Editing Tulsa race massacre (section)

==Aftermath==

===Casualties===
{{multiple image | align = right | direction = horizontal | total_width = 550
| image1 = Tulsariotpostcard1.jpg | caption1 =[[Greenwood District, Tulsa|Little Africa]], apparently taken from the roof of the Hotel Tulsa on 3rd St. between Boston Ave. and Cincinnati Ave. The first row of buildings is along 2nd St. The smoke cloud on the left (Cincinnati Ave. and the Frisco Tracks) is identified in the ''Tulsa Tribune'' version of this photo as being where the fire started.
| image2 = 19210602 Tulsa Dead Total 85 - race massacre - The Boston Daily Globe.jpg | caption2 = Newspapers nationwide reported the massacre, reporting the growing number of people killed.<ref name=BostonGlobe_19210602>{{cite news |title=Tulsa Dead Total 85 / Nine of Them white |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/boston-daily-globe-jun-02-1921-p-1/ |work=The Boston Daily Globe |date=June 2, 1921 }}</ref>
}}

The massacre was covered by national newspapers, and the reported number of deaths varies widely. On June 1, 1921, the ''[[Tulsa Tribune]]'' reported that nine white people and 68 black people had died in the riot, but shortly afterwards it changed that number to a total of 176 dead. The next day, the same paper reported the count as nine white people and 21 black people. The ''[[Los Angeles Express (newspaper)|Los Angeles Express]]'' headline said "175 Killed, Many Wounded".<ref>{{cite web |title=tulsa-race-riot |url=http://www.greenwoodculturalcenter.com/tulsa-race-riot |publisher=greenwoodculturalcenter.com |access-date=March 31, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170401060340/http://www.greenwoodculturalcenter.com/tulsa-race-riot |archive-date=April 1, 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref> ''[[The New York Times]]'' said that 77 people had been killed, including 68 black people, but it later lowered the total to 33. The ''[[Richmond Times-Dispatch|Richmond Times Dispatch]]'' of Virginia reported that 85 people (including 25 white people) were killed; it also reported that the police chief had reported to Governor Robertson that the total was 75; and that a police major put the figure at 175.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045389/1921-06-02/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1836&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=RACE%20RIOTS%20TULSA&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=0&state=&date2=1922&proxtext=Tulsa%20Race%20riot&y=12&x=7&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=9 |title=Richmond Times-Dispatch |location=Richmond, VA |date=June 2, 1921 |via=chroniclingamerica.loc.gov |access-date=February 1, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150204000836/http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045389/1921-06-02/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1836&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=RACE%20RIOTS%20TULSA&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=0&state=&date2=1922&proxtext=Tulsa%20Race%20riot&y=12&x=7&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=9 |archive-date=February 4, 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Oklahoma Department of Vital Statistics put the number of deaths at 36 (26 black and 10 white).{{sfn|Hirsch|2002|p=118}} Very few people, if any, died as a direct result of the fire. Official state records show five deaths by conflagration for the entire state in 1921.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://digitalprairie.ok.gov/cdm/compoundobject/collection/okresources/id/70551/rec/104 |title=Sixth and Seventh Annual Report for the State Department of Health of Oklahoma, for the year ending June 30, 1922 and for the year ending June 30, 1923 |page=64 |publisher=State Department of Health of Oklahoma }}</ref>{{original research inline|date=September 2023}}

[[Walter Francis White]] of the [[NAACP]] traveled to Tulsa from New York and reported that, although officials and undertakers said that the fatalities numbered 10 white and 21 black, he estimated the number of the dead to be 50 whites and between 150 and 200 blacks;<ref>Walter Whites total estimate of about 250 white and black fatalities is apparently confirmed in Tim Madigan, ''The Burning: Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921'' (2013), p. 224 {reference only}</ref> he also reported that 10 white men were killed on Tuesday; six white men drove into the black section and never came out, and 13 whites were killed on Wednesday; he reported that Major O.T. Johnson of the [[The Salvation Army|Salvation Army]] in Tulsa, said that 37 blacks were employed as gravediggers to bury 120 blacks in individual graves without coffins on Friday and Saturday.<ref name="wwhite" /> The Oklahoma Commission described Johnson's statement being that his crew was over three dozen grave diggers who dug "about" 150 graves.{{sfn|Oklahoma Commission|2001|p=121}} [[Ground-penetrating radar]] was used to investigate the sites purported to contain these mass graves. Multiple eyewitness reports and "oral histories" suggested the graves could have been dug at three different cemeteries across the city. The sites were examined, and no evidence of ground disturbance indicative of mass graves was found. However, at one site, the ground disturbance was found in a five-meter square area, but cemetery records indicate that three graves had been dug and bodies buried within this envelope before the riot.{{sfn|Oklahoma Commission|2001|p=131}}

