How did the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 start?

Answer 1

Apparently, a young black man by the name Dick Rowland was riding on an elevator. The white operator, Sarah Paige, claimed that he grabbed her arm and she had to flee. With each telling of the story, it seemed to get worse. The police arrested Rowland and an inflammatory report was released to the Tulsa Tribune, which caused a confrontation between blacks and whites in front of the courthouse, thus sparking the riot.

Answer 2

I found a pretty detailed account on wiki... it was an escalation of poor choices, bad luck and racism. To some extent Tulsa was a powder keg as it had a fairly successful black community as well as an active KKK contingent... here is what I found on wiki...

"The Tulsa Race Riot occurred in the racially and politically tense atmosphere of northeastern Oklahoma, some of which was a growing hotbed of anti-black sentiment and Ku Klux Klan activity at that time. The Greenwood section of Tulsa was home to a commercial district so prosperous it was known as Black Wall Street."

The actual spark was a misundertanding of a black teen (boy)assulting a white teen (girl)... which by most accounts was blown out of porportion, but sparked the underlying fear and racism in the town.

Hope that helps!

Dan

Answer 3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_Race_Riot
http://www.tulsalibrary.org/aarc/riot/riot.htm
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/03/23/judge_dismisses_riots_reparations_suit/
http://www.tulsareparations.org/
http://www.cnn.com/US/9908/03/tulsa.riots.probe/index.html
http://www.tulsatoday.com/archive/race.htm
http://www.assumption.edu/ahc/raceriots/default.html

I grew up in Tulsa,Oklahoma this riot is today a very hottly debated issue in Tulsa.

Answer 4

Please see the link below. It gives great detailed information.