6th and Main -Confrontation and The Beginnings of a Massacre

"A little after 10:00 p.m., when a rumor began to circulate that the white mob was storming the courthouse, a second contingent of armed African American men, perhaps seventy-five in number, set out for downtown by automobile. Near Sixth and Main, the men got out of their cars and marched single file to the courthouse. As before, they offered their services to the authorities to help protect Dick Rowland. Once again, their offer was refused. And then it happened. As the black men were leaving, a white man attempted to forcibly disarm a tall African American World War I veteran. A struggle ensued, and a shot rang out. America’s worst race riot had begun. Although the first shot fired at the courthouse was perhaps unintentional, those that followed were not. Almost immediately, members of the white mob—and possibly some law enforcement officers— opened fire on this second contingent of African American men, who returned volleys of their own. The initial gunplay lasted only a few seconds, but when it was over, more than twenty people, both blacks and whites, lay dead or wounded. Outnumbered more than twenty to one, the black men quickly began retreating toward the African American district. With armed whites in close pursuit, heavy gunfire erupted along Fourth Street. A second—and deadlier—skirmish broke out at Second and Cincinnati, before the black men, their numbers seriously reduced, were able to head north across the Frisco tracks. No longer directly involved with the fate of Dick Rowland, the men were now fighting for their own lives. Meanwhile, at the courthouse, the sudden and unexpected turn of events had an electrifying effect, as groups of angry, vengeance-seeking whites took to the streets and sidewalks of downtown. At Police Headquarters on Second Street, nearly five hundred white men and boys— many of whom, only minutes earlier, had been members of the lynch mob—were sworn in as “Special Deputies.” According to Laurel G. Buck, a white bricklayer who was sworn in, the police instructed the new recruits to “Get a gun, and get a nigger.” Hill, K 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre (pg 263)