Oklahoma's 2001 Commission into the riot provides multiple contradicting estimates. Goble estimates 100–300 deaths,{{sfn|Oklahoma Commission|2001|p=13}} and Franklin and Ellsworth estimate 75–100 deaths and describe some of the higher estimates as dubious as the low estimates.{{sfn|Oklahoma Commission|2001|p=23}} C. Snow was able to confirm 39 casualties, all listed as male although four were unidentifiable; 26 were black and 13 were white.{{sfn|Oklahoma Commission|2001|p=114}} The 13 white fatalities were all taken to hospitals.{{sfn|Oklahoma Commission|2001|p=117}} Eleven of them had come from outside of Oklahoma, and possibly as many as half were petroleum industry workers.{{sfn|Oklahoma Commission|2001|pp=115–116}} Only eight of the confirmed 26 black fatalities were brought to hospitals,{{sfn|Oklahoma Commission|2001|p=117}} and as hospitals were segregated, and with the black Frissell Memorial Hospital having burned down, the only place where the injured blacks were treated was at the basement of Morningside Hospital.{{sfn|Oklahoma Commission|2001|p=116}} Several hundred were injured.{{sfn|Oklahoma Commission|2001|p=116}}

The [[American Red Cross|Red Cross]], in their preliminary overview, mentioned wide-ranging external estimates of 55 to 300 dead; however, because of the hurried nature of undocumented burials, they declined to submit an official estimate, stating, "The number of dead is a matter of conjecture."{{sfn|Willows|1921|p=3}} The Red Cross registered 8,624 persons; 183 people were hospitalized, mostly for gunshot wounds or burns (they are differentiated in their records on the basis of [[triage]] category not the type of wound), while a further 531 required first aid or surgical treatment; eight miscarriages were attributed to be a result of the tragedy; 19 died in care between June 1 and December 30, 1921.{{sfn|Willows|1921|p=20|loc=Condensed Report}}

The nearly 10,000 people in Greenwood who were affected relied, in large part, on the relief efforts of the Red Cross. Important for the future survival of this district, they worked to create "a large-scale plan in order to provide security, food, shelter, job training and placement, health coverage, and legal support for all of them [the survivors]."<ref name="Karatzas 2018">{{Cite journal |last=Karatzas |first=Konstantinos D. |date=June 2018 |title=Interpreting violence: The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot and its legacy |url= |journal=European Journal of American Culture |volume=36 |page=131 |via=EBSCOhost }}</ref> The Red Cross was working in the aftermath of a tragedy, the victims of which "had all the characteristics of prisoners of war: homeless and helpless, abandoned by their home country, confined in specific areas, denied basic human rights, treated without respect and deprived of their possessions".<ref name="Karatzas 2018" /> In less than a year of being in Tulsa, the Red Cross had set up a hospital for black patients, which was the first in Oklahoma's history{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}; performed mass vaccinations for illnesses that could have been easily spread in the camps where survivors found themselves, as well as built infrastructure to provide fresh water, adequate food, and sufficient housing for those who no longer had a place of residence{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}.

