Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Responding to a “Negro Uprising”

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

  • 1441 Accesses

Abstract

In the response stage of riots, officials make several decisions that are critical to the communities seeking to recover. First, officials make decisions about maintaining order and returning to the status quo. Second, they decide how they will publicly present, or frame the events. Broader perceptions of the riot will be heavily influenced by the official narratives that have been crafted for public consumption. Third, authorities must make a determination regarding resources. What, if any, will be made available? How will they be distributed? To whom will economic support be allotted? Finally, officials must take the future into consideration. What, if any, measures can be taken to rectify the conditions that led to the riot? What can be done for the people who had their property destroyed or lost family members? This chapter will examine the response stage of the Tulsa Massacre. While the massacre itself was devastating to Greenwood residents, government and agency responses to the violence were themselves crippling, and often amounted to a re-victimization of those already harmed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • 88 indicted in race riot probe. (1921, June 19). Tulsa Daily World, 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • All blacks must wear green tags. (1921, June 7). Tulsa Daily World, 9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bad Niggers! (1921, June 4). Tulsa Daily World, 4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Black agitators blamed for riot. (1921, June 6). Tulsa Daily World, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blacks ordered to carry green cards with them. (1921, July 3). Tulsa Daily World, 4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bombs hurled from aeroplanes in order to stop attacks on the whites. (1921, June 4). Chicago Defender, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burned district in fire limits. (1921, June 8). Tulsa Daily World, 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Causes of riots discussed in pulpits of Tulsa Sunday. (1921, June 6). Tulsa Daily World, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • City balks at rebuilding of burned area. (1921, July 20). Tulsa Tribune, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cunningham, D. and Browning, B. (2004). The emergence of worthy targets: Official frames and deviance narratives within the FBI. Sociological Forum 19, 347–369.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dallas offers assistance. (1921, June 4). Tulsa Daily World, 4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duriez, B. and Hutsebaut, B. (2000). The relation between religion and racism: The role of post critical beliefs. Mental Health, Religion & Culture 3(1), 85–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eitle, D., D’Alessio, S.J., and Stolzenberg, L. (2002). Racial threat and social control: A test of the political, economic, and threat of black crime hypotheses. Social Forces 81(2), 557–576.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ellsworth, S. (1982). Death in a promised land: The Tulsa race riot of 1921. LA: Louisiana State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • False story which set Tulsa on fire, The. (1921, July 1). Black Dispatch, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill, L. (1946). The Tulsa race riot. [Master’s Thesis]. University of Tulsa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gongaware, T.B. (2010). Collective memory anchors: Collective identity and continuity in social movements. Sociological Focus 43(3), 214–239.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good may come out of rioting. (1921, June 23). Tulsa Daily World, 7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grand jury blames negroes for inciting race rioting: Whites clearly exonerated. (1921, June 26). Tulsa Daily World, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Half fare rates to blacks leaving city. (1921, June 11). Tulsa Daily World, 10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hiring negro help. (1921, June 5). Tulsa Tribune, 8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hower, B. (1993). 1921 Tulsa race riot: “Angels of mercy.” OK: Homestead Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hundreds to be called in probe. (1921, June 10). Tulsa Tribune, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krehbiel, R. (2019). Tulsa, 1921: Reporting a massacre. OK: University of Oklahoma Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Let action conform to the words. (1921, July 4). Harlow’s Weekly, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Let us return to a reign of law. (1921, June 3). Harlow’s Weekly, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Messer, C.M., Shriver, T.E., and Beamon, K.K. (2018). Official frames and the Tulsa race riot of 1921: The struggle for reparations. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 4(3), 386–399.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Militia’s reign brought to an end. (1921, June 4). Tulsa Daily World, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Must work or go to jail is edict of Mayor Evans. (1921, June 4). Tulsa Daily World, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Negro deputy sheriff blames black dope-head for inciting his race into rioting here. (1921, June 3). Tulsa Daily World, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Negro section abolished by city’s order. (1921, June 7). Tulsa Tribune, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Negro tells how others organized. (1921, June 4). Tulsa Tribune, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Negroes publish new daily newspaper. (1921, June 9). Tulsa Daily World, 7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Noakes, J.A. (2000). Official frames in social movement theory: The FBI, HUAC, and the communist threat in Hollywood. Sociological Quarterly 41, 657–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Noakes, J.A. and Johnston, H. (2005). Frames of protest: A road map to a perspective. In H. Johnston and J.A. Noakes (Eds.), Frames of Protest: Social Movements and the Framing Perspective (pp. 1–29). MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Not liable for damages. (1921, June 8). Tulsa Daily World, 14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olick, J.K., Vinitzky-Seroussi, V. and Levy, D. (2011). The Collective Memory Reader. NY: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parrish, M.E.J. (1998). Events of the Tulsa disaster. OK: Out on a Limb Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plan to move negroes into new district. (1921, June 3). Tulsa Tribune, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Police boss puts ban on camera men in destroyed area. (1921, June 14). Tulsa Tribune, 13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Propaganda of negroes is blamed. (1921, June 18). Tulsa Tribune, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reconstruction plans approved by Mayor. (1921, June 19). Tulsa Daily World, 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Red Cross too free with coin, Lewis charges. (1921, July 3). Tulsa Tribune, 5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riot statement made by Mayor. (1921, June 15). The Tulsa Daily World, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rohlinger, D.A. (2002). Framing the abortion debate: Organizational resources, media strategies, and movement-countermovement dynamics. The Sociological Quarterly 43(4), 479–507.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shriver, T.E., Adams, A. E, and Cable, S. (2013). Discursive obstruction and elite opposition to environmental activism in the Czech Republic. Social Forces 91(3), 873–893.

    Google Scholar 

  • Special report on the work of Tulsa national guard May 31–June 1, 1921. (1921, September 30). Letter from Col. Charles F. Bates, National Guard sent to The Chief, Militia Bureau. J.B.A Robertson Collection. Oklahoma State Library, Oklahoma City, OK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tisby, J. (2019). The color of compromise: The truth about the American Church’s complicity in racism. MI: Zondervan.

    Google Scholar 

  • To appraise all loss by negroes. (1921, June 3). Tulsa Tribune, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tulsa a type. (1921, June 11). Chicago Defender, 16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tulsa race riots, The. (1921, June). Independent 105, 646–647.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tulsa responds to needy’s call. (1921, June 6). Tulsa Daily World, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vice at bottom of riot, charge of the clergy. (1921, June 6). Tulsa Tribune, 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warning against further trouble. (1921, June 4). Tulsa Daily World, 4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weedon, C. and Jordan, G. (2012). Collective memory: Theory and politics. Social Semiotics 22(2), 143–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • When riot stalked Tulsa. (1921, June 2). Tulsa Daily World, 7.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, W. (1921, June 29). The eruption of Tulsa. The Nation, 909.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Colorado State University Pueblo, Pueblo, CO, USA

    Chris M. Messer

Authors
  1. Chris M. Messer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chris M. Messer .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Messer, C.M. (2021). Responding to a “Negro Uprising”. In: The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74679-7_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74679-7_4

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-74678-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-74679-7

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation