Looking Back at a Shameful Moment in American HistoryBy Ismail
MuhammadSentinel InternIt began in the early evening of May 31,
1921. Rumors floated around Greenwood, an African-American
enclave of Tulsa, Oklahoma: a nineteen year-old Dick Rowland was
going to be lynched because he allegedly assailed a young White
girl, Sarah Page, earlier in the day. Determined to prevent
another lynching of a Black man--they were all too common in
those days, and someone had been lynched just the previous month
--Greenwood residents gathered at the County Courthouse to stand
vigil. They found a mob of angry Tulsa residents, and the
mixture of two groups created a potentially explosive situation.
Soon, both sides were armed, and the stage was set for one of
the worst instances of civil unrest since the Civil
War.According to court documents obtained by the L.A. Sentinel
with the help of Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree, the
riot was set off when a White resident attempted to disarm a
Black resident. The gun went off, pro