[[File:Panorama of the ruined area tulsa race riots (retouched).jpg |center |thumb|upright=4.2|Taken from the southeast corner of the roof of [[Booker T. Washington High School (Oklahoma)|Booker T. Washington High School]], this panorama shows much of the damage within a day or so. The road running laterally through the center is Greenwood Avenue; the road slanting from the center to the left is Easton, and the road slanting off to the right is Frankfort.]]
<gallery>
File:Negro Slain in Tulsa Riot, June-1-1921 (14389395391).jpg|"Negro Slain in Tulsa Riot" "June-1-1921"
File:Chared (sic) Negro - Killed in Tulsa Riot, 6-1-1921 (14391369732).jpg|"Charred Negro" "Killed in Tulsa Riot" "6-1-1921"
File:Truck Being Used to Gather up Colored Victims - During Tulsa Race Riot, 6-1-21 (14206580148).jpg|"Truck Being Used to Gather Up Colored Victims – During Tulsa Race Riot – 6-1-21"
File:Captured Negros on Way to Convention Hall - During Tulsa Race Riot, June 1st, 1921 (14412915233).jpg|"Captured Negros on Way to Convention Hall – During Tulsa Race Riot June 1st, 1921"
File:Tulsa Race Riot, June 1st, 1921, Scene at Convention Hall (14206298337).jpg|"Scene at Convention Hall – June 1st, 1921"
File:All That Was Left of His Home after the Tulsa Race Riot, 6-1-21 (Ag2013.0002).jpg|"All That Was Left of His Home after Tulsa Race Riot – 6-1-1921"
</gallery>

===Property losses===
The commercial section of Greenwood was destroyed. Losses included 191 businesses, a junior high school, several churches, and the only hospital in the district. The Red Cross reported that 1,256 houses were burned and another 215 were looted but not burned.{{sfn|Willows|1921|pp=4, 12|loc=Condensed Report}} The Tulsa Real Estate Exchange estimated property losses amounted to US$1.5 million in real estate and $750,000 in personal property{{sfn|Oklahoma Commission|2001|p=189}} (equivalent to a total of ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|2.25|1921|r=0}}}} million in {{Inflation-year|US}}).

The Red Cross report in December 1921 estimated that 10,000 people were made homeless by the destruction.{{sfn|Willows|1921|p=66}} Over the next year, local citizens filed more than US$1.8 million (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|1.8|1921|r=0}} million in {{Inflation-year|US}}) in riot-related claims against the city.{{sfn|Hirsch|2002|p=119}}

===Identities of the African American victims===
On June 3, the ''[[Tulsa World|Morning Tulsa Daily World]]'' reported major points of their interview with Deputy Sheriff Barney Cleaver concerning the events leading up to the Tulsa riot. Cleaver was a deputy sheriff for [[Okmulgee County, Oklahoma|Okmulgee County]] and not under the supervision of the city police department; his duties mainly involved enforcing the law among the "colored people" of Greenwood, but he also operated a business as a private investigator. He had previously been dismissed as a city police investigator for assisting county officers with a drug raid at Gurley's Hotel but not reporting his involvement to his superiors.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://digitalprairie.ok.gov/cdm/compoundobject/collection/race-riot/id/390/rec/3 |title=Statement Barney Cleaver, Attorney General Civil Case No. 1062 |date=1921 |access-date=December 4, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181204151437/http://digitalprairie.ok.gov/cdm/compoundobject/collection/race-riot/id/390/rec/3 |archive-date=December 4, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> He had considerable land holdings and suffered tremendous financial damages as a result of the riot. Among his holdings were several residential properties and Cleaver Hall, a large community gathering place and function hall. He reported personally evicting a number of armed criminals who had taken to barricading themselves within properties he owned. Upon eviction, they merely moved to Cleaver Hall. Cleaver reported that the majority of violence started at Cleaver Hall along with the rioters barricaded inside. [[Charles Page]] offered to build him a new home.<ref name="Cleaver" />

