Tulsa, 1921: Reporting a Massacre

by Randy Krehbiel, Karlos K. Hill (Foreword)

In 1921 Tulsa’s Greenwood District, known then as the nation’s “Black Wall Street,” was one of the most prosperous African American communities in the United States. But on May 31 of that year, a white mob, inflamed by rumors that a young Black man had attempted to rape a white teenage girl, invaded Greenwood. By the end of the following day, thousands of homes and businesses lay in ashes, and perhaps as many as three hundred people were dead.

Tulsa, 1921 shines new light into the shadows that have long been cast over this extraordinary instance of racial violence. With the clarity and descriptive power of a veteran journalist, author Randy Krehbiel digs deep into the events and their aftermath and investigates decades-old questions about the local culture at the root of what one writer has called a white-led pogrom.

Krehbiel analyzes local newspaper accounts in an unprecedented effort to gain insight into the minds of contemporary Tulsans. In the process he considers how the Tulsa World , the Tulsa Tribune , and other publications contributed to the circumstances that led to the disaster and helped solidify enduring white justifications for it. Some historians have dismissed local newspapers as too biased to be of value for an honest account, but by contextualizing their reports, Krehbiel renders Tulsa’s papers an invaluable resource, highlighting the influence of news media on our actions in the present and our memories of the past.

The Tulsa Massacre was a result of racial animosity and mistrust within a culture of political and economic corruption. In its wake, Black Tulsans were denied redress and even the right to rebuild on their own property, yet they ultimately prevailed and even prospered despite systemic racism and the rise during the 1920s of the second Ku Klux Klan. As Krehbiel considers the context and consequences of the violence and devastation, he asks, Has the city—indeed, the nation—exorcised the prejudices that led to this tragedy?
 

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Race, Politics, African American, Book Club

328 pages, Hardcover

First published September 19, 2019

Reviews

[Betsy Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Tulsa 1921 is a little like being in the middle of a mob and hearing all the hundred-year-old voices at once. It is an important record of absolutely everything leading up to, during, and after the mass killing of Black people in and the destruction of the Greenwood district, the Black Wall Street section, of Tulsa, Oklahoma on May 31–June 1, 1921—a history that was never recorded in Oklahoma school books and certainly did not make its way into my white high school history classes in suburban New York in the 1960s. But unless you are digging for facts, it is a difficult book to follow as it is really more like investigative notes, leaving nothing out. Often the reporting is recounting what is essentially a game of “Telephone” where facts are skewed or made up out of whole cloth or maybe not, and every single one of them is relayed for examination. According to author journalist Randy Krehbiel, some truths will never be known, especially about the incident that led to this abomination.

I was willing and eager to dig through this book because my mother was born in Tulsa in 1921, and although she never spoke about it, or is it possible she didn’t know?—I’ll never know—I suspect that whatever happened exploded into our family with such force that, unbeknownst to me, I’ve suffered the reverberations in my own history, due to my mother’s trauma ... due to her parents’ trauma … due to her Jewish merchant father’s decision to inexplicably flee (my word, not hers—she never explained it and I don’t know exactly when he fled, if he did indeed flee) Tulsa after she was born, four months after the massacre. The family subsequently moved so often that my mother suffered a lifelong phobia about being lost.

I’m glad this record exists. It made the people and the place real for me and I did pick up bits of history that may add to my personal understanding: the fact that the riot and destruction began in the white business district (where my grandfather’s jewelry store probably was), although this pales in comparison to what followed; and the fact that at least two businesses mentioned in Greenwood (a movie theater and a grocery) had white owners, so perhaps there were others. But all this is tangential to what we need to know to understand what happened.

The reverberations of the Tulsa massacre in our present culture are painfully obvious. A Black man was accused of an assault (that may or may not have happened) by a white teenager and then all hell broke loose. Even without television and internet, rumors spread like a virus, morphing into hysterical rage founded in hysterical fear. Because white people had regularly killed Black people with impunity, they (whites) assumed they would be attacked back. And because Black people had been killed with impunity by white people, Black people assumed it was about to happen again to the jailed Black man. The only clear thing is that racism fueled one of the ugliest events of mass killing and destruction—complete with machine gunfire and an aerial attack—in our American history. And how quickly this was erased from taught history is an illumination of systemic (educational) racism that cannot be denied.

History has been repeating itself and the only mitigating circumstance in 2021 is cell phone video. It caught a white woman who made herself hysterical out of her denied racism as she accused a Black bird watcher of something he didn’t do and had no intention of doing. And it caught a white police officer slowly murdering a disabled Black man as he pled for his life.

Sensational lies and the resultant fear morphed into violence then in Tulsa and now in Washington, D.C. One report about the Tulsa massacre accuses a newspaper of a lie: the commander of the Oklahoma National Guard, General Charles Barrett, is quoted as saying, “The bloody clash between the races had its beginning in a little spat and scuffle between a young negro janitor and white girl elevator operator and the fantastic write-up of the incident in a sensation-seeking newspaper. (90)” But then again there were so many different stories about who was to blame, the truth never had a chance. And we all know about the Big Lie that erupted in violence on January 6, 2021.

One parallel (between the events of 1921 and 2021) that I sense but cannot quite parse is the participation of military, ex-military, and law enforcement officers in both imbroglios: One reason that Greenwood was so extraordinary was that many of the Black business owners were ex-military. They came home from fighting in Europe with a new sense of dignity, capability, and possibility. Greenwood was such a draw for Black people from all over because of its community of cooperation that nurtured everybody and resulted in financial success.

Many of the white men who attacked Greenwood were also ex-military and police. There are reports in this book about resentment from white soldiers that Blacks were allowed into the military and further contempt for them when they returned as veterans with rights and benefits.

And the January 6, 2021 attack on our Capitol building—carried out by so many ex-military? I cannot articulate the connections but I sense them: something about a military conviction of rightness and commitment to complete a mission going haywire in both events due to the fact that both missions were based on lies?

First Nations people talk about making decisions based on consequences seven generations into the future. Why do white men fear this wise culture so much that they systematically tried to wipe it out way beyond seven generations? Perhaps because if they fully felt the ramifications of their actions, white people would have to make different decisions and acknowledge the criminality of the choices they make.

If what I believe happened in my family—that, as the world around her exploded, my five-month-pregnant grandmother flooded with stress hormone that, of course, went to my mother in utero*; that my grandfather lost his business and, in a traumatic fury, fled Tulsa, unable to settle thereafter, the consequence of which was a legacy of trauma to my mother, who was almost unable to have an adventure because she literally trembled from head to toe in terror of being as lost as she'd been as a child, with no sense of home or how to get there—if this was the consequence to a white Jewish family, resulting in craziness and anger and hypervigilant stress that had repercussions to her and future generations, with no knowledge of its roots, then I can testify to the fact that choices and decisions and lies have an impact that travels like the concentric circles of a boulder thrown into water. Let us stop this madness and commit to truth.

postscript: The case that had evoked the Tulsa massacre—a 16-year-old white girl’s accusation of a Black janitor—was eventually dismissed when the white girl requested he not be prosecuted.

_____________

*I interviewed a researcher of the transgenerational transmission of trauma to offspring in this article: https://www.rewireme.com/insight/expe.... Briefly, mothers who were pregnant and traumatized during 9/11 and the offspring of Holocaust survivors were studied. It is incontrovertible that trauma affects DNA markers that are transmitted to offspring and will continue on down through generations unless somebody does the work to reverse things.

[Barbara Geffen · Rating 5 out of 5]

My dad grew up in Tulsa. He was 3 when the race riot occurred, no memories formed. His older sister, Aunt Sally, was 9, strong memories she conveyed to my cousin, Miriam, who recently shared them with me. My husband grew up in Tulsa and we settled there as a young family in the 1970s. Although my childhood was in Kansas, I had visited relatives in Tulsa over the years and always knew about the event. I was shocked in the 70's to realize so few of my new acquaintances who were Tulsa natives were unaware -- unless they, like me, were Jewish. Or black. Whites didn't discuss it, schools didn't teach this history. The author of this book began his newspaper career abut the time we moved to Tulsa; we followed him regularly. His reporting was always informative and spot on. I knew Tulsa had begun to reckon with this ugly part of its past before we moved away nearly a decade ago. When I heard that Randy Krehbiel had written a new book on this topic, I had to read it. It's a fabulous companion to Hannibal Johnson's 1998 book on the topic, "Black Wall Street", as RK had access to source material not available to HJ. Yet HJ's personal (black) perspective and interviews told a side RK (white) could not. Both valuable. There are many books on this tragedy. What RK makes clear with the meticulous, dry, recounting of facts, is that this episode was a part of the Jim Crow era that may have been inevitable. Whites simply could not allow successful blacks to live among them in Tulsa at that time in history. How dare blacks act as though they were equal, show pride in accomplishment, demand rights as though the Constitution applied to them as it did to whites? Nearly every sentence has a footnote, but one need not check them out to follow the arc of the narrative of events. Just read the book and understand the why and the how and the who. It's enough to make you sit up and reconsider the case for reparations.

