Air planes and the Riot

(Courtesy Oklahoma HistoricalSociety).





Airplanes and the Riot

By Richard S. Warner

There is no question that airplanes were in into the possible involvement of U.S. military

the air over Tulsa during and after the Tulsa aircraft in the riot. Wheeler, who had access to

race riot. The question is: what were they being military records which are no longer available,

used for? learned that there were only six U.S. military

We cannot entirely believe all the reports airplanes in Oklahoma at the time of the riot.

that have appeared over the years in newspa- Based at Fort Sill, some 212 miles from Tulsa,

pers, or as recounted by survivors, descendants these six planes were World War I Jennys, with

of survivors, and others. The prob lem is to sep- a range of about 190 miles. Of the six planes, the

arate the probable from the improbable. For records showed that two were inoperable and

example, in one unidentified newspaper ac- undergoing maintenance while two had just

count from June 12, 1921, it was alleged that, been delivered and were not yet in flying condi-

“The planes used during the riot and which set tion. Only two were serviceable planes and nei-

fire to brick buildings are owned by the United ther was in the air on May 31 or June 1, 1921.2 It

States Government.”1 Subsequent research, is, therefore, reasonable to conclude that the air-

however, casts considerable doubt upon this planes reported over Tulsa during the riot were

claim. While researching for his article, ”Pro- not U.S. military aircraft, Hence, they must have

file of a Race Riot," that appeared in the been privately or commercially owned air-

June-July, 1971 issue of Impact Magazine, planes, probably based in Tulsa.

Brigadier General Ed Wheeler (ret.) looked







103

The story of aircraft in Tulsa goes back to Sometime in 1921, a second air field was es-

July 4, 1903, when the first recorded local tablished in Tulsa by Paul Arbon, a World War I

flight, a balloon ascent, took place. 3 Three B r i t i s h p i l o t a n d d e a l e r f o r t h e B r i t-

years later, during the summer of 1906, Jimmy ish-manufactured, Bristol aircraft. Arbon’s air -

Jones constructed an airplane of his own de - field was located at the northwest corner of

sign at his home in Tulsa. He and his partner, Federal Drive and Sheridan Road, and featured

Bill Stigler, disassembled the plane and took it only one hangar.9

to a pasture near Red Fork. There they reas- Registration of airplanes by the U.S. Govern-

sembled it, except for the installation of the ment was not required in 1921. Thus, no records

control cables to make a test flight. It was a hot exist of actual airplane ownership during the

day and Jones and Stigler decided to go home time of the riot. Without government records,

and finish the job the next day. That afternoon, one can assume that if there were fourteen

however, a strong wind came up and destroyed planes at the Curtiss-Southwest Air Field at the

the plane. 4 end of 1921, and probably no more than one (a

The next airplane in Tulsa was designed and demonstrator) at the Paul Arbon Air Field, the

constructed by Herman DeVry, who owned a total number of airplanes based in Tulsa at the

machinery repair business. DeVry hired A. C. time of the riot would not have been more than

Beach, an English pilot then living in Tulsa, to fifteen.

test the airplane. After four tries, it finally took Most of these were probably owned by the

off from a field southwest of Sand Springs and Curtiss-Southwest Airplane Company, but a

rose to 800 feet, staying aloft for 20 minutes. few were probably owned by individuals or

After several other attempts to fly, the engine companies. There is really no way to determine

blew up and DeVry quit the air craft busi ness.5 the ownership of the planes, but it is very likely

The first airfield in Tulsa was established in that at least one was owned by the Sinclair Oil

1917 by Harold Breene on the south side of Company. A “St. Clair Oil Company plane” is

Federal Drive (now East Admiral Place), at ap- mentioned in some ac counts of the riot and there

proximately South Hudson Avenue. A spur is a photograph in the files of the Tulsa Histori-

railway line served as the field’s west border. cal So ci ety of a Jenny re fu el ing at the

There was one hangar. Mr. Breene purchased a Curtiss-Southwest Air Field from bar rels

number of surplus Curtis Jenny airplanes that marked “Sinclair Oils.” Tulsa was the headquar-

he later sold to aviation enthusiasts. 6 ters of the Sinclair Oil Company at that time and

In 1920, Mr. Breene sold his Tulsa aviation the top executives lived here.10

interests to B.L. Brookins and Bill Campbell. Apparently, among the planes in Tulsa at the

T h e n e w c o m pany, c a l l e d t h e time of the riot, were a Stinson Detroiter, a sin-

Curtiss-Southwest Airplane Company, was gle engine plane with an enclosed cabin capable

the agency for Curtis and Waco airplanes. 7 of holding several people as well as another

In early 1921, the airfield was moved to a tri-motor, make unknown. Stinson did manufac-

new location on a farm owned by Mr. Brookins ture a tri-motor at that time according to person-

located just east of North Memorial Avenue nel at the Tulsa Air and Space Center.11

and north of East Apache Street. It was situated There are many references to airplanes during

in what is today a corner of Tulsa International the riot, but few can be additionally documented

Airport. According to the January 1, 1922 is- through further research. Mary E. Jones Parrish

sue of the Tulsa Spirit, a Tulsa Chamber of included a number of references to airplanes in

Commerce publication, the airfield contained her book, Events of the Tulsa Disaster. In her

two large steel hangars, 90’ x 60’ in size and own account of her experiences during the riot,

capable of holding eighteen airplanes, a motor she men tions see ing “fast ap proach ing

repair shop, a wing and fuselage shop, and a aeroplanes.” Moreover, in her escape from the

gasoline and oil service station. Fourteen air- riot area, Parrish tells of nearing the “aviation

planes were based there.8 fields” —in all likelihood the Curtiss- South -







104

The losses in the Green wood busi ness dis trict alone—in clud ing two the aters, three ho tels, more than a dozen res tau rants, and scores

of shops, family-run businesses, and professional offices—were staggering. One contemporary observer called the deaths and de-

struction cased by the race riot “without parallel in America” (Courtesy Oklahoma Historical So ci ety).





west Air Field—and seeing the “planes out of I saw aeroplanes, they flew very low. To my sur-

their sheds, all in readiness for flying, and prise, as they passed over the business district,

these men with high-powered rifles getting they left the entire block a mass of flame.”12

into them." Parrish adds that “The aeroplanes Other contemporary sources also reported the

continued to watch over the fleeing people like presence of airplanes. Walter White wrote in the

great birds of prey watching for a victim, but I June 29, 1921 issue The Nation that “eight

have not heard of them doing any harm to the aeroplanes were employed to spy on the move-

people out in the direction where we were." ments of the Negroes and according to some

Events of the Tulsa Disaster also includes in - were used in bombing the colored section.”13

terviews including one with Mr. James T. Mabel E. Little, in her unpublished biogra-

West, a teacher at Booker T. Washington High phy, wrote that, “airplanes dropped incendiary

School, who reported that airplanes “flew over bombs to enhance the burning of Mount Zion

very low, what they were doing I cannot say, Baptist Church and business buildings.”14 A re-

for I was in my room.” Dr. R. T. Bridgewater, porter for the Oklahoma City Black Dispatch

an assistant county physician, stated that he wrote that ”Airplanes were seemingly every-

was “near my residence and aeroplanes began where. They seemed to fly low and I could see

to fly over us, in some instances very low to the the men in the planes as they passed us." In an

ground,” and that he heard a woman say, “look interview with Dr. Payne and Mr. Robinson that

out for the aeroplanes, they are shooting upon appeared in the same issue, it was stated that,

us.” Mrs. Parrish also wrote that “more than a “These two men with their wives succeeded in

dozen aeroplanes went up and began to drop reaching the open country. They were finally

turpentine balls upon the Negro residences,” spotted by the air murderers who showered load

but she gives no source for this statement nor after load of leadened missiles upon them.” W.

does it appear that she witnessed this herself. I. Brown, a porter on the Katy Railroad who

Lastly, Parrish also included the testimonial of reached Tulsa Wednesday morning, June 1,

an anonymous eyewitness, who stated, “Then with the National Guard, recited this story:





105

“We reached Tulsa about 2 o’clock. Air - in 1937 when this case was dismissed. This is the

planes were circling all over Greenwood. We same Elisha Scott, a prominent African American

stopped our cars north of the Katy de pot, go ing attorney of Topeka, Kansas, who, according to an

to wards Sand Springs. The heav ens were light- October 14, 1921 article in the Chicago Defender,

ened up as plain as day from the many fires claimed to have a thirty-one page affidavit signed

over the Negro sec tion. I could see from my car by Van B. Hurley, supposedly a white former

window that two airplanes were doing most of Tulsa policeman, that told of a meeting between

the work. They would every few seconds drop local aviators and officials prior to the invasion of

something and every time they did there was a black Tulsa on the morning of June 1. These indi-

loud explosion and the sky would be filled viduals allegedly planned an attack on the black

with flying debris.”15 area by air planes. There is no re cord that a “Van B.

Bruce Hartnitt, of Tulsa Junior College, in- Hurley” ever was a policeman or even existed.

terviewed Mabel Bonner Little in 1969 and This affidavit was never made public or appar-

1971. He asked Mrs. Little, “Do you remember ently used in any of the lawsuits. After his death,

during the time of the riot itself, if there were Mr. Scott’s home burned and his personal papers

any airplanes, people dropping stuff?” Mrs. evidently were de stroyed. Beryl Ford, an au thor ity

Little replied, ”Oh yes, they dropped those in- on Tulsa’s photographic history, after examining

cendiary bombs, that’s what burned those big pho to graphs of the Green wood dam age, has stated

buildings down, they couldn’t have destroyed that the buildings were not destroyed by explo-

them with anything else . . .”16 sives. The debris shown in photographs, he be-

In case No. 23, 331 filed in the District Court lieves, is located inside the shells of the buildings,

of Tulsa County between Barney Cleaver, where it had fallen af ter the raf ters had burned, and

plaintiff, and The City of Tulsa, one of the de- not outside where it would have been scattered if

fendants was “The St. Clair Oil Company.” explosives had been used. Outbuildings also are

The fourth paragraph of the plaintiffs petition shown to be largely undamaged, something that

alleges that: was unlikely had explosives been used.17

“The St. Clair Oil Company, a corporation, An unidentified newspaper reported that Ed

did, at the request and insistence of the city’s Lockett was shot from an airplane that had fol-

agents, and in furtherance of the conspiracy, lowed him for about eight miles from Tulsa. It

aforementioned and set out, furnish airplanes was reported that “several hundred persons saw

on the night of May 31, 1921, and on the morn- the aviator shoot Lockett and were later fired on

ing of June 1, 1921, to carry the defendant’s by the same plane themselves.” The body of a

city’s agents, servants, and employees, and man was found on June 6, 1921 near the

other persons, being part of said conspiracy Curtiss-Southwest Air Field. Although there is

and other conspirators. That the said J.R. no record of an “Ed Lockett,’ there is a funeral

Blaine, captain of the police department, with home record of an Ed Lockard who was found

others, was carried in said airplane which eight miles from Tulsa on June 6, 1921, and is

dropped turpentine balls and bombs down and buried in Oaklawn Cemetery in Tulsa.

upon the houses of the plaintiff . . . ” The Chicago Defender, on June 11, 1921, re-

The 1921 Tulsa City Directory does not list a ported that “at 4:30 a steam whistle sounded

J.R. Blaine, but it does list a G.H. Blaine, a po- three times. With the coming of daylight air -

lice captain. Captain Blaine appears in a number planes from the local avi a tion field, in which the

of newspaper articles concerning airplanes and Cadillac company is interested, directed the

there is no question that he was a pi lot or pas sen- movement of the oncoming army. At 6:15 a.m.