The ''Morning Tulsa Daily World'' stated, "Cleaver named Will Robinson, a dope peddler and all-around bad negro, as the leader of the armed blacks. He has also the names of three others who were in the armed gang at the courthouse. The rest of the negroes participating in the fight, he says, were former servicemen who had an exaggerated idea of their own importance... They did not belong here, had no regular employment, and were simply a floating element with seemingly no ambition in life but to foment trouble."<ref name="Cleaver">{{cite news |title=Negro Deputy Sheriff Blames Black Dope-Head for Inciting His Race Into Rioting Here |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042345/1921-06-03/ed-1/seq-1/ |publisher=The Morning Tulsa Daily World |date=June 3, 1921 |access-date=December 3, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181120050606/https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042345/1921-06-03/ed-1/seq-1/ |archive-date=November 20, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[O.W. Gurley]], owner of Gurley's Hotel, identified the following men by name as arming themselves and gathering in his hotel: Will Robinson, Peg Leg Taylor, Bud Bassett, Henry Van Dyke, Chester Ross, Jake Mayes, O. B. Mann, John Suplesox, Fatty, Jack Scott, Lee Mable, John Bowman and W. S. Weaver.<ref name="Gurley">{{cite web |url=http://digitalprairie.ok.gov/cdm/compoundobject/collection/race-riot/id/1098/rec/2 |title=Statement O. W. Gurley, Attorney General Civil Case No. 1062 |page=1 |date=1921 |access-date=December 4, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181204151536/http://digitalprairie.ok.gov/cdm/compoundobject/collection/race-riot/id/1098/rec/2 |archive-date=December 4, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Public Safety Committee===
By June 6, the [[Associated Press]] reported that a citizens' Public Safety Committee had been established, made up of 250 white men who vowed to protect the city and put down any more disturbance. A white man, R.L. Osborne, was shot and killed that day after he failed to stop as ordered by a National Guardsman.<ref name="AP66">{{cite news |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045211/1921-06-06/ed-1/seq-2/ |title=Tulsa Guard Kills Man |newspaper=Evening Public Ledger |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |date=June 6, 1921 |page=2 |via=Chronicling America |publisher=Library of Congress; accessed December 31, 2016 |access-date=June 18, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200608151235/https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045211/1921-06-06/ed-1/seq-2/ |archive-date=June 8, 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Rebuilding===
Governor [[James B. A. Robertson]] had gone to Tulsa during the riot to ensure order was restored. Before returning to the capital, he ordered an inquiry into events, especially of the City and Sheriff's Office. He called for a [[Grand jury|Grand Jury]] to be empaneled, and Judge Valjean Biddison said that its investigation would begin June 8. The jury was selected by June 9. Judge Biddison expected that the [[Attorney General of Oklahoma|state attorney general]] would call numerous witnesses, both black and white, given the large scale of the riot.<ref name="NYTimes 2021-06-03" />

State Attorney General [[Sargent Prentiss Freeling]] initiated the investigation, and witnesses were heard over 12 days. In the end, the all-white jury attributed the riot to the black mobs, while noting that law enforcement officials had failed in preventing the riot. A total of 27 cases were brought before the court, and the jury indicted more than 85 individuals. In the end, no one was convicted of charges for the deaths, injuries or property damage.{{sfn|Ellsworth|1992 |pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=u9SlbjZHeHgC&pg=PA94 94–96]}}

On June 3, a group of over 1,000 businessmen and civic leaders met, resolving to form a committee to raise funds and aid in rebuilding Greenwood. Judge [[Loyal J. Martin]], a former mayor of Tulsa, was chosen as the chairman of the group. He said at the mass meeting:

{{blockquote|Tulsa can only redeem herself from the country-wide shame and humiliation into which she is today plunged by complete restitution and rehabilitation of the destroyed black belt. 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 it can be done, to the last penny.<ref name="NYTimes 2021-06-03">{{cite news |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1921/06/03/98700187.pdf |title=Tulsa In Remorse to Rebuild Homes; Dead Now Put at 30 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=3 June 1921 |access-date=31 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200102093041/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1921/06/03/98700187.pdf |archive-date=January 2, 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

Many black families spent the winter of 1921–1922 in tents as they worked to rebuild. Charles Page was commended for his philanthropic efforts in the wake of the riot in the assistance of 'destitute blacks'.<ref>{{cite web |date=June 17, 1921 |title=No Trace of Girl |url=https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc152337/m1/1/zoom/?resolution=6&lat=1636.2829138340094&lon=3264.7387257093555 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181222173203/https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc152337/m1/1/zoom/?resolution=6&lat=1636.2829138340094&lon=3264.7387257093555 |archive-date=December 22, 2018 |website=[[The Black Dispatch]] }}</ref>