[Katie (DoomKittieKhan) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Next year will mark the 100th anniversary of the greatest racially motivated massacre in modern U.S. history. In a prophetic moment in 2016, Oklahoma senator James Lankford (Rep.), addressed the senate floor near the approach of the 95th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, formerly known as the Race Riot, saying; “Ninety-five years ago this week, the worst race riot in American history broke out in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And in five years the entire country will pause and look at Oklahoma and will ask a very good question: What’s changed in a hundred years? What have we learned in a hundred years?” In the meditative final line of Tulsa, 1921: Reporting a Massacre, author Randy Krehbiel answers Lankford’s question – “A lot, it is fair to say. And yet sometimes it seems not so much.”

I am writing this review a day after yet another senseless shooting of a black man, Jacob Blake, at the hands of the police and Krehbiel’s final words haunt me.

Born and raised in Tulsa, the history of the massacre is not unknown to me. I benefitted from attending historically black schools in north Tulsa, and learned about the massacre in different history classes, through field trips, and from guest speakers. And yet, the exact nature and history of the massacre is a murky one.

Here is what we know:

On the afternoon of May 31st, a white woman (Sarah Page) encountered a black man (Dick Rowland) in an elevator in the Drexel Building in downtown Tulsa. There was a scream and a black man, presumably Dick Rowland, fled the scene only to be apprehended later that night. The rival Tulsa papers at the time – the Tribune and the World – reported on the arrest. When news began to spread of the incendiary editorials calling for a lynching, a group of armed black men from Greenwood, Tulsa’s prosperous black community, marched to where Rowland was being held in the hopes of preventing a lynching and demand a just trial. What follows into June 1st are accounts of white Tulsans burning Greenwood, rounding up black citizens, WWI era planes dropping firebombs, and the mass shooting of any black person encountered in the north Tulsa streets as a form of counterprotest.

However, this is not exactly true, or at least, it’s not the whole truth. Amidst the ruins of a vanquished community whose survivors mostly fled Tulsa (who could blame them) the truth has been buried, rebuilt by gossip, and largely forgotten. At the heart of this grave hurt is the knowledge that we may never know what exactly happened to spark the fire on May 31st in Greenwood. In fact, no one has ever been able to track down either Sarah Page or Dick Rowland to confirm their stories. Did they even exist? Was this story a coverup for north Tulsa developers to move out the black community and establish an industrial park to bring more white businesses to the city? Where are the editorials that were published that spurred white Tulsans to action? We may never know. Working backwards as any historian must, Randy Krehbiel went to the primary source material of the time, archives from the Tulsa Tribune and Tulsa World and a collection of documents related to the massacre now held at the University of Tulsa’s McFarlin Library, and began putting what pieces together he could.

Tulsa, 1921 is a masterful work of American history told in a narrative and concise manner with a nod to the author’s career in journalism. With excellent photographs, maps, and a list of key figures, it is the most complete account of the massacre to date and the only one that considers the larger consequences of the event and its historical ramifications in the black community of Tulsa, the Tulsa Police Department, and the ongoing grievances of systematic racism in our country.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think some readers are missing the point of this book: it's coverage *of the reporting* of the massacre, just like it says in the subtitle. I thought the author did an excellent job of making that clear, and also of following the task he set for himself of exploring what was reported in the newspapers at the time.

But he also brings in a lot of history, authoritative and well-cited, that I never knew about Tulsa. For example, I didn't know anything at all about the Civil War history of the region. I didn't know much about the city in the late teens and early 20s, even though my grandparents lived in Tulsa then. I certainly didn't know much about the massacre itself, and found it interesting that some of the more sensationalistic things that go around the internet every June 1 may or may not be totally on-point.

I thought the book was a good read, easy to put down and pick up again, but I'm certain that some readers will find it dry and not compelling. If you're after the kind of narrative non-fiction that imagines real people's feelings and conversations in detail, you will not find it here--which I, personally, appreciated, because I don't like that kind of narrative non-fiction. :-)

[Ben Purintun · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a DOOZY to read with small text and little cohesion in the writing, but after finishing it I see that was almost intentional. Tulsa 1921 is a jumbled mess of information, real and mythic, with a backdrop of distractions and tension. Turns out that’s exactly what Tulsa was in 1921. So much is still unknown about the massacre in Greenwood and it’s because there was never a cohesive record, response, or memory. I learned so much interesting information about the history of Tulsa politics and its testy relationship with white supremacy from its infancy.

Do I recommend this book? Only if you are truly ready to dive into some heavy, slow, but insightful history.

[Ken Hada · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book takes its rightful place, as documented history, along with all the other literary responses (fiction, history, essays and oral testimony) of the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. Krehbiel’s extensive research and careful analysis substantiates so much about this awful event. Moreso, he distinctly helps us sort out the real, the possible and the unlikely. His research and analysis of the social context before the holocaust as well as the frequently silenced “Aftermath” of those violent days is vital.

[Johanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

well-researched, and appropriately small town. particularly enjoyed the background history. focuses on the reporting of the massacre, which gives krehbiel little wiggle room in case he's proved wrong by future research.

[Kevin Nolan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The detail of the story is both an important asset and the greatest weakness of this audiobook. It is not engaging, but learning the details of the history is important and well worth the effort. Having an academic book on this oft ignored explosion of racist violence available as an audiobook is a social value in and of itself.

[Nathan Fernandes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A profound account of the event of the Tulsa massacre and the long-lasting effects of the published word and messaging following the events. Was very fascinated after visiting the greenwood rising memorial center in Tulsa and this book did a great job patching up the pieces of what made the history so little told 100 years later.

[Jesse Post · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast paced yet packed with detail. This is being held up as the definitive book on the Tulsa race riot but after reading it I think that’s more in the sense of “this ties up loose ends” than “this is the only book you need to read.” I suggest reading the backmatter first (the key figures and fact chronology of events) because the chapters on the riot itself get lost in minutiae. Crucial aspects of the violence, like that random citizens were deputized to wreak havoc in Greenwood and that most black people were shot on sight, are subsumed by a cascade of text on National Guard troop movements, which hills they stood on and which directions they faced, who saw them and how many blocks away they were, and the before and after lives and careers of nearly every figure involved and all their relatives. You need to have a basic understanding of the facts first as this is really for experts who already know the players and the broad strokes and now want a deeper dive.

When people found out I was reading this they mostly told me they couldn’t because it would be too upsetting. But the chapter on the riot is more bloodless than you’re expecting. The really upsetting part is everything that led up to it and that happened since, right up until today’s Tulsa police shootings. The abject failure of white people to even acknowledge the events happened highlights the despair people who have been paying attention have been writing about since the 1850s. You start off upset that an innocent man was going to be lynched, then you bristle reading about the riot that happened when people dared to defend him, then you’re enraged that no lawsuits or insurance claims were ever won or paid out and no one was ever held accountable, but the rage really boils over when you discover that unrelated white people 100 years later couldn’t even bring themselves to erect a damned memorial to those who lost their lives. If you feel anything but fury while reading this you should step out of the conversation and let the adults handle racial reconciliation from now on.

[Brian Kovesci · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of my reviews concentrate on voice of the author and readability, so for consistency my poor rating is mainly attributed to what I think is a poorly written book.

_____


This story is beyond overdue to be told, but I think it could have been told a lot better.

The author recounted the events of the massacre by white people of the black Tulsa Greenwood district with a detached voice that felt more like a list of facts and bullet points than a retelling of a horrendous story. I think the events deserve a better voice, something more worthy of the memory of the lost lives and culture of Greenwood.