ger on a number of flights. The same source does men in the planes dropped fire bombs of turpen-

not list a “St. Clair Oil Company,” but its pho- tine or other inflammable material on the prop-

netic similarity to the Sinclair Oil Company is erty.” The articles goes on to say, “One man,

too close to be ignored. It is interesting to note leaning far out from an airplane, was brought

that Elisha Scott was the attorney for the plaintiff down by the bullet of a sharpshooter and his







106

newspapers published similar claims. troglycerin bombs being dropped and men

The St. Louis Argus, on June 10, 1921, re - shooting from planes. Mary E. Jones Parrish

ported that “The Negroes held their own until mentions bombing incidents, but one is from an

about 6 o’clock in the morning when a fierce anonymous source and the other may have not

attack was made upon them from the hill by been wit nessed by her. In Bar ney Cleaver’s law-

cannons, and airplanes soared over the Negro suit, his petition alleges that turpentine bombs

section dropping fire on their houses.” J.W. were dropped on his house, thereby destroying

Hughes, principal of Dunbar Grade School, it. How ever, he ap par ently did not wit ness this.

wrote a statement that said that “at five o’clock Allen Yowell stated that in 1950 or 1951 he

a whistle was blown, seven aeroplanes were was having his hair cut in a barber shop in

flying over the colored district . . .”18 Tulsa. There be heard a man, who looked to be

As some newspaper accounts mention nitro- 50 or 60 years old, who said that during the time

glycerin bombs, it is in ter est ing to note that the of the riot, he and a friend obtained some dyna-

Tulsa World published an article on April 20, mite, commandeered an airplane, flew over the

1921 titled, “Tulsa Man First to Transport Ni- riot area, and dropped the dynamite on a group

tro by Means of an Airplane.” The article dis- of fleeing African American refugees not far

cusses the great dan ger in trans port ing from where some railroad tracks cross East Pine

nitroglycerin and notes that a careless move - Street. Yowell said, “the man was bragging

ment “may only leave a grease spot.”19 about this, and while he did not know if the story

There is quite a bit of information that the was correct or not, he felt that the man was tell-

police used airplanes to search the outskirts of ing the truth. He did not know the man’s name

the black area for fleeing people. When indi- and never saw him again.”22

viduals were seen, a message was placed in a Another oral informant, Lillian Lough, re-

container and dropped to search parties on the ported that her grandmother, a re cent im mi grant

ground. These contain ers may have been from Mex ico, lived on the edge of the black area

thought to be bombs by some. In reply to a re- in 1921. At the time of the riot, she saw two

quest for information from people concerning young black boys running down the street being

the riot, one man called in and said that his un- followed by a two-seater airplane. The man in

cle, Charles Foor, a Tulsa policeman, flew one the rear seat was shooting at the boys. She then

of these search planes. He said that three planes ran out and grabbed the boys and took them into

were used and they flew in a “V’ formation the house. The man in the airplane stopped

with his uncle in the lead. The planes, he be - shooting when she appeared.23

lieved, were used for reconnaissance only. 20 It is within reason that there was some shooting

On June 7, 1921, the Tulsa World re ported that from planes and even the drop ping of in cen di ar ies,

Captain George Blaine of the Tulsa Police De - but the evidence would seem to in di cate that it was

partment had flown over a number of black com- of a minor nature and had no real effect in the riot.

munities around Tulsa to see if any armed mobs While it is certain that airplanes were used by the

were forming. This was in answer to persistent police for reconnaissance, by photographers and

rumors that an attack upon Tulsa was being sightseers, there probably were some whites who

planned by African Americans in these commu- fired guns from planes or dropped bottles of gaso-

nities. His flight took him over Boley, Red Bird, line or something of that sort. However, they were

Taft, Wybark, and oth ers. Blaine, it was re ported, probably few in numbers. It is important to note, a

found no evidence of any such activity.21 number of prominent African Americans at the

Although it is within reason to believe that time of the riot including James T. West, Dr. R.T.

some individuals did drop inflammables or ex- Bridgewater, and Walter White of the NAACP,

plosives on the riot area, there is very little to did not speak of any aggressive actions by air -

support this. The newspapers targeted to black planes during the conflict.

readers were full of stories of turpentine or ni-









107

Endnotes

1

“Search Homes for Loot Taken Dur ing the Con flict”, un iden ti fied ar ti cle, Tuskegee In sti tute News Clip ping Files,

“1921–Riots, Tulsa.”

2

Interview with Ed Wheeler, Tulsa, 1999.

3

Tulsa Division Skywriter, April 26, 1968, a publication of the North American-Rockwell Corporation.

4

David Moncrief, “Early Tulsa Takes Flight” an unidentified October 1981 article located in the files of The Tulsa

Historical Society.

5

Ibid.

6

Ibid.

7

Ibid.

8

The Tulsa Spirit, January 1, 1922.

9

Tulsa Division Skywriter, April 26, 1968.

10

“Rushing in the Roaring 20s”, Tulsa World, June 15, 1969.

11

Interview with Beryl Ford and personnel of the Tulsa Air and Space Center, Tulsa, 1999.

12

Mary E. Jones Parrish, Events of the Tulsa Disaster, (rpt ed; Tulsa: Out On a Limb Publishing, 1998).

13

Walter White. “Eruption of Tulsa”, The Nation, June 29, 1921.

14

“A His tory of the Blacks in North Tulsa and My Life (A True Story)” by Mabel E. Lit tle, un pub lished manu script.

15

Oklahoma City Black Dispatch, June 10, 1921.

16

Transcript of interview between Bruce Hartnitt and Mabel Bonner Little, circa 1969-1971.

17

Telephone interview with Beryl Ford, Tulsa, 1999.

18

Chicago Defender, June 11, 1921. St. Louis Argus, June 10, 1921.

19

Tulsa World, April 20, 1921.

20

Telephone interview with Wade Foor, Tulsa, 1999.

21

Tulsa World, June 7, 1921

22

Telephone interview with Allen Yowell. Tulsa, 1999.

23

Telephone interview with Lillian Lough, 1999.

Confirmed Deaths in the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921: A Preliminary Report

by Clyde Collins Snow









108

(Cour tesy De part ment of Spe cial Col lec tions, McFarlin Li brary, Uni ver sity of Tulsa).







Confirmed Deaths:

A Preliminary Report

By Clyde Collins Snow

A Cautionary Foreword Until this data is collected and analyzed, no fi-

It should be em pha sized that this re port is, as nal report can be completed.

indicated in the title, preliminary. While col - Acknowledgments

lecting data for this study, it has become obvi- In my final report, I will include a full list of

ous that much critical information on how the many persons who have helped me. In this

many people were killed and who they were is preliminary effort acknowledgments must be

lacking. Much of this information still resides limited to the wise and indefatigable Mr. Dick

in the memories and family records and other Warner and Ms. Sue Bordeaux of the Oklahoma

personal documents of the survivors and par - State Department of Health. Much of the basic

ticipants of the riot - both black and white — information upon which this report is based was

and their descendants. For this reason, we are originally compiled by Dick; he is also a mag-

reaching out, both locally and nationally, for nificent fact-checker. Sue Bordeaux’s vast

more information on possible persons killed in knowledge of the vital records system and her

the riot whose deaths were never recorded. We enthusiasm in putting it to work in this project

also suspect much additional information of was invaluable. Naturally, neither one of them

importance is contained in still unexamined are responsible for any factual errors or eccen-

documents such as life insurance claims, will tric opinions which may appear in this prelimi-

probates, census records, etc. Hopefully, these nary report — they are all my own.

documents still survive in obscure archives.





109

future. When con ducted ob jec tively, they gen er-

ally attain these goals.

Unfortunately, no impartial investigation was

conducted of the 1921 Tulsa race riot in its im-

mediate aftermath, while memories of the par -

ticipants and victims were still fresh, and the

physical evidence, including the bodies of the

dead, could be forensically examined. Today,

eight de cades af ter the event, only the doc u men-

tary evidence — much of it lost or of doubtful

authenticity — and the fading memories of the

rapidly dwindling survivors remains.

A key piece of information in any investigation

of incidents involving loss of human life is an ac-

curate assessment of the number of victims. Such

determinations are important for several reasons.

For example, where preliminary estimates of the

number of dead are part of an ongoing investiga-

tion, they can be used to make reasonable allot-

ments of often scarce manpower, equipment, and

financial resources to the task and to determine the

overall investigative strategy.

Accurate estimates of the dead and injured

From the first shots that were fired at the courthouse on May can also help identify factors contributing to

31, to the last fight ing that took place on June 1, the Tulsa race such disasters and, thus, provide guidelines for

riot proved to be a par tic u larly le thal af fair. And while a de fin-

i tive death count is still elu sive, it is clear that doz ens of blacks ameliorating the loss of life in similar future

and whites lost their lives in the catastrophe (Department of cases. For example, in Honduras, the immigra-

Special Collections McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa). tion of the rural poor to urban areas resulted in

large numbers of them building small houses on

The Need for Accurate Casualty Counts

“waste” land along the steep banks of major

During the past half-century, it has become

river courses and other areas sub ject to flood ing.

increasingly common for major disasters, nat-

As a consequence, many thousands of such set-

ural and man-made, to become the subject of

tlers drowned or died in mud slides during the

public investigation. Such investigations may

massive hurricane of 1998. This loss of life

be official — that is, conducted by any govern-

could be minimized by governmental or private

mental branch, judicial, executive or legisla-

aid to provide housing sites in safer areas or, at

tive and at any level, federal, state or local.

the least, as sure the prompt evac u a tion of peo ple

Unofficial, but no less searching and reveal-

from such vulnerable places when warnings of

ing, investigations may be conducted by the

impending hur ri canes are re ceived in the fu ture.

press or private entities. Examples of such in-

When the disasters are man-made, such as

quiries in the recent past include the several in-

acts of terrorism, war crimes or other massive

vestigations of the deaths of the followers of

human rights violations, an accurate assessment

David Koresh in the Branch Davidian Com -

of the number of victims is a necessary step in

pound in Waco, Texas in 1994. Such inquiries

any forensic investigation conducted to exhume

are designed to shed light on the causes of such

the victims so that they may be identified and re-

disasters, establish culpability when possible

turned to the families, make suitable reparations

and appropriate and provide guidelines to pre-

to the persons affected and, hopefully and

vent or, if they do occur again, design proce-

above all, provide evidence to bring the perpe-

dures for effectively dealing with them in the

trators to justice.







110

Before the ashes of Greenwood had cooled, story had not changed since it was recounted in the

disagreements over the number of dead began Muskogee (OK) Phoenix in 1921, Sergeant Esley

to surface. Estimates of the total number of would testify that the victim died in her husband’s

dead have varied by an order of magnitude, arms after being struck by five bullets fired by a

ranging from about fifty to as many as five black who stole up behind her while she and her

hundred. They also vary greatly in the reliabil- family were watching the fires in Greenwood

ity of the sources on which they are based. from the front porch of their home on Sunset Hill.