A group of influential white developers persuaded the city to pass a fire ordinance that would have prohibited many black people from rebuilding in Greenwood. Their intention was to redevelop Greenwood for more business and industrial use and force black people further to the edge of the city for residences. The case was litigated and appealed to the [[Oklahoma Supreme Court]] by [[Buck Colbert Franklin]], where the ordinance was ruled unconstitutional. Most of the promised funding was never raised for the black residents, and they struggled to rebuild after the violence. Willows, the regional director of the Red Cross, noted this in his report, explaining his slow initial progress to facilitate the rehabilitation of the refugees. The fire code was officially intended to prevent another tragedy by banning wooden frame construction houses in place of previously burnt homes. A concession was granted to allow temporary wooden frame dwellings while a new building, which would meet the more restrictive fire code, was being constructed. This was quickly halted as residents within two weeks had started to erect full-sized wooden frame dwellings in contravention of the agreement. It took a further two-month delay to secure the court decision to reinstate the previous fire code. Willows heavily criticized the Tulsa city officials for interfering with his efforts, for their role in the Public Welfare Committee, which first sought to rezone the "burned area" as industrial, and for constructing a union station in its place with no consideration for the refugees. Then he criticized them again for the dissolution of the Public Welfare Committee in favor of the formation of the Reconstruction Committee, which failed to formulate a single plan, leaving the displaced residents prohibited from beginning reconstruction efforts for several months.{{sfn|Willows|1921|pp=22–25}}

===Tulsa Union Depot===
Despite the Red Cross's best efforts to assist with the reconstruction of Greenwood's residential area, the considerably altered present-day layout of the district and its surrounding neighborhoods, as well as the extensive redevelopment of Greenwood by people unaffiliated with the neighborhood prior to the riot, stand as proof that the Red Cross relief efforts had limited success.{{sfn|Willows|1921|pp=22–23}}

Tulsa's main industries at the time of the riot were banking ([[BOK Financial Corporation]]), administrative ([[PennWell]], [[Oneok|Oklahoma Natural Gas Company]]), and petroleum engineering services ([[Skelly Oil]]), earning Tulsa the title of "[[Oil Capital of the World]]". Joshua Cosden is also regarded as a founder of the city, having constructed the tallest building in Tulsa, the [[Mid-Continent Tower|Cosden Building]]. The construction of the Cosden Building and Union Depot was overseen by the [[Manhattan Construction Company]], which was based in Tulsa. [[Francis Rooney]] is the great-grandson and beneficiary of the estate of Laurence H. Rooney, founder of the Manhattan Construction Company.

