery regarded it as natural to the Southern way of life. The North and the South thereby became increasingly divided over slavery. Eventually, the South rebelled against the North, starting the American Civil War (1861-1865). In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in the rebellious Southern states, and, in December 1865—after the South had surrendered—the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States officially ended slavery throughout the nation.

Racial prejudice against African Americans did not end there, however, and the decades after the Civil War were a constant struggle for equality. It was not until the civil rights movement of the 1950′s and 1960′s that acts, amendments, and laws formally banned racial discrimination. Racial prejudice persists in much of America, however, and the struggle for fair treatment continues.

May 13, 2019

The island nations of New Zealand and Sri Lanka are separated by nearly 7,000 miles (11,000 kilometers) of ocean. But in just over a month’s time, the distant neighbors were connected by ghastly mass killings. On March 15, 2019, a white supremacist gunman killed 51 Islamic people worshipping at a mosque in Christchurch, the largest city on New Zealand’s South Island. A few weeks later, on Easter Sunday, April 21, an Islamic terrorist group orchestrated coordinated attacks that killed 257 people, mostly Christians, in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s largest city, and other areas. The Islamic State terror group claimed to have organized these attacks with local Sri Lankan terrorists. They also claimed that the attacks were in retaliation for the mass shooting in New Zealand. Law enforcement agencies questioned the direct connection, however, as such a coordinated attack probably required more than a few weeks to plan.

On March 18, 2019, students display the New Zealand flag during a vigil for the people killed in a mass shooting at the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch. Credit: © Anthony Wallace, AFP/Getty Images

New Zealand is not generally known for extremism or violence, but that changed—at least for one day—on the afternoon of March 15. A gunman, inspired by hateful and racist rhetoric (influential speech), entered the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch and began firing. Minutes later, he returned to his car, retrieved a second weapon, and re-entered the mosque to continue his rampage. The shooter then fled in his car, arriving a short time later at the Linwood Islamic Centre. Unable to find a door quickly, the attacker began shooting at the windows. A worshipper chased the gunman back to his car, and he again fled. Police then captured the shooter, a 28-year-old Australian man carrying various weapons and explosives.

The gunman planned his attack for wide exposure over social media. Shortly before starting his attack, the shooter posted a lengthy manifesto (a public declaration of his motives) on several websites. The gunman, who had decorated his weapons with white supremacist slogans, live-streamed the attack over the internet using a head-mounted camera. Both the manifesto and the video of the attack quickly circulated widely across the internet, particularly on such sites as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The postings raised questions about whether or not such sites were doing enough to stop the spread of white supremacist material and other extreme content.

The government of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern worked quickly to draft a gun control bill. The bill overwhelmingly passed through Parliament and became law on April 12. In addition to banning the ownership of most automatic and semiautomatic weapons, the law established a buyback program under which owners of now-outlawed weapons could turn them in for fair compensation.

Ardern was widely hailed for the compassion and leadership she displayed in the aftermath of the attacks. She visited the survivors and publicly repudiated the gunman and his ideology. Ardern also vowed never to speak the gunman’s name in order to deny him the attention he sought.

Sri Lankan officials inspect the ruins of St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, a Colombo suburb, in the days after terrorist bombs struck the church and other targets on April 21, 2019. Credit: © Stringer/Getty Images

In Sri Lanka, a civil war ended in 2009, and since then the country has experienced little violence. Religious extremism is not prevalent in Sri Lanka, where Christians and Muslims together account for less than 20 percent of the mostly Buddhist population.

On April 21, 2019, however, the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ), a Sri Lankan Islamist group linked to the Islamic State, carried out coordinated attacks on Easter, the most important Christian festival of the year. The attacks occurred in the morning as people were attending church services or enjoying breakfast with family members. NTJ suicide bombers hit several targets within minutes of each other: Saint Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, a Colombo suburb; the Shrine of Saint Anthony in Colombo; the Zion Chuch in Batticaloa, a city on Sri Lanka’s east coast; and the Cinnamon Grand, Kingsbury, and Shangi-La hotels in Colombo. Later in the day, two more attacks occurred in the Colombo suburbs of Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia (at the Tropical Inn) and Dematagoda (at a housing complex).

Initial reports listed the dead at 359, but that number was later revised to 257. The discrepancy was caused by the difficulty in identifying body parts separated by the violent explosions. Another 496 people were injured in the attacks. Sri Lanka’s government declared a state of emergency as it began investigating the attacks. Police quickly identified a number of the attackers, and in the following days, they captured or killed a number of people suspected of aiding in the attacks. Numerous weapons and bomb-making materials were confiscated.

Sri Lanka’s government looked inward for blame, finding serious lapses in domestic and international security. Several government officials resigned, and the inspector general of police was placed on compulsory leave. Social media was blacked out for several days after the attack, some government offices and university campuses were closed, and previously slack restrictions on extreme Islamic rhetoric were greatly tightened. Religious services—both Christian and Muslim—were temporarily cancelled for fear of further attacks or reprisals, and the numbers of foreign tourists in Sri Lanka dropped sharply.

May 24, 2018

Last month, on April 26, the new National Memorial for Peace and Justice opened along with the new Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. The sobering memorial and museum—separate places built to complement each other—are dedicated to the legacy of enslaved black people, people terrorized by lynching, and the injustice of dealing with racial segregation and discriminatory laws. They also detail the current burdens of African Americans facing unfair presumptions of guilt and excessive police violence.

The hanging memorials within the National Memorial for Peace and Justice detail the chilling history of the lynching of African Americans in the United States. Credit: Sonia Kapadia (licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)

The memorial and museum were created by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), an organization committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, challenging racial and economic injustice, and protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society. Work on the memorial began in 2010 as EJI staff began investigating the history of lynchings in the American South. The numbers they came up with were staggering: more than 4,400 black people were lynched in the United States between 1877 and 1950.

Covering 6 acres (2.4 hectares), the Memorial for Peace and Justice details America’s history of racial inequality with unflinching glimpses of racial terror. The site includes sculptures and a central square with 800 hanging monuments that symbolize the brutal deaths of lynching victims. Each monument is peculiar to a county and state where lynchings took place, and each lists the names (when available) of victims and the dates when they were killed.

The memorial includes exhibits on the civil rights movement in the United States, with special attention paid to the local Montgomery bus boycotts of the 1950′s. Other exhibits deal with the contemporary issues of police violence and racial bias in the criminal justice system. The memorial displays writing from author Toni Morrison, words from civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr., and a reflection space in honor of journalist and reformer Ida B. Wells-Barnett.

A short walk away in Montgomery, the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration is built on the site of a former warehouse where enslaved black people were held before being bought and sold at a nearby auction site. Montgomery was once an important center of the slave trade in the American South, and many sites in the city chronicle this unfortunate history. Like the memorial, the 11,000-square-foot (1,022-square meter) museum details the chilling history of racism in the United States. First-person accounts tell the reality of living through the slave trade, and research materials and multimedia provide sobering details. The Legacy Museum also has exhibits on lynching, segregation, and the mass incarceration of African Americans.