Historical Links about the Tulsa Massacre (The Harlequin)

These links and video are centered around the Tulsa Massacre that occurred in the summer of 1921. The history of this event is the backdrop of the creation of the fictional town, New Tulsa, in the novella The Harlequin. Though the Tulsa Massacre is not the main focus of the work, The Harlequin, it is indeed noted.

Here is a couple pages about Tulsa from the National Museum of African American History & Culture (NMAAHC). The links doesn’t show gory (most of the links do not), but they do show historical imagery and facts:

Remembering Tulsa

Objects and Testimonies from the Tulsa Massacre

Below is a video that is on the Testimonies page

 

Here is the hearing held by the congressional House committee near the centennial anniversary of the massacre, held May 19, 2021. No gory images, just personal lived accounts & experiences of the Tulsa massacre and the effects of it being buried and ignored throughout history, as well as being misclassified as a “riot” and not a massacre.

 

Here’s also a page from Tulsa City – County Library. Nothing gory, just facts and historical accounts.

1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

Here’s also a video of the survivors interviewed, also provided by the library. There are some pictures of deaths depicted in this half-hour long film.

 

Here is a digital exhibit from Tulsa History (tulsahistory.org) about the massacre. It is mostly text but there are audio interviews with survivors and digitized documents from the massacre.

1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

They also touch on why it is now called a “massacre” and not a “riot”, emphasis mine:

In recent years there has been ongoing discussion about what to call the event that happened in 1921. Historically, it has been called the Tulsa Race Riot. Some say it was given that name at the time for insurance purposes. Designating it a riot prevented insurance companies from having to pay benefits to the people of Greenwood whose homes and businesses were destroyed. It also was common at the time for any large-scale clash between different racial or ethnic groups to be categorized a race riot.

…

Definition of RIOT: a tumultuous disturbance of the public peace by three or more persons assembled together and acting with common intent. Definition of MASSACRE: the act or an instance of killing a number of usually helpless or unresisting human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty.

There is also a write up from the Oklahoma Historical Society, which includes historical pictures (the ones pictured on the write up are not gory) of the massacre and the aftermath.

Tulsa Race Massacre

Thank you for reading and learning.