Here, I have chosen a more conservative ap- He might further state, as he did eight decades ago,

proach by compiling a list of persons who that, after watching his mother die, Mrs. Deary’s

have, at one time or another, been named as fifteen year old son joined the riot and helped set

victims of the Tulsa race riot. At the outset, I some of the fires. On cross-examination, of

should point out that this compilation is not course, Sergeant Esley would be forced to admit

likely to include all of the riot fatalities since it that even in 1921, when he first told his story, he

is probable that at least some and, perhaps had not been able to remember the victim’s name

many, deaths went unrecorded. At the same but only . . . “that it sounded like Deary." Further-

time, however, I feel that it may prove valuable more, he was not sure whether she was shot late

to future scholars since it provides at least a Tuesday night or on Wednesday morning. Now

firm minimum of the number of dead. suppose, that the astute defense lawyer introduces

Classification of Deaths (as they always do, at least on television), a “sur-

Based on the information presently avail- prise” witness, and a fragile little old lady makes

able, riot fatalities of both races can be divided her way to the stand.2 She would state that her

into two groups. Within the first are those es- name was Mrs. S. A. Gilmore and that, in 1921,

tablished by primary sources such as death cer- she was living at 225 E. King in the Sun set Hill ad-

tificates and mortuary records. The second dition, which overlooked the Greenwood district.

group consists of deaths mentioned only in On Wednesday morning, while she and her hus -

secondary sources (newspaper stories, maga- band were watching the battle below, she received

zine articles, books, etc.) dealing with the race five wounds in the arms and chest. While the

riot. In this study, I have designated individu- shots came in the direction of Greenwood, it was

als in the first group as confirmed, and those of never cer tain whether they were fired by a black or

the second as reported deaths. she was struck by stray shots being fired in the

The distinction between the two groups is gen eral di rec tion of Sun set Hill by mem bers of the

made clearer when put in a forensic context. white mob. Taken to Morningside Hospital, she

For example, bearing in mind that there is no lingered close to death for several days3 but even-

statute of limitations on murder and that the tually recovered. The defense attorney would then

victims killed in the Tulsa race riot were homi- introduce as documentary evidence Tulsa City Di-

cide victims, it is at least theoretically possible rectories which show that Mrs. Gilmore did in -

that murder charges could be brought against deed reside at 225 E. King at the time of the riot in

an alleged per pe tra tor.1 If the victim were to be 1921 and, in fact, was stilling living there two

Dr. Andrew C. Jackson, the prominent black years later. He would also point out that Mrs.

physician who was gunned down after emerg- Gilmore was the only white female reported to

ing from his burning Greenwood home with have been shot dur ing the riot in the abun dant lo cal

his hands held high, the death certificate signed and national press cov er age. And fi nally, he would

eighty years ago would be unchallengeable ev- show that an exhaustive search of death records

idence of his death in any court. failed to produce any ev i dence of the death of Mrs.

On the other hand, let us imagine that an el- Deary in the form of funeral home, cemetery or,

derly black man was charged with the death of most importantly, a death certificate. While the

a white woman iden ti fied only as “Mrs. Deary” jury would rush out to acquit, the red-faced pros-

by the now extremely aged ex-Sergeant Esley ecutor would sit contemplating how much he

of the Tulsa National Guard. As suming that his







111

would enjoy ripping out the pacemaker of his the years since the riot also were a source of

star witness, Sergeant Esley. names.

The hypothetical trials for the murders of The next step in this analysis was to enter the

Dr. Jackson and Mrs. Deary, by juxtaposing names, along with other data pertaining to the

the tragic and the comic, serve to illustrate the victims, into a computerized database. Once en-

crucial difference between confirmed and re - tered, other information on a particular victim

ported deaths as I have classified them here. could be pursued. For example, an especially

Only the most dim-witted prosecutor would important procedure was to search for the per -

consider ac tu ally tak ing the Deary case to court son’s death certificate in the files maintained by

based on Sergeant Esley’s story. On the other the Oklahoma State Department of Health, cen-

hand, the Jackson murder would have been a sus data, Tulsa City Directories. Funeral home

strong case for the prosecution since the docu- and cemetery records of the period also were

mentary evidence clearly establishes his death help ful, and in a few cases, valu able in for ma tion

and the witnesses, both black and white, could was supplied by the victim’s family members.

have provided clear and convincing evidence Death Certificates

of the circumstances of his death. Unfortu- In 1921, Oklahoma death certificates con-

nately, however, no investigation of this death sisted of two sections, one to be completed by

was ever undertaken by the Tulsa police or the undertaker and the other by the physician

other city, county, or state officials. who attended the deceased. Normally, the com-

Readers should be aware the categorization ple tion of a death cer tif i cate re quired four steps:

of individual deaths as confirmed or reported 1. The undertaker would begin the process by

in this preliminary study is not necessarily fi - filling in the personal data on the dead person.

nal. This is be cause the data pres ently avail able This would include the name, sex, race, age, oc-

on many of the victims is still incomplete. As

further information comes to light, at least

some of the deaths classified as reported might

be fully confirmed. This is well-illustrated by

the case of Ed Lockard, which will be dis-

cussed in detail in the final report.

As noted above, much more data must be

collected and analyzed to produce a final re -

port. This is particularly true in regard to re -

ported deaths. Therefore, in this preliminary

report, only the data so far compiled on con -

firmed deaths will be presented.

METHODS AND DATA SOURCES

Analytic Method

The initial effort of this study consisted of

combing all known documentary sources for

the names of individuals mentioned as victims

or possible victims of the riot. The most im -

portant primary source was, of course, contem-

porary local and national press accounts in

which the names of riot victims were given.

These names include not only the reported fa -

talities but, also, those who were wounded se-

verely enough to be ad mit ted to lo cal

hospitals. In addition to press stories, the vari- Death cer tif i cate for an un known Af ri can American

ous books, reports, and articles published in





112

cupation, birthplace and occupation of the de- those who died under their care a few days after

ceased as well as the names and birthplaces of the riot than those who were dead on arrival or

his or her parents. The informant (usually the succumbed a few hours later.

next-of-kin) providing this information also To compound the problem, many death cer-

was asked to sign the certificate. tificates were signed not by physicians but by

2. The certificate would then be sent to the Tulsa County Attorney W.D. Seavers. This

attending physician who provided the date, was legal because at the time, state law al-

time, and cause of death. Signed by the physi- lowed officers of the court to certify deaths

cian, it was returned to the undertaker. that had not been attended by a physician. As

3. Next, the undertaker would complete his nearly the entire Tulsa medical establishment

part of the certificate by listing the cemetery was tied up in the care of the wounded, no

and date of interment or, if the body was buried doc tors were avail able to exam ine bod ies

elsewhere, the date and place of shipment. found at the scene. Apparently, this task fell to

4. Finally, the undertaker would submit the Seavers, who signed out eigh teen vic tims

completed certificate to the vital statistics reg- whose bod ies were found in the still smoul der-

istrar of the county in which the death oc- ing ruins of Greenwood, or who died after be-

curred. After assigning it a unique register ing brought to temporary detention centers

number, the registrar would forward it to the where blacks were held during the first hours

Bureau of Vital Statistics of the Oklahoma of the riot. It is not clear whether Seavers actu-

State Health Department in Oklahoma City. ally visited the scene to examine the bodies or

In the case of the riot victims, the orderly whether the death certificates were brought to

process outlined above was not always fol - him by undertakers.

lowed. In particular, the personal informa- Mortuary Records

tion on the deceased was sometimes left At the time of the riot, the bodies of the

vague or incomplete. Informants who were known victims were taken from the hospitals

not immediate family members did not often where they were pronounced dead or, some-

know such details as the exact age, mari tal times, directly from the scene to local mortuar-

status, or birthplace of the deceased, much ies. There they were prepared for burial in Tulsa

less the names of the dead person’s father or or shipped to other cities designated by their

mother. This was especially true for black next-of- kin. The records of these establish-

victims since their next-of-kin were still in ments (Mobray’s, Mitchell-Fleming, and Stan-

the detention camps and could not come to ley-McCune), provide data on the deceased not

the mortuaries to claim their relatives if, in- found on the death certificates.

deed, they were informed of their deaths at

all. Press Accounts

The information provided by physicians The events of the riot received heavy cover-

also was sketchy. For example, the exact age in local, state, and national newspapers as

time of death was not recorded and, in many well as other journals, both white and black, of

cases, it is not clear whether the victim was the time. As with all such news events, press at-

dead on arrival at the hospital or survived for tention was most intensive in the days immedi-

a few hours. Also, the causes of death on ately fol low ing the riot, then dwin dled rap idly in

many cer tif i cates are la conic: “Gun shot the weeks that followed. Over the years, how -

wound (riot)” with no details on the number ever, occasional newspaper feature stories and

and location of wounds. Such lapses of over- magazine articles dealing with the riot and its af-

worked and harried physicians, termath have appeared. The most valuable sin-

overwhelmed by the influx of several hundred gle source for these materials was the extremely

wounded in addition to the dead, is understand- thorough newspaper clippings collection from

able. It is interesting that the doctors provided the Tuskegee Institute microfilm files.

more de tailed in for ma tion on the cer tif i cates of







113

While the white riot dead ap pear to have all been given proper buri als, lit tle ef fort was made by the white au thor i ties to iden tify the bod ies

of black riot victims. Indeed, as both long-forgotten funeral home records and death cer tif icates would confirm, some unidentified Af ri-

can-American riot vic tims were hur riedly bur ied in un marked graves at Oaklawn Cem e tery (Courtesy Green wood Cultural Cen ter).



Books and Monographs Sex

Over the years, several books have been All thirty-nine victims, in clud ing the still born

published dealing with the Tulsa race riot. infant, were diagnosed as males. However, it

These include one by a riot survivor and sev- should be pointed out that the bodies of four

eral others by historians who have collected blacks — all signed out by County Attorney

written and oral accounts from survivors and Seavers — were so badly burned that identifica-

their descendants. tion was impossible. Since it is often impossible

Miscellaneous Sources to de ter mine the sex in such cases with out an au-

In the course of this investigation, several topsy, the reliability of a layman’s diagnosis in

researchers have generously provided unpub- these four cases is questionable.

lished reports and documents on the riot which Race

they have collected in their own studies of the Twenty-six (66%) of the thirty-nine victims,

event. including the stillborn, were diagnosed as

DATA ANALYSIS blacks. Again, the four bodies that were so badly

To date, death certificates on thirty-nine vic- burned that the could not be identified (see

tims have been found. They are listed in Table above) must be considered. This is especially

1 which summarizes the principal variables true since thermal damage often results in the

presently available on them. It should be noted destruction of the delicate, paper-thin epidennis

that not all of the tabulatedinformation was ab- that is made up of cells which, in blacks, contain

stracted from the death certificates alone. For the melanin pigments determining skin color.

example, most of the information on the loca- When this layer is extensively destroyed, it ex-

tion of their wounds was found in other poses the underlying dermis that, in all races, is

riot-related doc u ments, par tic u larly con tem po- no darker than the skin of a light complexion

rary press accounts, which often provide more white person, making it easy for an inexperi-

specific information on the nature of their inju- enced ob server to mistakenly di agnosis a

ries than was noted on the death certificates. burned black body as white. However, in the

present case, since all the burn victims were

See Table 1 Tulsa Race Riot Deaths found in fire-destroyed Greenwood, it is likely

that they were indeed those of blacks.





114

Age only fifteen (58%) of the twenty-six blacks and,

As noted above, among the black victims was of these, at least seven are given as estimates

an infant diagnosed as a stillborn. This case is (usually to the nearest fifth year, e.g., “35",

interesting since it is apparently related to an ac- “40", etc.). This distribution again clearly

count given to Eddie Faye Gates by a riot survi- shows that black victims were signed out with

vor, Rosa Davis Skinner. According to Mrs. less care and regard than whites; little or no ef-

Skinner, she and her husband Thomas, alarmed fort was made to identify blacks by contacting

by the shooting, fled their home at 519 West their next-of-kin.

Latimer a little after midnight on the night of See Table 2 Distribution of Known,

the riot. Estimated and Unknown Ages by Race

“When we got to Greenwood, we met up Despite the fact that no age estimates were

with a lot more black people who were running given for nearly half of the black victims, statis-

tying to find a safe place. We ran into a couple tical comparison of the available age data on the

— the man was one of [her husband’s] best races is interesting. In the analysis below, I have

friends. The wife had just had a baby that had excluded the stillborn which, as a non-violent

died at birth. She had put it in a shoe box and death, is clearly a special case (see above). The

was waiting until morning to bury it when the mean age of white vic tims was around

riot broke out. Well durin’ all that runnin’ and twenty-seven years compared to thirty-four

pushin’ and shovin’ when black people were years for blacks. This difference is statistically

trying to get safely away from the riot, that po’ significant (Table 3).

little baby got lost! Everybody was just runnin’

and bumpin’ into each other. They never did See Table 3 Age of Confirmed Riot Deaths

find that child.” by Race

Ac cord ing to in for ma tion in the Stan- Birthplace / Residence

ley-McCune mortuary records, sometime on The distribution of the known victims by state

June 1, po lice brought in the body of a new born of birth or residence is shown in Table 4. The

infant. It had been found in Greenwood earlier state of residence was inferred from mortuary

in the day by two white men who turned it over records which show the state where the body

to the police. The body was described as that of was shipped for burial. This information is

a black male measuring “less than twelve available in the records of only two (8%) of the

inches long.” It apparently bore no signs of twenty-five black victims. Again, an indication

trauma and was signed out as a stillborn. Like of the lack of attention given them before their

many of the other black victims, it was buried hasty burials. This is in con trast to the whites for

in Oaklawn Cemetery. The evidence seems which birthplaces/residence of all thirteen were

compelling that the baby lost by its fleeing given. It is of interest to note that eleven (85%)

mother and that brought to the mortuary were of the white vic tims were from out side

one and the same. This case is important for Oklahoma. The significance of this finding will

two reasons. First, the story of this tiny victim be discussed more fully below. In all, natives or

provides a poignant glimpse of the madness residents of ten states are rep re sented among the

that pre vailed on that ter ri ble day. Sec ond, this white victims.

infant is the only one of the thirty-nine known See Table 4 Distribution of Confirmed

victims that did not die of gunshot wounds Deaths by Race and State of Birth or

and/or burns. Residence

Ages are given on the death certificates of

Marital Status

all thirteen of the white victims (Table 2). One

Of the white victims, nine (69%) were single,

of these was apparently an estimate based on

separated or divorced. Only three were married

examination of the body. The others were pro-

and the wife of at least one of these does not ap-

vided by informants who knew the actual age

of the victim. In contrast, ages are given for pear to have been living in Tulsa at the time of

his death. The mar i tal sta tus of one is un known.





115

Among blacks, the marital status of seven- are documented; all four of these men died in

teen is not given. Of the remaining eight, five hospitals on June 2, or later. The wound loca-

were married and three were single. tions of the remaining twenty-one blacks, all of

See Table 5 Distribution of Confirmed whom died during the first twelve hours of the

Deaths by Race and Marital Status riot, were unspecified. The wounds of the

twelve whites whose locations are known were

Occupation nearly evenly distributed by anatomical region.

The occupations of ten (40%) of the black The overall pattern of wound distribution is

victims are known. Among them were two pro- rather typical of those seen in hotly contested

fessionals, a physician, and a realtor (who also armed confrontations carried on at moderate to

was a tailor). The remaining eight included distant ranges. In this, it contrasts strongly with

five listed as “laborers,” a bank porter, an patterns observed in extra-judicial executions

iceman, and an elevator operator. by firing squads.4

Among the twelve (92%) of the white vic -

tims whose occupations are known, there was See Table 8 Anatomical Distribution of

a high school student, two cooks, a salesman, a Gunshot Wounds of Confirmed Death

ho tel clerk, and a day la borer. Five were skilled Victims

blue col lar work ers and, of these, three were oil Place of Death

field workers; the other-two, a boiler maker At the time of the riot, Tulsa had four major

and a machinist might also have been em- white hospitals. Tulsa blacks were served only

ployed in petroleum-related jobs. The sole pro- by Frissell Memorial Hospital, that was burned

fessional among the whites was the office during the riot. Greenwood blacks who did not

manager of a large local oil company. Thus, at flee Tulsa altogether were first taken to tempo-

least one-third and pos si bly as many as rary detention centers set up in the armory and

one-half of the white victims were petroleum Convention Center in downtown Tulsa. The

industry workers. lightly wounded who were forced to walk to the

See Table 6 Distribution of Confirmed detention centers. Those more seriously injured

Deaths by Race and Occupation were either carried to the centers by the un-

wounded or transported there by various means,

Cause of and Manner of Death including privately owned trucks and automo-

All of the thir teen whites were killed by gun- biles, some of which were driven by white vol-

shot wounds. Among the twenty-five black unteers.5

adults, at least twenty-one (84%) died of gun- While it appears that small first aid stations

shot wounds. The cause of death of the remain- were set up at the de ten tion cen ters early on June

ing four, all signed out by County Attorney 1, it must have become quickly apparent that

Seavers, were given as burn but, as noted pre- they were not sufficient to provide the care that

viously, any underlying fatal gunshot wounds the dozens of wounded required. Accordingly,

may not have been apparent in the absence of the basement of Morningside Hospital was

autopsy. hastily converted to accommodate blacks. Ap -

Of the thirty-nine confirmed deaths, the parently, this makeshift facility included not

manner of death of all but that of the stillborn only cots for the wounded but a small operating

black male were ho mi cides. The lat ter is clas si- room where all surgery on the admitted blacks

fied as “natural.” At least one, and possibly was performed. For the next few days, all in -

two, whites were killed by persons of their own jured blacks were treated in the Morningside

race who apparently mistook them for blacks. base ment, that may not have ex ceeded

See Table 7 Cause and Manner of Death of 5,000-square-feet of floor space.6 A brief

Confirmed Death Victims glimpse of con di tions there can be gained from a

Wounds story in the Tulsa World on June 2, that noted

Of the twenty-five blacks who died of gun- sixty-three wounded blacks were being treated

shot injury, the wound locations of only four there. So far as is presently known, none of the





116

other white hospitals in Tulsa opened their See Table 9 Distribution of Confirmed

door to African American patients. Deaths by Place of Death

All thir teen of the white fa tal i ties were taken Date of Death

from the scene to one of four hospitals where The records indicate that four of the white ca-

they were either pronounced dead on arrival sualties died before midnight on May 31. If this

(DOA) or died later. Unfortunately, the death is correct then these men were most likely killed

certificates are not always clear as to whether in the downtown area where the fighting first

the victims who were admitted late on May 31, began. Seven others died on June 1, and one on

or in the early morning hours of June 1, were June 2. The last white fatality died in the early

actually dead when brought to the hospital, or morning hours of June 6. He was wounded a

died shortly afterwards. So far as can be pres- few hours earlier when white militia men fired

ently de ter mined, at least two and pos si bly four on the car in which he was riding. The perpetra-

whites were actually dead on arrival. All four tors, a least one of whom was wearing his

were pronounced dead at Oklahoma Hospital World War I army uniform, claimed that the

by the same physician, Dr. Lyle Archerloss. driver of the car refused to obey their orders to

Only eight (31%) of the twenty-six black fa- stop.

talities were brought to hospitals. Six died in None of the twenty-six black victims is listed

Morning side, that as men tioned above, was the as having died on the evening of May 31.

only one where blacks were treated in the first Twenty-one were signed out as having died on

few days of the riot. A seventh died in Cinna- June l, two on June 2, and two others on June 7,

bar Hospital on June 7, about a week after the and June 10, respectively. The last black to die

riot. Presumably, he had been transferred from of riot wounds was a twenty-one year old who

Morningside af ter Cinnabar had been re- lingered until August 20, eleven weeks after the

opened. The last died on August 20, in the Red riot.

Cross hospital that was set up in the Green - The fact that no black fatalities were recorded

wood’s black Dunbar School after the riot. for the eve ning of May 31, is cu ri ous. Ac cord ing

The other eighteen (69%) blacks were not to several sources, many shots were fired by

taken to hospitals. The bodies of these sixteen both sides during the retreat of the blacks from

individuals were found in the downtown area the courthouse area back to Greenwood, and

where the fighting began or in the ruins of some early newspaper accounts describe blacks

Greenwood. Five days after the riot on June 6, lying wounded or dead in the downtown area. If

the badly decomposed body of a black man the latter are true, it suggests that no medical aid

was found about eight miles east of Tulsa. He was extended to those wounded blacks unfortu-

had died of a gunshot wound of the neck. He nate enough to have been left behind during the

was later identified as a man who had escaped retreat to Greenwood.

from a temporary detention center.

All of these bodies were taken directly to See Table 10 Confirmed Deaths by Date of

mortuaries and their death certificates were Death

signed out by County Attorney Seavers. An - Mortuaries

other of these “non-hospital” victims died in As in most of the United States at the time,

the armory detention center where he was Tulsa mortuaries were racially restricted. The

taken after he was shot down by a teen-aged three ma jor es tab lish ments serv ing white

member of the mob while trying to surrender Tulsans were Mitchell-Fleming, Mowbray, and

outside his home in Greenwood. Ironically, Stanley-McCune. Black funerals were handled

this man — a prominent physician — lay with- by a single Greenwood funeral home operated

out medical attention for several hours before by S. M. Jackson, a graduate of the Cincinnati

he finally succumbed to a bullet wound of the (Ohio) School of Embalming. In 1971, Jackson

chest. His death certificate was also signed by was in ter viewed by Tulsa his to rian Ruth

the county attorney.7 Avery.8 His account of his riot experiences is







117

valuable since it provides some insight into the The Oaklawn Burials

way the dead, both black and white, were han- In light of the controversy surrounding the to-

dled. On the morning of June 1, when the white tal number of black victims of the race riot and

mob stormed into Greenwood, Jackson’s fu- the disposal of their bodies, the documented

neral parlor was burned down. At the time, he burials in Oaklawn take on a special signifi-

was holding four embalmed bodies for burial; cance. This is especially true in the light of the

only two of these were retrieved (leaving one preliminary archaeological findings.9

to wonder about the fate of the other two). At As noted above, twenty-one black victims,

first interned, he was promptly paroled by the 84% of the total, were buried in Oaklawn. At

owners of Stanley-McCune who temporarily that time, the cemetery was segregated by race

hired him to help process the bodies who were and blacks were buried in the west ern-most sec-

brought to their establishment. During the next tion, so it is safe to assume that these black riot

few days he embalmed several blacks whose victims also were bur ied there. Five of these vic-

bodies were to be shipped to other cities for tims, all of whom died in Morningside Hospital,

burial. were buried by Mowbray mortuary. All these

Stanley McCune also had a hastily arranged hospital cases died of gunshot wounds. Their

c o n t r a c t with Tulsa County to bury death certificates were signed by a single physi-

(unembalmed) the bod ies of blacks whose rel a- cian, J. F. Capps, M.D. Dr. Capps signed out two

tives could either not afford to claim them for of these as “John Does.” Four died on June 1, and

private burial or were not informed of the the fifth in the early morning of June 2.

