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"Death In A Promised Land"
 By SCOTT ELLSWORTH
Part of the black business district

      You may ask: If the stated purpose of this Web site is to honor overlooked people and statements, then why did I include a page about a race riot? One reason is that knowing the truth sets us free, and a variety of white people in Oklahoma have tried to bury this particular truth. We can't eradicate racism in this nation until we recognize how violent it becomes when tolerated.
      Remember this incident the next time someone tries to suggest that racism isn't a serious concern. Remember also that racists find an outlet for general brutality when they target people with different skin color. If racists get their way and eradicate all persons of color, they'll eventually come looking for someone else. Maybe they won't like the color of your eyes?
      Concealment of American history takes place every day. The fact that this book will shock many is only one example of how few people know the full story of race relations in the United States. "Death In A Promised Land" chronicles the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, in which whites, jealous of the business and cultural success of north-Tulsa blacks, were sparked into a bloody rampage by an article* in the May 31, 1921, Tulsa Tribune.

Whites, nonchalant as Tulsa businesses burn and innocents die

      Tension had apparently been simmering for years. White bigots could barely tolerate seeing their malicious lies about "lazy blacks" being neutralized as black business prospered in the Greenwood and Vine area. One of those bigots was Tulsa Tribune newspaper editor Richard Lloyd Jones, who published an inflammatory front-page article about the arrest of a local black man accused of attacking a white woman. It was only hours after the paper was delivered that the mob swung into action.
      White racists even dropped dynamite from private airplanes. This use of explosives by right-wingers attacking Americans took place 74 years before the federal building bombing in Oklahoma City. About 100 blacks were killed. About 100 white aggressors were also killed. Among their many atrocities, the white mob murdered prominent black physician A.C. Jackson, a nationally respected surgeon.

Looking toward "Deep Greenwood"