City planners immediately saw the fire that destroyed homes and businesses across Greenwood as a fortunate event for advancing their objectives, meanwhile showing a disregard for the welfare of affected residents. Plans were made to rezone 'The Burned Area' for industrial use.{{sfn|Willows|1921|pp=22–23}} The ''Tulsa Daily World'' reported that the mayor and city commissioners expressed that, "a large industrial section will be found desirable in causing a wider separation between negroes and whites."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042345/1921-06-08/ed-1/seq-2/ |title=Burned District In Fire Limits, The Morning Tulsa daily world |page=2 |date=June 9, 1921 |access-date=December 7, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181209125229/https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042345/1921-06-08/ed-1/seq-2/ |archive-date=December 9, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> The reconstruction committee organized a forum to discuss their proposal with community leaders and stakeholders. Naming, among others, O.W. Gurley, Rev. H.T.F. Johnson, and Barney Cleaver as participants in the forum, it was reported that all members were in agreement with the plan to redevelop the burned district as an industrial section and agreed that the proposed union station project was desirable. "...{{nbsp}}not a note of dissension was expressed." The article states that these community leaders would again meet at the First Baptist Church in the following days.<ref>{{cite web |title=Leading Negroes Meet with Committee – to sanction Program |url=https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc77800/m1/2/zoom/?resolution=1&lat=5004&lon=3410.500000000004 |date=June 19, 1921 |publisher=Tulsa Daily World |page=2 |access-date=December 21, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221182941/https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc77800/m1/2/zoom/?resolution=1&lat=5004&lon=3410.500000000004 |archive-date=December 21, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> ''The Black Dispatch'' describes the content of the following meeting at the First Baptist Church. The reconstruction committee had intended to have the black landholders sign over their property to a holding company managed by black representatives on behalf of the city. The properties were then to be turned over to a white appraisal committee, which would pay residents for the residentially zoned land at the lower industrial zoned value in advance of the rezoning. Professor J.W. Hughes addressed the white reconstruction committee members in opposition to their proposition, coining a slogan that would come to galvanize the community, "I'm going to hold what I have until I get What I've lost."<ref>{{cite web |publisher=The Black Dispatch |date=June 29, 1921 |title=Unbroken Faith Shown In Re-habilitation Program |access-date=December 21, 2018 |page=1 |url=https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc152338/m1/3/zoom/?resolution=6&lat=2589.5838953879365&lon=4271.1610735414415 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221230351/https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc152338/m1/3/zoom/?resolution=6&lat=2589.5838953879365&lon=4271.1610735414415 |archive-date=December 21, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Construction of the [[Tulsa Union Depot]], a large central rail hub connecting three major railroads, began in Greenwood less than two years after the riot. Prior to the riot, construction had already been underway for a smaller rail hub nearby. However, in the aftermath of the riot, land on which homes and businesses had been destroyed by the fires suddenly became available, allowing for a larger train depot near the heart of the city to be built in Greenwood instead.{{sfn|Willows|1921|pp=22–23}}{{sfn|Oklahoma Commission|2001|pp=38, 40, 168}}

===1921 grand jury investigation===

====Allegations of corruption====
The Tulsa Police Department, in the words of Chief Chuck Jordan, "did not do their job then, y'know, they just didn't".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.newson6.com/story/5e360dab2f69d76f62038942/police-chief-donates-rare-picture-of-tulsas-first-africanamerican-officer |title=Police Chief Donates Rare Picture Of Tulsa's First African-American Officer |date=May 31, 2016 |access-date=December 7, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160811114139/http://www.newson6.com/story/32107074/police-chief-donates-rare-picture-of-tulsas-first-african-american-officer |archive-date=August 11, 2016 }}</ref> Parrish, an African-American citizen of Tulsa, summarized the lawlessness in Oklahoma as a contributing factor in 1922 as, "if ... it were not for the profitable alliance of politics and vice or professional crime, the tiny spark which is the beginning of all these outrages would be promptly extinguished."{{sfn|Parrish|1922|p=87}} Clark, a prominent Oklahoma historian and law professor, completed his doctoral dissertation in law on the subject of lawlessness in Oklahoma specifically on this period of time and how lawlessness had led to the rise of the second KKK, in order to illustrate the need for effective law enforcement and a functional judiciary.<ref name="Clark 1976">{{cite thesis |last1=Clark |first1=Blue |title=A history of the Ku Klux Klan in Oklahoma |date=1976 |hdl=11244/4165 |pages=23–25 |oclc=1048011720 }}</ref>