deaths. In all, Stanley-McCune handled the The remaining sixteen were bodies found at the

arrangements for two whites and eighteen scene and taken to Stanley-McCune; their death

blacks. The bodies of all of the blacks were certificates were signed by County Attorney

prepared for burial by Mr. Jackson. He em - Seavers. Six of these, four of whom were badly

balmed two of these that were claimed and burned, were not identified. A seventh unidenti-

were buried in other cities. The remaining fied body was that of the previously described

sixteen were not embalmed and placed in stillborn. The remaining nine were identified.

plain wood coffins. Mr. Jackson was able to These Oaklawn burials were conducted at

re build his Green wood busi ness and han dled county expense. The Mowbray and Stanley-

the funeral of the last black riot victim who McCune records indicate that the victims were

died on August 20, and whose body was not embalmed but buried in plain wooden cof-

claimed by his family for burial in his native fins; they also show that the mortuaries charged

Mississippi. the county $25 for each burial. An important

See Table 11 Distribution of Confirmed feature of the Stanley-McCune records was a

Dead by Mortuary notation indicating the “grave number” of each

burial. These numbers form a single sequence

Burial Places from 1 to 19, except for graves 15, 16 and 17. It

Only three of the white victims were buried is possible that these graves were filled by three

in Rose Hill, a privately operated cemetery. of the Mowbray. Unfortunately, grave numbers

Another was buried in Watonga, a small town were not given in the Mowbray records.

in western Oklahoma. The remaining nine The data cur rently avail able on these

were bur ied in other states. Five of the black fa- Oaklawn burials is given in Table 13. They are

talities were buried outside of Tulsa: two in significant for several reasons. First, should ar-

other Oklahoma towns and three outside the chaeological exploration of the area go for-

state. The remaining twenty-one blacks (84%) ward, the excavators should encounter them.

were interred in Oaklawn, the Tulsa municipal Assuming, as the records indicate, that they

cemetery. were buried in separate graves in the order indi-

See Table 12 Burial Places of Confirmed cated by the Stanley-McCune grave numbers,

Dead they should be encountered in an orderly row(s).







118

If so, the available information that we have on money. With no strong domestic ties to keep

them should be valuable in obtaining tentative them home that night, drift ing around in the bus-

identifications. For example, the skeletons in tling downtown area on a nice summer evening,

graves 7, 9, 13, and 18 should show some signs perhaps looking for ladies, liquor or other ex -

of fire exposure. If so, they should provide ten- citement, they also were the kind who might be

tative leads to the non-burned skeletons in ad- expected to show up around the courthouse

jacent graves. 10 By narrowing the number of when the talk about lynching a black accused of

possible decedents, the effort (and the cost) of as sault ing a white girl got started. Since

DNA identification could be substantially re - boot-legging was a busy cottage industry in

duced. Tulsa, it is possible that at least some of them

See Table 13 Burials of Confirmed Dead in had high blood-alcohol levels by the time the

Oaklawn Cemetery trouble began.

Black victims, in contrast, tended to be older

DISCUSSION than whites. They ranged in age from nineteen

Of course, this small group of documented to sixty-three. Blacks averaged close to 35 years

fatalities cannot be considered a statistically- in age — nearly seven years older than the

defined random sample of those who had some whites. This difference is statistically signifi-

role in the riot, either as active members of the cant. Of the eight for whom marital data is avail-

mob or as passive victims. However, it is prob- able, five were listed as married. While their

ably typical enough to provide some glimpses occupational status tended to be lower than that

of the kinds of people who were caught up in of the whites (and none were employed in the

the riot. petroleum industry), two, a realtor who also

The whites ranged in age from sixteen to owned a tailor shop and a highly-regarded phy-

thirty-nine years. As a group, they tended to be sician, were solidly middle class. Unlike the

young, with a median age of twenty-seven whites, most of whom were young, single, new-

years. The state of birth or residence of all thir- comers to Tulsa, this group of black victims ap-

teen are known and, of these, only two were pears to have been stable, older citizens of the

born in Oklahoma. The bodies of all but four Greenwood community.

were shipped to other states for burial and, of These thirty-nine cases also demonstrate that,

the four Oklahoma burials, only three took compared to white victims, those who were

place in Tulsa. Of the ten for whom we have black victims were treated with what would to-

marital information, seven were single, one day be considered cavalier, if not criminal, care-

was divorced and another had been separated lessness. This is in di cated by the fact that at least

from his wife for nearly twelve years. Among one was allowed to bleed to death without med-

the three married men, the wife of one was not ical attention in a detention center instead of be-

living in Tulsa at the time of the riot. At least ing taken immediately and directly to a hospital

four and possibly six were employed in petro- after being gunned down in Greenwood while

leum-related jobs; three others held jobs sug - trying to surrender. Another indication of this is

gesting transient status: two were cooks and found in the death certificates. Those of at least

the third listed as a “laborer.” Judging from four of the thirteen whites were pronounced

their occupations, all were of lower socioeco- dead before midnight on May 31, indicating that

nomic status except one, an oil company junior they were promptly taken to hospitals. In con -

executive. trast, none of the death certificates of black vic-

In short, the limited demographic informa- tims are dated earlier than June 1, a finding that

tion that can be drawn from such a small sam- suggests that whether dead or still alive, they lay

ple indicates that these men were probably unattended for at least several hours. More evi-

fairly typical of white Tulsans of the oil boom dence is provided by the fact that adequate treat-

days: young, single, non-professionals from ment fa cil i ties were de nied blacks un til

outside Oklahoma who had been lured to sometime in the late morning or afternoon of

Tulsa by the promise of good jobs and good





119

June 1, when a makeshift ward and surgery to their black neighbors. Their brave actions

was hastily set up in the basement of one of the have been well documented elsewhere and will

several hospitals that normally admitted only not be considered in detail here.

whites. Only then were the many black It should also be pointed out that what hap -

wounded provided with care, and some al- pened in Tulsa could have taken place in almost

lowed to die under the care of nurses and phy- any other city in the United States in 1921. Nor

sicians. were the conditions and circumstances leading

If Tulsa medical care givers were callous to this tragic event a uniquely Oklahoman, or

and care less in their treat ment of black riot vic- even “Southern” phenomenon. In the data con -

tims, representatives of the Tulsa funeral in - sidered here, this is probably best illustrated by

dustry were not far behind them. This is shown the known birthplaces or residences of the

by the hasty, “county” burials in Oaklawn on white fatalities. Of the thirteen men who were

June 1 and 2. Their death certificates in most killed, only two were native Oklahomans. None

cases signed by a layman, County Attorney were from states of the deep South. Five — the

Seavers. Much of the vital information on two Oklahomans, a Texan, an Arkansan and a

these certificates such as address, age, marital native of Kentucky — were from Confederate

status, next-of-kin, etc. was left blank or filled border states in which the populations were of

in with a hastily scrawled “don’t know”. This deeply divided loyalties during the Civil War.

indicates that authorities with the responsibil- The remaining seven were from midwestern or

ity to contact families and identify victims did northeastern states.

not bother to track them down in the admit- CONCLUSIONS AND

tedly crowded and confused detention centers. RECOMMENDATIONS

Thus, some families that might have been able In summary, perhaps the least that can be said

and willing to claim their dead and bury them of the physicians, undertakers, police, and pros-

properly were not given this opportunity. ecutors of Tulsa of the time was that they were

Whether they could af ford to or not, most prob- not hypocritical: they treated their black fel-

ably did not know for sure that their relatives low-citizens no better when they were dead than

were already dead and buried in unmarked they did when they were alive.

pauper graves until they were released from Although this preliminary report is limited to

detention. treatment of the confirmed dead, it cannot be

Another finger of blame points to law en - closed without considering the as yet uncon-

forcement authorities at the local and county firmed dead of the Tulsa race riot. First to be

levels. As noted previously, all of these deaths considered are the eighteen deaths that occurred

— both black and white — were homicides in the Maurice Willows Hospital operated by

which oc curred within the ju ris dic tion of ei ther the Red Cross until January 1, 1922. A system-

the Tulsa Police Department (thirty-seven atic search of vital statistics records to find their

cases) or the Tulsa County Sheriffs Depart- names and the causes of their deaths has not yet

ment (two cases). Yet, so far as is known, these been made. Some may have died of complica-

murder cases were not investigated while at tions of wounds received dur ing the riot; if so, of

least some of the perpetrators could be identi- course, such deaths would add to the riot deaths.

fied and apprehended. Prosecutorial authori- Others, particularly, if chil dren or el derly whose

ties, both county and state, also are ac count able homes were destroyed or their family life dis -

since they apparently did not aggressively rupted, may have succumbed easily to diseases

press for such investigations. they may have otherwise survived; while actu-

These hard truths cannot be presented with- ally not killed in the riot the deaths of these vic-

out pointing out that many white Tulsans and tims would certainly have to be considered as

Tulsa institutions (particularly some churches riot-related.

and the local Red Cross) took a courageous As noted in the introduction of this prelimi-

role in the riot by offering protection and care nary report, we already have the names of many







120

possible descendants and, hopefully, may ob- Therefore, it is possible that bodies found in the

tain still more. These reported dead will first ruins of Greenwood during the days immedi-

be scanned against vi tal sta tis tics re cords to see ately after the riot were simply buried without

if their death certificates have been somehow documentation.

overlooked. If they are not found, it will not That this may have indeed happened is sug -

necessarily mean that they did not die in the gested by a statement ap par ently made by Ma jor

riot since there is at least some tenuous evi- O. T. Johnson, a Salvation Army officer sta -

dence that more people, especially blacks, tioned in Tulsa at the time. According to stories

died in the riot whose deaths were not re- in at least two newspapers, the Chicago De-

corded. Most of this evidence, it is true, is in fender, June 11, 1921 and St. Louis Argus, June

the form of wildly varying estimates that ap - 10, 1921, Johnson is said to have stated that he

peared in both the Tulsa and national press in hired a crew of over three dozen grave diggers

the days and weeks immediately following the who labored for several days to dig about 150

riot. Many Tulsans, white and black, have rec- graves for Negro victims. Unfortunately, any of-

ollections of bodies of victims being disposed ficial report that Major Johnson may have sub -

of in irregular ways in the first few days fol - mitted to the Salvation Army has not yet been

lowing the riot. These estimates and stories located. However, the possibility the statement

cannot be dismissed lightly. attributed to him was indeed true is at least

As one whose entire professional life has partly supported by two witnesses. One, Eunice

been devoted to the investigation of mass di - Cloman Jackson, the wife of black mortician S.

sasters such as fires and floods, aircraft acci- M. Jackson stated in 1971 that her step-father

dents, hu man rights vi o la tions, war crimes and was part of a crew of fifty-five grave diggers;

acts of terrorism throughout the world, this when she was asked where the bodies were bur-

writer is fully aware of the often exaggerated ied, she replied that “. . .most of them were out at

estimates of the number of victims that surface Oaklawn. That was the cemetery for burying

in the wake of the chaos and confusion follow- them. . ..”11 Clyde Eddy, a young boy at the

ing such events. At the same time, experience time, remembers seeing large wooden crates,

has shown that in manner of these situations, each containing several burned bodies, await -

official counts of the dead or often seriously ing burial in Oaklawn in the days following the

underestimated. riot. If bodies were collected from the burned

In the present case, it should be pointed out out area of Greenwood they may well have been

that, like nearly all other states at the time of collected in crates rather than individual coffins

the riot, Oklahoma had no adequate system for and transported to Oaklawn for burial by Major

the medicolegal examination of violent or un- Johnson and his large crew of grave diggers.

attended deaths. Today, the law mandates that They most likely wood have been carried on

all such deaths fall within the medicolegal re - trucks, railroad flatcars (the Frisco tracks ran

sponsibility of the State Medical Examiner. adjacent to Oaklawn), or both, thus accounting

Bodies of such victims are examined and, for the several eyewitness reports that bodies

when necessary, autopsied by forensic pathol- were seen being carried from the Greenwood

ogists to determine the cause and manner of area on both trucks and flatcars.

death. At the time of the riot, the law required The theory that perhaps as many as 150 bod-

that death certificates be signed by attending ies were buried in Oaklawn under Major John-

physicians or, as we have seen, certain public son’s su per vi sion can be framed as an

officials in exceptional cases. However, it ap- hypothesis that can be tested by archaeological

pears that there was no controlling legal au - exploration of the area described elsewhere in

thority (to use a phrase currently in vogue) that this volume by Drs. Brooks and Witten.12 Such

required that medically unattended deaths not an effort would, at the least, result in the recov-

coming to the attention of officers of the court ery of the twenty-one black confirmed dead

be documented with a state death certificate. from their unmarked graves so that they can be







121

more suitably memorialized and, possibly, it would result in the recovery of the bones of the

iden ti fied. If the hy poth e sis turns out to be true, undocumented dead and, thus, help provide a

solution to a lingering mystery.



