The Tulsa Race Riot Commission, formed two years ago to determine exactly what happened, will consider next week the Controversial Issue of what, if any, Reparations should be paid to the Known Survivors of the Riot, a group of less than 100 that includes Beulah Smith, now 92, and Kenny Booker, 86.
'The Gun Went Off, the Riot Was On'
On the Night of May 31,1921, mobs called for the lynching of Dick Rowland, A Black Man who shined shoes, after hearing reports that on the previous day he had assaulted Sarah Page, A white woman, in the elevator she operated in a downtown building.
A Local Newspaper, had printed a Fabricated Story that Rowland tried to Rape Page. In An Editorial, the same newspaper said a Hanging was planned for that night. As groups of both Blacks and Whites converged on the Tulsa Courthouse, a White Man in the crowd confronted an armed Black Man, A War Veteran, who had joined with other Blacks to protect Rowland.
A Fabricated Newspaper Story Triggered The Violent Riots that left Hundreds, if not Thousands, Dead.
Comm. Member Eddie Faye Gates told CNN what happened next.
"This White Man," she said, asked The Black Man, "What are you doing with this gun?" "I'm going to use it if I have to," the Black Man said, according to Gates, and the White Man said, 'No, you're not. Give it to me,' and he tried to take it. The gun went off, the White Man was Dead, The Riot Was On."
Truckloads of Whites Set Fires and Shot Blacks on sight. When the smoke lifted the next day, more than 1,400 homes and businesses in Tulsa 's Greenwood District, a prosperous area known as the "Black Wall Street," lay in ruins. Today, only a single block of the Original Buildings remains standing in the area. Experts now estimate that at least 3,000, died.
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