====John A. Gustafson====
Chief of Police John A. Gustafson was the subject of an investigation. Official proceedings began on June 6, 1921. He was prosecuted on multiple counts: refusing to enforce prohibition, refusing to enforce anti-prostitution laws; operating a stolen automobile-laundering racket and allowing known automobile thieves to escape justice, for the purpose of extorting the citizens of Tulsa for rewards relating to their return; repurposing vehicles for his own use or sale; operating a fake detective agency for the purpose of billing the city of Tulsa for investigative duties he was already being paid for as chief of police; failing to enforce gun laws; and failure to take action during the riots.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://digitalprairie.ok.gov/cdm/compoundobject/collection/race-riot/id/1180/rec/1 |title=Accusation District Court State of Oklahoma v. John A. Gustafson, Attorney General Civil Case No. 1062 |access-date=December 4, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181204151357/http://digitalprairie.ok.gov/cdm/compoundobject/collection/race-riot/id/1180/rec/1 |archive-date=December 4, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The attorney general of Oklahoma received numerous letters alleging members of the police force had conspired with members of the justice system to threaten witnesses in corruption trials stemming from the Grand Jury investigations. In the letters, various members of the public requested the presence of the state attorney general at the trial.<ref name="Seeber">{{cite web |url=http://digitalprairie.ok.gov/cdm/compoundobject/collection/race-riot/id/788/rec/14 |title=Letter C. J. Seeber to S. P. Freeling, Attorney General |date=July 8, 1921 |access-date=December 3, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181203152156/http://digitalprairie.ok.gov/cdm/compoundobject/collection/race-riot/id/788/rec/14 |archive-date=December 3, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Kinion">{{cite web |url=http://digitalprairie.ok.gov/cdm/ref/collection/race-riot/id/782 |title=Letter Archie A. Kinion to S. P. Freeling, Attorney General |date=July 7, 1921 |access-date=December 3, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181204011105/http://digitalprairie.ok.gov/cdm/ref/collection/race-riot/id/782 |archive-date=December 4, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> An assistant of the attorney general replied to one such letter by stating that their budget was too stretched to respond and recommending instead that the citizens of Tulsa simply vote for new officers.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://digitalprairie.ok.gov/cdm/compoundobject/collection/race-riot/id/791/rec/1 |title=Letter Assistant Attorney General to R. J. Churchill |date=July 27, 1921 |access-date=December 3, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181203152209/http://digitalprairie.ok.gov/cdm/compoundobject/collection/race-riot/id/791/rec/1 |archive-date=December 3, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Gustafson was found to have a long history of fraud pre-dating his membership in the Tulsa Police Department. His previous partner in his detective agency, Phil Kirk, had been convicted of blackmail.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://digitalprairie.ok.gov/cdm/compoundobject/collection/race-riot/id/1274/rec/9 |title=Local Findings on John A. Gustafson, Attorney General Civil Case No. 1062; Page 1 |access-date=December 7, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181209165235/http://digitalprairie.ok.gov/cdm/compoundobject/collection/race-riot/id/1274/rec/9 |archive-date=December 9, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> Gustafson's fake detective agency ran up high billings on the police account. Investigators noted that many blackmail letters had been sent to members of the community from the agency. One particularly disturbing case involved the frequent rape, by her father, of an 11-year-old girl who had since become pregnant. Instead of prosecuting, they sent a "[[black Hand (extortion)|Blackhand]] letter".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://digitalprairie.ok.gov/cdm/compoundobject/collection/race-riot/id/1307/rec/16 |title=Witness Statements taken by R. E. Maxey, Attorney General Civil Case No. 1062 |pages=2–3 |access-date=December 3, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181204005819/http://digitalprairie.ok.gov/cdm/compoundobject/collection/race-riot/id/1307/rec/16 |archive-date=December 4, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> On July 30, 1921, out of five counts of an indictment, Gustafson was found guilty of two counts: negligence for failing to stop the riot (which resulted in dismissal from police force), and conspiracy for freeing automobile thieves and collecting rewards (which resulted in a jail sentence).<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86056950/1921-07-30/ed-1/seq-1/ |title=The Chicago whip. (Chicago, Ill.) 1919–19??, July 30, 1921, Image 1 |first=National Endowment for the |last=Humanities |date=July 30, 1921 |via=chroniclingamerica.loc.gov }}</ref>

===Breaking the silence===
Three days after the massacre, President [[Warren G. Harding]] spoke at the all-black [[Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)|Lincoln University]] in Pennsylvania. He declared, "Despite the demagogues, the idea of our oneness as Americans has risen superior to every appeal to mere class and group. And so, I wish it might be in this matter of our national problem of races." Speaking directly about the events in Tulsa, he said, "God grant that, in the soberness, the fairness, and the justice of this country, we never see another spectacle like it."<ref>{{cite news |last=Robenalt |first=James D. |title=The Republican president who called for racial justice in America after Tulsa massacre |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=June 21, 2020 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/06/21/warren-harding-tulsa-race-massacre-trump/ |access-date=June 22, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200622065637/https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/06/21/warren-harding-tulsa-race-massacre-trump/ |archive-date=June 22, 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref>