Endnotes

1

Theoretical indeed, since at this late date the perpetrator most likely would be as dead as his victim and the case,

thereby, moved to a higher (or, possibly, lower) jurisdiction.

2

The geriatric problems of conducting such a trial would be a nightmare. Imagine the complications resulting from

the inter-tangling of iv and catheter tubes of the witnesses and defendant as they traded places on the witness stand!

3

Tulsa World, June 3, 1921.

2

The geriatric problems of conducting such a trial would be a nightmare. Imagine the complications resulting from

the inter-tangling of IV and catheter tubes of the witnesses and defendant as they traded places on the witness stand!

3

Tulsa World, June 3, 1921.

4

Snow, Clyde. 1993 Forensic Anthropology Report. in Anderson, Snow et al. The Anfal Campaign in Iraqi

Kurdistan: The Destruction of Koreme. (Middle East Watch/Physicians for Human Rights, New York and Boston:

1993).

5

At this time, the three or four am bu lances in Tulsa were op er ated by mor tu ar ies and it ap pears that all of them were

fully employed in taking wounded whites to the various hospitals.

6

Warner, personal communication, November 11, 2000.

7

What a excruciatingly cruel fate for a physician to have his death certificate signed by a lawyer!

8

Avery, R. “African-American S.M. Jack son (Mor ti cian) and his wife, Eunice Cloman Jack son on June 26, 1971 ”,

unpublished transcript of taped interview.

9

See the report of Drs. Brooks and Witten elsewhere in this publication.

11

Eddy, loc. cit.

12

Brooks and Witten, loc. cit.









122

(Courtesy De part ment of Spe cial Col lec tions, McFarlin Li brary, Uni ver sity of Tulsa).





The Investigation of Potential Mass Grave Locations

for the Tulsa Race Riot

by Robert L. Brooks and Alan H. Witten

Introduction burned and another 400 looted. The business

On the night of May 31, and June 1, 1921 the district of Greenwood was to tally de stroyed and

City of Tulsa witnessed a racial conflict be - probably accounts for much of the $4 million in

tween whites and the minority black popula- claims filed against the city in 1921.1 Following

tion living in the Greenwood section that was this night of destruction and bloodshed, blacks

unprecedented in United States history during were forcibly interned under armed guard.

the twentieth century. This violence, some- Eventually, over 4,000 blacks were held at the

what erroneously labeled as a riot, was brought fairgrounds and other locations. Under provi-

about by the inflammatory coverage by the sions of the imposed martial law, blacks also

Tulsa Tribune of an alleged rape attempt of a were re quired to carry iden tity or “green cards.”

white girl by a young black male. Tensions had This introduction only serves to broadly por-

been mounting with a number of racial inci- tray the conditions that existed in Tulsa during

dents occurring prior to the night of May 31. the “Race Riot.” Detailed accounting regarding

The economic success of the Greenwood com- the causes of the riot, the progression of events,

munity un doubt edly played a role in fuel ing re- casualties, and property are discussed in other

sentment among the white population and chapters of this report. This study focuses on

further escalating the violence. Through the those who died during the violence, what hap -

night of May 31, and into the morning of June pened to their remains, and our efforts to relo-

1, whites virtually destroyed the Greenwood cate them almost 80 years later.

section. There were an undetermined number Casualties in the Tulsa Race Riot

of deaths, both black and white, with estimates As portrayed in the many studies concerning

rang ing from the of fi cial count of 36 to ap prox- the Tulsa Race Riot, there is no well- documented

imately 300. Over 1,000 residences were





123

evidence for the number of people who died guns and pistols pitted against unarmed victims,

during the violence. Ellsworth notes that the at least not at the beginning.

Department of Health’s Bureau of Vital Statis- Based on these considerations, the mortality

tics estimate was ten whites and 26 blacks, profile would have comparable numbers of

whereas estimates in the Red Cross records deaths among black and white males initially.

were around 300 deaths.2 There were other fig- As white numbers swelled and they successfully

ures in the Tulsa Tribune, in two contradictory made their way into Greenwood, the number of

ar ti cles, of ca su al ties of 68 and/or 175. While an black deaths would increase and also would re-

accurate number of individuals who died during flect increasing numbers of women and children

the violence may not be possible some 80 years in residences. This profiling provides some

later, some perspective can be gained by exam- credibility (although no hard evidence), for ca -

ining the black population of Tulsa and the sualty counts between 175 and 300. If there

Greenwood section and likely mortality profiles were a greater number of victims than reported,

during a conflict of this nature. then the City of Tulsa and the Army National

It is estimated that approximately 11,000 Guard would have to deal with a significant

blacks resided in Tulsa in 1921, most living in health problem. Based on weather records for

the area of the Greenwood section. The black the City of Tulsa on May 31 and June 1, the tem-

population probably represented around ten peratures hovered around 100 degrees. This

percent of the total population of Tulsa. Using would have made it a necessity that victims be

the Bureau of Vital Statistics counts, casualties handled expediently to prevent outbreaks of

among blacks using this statistic would be two disease. One means of dealing with the deaths of

percent of the black population. large numbers of people is through mass graves.

Given the intensity of the conflict and the The following section discusses the plausibility

fact that many of the blacks resisting invasion of mass graves and possible locations.

of their community by whites were armed vet- Mass Graves and the Tulsa Race Riot

erans of World War I, it would not be unrea- There are numerous accounts as to the dispo-

sonable to estimate 150 to 300 deaths. A death sition of the riot victims. There are reports of

toll of 150 is only slightly greater than one per- victims being placed on flat bed rail road cars and

cent of the black population. It is also sus - moved by rail from Tulsa. Other accounts have

pected that the number of whites who died victims being thrown in the Arkansas River or

would exceed the ten individuals cited by the being incinerated. However, the most fre-

Department of Health. Unlike many riots, the quently re ported ver sion is of vic tims be ing bur-

racial conflict in Tulsa on the night of May 31, ied in mass graves. Some of these are oral

initially contained well-armed groups of histories of riot survivors. However, in many

blacks and whites. Later, as blacks were over- other cases they are secondary histories, stories

run by the increasing number of whites invad- that have been handed down through genera-

ing Green wood, they lost the nu mer i cal tions and across kinship lines as well. The diffi-

capability for defending their property and culty here has been distinguishing oral histories

sometimes, their lives. that carry a higher level of credibility where

The historicity of the Tulsa Race Riot must there is some additional thread of evidence, in-

also be factored into the intensity of the vio- formation, or something that makes that partic-

lence. World War I ended three years prior to ular individual’s testimony more believable,

the violence. Thus, there were many blacks as from others of more speculative nature. In sort-

well as white males who re tained re cent ing through the hundreds of taped oral histories,

knowledge of warfare and armed conflict. telephone calls, and written accounts, three lo-

Some of these veterans probably had retained cations were identified that held greater credi-

their rifles from the war. Simply stated, this bility. This was based on the frequency of their

was not a riot of a few individuals with shot - reporting, the veracity of the individuals giving

the account, and the plausibility of the location.







124

Bed frames rise out of the de struc tion in the Green wood dis trict (Cour tesy Oklahoma His tor ical So ci ety).





What is meant by plau si bil ity is whether the lo- water pumping system buildings, numerous

cation would have functioned as a mass grave utility lines, as well as the Parkview drainage

or as a means of disposing of the victims. For channel leading to the Arkansas River. There is

example, the city incinerator was reportedly also a railroad line between the park and the Ar-

used to cremate riot victims. However, accord- kansas River as well as a levee constructed by

ing to Clyde Snow, an internationally known the Corps of Engineers in the 1940s. Thus, the

forensic scientist, this would not have been a landscape is markedly different than that wit -

feasible strategy based on what we know of the nessed by Tulsans in the summer of 1921. There

size of the incinerator and the likely number of have been numerous un ver i fied ac counts of vic-

riot victims. It would have been too time con- tims of the riot being buried in Newblock by

suming and requiring too much engineering whites and/or the National Guard. Accounts of

coordination. The three locations frequently their remains be ing sub se quently un earthed dur-

cited and thought to merit further study were ing the many public works projects taking place

Newblock Park, Oaklawn Cem e tery, and there since the time of the riot have been re-

Booker T. Washington Cemetery. ported. However, no evidence exists in the City

Newblock Park is located adjacent to the of Tulsa’s files documenting a mass grave or hu-

downtown area and the Greenwood section. It man remains being found in Newblock. The nu-

is bounded to the south by the Arkansas River, merous reports of bodies being placed on the

to the east by a residential area and 7th Street, sand bar north of the 11th Street Bridge also fig-

to the north by Charles Page Boulevard, and on ures in the Newblock Park ac count. If vic tims of

the west by more city property (Figure 1). At the riot were to be placed in a mass grave in the

the time of the Tulsa Race Riot, Newblock Newblock Park area, this sand bar of the Arkan-

Park was the location of the city landfill, the sas River adjacent to the park could have served

city incinerator, and a substantial amount of as a staging area for the event.

open land. Because of wooded tree lines, Oaklawn Cemetery is also located in the

much of the area of Newblock may have been downtown area although not adjacent to the

blocked from view. Today, Newblock Park is Greenwood section. It is bounded to the west by

dramatically altered from the way it appeared the Cherokee Expressway (I-444), to the south

in 1921; much of the park is greenspace. How- by 11th Street, and to the east by Peoria, and to

ever, this greenspace hides the remains of old the north by 8th Street (Figure 2). At the time of







125

the riot, Oaklawn functioned as a cemetery, the case of human rights violations in foreign

one that contained plots for people from many countries this has been accomplished through the

different socio-economic lifestyles, including use of informants and mechanical equipment.

white and black paupers. Like much of the However, in the case of the Tulsa Race Riot,

Tulsa landscape, Oaklawn changed signifi- some 80 years later, survivors of the riot’s knowl-

cantly in the following 80 years. The Cherokee edge and memory of the 1920s landscape, com-

Expressway did not exist at the time of the pared to that of today, is questionable. Without

Tulsa Race Riot and undoubtedly claimed the precise knowledge of mass grave locations, the

extreme western portion of the cemetery dur- use of mechanical equipment to search for re -

ing its construction. Reports of victims of the mains is not cost-effective. Thus, archaeological

riot being buried at Oaklawn include individ- examination methods were used to seek mass

ual graves in addition to the mass interment. grave locations in the three site areas.

