Murder In The Streets

A White Choctaw Witness To The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

William C Phillips

• Publisher: Eakin Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781681792538
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre occurred over two days, May 30 and June 1, 1921, when a white mob destroyed the African American section of Tulsa, Okla., known as the Greenwood District. As a result, more than 1, 250 homes and businesses were destroyed, thirty-five square blocks of Tulsa leveled, and hundreds of innocent people were injured or dead.

There have been numerous book and news articles written about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, but most of the first-person accounts were given by African Americans. However, William C. "Choc" Phillips was part white and part Native American and an eyewitness to one of the most violent episodes in the history of the United States.

A teenager and high school student at the time of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, Phillips was present when the violence ignited in front of the Tulsa Courthouse and throughout the destruction that followed.

Phillips and a group of high school friends traveled the streets of Tulsa during the night of May 30 and the day on June 1. At times they were trying to get a better view of what was happening and at times trying to escape the lawlessness. They saw people murdered, buildings torched, and people treated as less than human.

The incident left a lasting impression on Phillips, and over the years, he researched and wrote his account of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. He read most of the news accounts of the time and, in later years, interviewed other eyewitnesses of the devastation. Phillips attempted to make sense of what had happened and give a balanced report of the event.

Phillips was never able to get his manuscript published when it was completed in the 1980s. Despite the death and destruction, after the passing of sixty years, the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre was not a well-known event on a national level. It was as if people wanted to pretend the violence never happened or, at the very least, forget about it.

In 2021 Greenwood Rising opened in Tulsa to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and, more importantly, to educate the public. Officials with Greenwood Rising thought William C. "Choc" Phillips' account was important enough to create a display that showcases the original manuscript and the typewriter that produced it.

Chapter One

When conflagration rages out of control, and dozens of men are dead or dying with their blood forming rivulets in the streets and alleys, there should be no doubt about the reason for each death. A bullet from a rifle or pistol, or a blast from a shotgun was the actual cause of each death, but the reason for the shots being fired, and who was responsible, had to be determined by the grand jury. Killing without reason is murder.

Through the eyes of this writer, it will be possible for the reader to see the killings that were so senseless that they were unbelievable. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago, by comparison, seems as tame as a shootout between blind men on a picnic. At least there were no innocent people involved in the Chicago murders. Those deaths were simply a climax to a gang war between two groups of hoodlums.

The killings in Tulsa, Okla., numbered approximately one hundred,² with several hundred wounded. Some so severely that they never completely recovered. Probably half of them were innocent bystanders. People who just happened to be at a place where irresponsible members of society ran amuck. With such a large number of dead and wounded, and property loss of more than two million dollars (by the values of today, about eight million)³ it would seem that the reason for this all should be understood by everyone.

But it was not that simple. With some manipulation and agitation, an incident grew until it turned into a holocaust of fire and death.

One incident can be used by a careless, ignorant or vicious person to create another. That was the situation that brought the great explosion to its point of eruption. Rabble-rousers used one incident to create another, then used the two incidents to create a third et cetera. These tactics turned several incidents into one big event. Tied together like links in a chain conditions developed until a group of seemingly decent people changed into a raging mob of wanton killers.

Working hard, the agitators heated people up to such a feverish pitch that they didn’t stop to think of the difference between an excuse and a reason. Actions of one group were met by counteractions by another until both sides turned into killers. Within a few hours, these tactics developed an extremely violent, rioting mob of fifteen to twenty thousand angry people.

This was certainly one of the most horrible manmade calamities that ever occurred in this nation. A city turned into ashes, and nine thousand people made homeless. The mob’s lust for killing was satiated also, the dead and dying were everywhere. The rioting and burning mob rushed in and scattered over the Negro section of Tulsa like locusts attacking a field of grain, only it was more destructive. No tornado, earthquake, or other phenomena of nature ever destroyed a city in the USA so completely.

