Editing Tulsa race massacre (section)

===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}}