Currently, there are markers for two blacks Archaeologists frequently examine the land -

who died during the riot in the black section of scape for evidence of prehistoric and early his-

Oaklawn. It is not known whether the place - toric peoples settlements. While evidence of

ment of the headstones for these graves is ac- these settlements may be exposed on the sur -

cu rate or not. As with Newblock Park, burial of face, they are frequently buried by many feet of

the riot victims is attributed to whites. soil de pos its. Thus, ar chae ol o gists have re sorted

The final location that was frequently men- to using a variety of methodological tools to

tioned was Booker T. Washington Cemetery. cost-effectively examine the subsurface. Some

Unlike the other sites, Booker T. Washington of these methods use conventional mechanical

Cemetery is located in south Tulsa at what was equipment such as backhoes and hydraulic cor-

in 1921 a rural outlier of the city. Booker T. ing rigs. These offer the advantage of providing

Washington is bounded to the south by a creek physical evidence of subsurface remains. Their

drainage and sand borrow pit, to the north by disadvantages are that they disturb the ground

South 91st Street, to the west by a Catholic subsurface and are heavy users of time and fi -

Cemetery, and commercial and residential nancial resources. Beginning in the 1940s, ar -

land to the east (Figure 3). At the time of the chaeologists began to explore non-invasive

riot in 1921, there was probably little develop- means of examining the soil subsurface through

ment with most of the area being agricultural application of the principles of physics.3 By

land. The accounts of Booker T. Washington’s sending dif fer ent types of phys i cal im pulses into

use as burial place for riot victims also vary the ground subsurface, archaeologists could

from the other two locations. Ac cord ing to oral measure dif fer ences be tween nat u ral soil for ma-

histories of riot survivors, it was blacks that tions and culturally altered conditions. These

brought victims to Booker T. Washington for contrasts are referred to as anomalies. When

burial. sampling over a large area, the pattern in these

This occurred a few days after the riot sug- anomalies can often be articulated with recog-

gesting that these may have been blacks that nizable shapes (e.g., houses, fireplaces, graves,

were wounded during the riot and died a few etc.). Geophysical applications in archaeology

days after the conflict. were more frequently practiced in Europe from

Archaeological Methods and the Search the 1940s through 1960s, However, following

for Mass Graves the transistor revolution of the 1970s, they be -

Research conducted by Scott Ellsworth and came widely used around the world, particularly

Dick Warner revealed the three locations de - in the United States.4 There are three basic

scribed above as holding the greatest potential methods of geophysics applied in archaeology:

for mass graves within the Tulsa city limits. magnetometer, resitivity, and radar.

The problem then was how to examine the The magnetometer measures changes in mag-

three sites to determine whether they might netic properties between cultural features and

yield evidence of a large communal grave. In natural properties of the soil. These changes or







126

differences are usually due to the presence of Based on the cost-effectiveness of examining

ferrous metal objects although baked clays large areas and the non-invasive nature of the

around burned houses or fireplaces also may m e t h o d s , geo p h y s i c a l ex a m i n a t i o n o f

present a strong magnetic response. Magne- Newblock Park, Oaklawn Cem e tery, and

tometers today are extremely sensitive and can Booker T. Washington Cem e tery ap peared to be

pick-up responses from small objects such as the most reasonable approach to study of this is-

nails or gun parts. Resitivity involves measur- sue. The Commission at their February, 1999

ing the resistance to an electrical current in - meeting ap proved use of geo phys ics to ex am ine

jected into the sub soil. Typically, the for potential mass grave sites.

differences in values yielded by resitivity are a Archaeological Geophysics at the Three

result of variation in ground moisture. These Suspected Mass Grave Locations

changes in ground moisture content are fre-

quently due to collection of moisture around Phase I

cultural features such as houses, walls, and On July 20 and 21, 1998, initial geophysical

privies. The third method applied is ground examination of the three-suspected mass grave

penetrating radar. Here, radar signals are pro- locations was undertaken. David L. Maki and

jected into the ground and are reflected back Geoffrey Jones of Archaeo-Physics conducted

upon encountering an object or natural feature the geophysical investigations. Conditions at the

(much like sonar on ships). The difference in time of the study were extremely hot and dry.

the character of soil between a natural soil se- Temperatures on the two days of fieldwork were

quence and one where some type of cultural 105 and 106 degrees. As discovered later, the ex-

feature is present (e.g., house, trash pit, or tensive heat and drought of the summer of 1998

grave) will variably reflect back to the radar had some bearing on the results of the July work.

unit and present an approximation as to the The following details on Phase I investigations

shape of the anomaly. have been excerpted from Maki and Jones.6

There are obvious benefits to use of geo - Methods

physical methods in archaeological investiga- The search for mass graves at the three loca-

tions. They permit cost-effective subsurface tions was carried out with a pulse EKKO 1000

examination of large areas. In many, areas, the ground penetrating radar unit (GPR). Ground

highly portable nature of to day’s equip ment al- penetrating radar was selected for this initial ex-

lows examination of confined or congested ar- amination because of its successful use in de -

eas (e.g. wooded areas). Most importantly, tecting both prehistoric and historic graves in a

these geo p h y s i c a l a p pli ca tions a r e variety of settings. A noted in Maki and Jones

non-invasive and do not physically disturb the report the GPR unit may locate anomalies

subsurface areas under investigation.5 There through reflections from disturbed soil associ-

are some disadvantages as well. They can re - ated with the grave shaft such as bones, coffins,

spond to nearby surface features and they are grave goods, and breakdown in normal soil con-

sensitive to “noise” in the subsurface and may ditions. Two different frequency antenna’s

present distorted signals. In such cases, infor- were used, 450 MHz and 225 MHz. The higher

mation on anomalies may be misleading or er- frequency antenna was used to obtain better res-

roneous. The other drawback to these methods olution although this frequency also experiences

is that they lack a “ground truth” element. The a loss in the depth of ground penetration. The

actual character of the anomaly can only be antenna utilized was determined by local soil

confirmed by physical examination of the conditions at each locality. Each of the three po-

subsurface though excavation. tential mass grave locations was also sketched

In the spring of 1998, it was recommended and a grid im posed over the area to be ex am ined.

to the Tulsa Race Riot Commission that a Newblock Park

search for mass graves sites be attempted Using information obtained from their oral

through use of geophysical investigations. history re search, Scott Ellsworth and Dick







127

Warner assisted in the selection of the area for the three areas. A 15 meter square (ca. 45 feet)

examination. This area is near the eastern ex- grid was laid-out for Area A and data were sys-

tent of the park immediately adjacent to the tem at i cally col lected at .75 me ter (ca. 30 inches)

Parkview drain age chan nel. Soils at Newblock spacing using a 225 MHz antenna. Area B was a

Park consisted of silt, sand, and clay with rela- grid roughly 25 meters (75 feet) east-west by 7

tively high moisture content. From a baseline meters (21 feet) north-south. Area C was a grid

established for the study area, data were sys - of some 13 meters (40 feet) north-south by 8

tematically collected along transects spaced meters (25 feet) east-west.

some .75 meters (ca. 30 inches) apart using the These two areas were inspected using a

225 MHz antenna. A total of 38 transects of transect interval of one meter and 225 MHz an-

GPR data were collected. Depth of subsurface tenna. Forty-three transects of ground penetrat-

pen e tra tion of the ra dar sig nal was lim ited to .5 ing radar data were col lected. As was the case at

meters to 1.5 meters due to high conductivity Newblock Park, depth of subsurface penetration

soils. In ter pre ta tion of the Newblock Park data by the radar signal was limited due to high con-

was also complicated by reflection from the ductivity soils. There was also a “ringing” re -

numerous building foundations and buried sponse that made signal interpretation difficult.

utility lines, especially the sewer lines. How - Despite these difficulties, 14 anomalies were

ever, one anomalous area of interest was iden- identified at Oaklawn with 13 of these located

tified and is present on Transects 8-11 (Figure within Area A (Figure 5). The remaining anom-

4). Additionally, Transect 10 exhibits sloping aly was found in Area B. Seven of these anoma-

reflections that might represent the walls of a lies occur with burial markers. Thus, these

shallow excavation (or pit). There also was an distinctive reflections probably reflect marked

inverted reflection that potentially reflects a and unmarked single interments. No evidence

buried object of some nature. Investigations was found to suggest the presence of a mass

were inconclusive as to the specific nature of grave in the three areas surveyed at Oaklawn

the reflective pattern. Cemetery. However, this again does not dis-

While one anomaly was revealed during the count the potential for a mass grave site within

work at Newblock Park, this does not discount another, unexamined part of the cemetery.

the potential for other anomalies in areas not Booker T. Washington Cemetery

investigated. With in for ma tion pro vided by Scott

Oaklawn Cemetery Ellsworth and Dick Warner, three areas at

As was the case at Newblock Park, Scott Booker T. Washington Cemetery were selected

Ellsworth and Dick Warner assisted in identi- for GPR study. Soils here differed from those at

fying the areas at Oaklawn to be examined. the other two locations, consisting of a homoge-

Here, the study area was restricted to the black nous sand with relatively low moisture content.

part of the cemetery. Three areas (A, B, and Q Area A was a roughly 40 meter (ca. 120 feet) by

were targeted for GPR survey. Areas A and B 7 meter (21 feet) rectangular segment south of

were square and rectangular plots of land the gravel road. Area B was a 22 meter (ca. 66

within the black section of the “The Old Pot - feet) by 22 meter (66 feet) square north of the

ters Field” of the cemetery near 11th Street. gravel road and roughly 20 meters (60 feet)

Area C was a rectangular plot of land on the north of Area A. Area C contained two separate

west side of Oaklawn near est the Cher o kee Ex- segments. The first was a 40 meter (120 feet) by

pressway. One noteworthy feature of areas A 8 meter (ca. 25 feet) rectangular unit oriented

and B was the presence of recognized single north-south, whereas the second was a smaller

grave areas as marked by headstones. Soils in 18 meter (55 feet) by 3 meter (9 feet) unit ex -

Oaklawn Cemetery are much like those at tending east-west approximately 5 meter (15

Newblock Park, exhibiting a mixture of silt, feet) east of the initial Area C unit. Ground pen-

sand, and clay and a relatively high moisture etrating radar data were systematically collected

content. Baseline grids were established for from the three units using 1 and 2 meter (3 and 6







128

feet) transect spacings. Because of the sandy With this in for ma tion, avoid ance of ar eas with a

nature of the soil, both 225 MHz and 450 MHz high density of utility cables, conduits, etc. was

antennas were used. The 450 MHz antenna accomplished. Ten core samples were drawn

was used in Areas A and B and both antenna from the anomaly. The cores were typically ex-

frequencies were used in the two Area C seg- tended to a depth of 2 meters (6 feet). Material

ments. A total of 40 transects were collected recovered from these samples included brick

from the three areas. One anomaly was identi- frag ments, con crete, bro ken glass and

fied in Area A and was thought to potentially whiteware, and cinders. The de bris ap pears to be

represent an individual grave. A much larger uni formly dis trib uted through out the area of the

anomaly was recorded in the initial unit in anomaly with little stratigraphic integrity. The

Area C (Figure 6). The reflection suggested a artifactual data were suggestive of fill for what

zone of disturbed soil approximately 6.5 me - was apparently the basement or subfloor of a

ters (ca. 20 feet) by 3 meters (9 feet) extending water pump station. The reflective shapex of

to a depth of at least a meter. This anomaly this fea ture as de tected with the ground pen e trat-

was thought to potentially represent a pit such ing radar prob ably represents the slightly

as one might find with a mass grave. slumped subsurface walls of the razed building.

