The
Tulsa Race Riot was one of the most devastating race riots in
US history.
It occurred in 1921, and started when a white female elevator
operator accused a black male elevator rider of assaulting her.
This happened in the racially and politically tense atmosphere
of northeastern Oklahoma. For example, the area was a hotbed of Ku Klux Klan activity at that time. Blacks gathered around the jail to prevent a lynching?, whites came to perform a lynching, and a gun battle ensued.
White mobs invaded the segregated black part of town, known as [Black Wall Street]? for its economic success, and burned it to the ground. Hundreds of people were killed, dozens of businesses,
homes, and churches were destroyed, and black people were rounded
up by the national guard and put into the baseball stadium.
Several black families, such as [Ada Louis Sipuel Fisher]?'s,
fled for more peaceful cities.