The document discusses who should pay compensation for past suffering - everyone or just those who caused it. It provides context about the 1921 Tulsa race riot where a violent conflict erupted between white and black residents in Tulsa, Oklahoma, destroying the prosperous black neighborhood of Greenwood and leaving hundreds dead. The riot began with the arrest of a black man accused of assaulting a white woman, and escalated with whites attacking and burning Greenwood, arresting black residents, and inflicting suffering on the black community with no reparations since provided for victims or their descendants.

1. March 16, 2015
People who suffered in
the past can be
compensated for their
suffering. Who should
pay: everyone or just the
people who caused the
suffering?

5. Objective:
SWBAT
examine
sequencing of
events IOT
examine the
issues around
The Tulsa Riot
of 1921. Why is it
significant?

6. Tulsa, Oklahoma:
72,000 people
Jim Crow +
3,000 Klan
members
Located near
oil fields

7. Greenwood:
African American
Tulsa
Extremely
prosperous
Hundreds of Black
owned businesses

8. The start:
The arrest of a man named
either Dick Rowland or James
Jones
Rowland, a shoe shiner, had to
go up an elevator of a specific
building to use a bathroom
It was not a colored only, it was
in a business where the owner
allowed Black people to use the
bathroom

9. Accusation of Rape:
Rowland stumbled
into the female
elevator operator
This was observed
by a white man in the
building
Rowland is arrested
for assault

10. Threat of lynching:
Rowland’s life is
threatened
Police try to protect
him
Many lawyers, who
knew him from the
shoeshine stand
where he worked,
defend his character

11. The fighting begins:
An attempt is made to lynch
Rowland, but the police stop it
Armed African Americans go to the
courthouse to help the police
Whites see the armed African
Americans and believe an “Uprising”
is happening, they get their guns
A shot is fired by an undetermined
person

12. Several die:
At least one white,
maybe five African
Americans
The National Guard and
local white citizens are on
patrol
Some whites drive into
Greenwood and exchange
fire with residents

13. Fires are set in the business
district:

14. African Americans had a
choice – try to fight or flee

15. Nearly all of Greenwood was
destroyed

18. Hundreds of African
Americans are held prisoner

22. Mount Zion Baptist Church
Before:

23. Mount Zion After:

24. Mount Zion Today:

25. A Synagogue burned in Nazi
Germany 1938. Fair comparison?

26. The Aftermath:

27. Up to 50 whites and 300
African Americans are killed

28. The Aftermath:
It took until 2002
for Tulsa to admit
this happened
Few survivors are
still alive
No reparations
have been paid

29. Tulsa was not the only race
riot:
There were many,
including earlier ones
in Wilmington NC
and Atlanta
Tulsa was likely the
worst
Later, race riots
happened in many
cities