There were no convictions for any of the charges related to violence.{{sfn|Ellsworth|1992|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=u9SlbjZHeHgC&pg=PA94 94–96]}} There were decades of silence about the terror, violence, and losses of this event. The riot was largely omitted from local, state, and national histories: "The Tulsa race riot of 1921 was rarely mentioned in history books, classrooms, or even in private. Black and white people alike grew into middle age, unaware of what had taken place."<ref name="NYT 2011/06/20">{{cite news |last=Sulzberger |first=A. G. |title=As Survivors Dwindle, Tulsa Confronts Past |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/us/20tulsa.html |access-date=June 20, 2011 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=June 19, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110622042944/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/us/20tulsa.html |archive-date=June 22, 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref> It was not recognized in the ''Tulsa Tribune'' feature of "Fifteen Years Ago Today" or "Twenty-five Years Ago Today".{{sfn|Oklahoma Commission|2001|p=26}} A 2017 report detailing the history of the Tulsa Fire Department from 1897 until the date of publication makes no mention of the 1921 massacre.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tulsafiremuseum.org/docs/tfdhistory2-2017.pdf |title=History of Tulsa Fire Department |year=2017 |first=Jill |last=Goforth |publisher=Tulsa Fire Department |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181219134518/http://www.tulsafiremuseum.org/docs/tfdhistory2-2017.pdf |archive-date=December 19, 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cityoftulsa.org/media/3311/tfdhistory2-2017.pdf |title=History of Tulsa Fire Department |year=2017 |first=Jill |last=Goforth |publisher=Tulsa Fire Department |access-date=December 19, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181219134322/https://www.cityoftulsa.org/media/3311/tfdhistory2-2017.pdf |archive-date=December 19, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Several people tried to document the events, gather photographs, and record the names of the dead and injured. Mary Elizabeth Jones Parrish, a young black teacher and journalist from [[Rochester, New York]], was hired by the Inter-racial Commission to write an account of the riot. Parrish was a survivor, and she wrote about her experiences, collected other accounts, gathered photographs and compiled "a partial roster of property losses in the African American community". She published these in ''Events of the Tulsa Disaster'', in 1922.{{sfn|Parrish|1922|p={{page needed|date=February 2021}}}} It was the first book to be published about the riot.{{sfn|Oklahoma Commission|2001|p=28}} The first academic account was a master's thesis written in 1946 by Loren L. Gill, a veteran of World War II, but the thesis did not circulate beyond the University of Tulsa.{{sfn|Oklahoma Commission|2001|pp=28–29}}

In 1971, a small group of survivors gathered for a memorial service at Mount Zion Baptist Church with black and white people in attendance.{{sfn|Oklahoma Commission|2001|p=29}} That same year, the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce decided to commemorate the riot, but when they read the accounts and saw photos gathered by Ed Wheeler, host of a radio history program, detailing the specifics of the riot, they refused to publish them. He then took his information to the two major newspapers in Tulsa, both of which also refused to run his story. His article, "Profile of a Race Riot"<ref name="Wheeler" /> was published in ''Impact Magazine'', a publication aimed at black audiences, but most of Tulsa's white residents never knew about it.{{sfn|Oklahoma Commission|2001|pp=29–30}}

In the early 1970s, along with Henry C. Whitlow, Jr., a history teacher at [[Booker T. Washington High School (Oklahoma)|Booker T. Washington High School]], Mozella Franklin Jones helped to desegregate the Tulsa Historical Society by mounting the first major exhibition on the history of African Americans in Tulsa. Jones also created, at the Tulsa Historical Society, the first collection of massacre photographs available to the public.{{sfn|Oklahoma Commission|2001|pp=21–36}} While researching and sharing the history of the riot, Jones collaborated with a white woman named Ruth Sigler Avery, who was also trying to publicize accounts of the riot. The two women, however, encountered pressure, particularly among whites, to keep silent.{{sfn|Oklahoma Commission|2001|pp=30–31}}