Standpipe HIll

"Even though it was after 10:00 P.M. when the riot broke out, news of the fighting spread quickly—and unevenly—across Tulsa. In the city’s African American neighborhoods, word of what had happened at the courthouse was followed by even more disturbing news. A light-skinned black man, who could “pass” for white, had mingled with some white rioters downtown. There, he overheard talk of attacking black neighborhoods. Returning home, he told what he had heard to Seymour Williams, a teacher at Booker T. Washington High School, who began spreading the word among his neighbors on Standpipe Hill. But along the southernmost edge of the black community, the oncoming gunfire had already confirmed that far more than a lynching was underway. While many black men and women began taking steps to protect their homes and businesses, others sat tight, hoping that daybreak would bring an end to the violence. A few others began to leave town. Some, like Billy Hudson, a laborer who lived with his family on Archer Street, were killed as they fled Tulsa." Hill, K 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre (pg 266)

"June 1, 1921 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.

As the wave of white rioters descended upon black Tulsa, a deadly pattern soon took shape. First, the armed whites broke into African American homes and businesses, forcing the occupants into the street, where, at gunpoint, they were marched off to Convention Hall. Anyone who resisted was shot, as were, it appears, men in homes where firearms were discovered. Next, the whites looted the homes, pocketing small valuables, and hauling away larger items on foot. Finally, the rioters set the homes on fire, using torches and oil-soaked rags. House by house, block by block, the wall of destruction moved northward. Some of the fires, it seems, were set by whites in uniform. Eyewitnesses later reported that white men clad in World War I army uniforms—probably members of the “Home Guard,” a loosely organized group of white veterans—were observed setting fires in Deep Greenwood. Others claimed that some Tulsa police officers set fire to black businesses along Archer. African Americans fought back. Black riflemen positioned themselves in the belfry of the newly completed Mount Zion Baptist Church, whose commanding view of the area below Standpipe Hill allowed them to temporarily stem the tide of the white invasion. But when whites set up a machine gun—perhaps the same weapon that was used at the granary—and riddled the church tower with its devastating fire, the black defenders were overwhelmed. Mount Zion was later torched. Black attempts to defend their homes and businesses were undercut by the actions of both the Tulsa police and the local National Guard units, who, rather than disarming and arresting the white rioters, instead began imprisoning black citizens. Guardsmen on Standpipe Hill made at least one eastward march early on the morning of June 1, rounding up African American civilians, before being fired upon off Greenwood Avenue. The guardsmen then returned to Sunset Hill, where they turned over the imprisoned black Tulsans to police officers. White civilians also took black prisoners, sometimes with murderous results. At about 8:00 A.M., Dr. A. C. Jackson, a nationally renowned African American surgeon, surrendered to a group of young white males at his home at 523 N. Detroit. “Here I am, I want to go with you,” he said, holding his hands above his head. But before he stepped off his front lawn, two of the men opened fire, killing him. Others went less quietly. A deadly firefight erupted at the site of an old clay pit off of Standpipe Hill, where several black defenders went to their deaths fighting. Stories have also been handed down over the years about Peg Leg Taylor, who is said to have singlehandedly fought off more than a dozen white invaders. And along the northern edge of Sunset Hill, the white guardsmen briefly found themselves under attack. Black Tulsa was not going [down] without a fight." (pg 268)