If you're curious about this history I suggest looking elsewhere, then read the last chapter of this book which concentrates on the race problem in Tulsa after 1921, specifically recent killings of black civilians by white police and the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement opposing systemic racism.

[Amy Christine Lesher · Rating 1 out of 5]

For years I'd heard bits and pieces of the Greenwood Massacre, known also as the Tulsa Race Riots, and when I found this book at my favourite bookstore I picked it up. This was truly disappointing. The author, who is a reporter for The Tulsa Tribune, looked as his sources the two newspapers at the time and how they covered the massacre. While describing the events of May 30 to June 1 he will say that this may have happened, but may not have happened. I came away feeling I had learned little in comparison to my internet research.

[Carlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

For an author and journalist who claims in the book to take an objective journalistic approach to observation and analysis of the facts of the Tulsa Massacare as seen through the lens of newspapers of the time, it would have been quite simple for Krehbiel to have given at least an equal amount of ink to the three Black newspapers in the region at the time (the Tulsa Star, the Oklahoma Sun, and the Black Dispatch), showing readers what those publications had to say about what was happening in their own community.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

A century on, and it is surprising how much is still obscured about the massacre and rout of Tulsa's Black population in 1921. Krehbiel has scoured the newspaper archives and other records to reconstruct a story of the 'riot' itself, the aftermath and the resulting grand jury and prosecutions. This book raises more questions than it answers, while covering the basics in a straightforward, fairly dry, narrative. It is in the end, the raised questions that hold most interest.
Part of what obscures the history is that all the white protagonists - from liberal clergy, to federal reps, to the local chamber of commerce and emerging KKK - agree on one thing: that the responsibility for the wholescale destruction and murder of the Black community belongs squarely to that community. The deaths- which could have been dozens or hundreds - and complete razing of a city district is doan the provocative behaviour of the murdered and expelled. This ludicrous line - that allocates no responsibility to those who shot civilians or torched their houses, nevermind the authorities who gave them guns and petrol - could, like the emperor's finery, only be sustained by unanimous silence, unbroken by the smallest cry of "what the?". Krehbiel does bring out the remarkable bravery and endurance of a Black community who lose almost everything overnight and yet rebuild and persevere in the face of so much bullshit.
There is much that is fascinating about this moment in time: existing between a kind of frontier mob policing and the kind of centralised law we have now. The prospect of a lynch mob invaded the jail was palpable in the leadup - it had happened just months before and the (white) prisoner had been strung up outside of town. The sheriff's decision to deputise and arm racist 'patriots' - some of whom he didn't even speak to before handing them guns - seems incredible now.
At the same time, the tussle between the various factions - sheriff, national guard, police - and subsequent legal and political manoeuvring focuses on eliminating exactly this kind of cowboy enforcement, in favour of equally ruthless legal persecution and economic destruction of the Black community. The fight over 'relief' efforts crystallises between a chamber of commerce utilising a charity approach with one hand and a fierce legal effort to steal the land with the other, and a systemic government/Red Cross partnership to systemise relief through welfare, including forcing the destitute population into work-for-the dole schemes and programs ensuring the creation of an ongoing low wage class. Both are forms of White supremacy, and unsurprisingly it is law and order that wins. The book shows the rise of the KKK *after* the riots as partly a response from the business elite to their exclusion from law enforcement, a ritualised racist vilgilanteeism accommodated alongside centralised regulated policing. The sheriff may not be handing out the guns in public now, but there is a happy equanimity between the various white power bases.
There are also hints of a fascinating time in the Black community, with various political organisations and viewpoints at play. There is a clear Communist Party presence, supporters of W. E. B. Dubois and other radical factions. The speed with which the community mobilises against the threat of lynching would point to developed organisational structures. However, Krehbiel has almost nothing in the record to go on, and inevitability the book's focus is stronger on the recorded White power struggles. It still feels as if there is another boom to be written.

[Ray Timmerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have long been one who loved reading and studying history, especially American history. I was not a good student in elementary, middle or high school, but I did well in history because I liked the subject. When I went to college I learned to study, became a teacher and taught American History for years, most of my 39 year career. I never heard about the Tulsa Massacre until last summer, a full year after I retired! Why?

