the police did an investigation and the next day they went to dick roland and they detained him before moving him to the tulsa courthouse to be able to be confined. on may 31, 1921, the tulsa tribune released a sensationalist story claiming that a young black man had attacked a white girl in an elevator in the drexel building. that story and a long, simmering tensions in the city led to a large group of white individuals surrounding the courthouse to demand that dick roland be released so he could be lynched. a group of black men traveled to the courthouse to help defend him from the angry mob, many veterans from world war i who had served honorably there. after a scuffle at the downtown courthouse, white rioters pursued the men back to the greenwood district and the violence escalated dramatically. literally as the violence increased, white rioters that really became a mob were deputized to be able to go down and handle the issues in greenwood. they gathered firearms as they ran the few blocks from central downtown tulsa into greenwood just north of tulsa. houses and businesses were b

sarah page and dick roland were lovers.was accused of attacking her, and sarah, from what we understand tried to tell them, no, no, no. we're in love, we're getting married. >> she refused to cooperate with prosecutors and they charged him with assault. though that may have been the end of the story, it wasn't because of the tulsa tribune. it had a story "nab negro for attacking girl in elevator." a group of white men amassed on the lawn of the courthouse. numbering ultimately in the thousands. a number of black men, several dozen, some of them world war i veterans, marched down to the courthouse, vowing to protect dick roland from what they thought might be a certain death by lynching. >> he heard that they were trying to lynch a black boy down there at the courthouse. >> a white man tried to take a black man's gun, and in the words of survivors of the massacre, all hell broke loose after that. >> in less than 24 hours, that mob turned 45 square blocks of unparalleled black prosperity into smoldering ashes. >> we saw comin

on the morning of may 30, 1921, a young black man named dick roland was riding in the elevator in the drexel building at third and main with a white woman named sara page. the details of what happened vary from person to person. accounts of an incident circulated among the city's white community during the day and became more exaggerated with each telling. tulsa police arrested roland the following day and began an investigation. an inflammatory report in the may 31 edition of "the tulsa tribune" spurred a confrontation between black and white armed citizens around the courthouse where the sheriff and his men had barricaded the top floor to protect roland. shots were fired and the outnumbered african-americans began retreating to the greenwood district. in the early morning hours of june 1, 1921, greenwood was looted and burned by white rioters as they are called. governor robertson declared martial law and national guard troops arrived in tulsa. guardsmen assisted firemen in putting out fires, took african-americans out of the hands of vigilanties, and imprisoned, locked them up, all

dick roland was 19. sarah page was 17. they met on an elevator. a newspaper called the tulsa tribune. it really fomented hostility in the white community with respect to the black community. and that really is the origin story of what is known as the 1921 tulsa race massacre. >> as i was coming to you, we talked about the commission established in 1997, this investigation. the commission was charged in finding out the names of folks that died, the numbers of people that died, and so much more. and yet we still don't have any of those answers. where are we in efforts to find out who died, how many died, and where they are? >> some of those answers we probably never will have. one of the lingering questions with respect to the massacre has been whether there are mass graves in tulsa. there's a mass graves investigation process under way currently. we believe that somewhere between 100 and 300 people were killed, most of them black. there have been persistent stories, oral histories and eyewitness accounts of bodies being summarily buried in mass gra

on the morning of may 30, 1921, a young black man named dick roland was riding in the elevator in the drexel building at third and main with a white woman named sara page. the details of what happened vary from person to person. accounts of an incident circulated among the city's white community during the day and became more exaggerated with each telling. tulsa police arrested roland the following day and began an investigation. an inflammatory report in the may 31 edition of "the tulsa tribune" spurred a confrontation between black and white armed citizens around the courthouse where the sheriff and his men had barricaded the top floor to protect roland. shots were fired and the outnumbered african-americans began retreating to the greenwood district. in the early morning hours of june 1, 1921, greenwood was looted and burned by white rioters as they are called. governor robertson declared martial law and national guard troops arrived in tulsa. guardsmen assisted firemen in putting out fires, took african-americans out of the hands of vigilanties, and imprisoned, locked them up, all

