In 1921, one of the most violent acts of racial violence in U.S. history took place in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Over the course of a day, white rioters destroyed the prosperous Black neighborhood of Greenwood, burned down hundreds of homes, and killed up to 300 people. For decades, this tragedy was deliberately forgotten, and an official investigation only began 75 years later.
It all began on the evening of May 31, 1921, outside the county courthouse, where a crowd of white residents gathered, demanding the release of a Black teenager for a lynching. He had been arrested on suspicion of assaulting a white girl, though the circumstances of the incident remain unclear to this day. In response to the threat of lynching, members of the African American community arrived to protect the detainee.
Despite segregation policies, Tulsa’s Black community had achieved economic prosperity by that time. The city was founded by a Ku Klux Klan member, and the events unfolded during the peak influence of the organization, further escalating tensions.
A brief but intense shootout erupted near the courthouse, after which armed white rioters marched toward Greenwood, a predominantly Black neighborhood in northern Tulsa. There, a coordinated assault began: homes, schools, hospitals, and businesses were set on fire, and residents were killed. The rioters used not only firearms but also dropped explosives from small aircraft. Many of the attackers were World War I veterans with military training. As a result, dozens of commercial buildings, several churches, a school, a hospital, and more than a thousand homes were destroyed. The massacre was finally halted by noon on June 1, when the National Guard intervened.
Smoke rises over the Greenwood district. Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 1, 1921.
A burning church in Tulsa's Black district during the riots, June 1, 1921.
The aftermath of the Tulsa massacre, May 31 – June 1, 1921.
Armed white rioters walk through the burning Black neighborhood of Greenwood. Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 1, 1921.
The first newspaper reports mentioned several dozen deaths—mostly Black victims, along with a few white individuals killed in the shootout. However, later investigations indicate a much higher death toll: estimates suggest up to 300 people were killed, and thousands were injured. Accurately counting the number of Black victims was difficult, as the only hospital in the African American district, where casualties could have been recorded, was burned down during the riots.
For many years, these events were silenced: they were barely mentioned in the press and were absent from school curricula. African Americans who had managed to build wealth in Tulsa left the city, and their community gradually declined. It was not until 1996—75 years later—that an official investigation into the tragedy began, by which time almost no eyewitnesses remained. The authorities only decided to include information about the massacre in Oklahoma's school history curriculum in 2020.
Black residents of Tulsa, Oklahoma, are led under armed guard through the city's streets during the racially motivated riots, June 1, 1921.
The burned ruins of a school and other buildings in Tulsa's Black district of Greenwood after the massacre, June 1, 1921.
A Tulsa resident stands among the ruins of his home, burned down by rioters.
The aftermath of the Tulsa massacre, May 31 – June 1, 1921, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Furniture thrown into the streets during the riots. Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 1, 1921.
The aftermath of the Tulsa massacre, May 31 – June 1, 1921, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
A truck carrying U.S. National Guard soldiers and African American residents of Tulsa on the city streets. June 1, 1921.
Black residents of Tulsa leave the city during the massacre on June 1, 1921.
Food distribution on the streets of Tulsa after the massacre, May 31 – June 1, 1921.
Reconstruction of Tulsa's Greenwood district, destroyed during the massacre.