I taught History in private Christian school for almost 20 years using mostly Christian published material, although, I also used "secular" texts. When I taught American History in public school, I used all secular texts. As a student in both college and lower ed., all history texts were secular. All this experience both as a student and as a teacher had one thing in common when it came to the history of my country...the Tulsa Massacre was never mentioned. And, that's not all that was left out.

I never heard about Emmett Till, Medger Evers, etc. My first recollection of George Armstrong Custer was in lower elementary school where he was described as a "brave Indian fighter" massacred by the "savage Sioux" at the Little Big Horn. No one mentioned his motivation for attacking the Sioux in the first place, which became a decision that resulted in the deaths of his entire company. No one ever told me about what happened at Sand Creek, or to Chief Black Kettle. In addition, slavery was "not so bad" because most of the slave owners were kind to their slaves, right? And, the real cause of that terrible Civil War was not slavery, oh no, it was "states rights". Tell that to the 54th Massachusetts and the thousands of African American soldiers who served, fought and died for the Union, and to help bring about an end to slavery. The " cause" of The Mexican War was because the Mexican Army "attacked and killed" twenty American Cavalry men, right? The question about where exactly was that unit when it was attacked was never asked. Well, some Congressmen did ask for the exact spot or location of that unit when they were attacked. They were ridiculed and called "un-american" for daring to ask the question. Read about who those men of Congress were and their identities might surprise you. Of course, that story also was conveniently left out of our history books.

Why? Why were and are we so afraid to tell the truth about our past when it is less than flattering? So our country has a checkered past. Yes, we have our share of heroes and heroic efforts that should be remembered, but we Americans are not perfect, we are not always exceptional. Like every other country in the world we have our good stories, and our bad ones.

So what does it hurt if we whitewash the truth about our past and shield our students from the negative parts of it? Well, at the very least, there is this thought. If we are not willing to be honest about our past mistakes, I wonder if we will ever learn from them?

Read this book! It will shock you, and It should! But read it and learn from it so that perhaps we can learn to be better people and treat each other with the love and respect that Jesus tells us about in one of His two greatest commands. Perhaps if we look at our past failures and we learn from them our country might come a bit closer to living up to the lofty ideal of The Declaration that "all men, and women are truly created equal".

[NCHS Library]

Publisher's Description: In 1921 Tulsa’s Greenwood District, known then as the nation’s “Black Wall Street,” was one of the most prosperous African American communities in the United States. But on May 31 of that year, a white mob, inflamed by rumors that a young Black man had attempted to rape a white teenage girl, invaded Greenwood. By the end of the following day, thousands of homes and businesses lay in ashes, and perhaps as many as three hundred people were dead.

Tulsa, 1921 shines new light into the shadows that have long been cast over this extraordinary instance of racial violence. With the clarity and descriptive power of a veteran journalist, author Randy Krehbiel digs deep into the events and their aftermath and investigates decades-old questions about the local culture at the root of what one writer has called a white-led pogrom.

Krehbiel analyzes local newspaper accounts in an unprecedented effort to gain insight into the minds of contemporary Tulsans. In the process he considers how the Tulsa World, the Tulsa Tribune, and other publications contributed to the circumstances that led to the disaster and helped solidify enduring white justifications for it. Some historians have dismissed local newspapers as too biased to be of value for an honest account, but by contextualizing their reports, Krehbiel renders Tulsa’s papers an invaluable resource, highlighting the influence of news media on our actions in the present and our memories of the past.

The Tulsa Massacre was a result of racial animosity and mistrust within a culture of political and economic corruption. In its wake, Black Tulsans were denied redress and even the right to rebuild on their own property, yet they ultimately prevailed and even prospered despite systemic racism and the rise during the 1920s of the second Ku Klux Klan. As Krehbiel considers the context and consequences of the violence and devastation, he asks, Has the city—indeed, the nation—exorcised the prejudices that led to this tragedy?

[Steve Penner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never heard of the 1921 Tulsa race riot until its centennial was mentioned on the local news last year. It sounded horrific coming out of the anchor's mouth, but reading about it proved even moreso. Having been raised in rural Idaho with opportunities to experience race relations of any kind very limited, I have never understood racism. Reading this book has helped my understanding and it saddens me to no end. As a pastor, what I found most distressing, apart from the riot, looting and destruction of black Tulsa, was the preaching of the white pastors of the time. Buying into and preaching the inferiority of one race and the superiority of one's own is so anti-Biblical and theologically ignorant, I wonder at their salvation. I also wonder if, in that situation, I would have had the courage to preach the Biblical truth that we are all the same before God--the same sin, the same need for reconciliation, the same salvation through Jesus, the same non-segregated destiny. i would hope so, but I'm glad I don't have to find out.