Investigations at Newblock Park, Oaklawn Thus, the anom aly at Newblock Park can be dis-

Cemetery, and Booker T. Washington Ceme- counted as a mass grave site. This does not,

tery did not conclusively demonstrate the pres- however, mean that Newblock Park can be dis-

ence of mass graves. However, anom a lies were counted as holding potential for a mass grave.

found at Newblock Park and Booker T. Wash- Booker T. Washington Cemetery

ington Cemetery that merited further investi- During the study of Newblock Park, the

ga tion. Dur ing the fall of 1998, it was truck-mounted coring rig was damaged and

recommended to the Tulsa Race Riot Com - could not be used to investigate the anomaly in

mission that these anomalies be physically Area C at Booker T. Wash ing ton. The work here

studied to ascertain whether they represented was accomplished using manually operated cor-

mass graves. This request was approved by the ing rods. These rods were capable of probing to

Commission in October, 1998. depths of up to 1 meter (3 feet). Between 10 and

Phase II 15 probes were randomly placed through the

Following approval to study the anomalies anomaly in Area C. No cultural material or evi-

at Booker T. Washington and Newblock Park, dence of graves was obtained during this work.

a methodology was developed to allow us to Soils from the cores were uniform, correspond-

determine the nature of the anomalies without ing to the natural soil stratigraphy, with no evi-

significantly disturbing these features. The dence of a disturbed context. At approximately

plan was to take core samples from each of the 90 cm (35 inches), a sand lens with some clay

anomalies using a three-inch truck-mounted content was encountered. This also marked

bull probe. The three-inch cores would mini- slightly moister soils. Because of the drought

mally disturb the anomalies while providing conditions encountered in July, it appears that

necessary information on the context and con- the radar was reflecting back from this moister

tent of these features. This work was per- clay lens, presenting a pit-like image. The po -

formed with the assistance of Dr. Lee Bement tential single grave in Area A also was investi-

us ing the Ar che o log i cal Sur vey’s truck gated with three core probes. These were

mounted coring rig on December 16, 1998. negative as well. Although there are multiple re-

Newblock Park ports of Race Riot victims being buried at

Because of the potential for buried utility Booker T. Washington, these locations were

lines at Newblock Park, an initial step in the in- not discovered during this work.

vestigation was to obtain from the City of Interpretations

Tulsa a map identifying the placement of lines The December, 1998 investigations con-

in relation to the anomaly to be investigated. ducted at Newblock Park and Booker T. Wash-





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ington Cemetery failed to substantiate the iron fence facing 11th Street. Fourteen head -

anomalies as the sites of mass graves or even stones or footstones are present within the unit.

individual graves. The work did re veal why the The unit, referred to as the Clyde Eddy Area,

ground pen e trat ing ra dar presented these was first examined using a Geometrics 858 ce-

anomalies as pitlike features. This demon- sium magnetometer. North-south transects were

strates the necessity of physically investigat- walked with the magnetometer at 1 meter (3

ing such features before viewing them as valid feet) intervals. Signals were acquired at a rate of

mass grave locations. The first two phases of 5 samples per second. Numerous magnetic

work also address but small portions of the anomalies were identified. Most of these repre-

three potential locations. That other areas sent headstones reinforced with iron rebar or

within Newblock Park, Oaklawn Cemetery, ferrous objects associated with single marked

and Booker T. Washington Cemetery hold interments. However, there was one large mag-

mass grave sites cannot be discounted. netic anomaly at 24.5 west and 3.5 south that

Phase III could not be explained by the presence of the

In the spring of 1999, an eyewitness was single graves (Figure 7). This anomaly extends

found to the dig ging of a mass grave at over an area of some 2 me ters (6 feet)

Oaklawn Cemetery. Mr. Clyde Eddy, who was north-south by 2.6 meters (ca. 8 feet) east-west

a child of ten at the time of the riot, witnessed to a depth of 1 to 1.6 meters (3-5 feet). This was

white laborers at Oaklawn digging a “trench.” a strong ferrous object signal. It could represent

There also were a number of black riot victims a coffin with considerable quantity of ferrous

present in several wooden crates. While Mr. metal hard ware or a fer rous metal ob ject with no

Eddy did not directly see the victims being relation to the cemetery. Because it is doubtful

placed in this trench-like area, it is reasonable that victims of the riot would have been buried

to assume that its purpose was for a mass with sizable amounts of metal or in metal cof -

grave. Mr. Eddy recalls this area being within fins, this feature prob a bly did not re late to burial

the white section of the “Old Potters Field” of the race riot victims.

and was able to point out the area in a visit to The Clyde Eddy Area was subsequently ex -

Oaklawn during the spring, 1999. Based on amined using electromagnetic induction (EMI)

this new in for ma tion, fur ther study of Oaklawn with a GEM-2. The GEM-2 is a broadband in -

Cemetery was approved. Because a specific strument that responds to variations in electrical

area was identified, thus limiting the search conductivity somewhat like a resitivity device.

area, it permitted a more expansive examina- Transects were covered in a manner identical to

tion using geophysical methods. Three differ- that for the magnetometer (1 meter spac ing with

ent geophysical applications were used at 5 sam ples per sec ond). The GEM-2 re ceives sig-

Oaklawn: magnetometer, electromagnetic in - nal variation from both high conductivity ob -

duction, and ground penetrating radar. Dr. jects (metal) as well as non-metallic conductors.

Alan Witten of the Department of Geology and Data acquired with the GEM-2 obtained results

Geophysics, University of Oklahoma con- similar to that of the magnetometer. However,

ducted these investigations at Oaklawn on June in addition to these responses, the GEM-2 also

4, 1999 and subsequently, on November 22, identified an area in the northwestern quadrant

1999. that exhibits a regular shape and could represent

A rectangular grid of 15 meters (45 feet) an area of altered soil electricalconductivity as a

north-south by 50 meters (150 feet) east-west result of past excavation (Figure 8). This was

was established over the area that Mr. Eddy roughly an area some 5 meters (15 feet) square.

iden ti fied. Be cause the lo ca tion was based on a Ground penetrating radar was initially per -

visual history from some 80 years ago, the tar- formed on June 4, in conjunction with the 200

geted area was enlarged by about a factor of MHz an ten nas with a Mala Geosciences

four to ensure complete coverage. This rectan- RAMAC system. Transects of systematically

gular area lies within 4 meters (12 feet) of the collected GPR data for the Clyde Eddy Area re-







130

vealed no reflections of possible cultural ori- Conclusions and Recommendations for

gin. This work, though, was con ducted with out Further Study

the benefit of the results of the magnetometer Between July,1998, and November, 1999,

and EMI data, A second GPR study was con- geophysical investigations were conducted at

ducted on November 22, 1998. three locations thought to potentially represent

GPR data acquisition in this second survey sites of mass graves for victims of the Tulsa

was focused on the two anomalies revealed by Race Riot. Ex am i na tion of se lect ar eas at

the magnetometer and ENR Two grid areas Newblock Park and Booker T. Washington

were established and north-south transects at 1 Cemetery through use of ground penetrating ra-

meter (3 feet) in ter vals were run for the two po- dar failed to reveal any features suggestive of a

tential features. Both 250 and 500 MHz anten- mass grave. As has been reiterated throughout

nas were used in data collection. The 250 MHz this report, the failure to identify a mass grave at

antenna provided no new data; the reflections specified locations does not negate the potential

were basically the same as those obtained on for a mass grave within either Newblock Park

June 4 , 1998. The 500 MHz antenna presented or Booker T. Washington Cemetery. It only

a much different picture. The radar identified documents that such a feature was not present

an anomaly in the same location as that re - within the area examined.

vealed by the GEM-2 unit. Ground penetrating Ini tial study of Oaklawn Ceme tery with

radar data depict a feature measuring approxi- ground penetrating radar revealed a number of

mately 5 meters (15 feet) square, a unit essen- individual internments but no evidence of a

tially the same size as that defined by the mass grave. With an eye wit ness ac count per mit-

GEM-2. The GPR data additionally suggest ting a narrowing of the search window, a second

the presence of an isolated object in roughly examination was conducted at Oaklawn Ceme-

the center of the anomaly and that the feature tery. Through use of electromagnetic induction

has walls that appear to be vertical with and ground penetrating radar, a 5 meter (15

well-defined corners (Figure 9). feet) square anomaly with vertical walls was

Interpretations and Conclusions identified within the area pointed out by the

The third phase of geophysical work at eyewitness as where a trench was dug for bury-

Oaklawn Cemetery resulted in the identifica- ing riot victims. While this evidence is compel-

tion of two subsurface anomalies or features. ling, it cannot be viewed as factual until the

One anomaly represents a highly ferrous feature has been physically examined by exca-

subsurface deposit. This is not believed to be vation to determine if this represents a grave

associated with the Tulsa Race Riot. The other site, and, more importantly, if a grave, whether

anomaly bears all the characteristics of a dug it contains multiple individuals. The situation at

pit or trench with vertical walls and an unde- Oaklawn Cemetery has been further compli-

fined object within the approximate center of cated by cemetery records indicating that an

the feature. Because this anomaly showed up adult white male had been buried there shortly

on both EMI and GPR surveys, it is not be - before the riot and two white children were bur-

lieved to be a false signal. The vertical walls ied within the boundaries of this feature follow-

also support an argument for this being some i n g t h e r i o t . T h i s i n for ma tion s e e m s

sort of dug feature. Without the presence of an contradictory to the presence of a mass grave at

eyewitness, this would just represent another this location.

“anomaly” to be examined. However, with There are a number of recommendations that

Mr. Eddy’s testimony, this trench-like feature should be considered. They are enumerated as

takes on the properties of a mass grave. It can follows:

be argued that the geophysical study, com- 1 . Oral history and ar chi val work should con-

bined with the account of Mr. Eddy, are com- tinue the search for more specific data on areas

pel ling ar gu ments for this fea ture be ing within Newblock Park and Booker T. Washing-

considered a mass grave. ton Cemetery. Other locations that have some







131

credibility should also be reexamined (if mer- a north west-southeast di rec tion) to ef fect the re-

ited). flection of the signal. Other options would be

2. Continued examination of records at the use of different antenna and changing the

Oaklawn Cemetery to resolve the somewhat signal rate.

paradoxical issue of a mass grave where other 4. At the discretion of commissions govern-

non Race Riot related people were reportedly ing the Race Riot investigation, the City of

buried. Tulsa, and the Greenwood community limited

3. Further examination of the potential mass physical investigation of the feature be under-

grave feature at Oaklawn with geophysical ap- taken to clarify whether it indeed represents a

plications. This would involve changing the mass grave. This is not a recommendation to ex-

angle of orientation used in the transects (e.g., hume any remains but to clarify the nature of

this anomaly.

Endnotes

1

Ellsworth, Scott, 1982. Death in a Prom ised Land: Yhe Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. (Lou i si ana State Uni ver sity Press,

Baton Rouge: 1982).

2

Ibid., p. 70.

3

Aikens, M. J., Physics and Archaeology. (Claredon Press, London and New York: 1961).

4

Wynn, J. C., “Archaeological Prospection: An Introduction to the Special Issue. Special Issue: “Geophysics in

Archaeology,” Geophysics 51(3), 1986.

5

Heimmer, D. H., Near-Surface, High Resolution Geophysical Methods for Cultural Resource Management and

Archaeological Investigations. (National Park Service, U.S. Government Printing Services, Denver: 1992).

6

Maki, D. and G. Jones, “Search for Graves from the Tulsa Race Riot Using Ground Penetrating Radar.”

Archaeo-Physics, Report of Investigations Number 5, 1998.









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