What could cause people to do such terrible things as to riot, kill, and burn? The causes are complex; agitators promote trouble because they are paid to, because they hate, or those who feel inferior like to talk big. And if aroused, the pioneering, frontier sort of people can become violent.

“Boomtown,” sprang up over night during the days of the oil gushers in the southwestern section of the United States, and the largest and wildest “Boomer” of all was Tulsa. In late 1910, the population was around eighteen thousand and it was the largest town in that part of the state. A frontier sort of place in the heart of what was known as the Indian Nations Country. Composed mostly of the hardy pioneering sort of people, Tulsa had already known excitement, but nothing like that which came with the oil boom.

When it was learned that Tulsa was sitting on top of a huge oil field, the boom was on, and people came pouring in from everywhere. As the largest town in the vicinity, it became the center of the oil business and adapted itself almost completely to supplying the various needs of the oil and gas producers. Geologists, drillers, tool-dressers, pipe liners, teamsters, roustabouts, or rough-necks, as the laborers in the oil fields were called, came flocking into Tulsa in such numbers that it was difficult to find even standing room on the trains.

The supply and equipment companies brought more hundreds of people in as fast as they could find space to open their businesses. With the oil companies and the supply people scrambling for store and office space, and the town growing faster than houses and buildings could be built, work continued night and day, Shifts of oil field workers continued drilling oil wells around the clock, and carpenters, plumbers, painters, bricklayers, and electricians were replaced by another shift which worked at night on the store and office buildings. Bright floodlights were spotted around working areas permitting work to continue without interruption.

People stood in lines waiting for others to finish eating in cafes, restaurants, and hotel dining rooms. Barbershops gave numbered cards to their customers as they entered the shops, and they waited to be called for shaves and haircuts. Open night and day, they still seemed to always have waiting customers. Tulsa had become a booming metropolis overnight.

Along with the oil men and their workers, came the gamblers, the shady ladies of every size, shape, and color, and their pimps. Living space simply could not be built fast enough. Many hotels rented their rooms in shifts. Rooms were rented from six a.m. until six p.m. to a person that worked during the night, then from six in the evening until six in the morning to someone that worked days.

By 1915, the town was completely surrounded by oil wells. The population had climbed to sixty-five thousand and the oil fields had expanded from Tulsa County, into Creek, and Osage counties, making the Osages the wealthiest Indian tribe in the USA. The oil wells that lined both banks of the Arkansas River which runs through Tulsa, gushed thousands of barrels of oil each day.

The first oil strike was made a few miles south of town, and within five years it was found to be not only beneath the town itself but in every direction from the new “Oil Capitol.” The great Cushing Field which included Drumright, and Oilton, all owned by Tulsa based companies, flowed millions of barrels of oil and poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Tulsa, also made the three smaller boomtowns wealthy. And while the Cushing Field, a few miles west of Tulsa was pouring forth “Black Gold,” new strikes were being made north of town in the Osage Indian Nation.

New oil strikes were made a hundred miles southwest of Tulsa also. Then new boomtowns sprang up in the oil fields and grew from a few oil company workers into towns of five or ten thousand people within a year. Tulsa was the hub of the wheel, with spokes coming in from all directions. Equipment and supplies flowed out along these spokes to every new oil well that was drilled.

By 1921, with a population approaching ninety thousand, Tulsa officially became the “Oil Capitol” of the world. Deluxe hotels and office buildings with marble lobbies, were a part of the new scene. Large department stores and cosmopolitan type dress shops, catered to the “gals” and wives of the oil millionaires.

The famous Hotel Tulsa was filled to capacity the moment it opened for business. There is not a thing that can be said about this well-known hostelry, that would be an exaggeration. Before enough space in the new office building was available for all of the oil men, many conducted their business while sitting in the beautiful lobby of the hotel. Or they walked up the great white and gray marble steps to the mezzanine floor and sat in the large luxurious, sofas and chairs while they traded, bought, or sold, oil leases worth millions.