The only shortcoming of the book was the multiplication of names to the extent that it was easy to get lost in the narrative. There is an appendix of names, titles and roles in the riot, but it didn't help while reading the book.

It appears there are academic and other journalistic books on the subject, but I can't compare them. As a starting point, I suspect this book is as good as any.

[Adam Becker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I knew almost nothing about the Tulsa riot before reading this book, and the details are rather shocking. It's a harsh reminder of just how terrible the history of bigotry and racism is in my country. I am encouraged by the thought that 100 years later many of the actions and certainly the broader national reaction would be vastly different. Progress has certainly been made over time despite resistance and growing pains.
I appreciate the effort the author made to be conscious of the limitations of the available information and acknowledging when he had to make an educated guess as to the veracity of various sometimes conflicting accounts.
Part of what was shocking about this book was seeing the references to several other racially motivated atrocities that happened in that era. It really appeared to be a brutal time to be a minority of any kind. The discussion of the dynamics of interactions between black Americans and police in recent years is rather depressing to read, as it appears that many police still make assumptions about people simply because of the color of their skin.
I am glad to know more about the Tulsa riot of 1921. I think it's important to be cognizant of these episodes in our history and use that knowledge to shape our understanding of those around us.

[Aarann]

Okay, I'm putting this down - but not for the usual reasons.

All I can say to this audiobook narrator is back away from the microphone! I cannot deal with the sound of saliva moving around in someone's mouth while they speak. I should not hear it in an audiobook and after 45 minutes, it's all I can hear. Otherwise, his narrative style was great, with excellent inflection and tone, but good gawd, that audio producer should have turned down the mic's sensitivity. I was getting twitchy by the time I put it down.

That being said, I'm definitely going to get the ebook from the library and read it. It's a subject I only know about in broad terms and I thought the author was doing a good job of making the history of what lead to the events in Tulsa interesting and engaging.

Avoid the audiobook at all costs, and if you see it in the streets, scream, Not today, you saliva-soaked Satan! and then pretend no one is looking at you like you just yelled at an audiobook. I'll update when I get around to reading the physical book. Unfortunately, I'm at some sort of Audible return limit, so there is no getting my money or credit back on this one -- and I'm not even sure I've had this less than a year, so there's that too.

[Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tulsa, 1921: Reporting a Massacre is a book by Tulsa World reporter Randy Krehbiel. Krehbiel details the events surrounding the 1921 tragedy as reported at the time by both local Tulsa newspapers as well as national press.

In 1921, crowds of white Tulsans looted and burned down Greenwood, the thriving Black portion of Tulsa. After tensions rose surrounding the arrest of a young Black man accused of accosting a young white woman, the situation escalated into death and destruction at the hands of white Tulsans. I first learned of the Tulsa Race Massacre after moving to Oklahoma in 2014. Even with as much as I thought I knew, I learned so much more by reading this book. While there is so much information here, most of it is presented as it originally was in the newspapers at the time, so it can be somewhat of a dry read even given the horrific subject matter. I appreciated the additional chapter about the years since, detailing additional race related deaths involving local government/police employees, such as Robert Gates, Betty Shelby, and Shannon Kepler.

4/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Shokai Sinclair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tulsa, 1921, is a very diligent recreation of the chronology of events leading up to the Tulsa Massacre and the trials, real estate schemes, and scapegoating survivors that happened afterwards. Because the public record is so scant in parts, the author does a good job of highlighting potential exaggerations without dismissing the emotional places they came from. Even without the cinematic (and most likely embellished) image of white citizens firebombing houses and businesses owned by Black people from airplanes, the reality is no less horrifying. Drawing on stories and editorials from the World and the Tribune, Tulsa, 1921, documents every racist thought and action taken by white Tulsans who were looking for any excuse to obliterate the Greenwood District and its inhabitants and rob the survivors blind. The author also does an excellent job comparing the media coverage of 1921 to present day excessive force trials.

