“But for the specter and violence of white supremacy - where would we be?”
-Dr. Brittney Cooper
1921 Tulsa Race Massacre
N4DR Centennial Commemoration
of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre
Listen & Lament
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Webinar video
Dr. Hannibal Johnson Q & A: Greenwood Past & Present
Learn the history
Listen to the response of people of faith
Lament with 100 seconds of silence
(one for every year of complicity)
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Practicing Lament: A Biblical Response to Racial and Other Trauma
An On-Demand Webinar
A Message from the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, Stated Clerk of General Assembly of the PC(USA)
Synod of the Sun remembers the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre
By Gail Strange | Presbyterian News Service
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LOUISVILLE — The Tulsa race massacre has been called “the single worst incident of racial violence in American history.” On May 31 and June 1, 1921, mobs of white residents, many of them deputized and given weapons by city officials, attacked Black residents and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The attack, carried out on the ground and from private aircraft, destroyed more than 35 square blocks of the district — at that time the wealthiest Black community in the United States, known as “Black Wall Street.”
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photograph for slideshow.
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White Rage Leads to Massacre
Many of these photos were made into postcards and were meant to be kept by White People as souvenirs or sent to White friends and family.
The most graphic postcards/photos are not shown on our website, but can be seen here.
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The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre destroyed the Greenwood neighborhood of 35 blocks of homes and businesses in the span of 12-hours on May 31-June 1, 1921. An unknown number of Greenwood residents were killed, estimates are approximately 300 souls. Nicknamed Black Wall Street, for the wealth of this neighborhood, 600 businesses and 1200 homes were fire-bombed by planes and looted and then set afire by the area Whites.
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photograph for slideshow.
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photograph for slideshow.
Harmless themselves, they [the citizens of Greenwood] apparently could not conceive the brutality and fiendishness of men who would deliberately set fire to the homes of their friends and neighbors and just as deliberately shoot them down in their tracks.
Tulsa Daily World, June 2, 1921
Lives Lost: Unknown
When the massacre was finished, the cover-up began. No one was ever held responsible for any of the illegal acts committed; no government entity compensated the victims; not a dime of insurance money was collected. The last of the victims and their descendants are still denied justice.