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1921 Tulsa Race Riot – the Aftermath

In a previous blog post, I gave a short overview of the destruction that took place during the Tulsa Race Riot. You can read about it here. In this post, I’ll talk more about the days following the devastating riot.

The Real Citizenship

From the outset, the entire incident quickly earned the moniker of “the negro uprising.” As agencies across the nation attempted to reach out and send aid to the victims, leaders of the Tulsa community demurely turned it away. Their stance was that it was their problem and they would take care of it.

“Tulsa feels intensely humiliated and …pledges its every effort in wiping out the stain…the disgrace and disaster.” “ The rest of the United States must know that the real citizenship of Tulsa weeps at this unspeakable crime and will make good the damage, so far as can be done to the last penny.”*

To “make good the damage” never happened. Meanwhile the “real citizenship” as they called themselves, set forth to pass a particular fire ordinance that would forever prohibit the citizens of Greenwood from ever rebuilding. (Thankfully, this folly was later defeated in the Oklahoma Supreme Court.)

Angels of Mercy – The Red Cross

The one agency allowed to assist – and this almost from the very outset – was the Red Cross. Many referred to the agency as “angels of mercy,” as they ministered physically and emotionally to the shell-shocked victims .

Red Cross files would later show that between June 1, 1921, and January 1, 1922, they handled the cases of 8,624 individuals (2,480 family units). The care included clothing, bedding, beds, tents, laundry, cooking utensils, dishes, material for clothes, and so forth. Additionally, the Red Cross assisted victims by sending, free of charge, 1,350 telegrams to notify relatives around the country of their safety.

An Amazing Law Firm

One amazing footnote in the history of the aftermath was the selfless giving of the law firm of Spears, Franklin and Chappelle. These three black men set up shop in a tent and proceeded to provide legal assistance to the victims of the Tulsa Race Riot. They not only lodged claims against the city of Tulsa and the insurance companies, but also counseled and consoled the victims. They made urgent nationwide appeals to African-American groups, churches, and agencies for assistance.

In Mrs. Mary E. Jones Parrish’s book Events of the Tulsa Disaster (p 88), she described this loving and dedicated threesome.

The work was so big – the task so stupendous – that the boys found it absolutely necessary to work many Sundays. Through it all, there was one thing particularly noticeable and that was the “smile” on their faces and the happy laugh so often indulged in by them. They made it a rule to allow no one to come in their “office” or around them with sad faces. This was no easy task. With want and famine and dire distress stalking all about and women and little children in rags and utter poverty on every hand, it took cool nerves and limitless faith in God to do this…

It was this happy law firm that took the fire ordinance suit all the way to the Oklahoma Supreme Court. They worked out of their tent office until the month of November, 1921, at which time they moved into an upstairs room of a building on North Greenwood

Interestingly, the Franklin member of this law firm, B. C. Franklin, was the father of none other than the famed historian John Hope Franklin, Professor Emeritus at Duke University. For those unfamiliar with this noted historian can check out this website: http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/franklin/bio.html

More on the aftermath of the Tulsa Race Riot in a future blog post.

*Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, Scott Ellsworth, p. 83.

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Tulsa Tempest now available on Kindle!

When country girl Tessa Jurgen learns that her bootlegging father has promised her in marriage to a man she doesn’t love, she seeks refuge in the supposedly progressive boomtown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The year is 1921.

Writing the Page-Turner Historical Fiction Novel

A Powerful Impetus

In a prior blog post, I explained how it happened that I came to author the four-title Tulsa Series based on the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot. Read about it here.

Actually, a precluding incident occurred in my career that served as an powerful impetus regarding the Tulsa Series. It happened like this.

When I served as the coordinator for the Professionalism in Writing School (held annually in Tulsa), I was privileged to connect with editors, publishers, agents, and other authors from around the country. For fourteen consecutive years, PIW provided a platform where writers came to meet industry leaders and to study their craft. (That’s me at the registration desk.)

Brock and Bodie Thoene

At one of our conferences, I invited Brock and Bodie Thoene as our keynote speakers. This prolific husband-and-wife writing team spoke to our group from the depths of their hearts. No one came away from that conference unchanged.

In one of her sessions, Bodie made this statement, “No matter how large or how small, every town, city, and hamlet has a story.” That statement took up permanent residence in my little brain and refused to let go.

Writing Contemporary Novels

Later, I was working with Barbour Publishing Company writing contemporary romance novels. They purchased four such novels from me, one right after the other.

All through this period of time, my editor continued to tell me that Barbour also needed historical novels. “In fact,” he told me on numerous occasions, “our need for historical novels outpaces our need for the contemporaries.”

I resisted at first, simply because I knew a great deal of research was involved in writing historicals and I wasn’t sure I wanted to tackle such a project. However, at the same time, Bodie’s remark about every town having its own story continued to haunt me.

The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot

When I first moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma as a young married, I had heard about the infamous 1921 Tulsa Race Riot. The incident had always fascinated me. (In later years, I realized that the most I heard was all fabrication.)

Not only was I interested in this local historical event, I found I was also fascinated with the era of the twenties. The jazz age – the flapper era – consisted of a revolutionary time in America’s history.

I Saw Tessa

In my head I kept seeing a scene. I saw a young girl dressed in a plain cotton housedress, carrying a basket, walking through a crowd of angry gun-toting men and into the courthouse in downtown Tulsa. That was little Tessa Jurgen, the main character in Tulsa Tempest, but I didn’t know her yet.

It was time to say yes to my editor. Once I said yes, that began an incredible journey for me back into history. And what a journey it was.

From that point on, research was never work, it became like a treasure hunt; like a archeological dig; like mining for gold.

For more than two years, I lived in the Tulsa of the 1920s when oil fortunes were won or lost over a poker game; when bootleggers plied their trade; when the local Klan membership numbered in the thousands; when lawlessness prevailed; when people hopped on the trolley to take a shopping trip downtown; when the black population had their own separate thriving community to the north of town called Greenwood – also known as the Black Wall Street.

A Definite Page-Turner

That was the Tulsa I came to know on an intimate level.

When all was said and done, the first book in the series, Tulsa Tempest, saw many positive reviews, one of which stated:

A definite page-turner in every sense! It’s a great historical read that is entwined with a sweet romance. ~ Romance Reader at Heart

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Tulsa Tempest now available on Kindle!

1921 Tulsa Race Riot – the Aftermath

Writing the Page-Turner Historical Fiction Novel

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