so we believe the dick roland, sarah page story were an excuse.d california and other places and people were taken into internment camps. and i believe some of the people that stayed here feared it would happen again, so it wasn't talked about in the black community and it wasn't talked about in the white community. >> president biden will be visiting tulsa tomorrow. what do you want to hear from him? >> well, i just think that this is sacred ground. this is a sacred moment. i'm just hoping not just the president but people here in our city and our state, we come together to not just commemorate this moment, which is very important, but there are some other issues that need to be addressed to -- to make our community whole again. we lost a lot and so i think that the dialogue with the the state, and federal government needs to be significant, it needs to happen now, and i think that the fact that the president came here says that he, at the federal level acknowledges is. and i think we need to do that at every level and start not just healing, but

ran out of the elevator. >> reporter: a white store clerk who heard her scream told police that dick rolanded her. they arrested him the next day. >> the "tribune" published an article entitled "nab negro for attacking girl in an elevator." the piece had its desired impact in that it riled up white men in south tulsa. >> reporter: the word across town was that they were going to lynch this man. at the courthouse, the white men with guns were soon met by a much smaller group of black men with guns. then someone's gun went off. before it was all over, the racists would loot and burn black wall street. >> all i could see was black rolling smoke down south, and the people going north. that was the whole breadth of the railroad track. >> reporter: the law, they never held anyone responsible for killing as many as 300 black americans. these painful images of burned black bodies were turned into postcards and were shared by white families. this one celebrates, quote, running the negro out of tulsa. 30 blocks of black homes and black excellence were burned to the ground in just 16 hours. what's eve

the police did an investigation and the next day they went to dick roland and they detained him before moving him to the tulsa courthouse to be able to be confined. on may 31, 1921, the tulsa tribune released a sensationalist story claiming that a young black man had attacked a white girl in an elevator in the drexel building. that story and a long, simmering tensions in the city led to a large group of white individuals surrounding the courthouse to demand that dick roland be released so he could be lynched. a group of black men traveled to the courthouse to help defend him from the angry mob, many veterans from world war i who had served honorably there. after a scuffle at the downtown courthouse, white rioters pursued the men back to the greenwood district and the violence escalated dramatically. literally as the violence increased, white rioters that really became a mob were deputized to be able to go down and handle the issues in greenwood. they gathered firearms as they ran the few blocks from central downtown tulsa into greenwood just north of tulsa. houses and businesses were b

it was sparked by an interaction between a young black man, dick roland, and a young white woman sarah page. she was operating an elevator when roland stepped inside an incident, allegedly to place now local newspaper published a sensation lives report, alleging he assaulted her. roland was arrested, leading to an angry confrontation on the streets between black and white mobs. the out number african americans retreated to greenwood district, which was looted and burned by white rioters. national guard troops arrived to help put out the fires, but they also imprisoned. many flank residence, 24 hour episode of violence, left dozens of city blocks ruined and as many as 300 people dead. well, joining us from silver spring, maryland is a joe. i a total, she's a professor, america at the university of arkansas, little rock. she's also the chief legal consultant for the national coalition of black for reparations in america. good to have you with us. so clearly this incident was, was not just about simple interaction between a black man and a white woman operating an elevator. right. it's cl

office building in downtown tulsa between a 19-year-old shoe shiner who's african-american named dick rolanduse where roland was jailed. >> the hours go by the lynch mob is 100, 200, 500, 800 people going. >> reporter: word gets to greenwood and a group of black world war i veterans show up to help the sheriff defend roland they're turned away. >> as they're leaving, an elderly white man went up to a tall black vet and said where are you going with that gun? a tussle ensues, a shot goes off and the massacre begins. >> reporter: the veterans retreat to greenwood with the mob in pursuit gun battles erupt, but somehow whistle that goes off, and at that point this white mob starts walking towards greenwood. >> reporter: eldoris and her family flee running north up a set of railroad tracks >> the crowd was just the whole breadth of the railroad track, on the side and down the middle. >> reporter: the residents of greenwood try to defend their neighborhood, but they don't have a chance. the national guard sprays the residents with machine gunfire, and it gets worse. >> you have something new up in