Tulsa Riot of 1921

Tulsa Riot of 1921

Introduction and Background

After reviewing relevant literature on riots and outlining the approach, it apply the model to a case study of the 1921 Tulsa race riot. Through the analysis of historical documents, newspapers and narratives, The paper argue that the groups involved in the Tulsa riot held conflicting ideologies that both shaped, and influenced by, their own surrounding social structures, environments, and lived experiences . This research helps bridge the gap between triggering events and conducive structural conditions by highlighting the processes by which opposing groups draw upon their own competing sets of “racial frames” to legitimate participation.

The Tulsa riot began on May 31 following the arrest of an African American male who accused of assaulting a white woman. Numerous rumors circulated regarding the details of arrest. A front page news article sensationalized the story and led to thousands of white citizens gathering at the local courthouse. In addition, rumors of lynching the inmate permeated the city. Following the arrest, a group of armed African Americans arrived on the scene, to protect the prisoner and, after a heated confrontation with the white crowd, a shot fired. Preliminary skirmishes ensued, and African Americans retreated back to their district of Greenwood. Angry whites followed, brandishing guns and ammunition that they had stolen from local stores along the way.

Guns also provided to whites by local law enforcement officials. A full-fledged riot ensued, with local police officers and national guardsmen siding with whites in a battle against African American residents. The entire thirty-five city block community of Greenwood, including homes and businesses, burned to the ground. The total number of deaths resulting from the riot remains unknown. During and after the riot, African Americans arrested and placed into detention camps where some remained for months. Nearly eighty years later, African American survivors of the riot have yet to receive monetary reparations for the complete destruction of their community.

Theoretical Explanations of Race Riots

The earliest research on collective behavior attributed the cause of riots to the collectively-formed, crazed minds of participants. Theorists such as LeBon and Park argued that rationality and normative behavior essentially break down during periods of social unrest. In such cases, it believed that illogical crowd behavior became contagious, reducing the crowd to the most violent, least intelligent member. These early perspectives discredited in the academic literature, thus paving the way for more practical approaches to the study of riots.7 Turner and Killian extended the literature by arguing that riots could be explained through the examination of “emergent norms,” which emphasized the formation of new, temporary norms that replaced pre-existing guidelines for conventional behavior. Locher summarizes the emergent-norm perspective with four points:

People can engage in riotous behavior when confronted with an ambiguous situation;

In such a setting, people look to others around them for behavioral guidance;

These actors observe few negative consequences of others' behavior; and

They adopt developing group norms in the same way they would be in conventional ...