[John Deardurff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book details the hour by hour events of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riots that occurred on May 31, 1921. The author digs through the archives of the two newspapers of the time, the Tulsa World and the Tulsa Tribune to discover the rumor that started the riots and how the black community of the Greenwood district was burned down and erased from the city. This part of Tulsa, commonly known at the "Black Wall Street" was one of the most prosperous African American communities in the United States. Even after that tragic day where 300 people died and thousands were injured, additional racial, political, and economic injustices continued that prevented the community to rebuild.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book provides a balanced view of what happened in Tulsa in 1921. Krehbiel does a good job is pointing out things that are myths and legends and provides reasons that for some of his myth busting. Further research will bear out the veracity of his research.

The event itself is horrific. A mass slaughter was triggered by the racist events of the times. To a certain extent, well armed black men defended themselves well until completely overwhelmed by white forces. Not all whites supported those shooting at the blacks residents and looting their homes. They were completely unable to control the forces of the racists once they had been unleashed.

[Mark Patton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although a bit dry in style, Krehbiel tells a story that needs to be heard now. The most disappointing element, and this isn't a fault of the book, is that despite the obvious thoroughness of his research much of what happened that day is a mystery and will remain so. As a result, Krehbiel is often forced to give multiple possibilities of some detail or another and throw up his hands. The part that I found most fascinating, however, is not the story of the massacre itself but the story of the weeks that followed as those in power in Tulsa immediately began shaping the story to fit their attitudes and needs.

[Valerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book tells the story of the events believed to have happened which lead to the destruction of what has become known as the black wall street – 35 square blocks in Tulsa known as Greenwood. In 1921 it was a considered the Black section of Tulsa. Where doctors and other Blacks lived. That is until a mis-understanding lead to the destruction of the entire area and the death of many Black and white Tulsa citizens.

This story has become a issue because for the most part it has been left out of the history books.

Recommendation: Read It, but don’t believe everything you read.

[Elizabeth Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a Tulsan I felt this was required reading. The book is written from the perspective of what the newspapers (Tulsa Word and Tribune) reported. Of course they are incredibly biased but it seems the status quo for the day.
It can seem dry, but again, it isn’t a survivor accounting of the incident. I learned so much but also came away in a sense not learning anything new. The questions I had were still unanswered and might always be. Did planes drop any bombs or incendiary devices? Depends on who you ask.
As a side note I moved to Tulsa in 2005 and tried to learn everything about my new city. I learned about Greenwood right off the bat- it was called a race riot then and only recently was changed to a massacre.

[Maggie Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I understand that the author is focusing on content derived by the local newspapers knowing they were biased. That’s not what I wanted to read. There were three papers in Tulsa at the time; two were white-owned & one was black-owned. I was born & raised in that area — 2nd generation. You won’t get to the truth of what happened through Tulsa newspapers. I’m only on page 35 of the boom so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the author is able to bring to light the truth. The bigotry that existed in that area in the 20’s would have been indescribable.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinarily detailed. I did think the narrative suffered for the wealth of detail, but, then, this is a history book, not a novel. The author was perhaps excessively skeptical of oral histories of the Race Massacre, but when he did cast doubt on oral narratives, it was usually grounded in reasonable inferences from strong facts. I did appreciate that the author was very upfront about what could and could not be inferred from reliable sources.

Overall, a great close look at the Tulsa Race Massacre, if not a sparkling piece of literature. I found it very illuminating.

[Kathie Price · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very difficult book to read for two reasons: 1) the Tulsa Massacre is an abhorrent story of racism in a city that I love a lot and 2) it is so densely written that it is HARD to read due to its intentional style of using reporting from the time to tell an incredibly complicated story.

I've read at least 20 books about the Tulsa Race Massacre, and this is not the best of those. But it may well be one of the best researched. I would recommend it only for serious inquiry by those who already know the basic outline of the events.

[Grant Newton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tulsa, 1921 takes journalism to the max, attempting to uncover the truth behind the destruction of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This book uncovers hoards of sources in search of what really occurred in this vastly-underreported historical event. Krehbiel surgically pulls bits from sources with all ideological underpinnings, seeking to weave them together and provide an account that one can understand and learn from.