The writer now owns and lives on a small ranch thirty miles from Tulsa where Harry Sinclair made a rather large oil strike in 1918. A considerable amount of oil was produced from the 160-acre lease for several oil companies who bought and sold the place over the years. Many of the great oil and gas companies had their beginning in Tulsa. The Phillips 66 Company is one of those which grew to maturity on Oklahoma oil. Both of the Phillips brothers, Frank and Waite, were active in those early boomtown days in Oklahoma. Josh Cosden founded the Cosden Oil and Refining Company, which is today, the DX Company.

There had been at least a couple of dozen wealthy oil men that contributed greatly to Tulsa’s growth and prosperity. Few donors in this nation have been in the class of Waite Phillips, He gave an almost new twenty-story office building that cost millions of dollars, to the Boy Scouts Of America. To make certain that there would always be room for outings and a place for boys to roam, he donated a large ranch worth more millions to the scouts. To the city Of Tulsa, he gave his home, a huge mansion with acres of beautiful grounds, and an art collection worth several million. The Philbrook Art Center is one of the great art museums in the Southwest. The Philbrook Art Center, Philtower Building, and the ranch combined probably have a value of forty million dollars. Quite a donation, wouldn’t you say?

Thomas Gilcrease, who was part Indian, spent a large oil fortune on western paintings, rare documents, and artifacts. Every painting by a top Indian artist that could be bought, regardless of cost, was added to the Gilcrease collection. A building was erected on some very valuable acreage in beautiful rolling hills of Osage County on the northern edge of the city limits, then Thomas Gilcrease gave acreage, buildings, and millions of dollars’ worth of painting and art objects to the city of Tulsa. The Gilcrease Museum Of Art And Natural History is the greatest collection of Indian and western art in the world.

Tulsa University’s Skelly Stadium is named for William Skelly, of Skelly Oil Company. A civic leader and donor of great value to Tulsa. The LaFortune family gave the city some extremely valuable land for a fine park and 18-hole golf course. And Tulsa University would not be the fine, beautiful institution that it is if the John Mabee family had not donated money for entire buildings on its campus. Also, the Oliphants are another family to whom Tulsa University owes many thanks.

There have been many more, but I have named only enough of the oil-wealthy people to show that there have been some real builders in Tulsa as well as those who put forth such a great effort to destroy an entire section of the city. Much like a person with a split personality, both good and bad, Tulsa had some of the finest builders and some of the worst destroyers ever seen in this nation. As proof that those who build are in greater numbers than those who destroy, Tulsa has grown and prospered. The booster spirit which began during the boomtown days caused the one-time prairie village to grow into one of America’s most beautiful and modern cities with a population fast approaching half a million people. It has been said that those who know Tulsa well, never quite get over the love affair with her, and this I believe.

With so much going for it, I believe Tulsa was a happy town. It had booming prosperity with jobs for everyone. Signs in the windows of all barbershops, restaurants, grocery stores, and other businesses saying, “Help Wanted,” and building contractors walking the streets asking men along the sidewalk if they knew any craftsmen in the building trades who wanted to work. The oil men were always hunting for drillers, tool-dressers, and other oilfield workers to start drilling new wells. Bootleggers were having a ball and selling anything that they could pour in a bottle. The “Shady-ladies,” were running around with stockings full of money and ready to make more.

There were strong, progressive people building a city of the future. Thinking of their families, they built a community of beautiful churches, fine homes, and schools. Because of its location in a sort of frontier setting, many of Tulsa’s citizens were of the pioneering breed. A rather proud, rugged, individualistic, kind of people.

On the other side of the coin, were some of the wildest, whooping, don’t-give-a-damn persons imaginable. And hidden among the other citizens, most of whom were strangers to others, was the lawless element preying on the unwary, innocent, or weak members of the community. The old, old story, some make, and others take.

 

2. The exact number of people killed during the Tulsa Race Massacre are unknown and some estimates range as high as several hundred deaths.

3. The $6,000,000 figure would have been in 1979 and in today’s money (2021) the amount would be in excess of $30,000,000.

Chapter Two

In an attempt to paint a picture of the young, fast-growing boomtown, it is necessary to use considerable space. Without some knowledge of the situation, it is not possible to understand how and why the terrible holocaust occurred. By highlighting Tulsa’s background and the sort of people and conditions existing at the time, the reader can gain a better understanding of the how and why of the explosion.

When a convention was held in Tulsa it was usually a “Whing-Dinger.” Everything that Tulsa did was on a grand and lavish scale. Known far and wide as the “OIL CAPITOL.” it was felt that Tulsa had to out-do everything that was done by any other city of comparable size.

As a young spectator, I remember one parade which was so thrilling that the memory of it is still vivid after all of the years that have passed so kindly by me. The International Indian Convention brought Indians to Tulsa from all parts of the USA, Canada, and Mexico. All of the tribes of Oklahoma were represented. The boundaries of some of the Indian Nations joined at a spot where Tulsa is now located. Its city limits cover a part of what was once the tribal lands of the Creek, Osage, and some land of the Cherokee. These people were already here, all they had to do was get dressed in their beads and feathers and join the thousands of other Indians that came to the convention.

Thousands of parading Indians dressed in the most beautiful native costumes imaginable made that parade outstanding. They wore buckskins of all colors with scrolls of beadwork covering the costumes, armbands, and moccasins. Riding the finest pinto ponies and wearing great warbonnets of eagle feathers, they were a sight never to be forgotten.

There were Indian cowboys in the parade too. They chose to wear fine cowboy regalia instead of dressing in Indian costumes as they rode along as trail herders with their chuck-wagons. Some of the Indian cowboys rode pinto ponies also, but many rode prancing horses of Arabian ancestry.

Hotel Tulsa was the convention headquarters and although it had already seen more than its share of hubbub, it was never noisier, or uproarious than during the several days of the National Indian Convention. Expensive Persian rugs covered all of the areas where giant lobby chairs and sofas were located. Especially around the great white marble support columns which were spaced about sixty feet apart throughout the lobby. The support columns near the center of the great domed ceiling of the lobby were all surrounded by the rugs and large lobby chairs. Most hours of the day and into the night they were like little islands with people sitting and standing around chatting or talking business in groups.

To prove that the Indian riders could do more than just dress as cowboys, bets were made that one of the Indians bronc-busters could ride a wild horse in the hotel lobby. Ropes were brought in and wrapped around the marble columns from the first one to the next and so on until a corral was created with three strands of rope, the top rope near six feet high and the bottom strand three feet from the floor.

Gunny sacks were wrapped and tied around the horse’s feet, and powdered resin was sprinkled around on the tile floor. They walked the horse up and down and around and around inside the rope corral which covered an area of sixty by one hundred and twenty feet. When the Indian leading the horse decided that it had been around enough to remember the size of the corral and get plenty of resin on the sacks, he signaled two other Indians to join him in the corral. One held the horse by the ear and its lower jaw while the third Indian took a firm grip on the bridle strap near the bit. He talked softly to the horse while patting its shoulder with his other hand.

Then the rider climbed into the corral wearing a pair of buckskin pants, boots without spurs, a beaded band around his head with one feather, but no shirt. As he walked over to the horse an argument started among the betting groups because the rider was not wearing spurs. Some said the horse would not buck as hard without spurs to gig him. The debate lasted a couple of minutes then everyone laughed at the no-spurs-trick, the Indian rider and his betting pals had pulled.

It developed that the only conditions agreed on when bets were made were that the horse must buck, and the rider stays on the horse for eight seconds...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Prologue
• Foreword
• Content Warning
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Chapter 13
• Chapter 14
• Chapter 15
• Chapter 16
• Chapter 17
• Chapter 18
• Afterword
• Since the Massacre
• Greenwood Rising
• Author Bio
• Index