Death in a Promised Land (21 page)

7
. New York
Age,
October 24,1907, p.8; Arrell M. Gibson,
Oklahoma: A History of Five Centuries
(Norman, Oklahoma: Harlow Publishing Corporation, 1965), 353; Teall,
Black History in Oklahoma,
172, 202–204, 225; Tulsa
Star,
March 30, 1918, p. 4; interview with W. D. Williams, June 7, 1978, Tulsa.

8
. Work,
Negro Year Book, 1925–1926,
309–403; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,
Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States, 1889–1918
(New York: NAACP, 1919), 86–87, plus supplements 1–3 (1919–1921).

Philip S. Foner, “The I.W.W. and the Black Worker,”
Journal of Negro History,
LV (1970), 45–64; James Weinstein,
The Decline of Socialism in America, 1912–1925
(New York: Monthly Review Press, 1967), 68; “State Platform, Socialist Party of Oklahoma—1912,” and “Negroes Favor Socialist Party” [Handbill], Oklahoma State File, Socialist Party of America (SPA] Papers, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.

The largest vote for the Socialist party in Tulsa was in the city election of 1912, when a Socialist candidate received 7.7 percent of the vote. There was, however, a Socialist party office in Tulsa until at least the early 1930s. James M. Mitchell, “Politics in a Boom Town: Tulsa From 1906–1930” (M.A. thesis, University of Tulsa, 1950), 56, 62, 65–66, 82, 87–93, 97, 103; W. L. Garver [Secretary, Socialist Party of Tulsa] to the
American Guardian,
January 30, 1933, Oklahoma State File, SPA Papers, Duke.

9
. I. A. Newby,
Jim Crow’s Defense: Anti-Negro Thought in America, 1900–1930
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1965], xi-xii; John Higham,
Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860–1925
(New York: Atheneum, 1963), 271; Madison Grant,
The Passing of the Great Race, or the Racial Basis of European History
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1918), 77; Charles W. Gould,
America, A Family Matter
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1922), 125.

10
. It has been estimated that between 1915 and 1944, there were some 6,000 members of the Klan in Tulsa. Charles C. Alexander,
The Ku Klux Klan in the Southwest
(Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1965), 43 -45; Kenneth T. Jackson,
The Ku Klux Klan in the City, 1915–1930
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1967), 239. See also Marion Monteval,
The Klan Inside Out
(Claremore, Oklahoma: Monarch Publishing Company, 1924), 69.

11
. Alexander,
The Ku Klux Klan in the Southwest,
43–45, 48, 135.

12
. Chicago Commission on Race Relations,
The Negro in Chicago
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1922), 481, quoted in Tuttle,
Race Riot,
209.

13
. Herbert Aptheker,
Afro-American History: The Modern Era
(New York: Citadel Press, 1971), 166; Franklin,
From Slavery to Freedom,
353; Robert T. Kerlin,
The Voice of the Negro, 1919
(1920; rpt. New York: Arno Press and the New York Times, 1968), 20.

14
. Amy Jacques-Garvey (comp.),
Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, or Africa for the Africans
(1925; rpt. New York: Arno Press and the New York Times, 1969), II, 20.

15
. Kerlin,
Voice of the Negro, 9;
Meier and Rudwick,
From Plantation to Ghetto,
222; Peter Gilbert (ed.),
The Selected Writings of John Edward Bruce: Militant Black Journalist
(New York: Arno Press and the New York Times, 1971), 158.

16
. Kerlin,
Voice of the Negro,
19.

17
. Arthur I. Waskow,
From Race Riot to Sit-in, 1919 and the 1960’s: A Study in the Connections Between Conflict and Violence
(Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1967), p. 178.

18
. Interview with W. D. Williams, June 7, 1978, Tulsa; Loren L. Gill, “The Tulsa Race Riot” (M.A. thesis, University of Tulsa, 1946), 4; NAACP Secretary to Professor Hughes, January 24,1917, in Series I, Tulsa Branch File, Box G-175, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress; Theodore G. Vincent,
Black Power and the Garvey Movement
(San Francisco: Ramparts Press, 1972), 74–75; Vincent,
Voices of a Black Nation,
123.

One such veteran was Seymour Williams, who later became one of Oklahoma’s most renowned high school football coaches at Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa. On the night of the race riot, Williams—who had been wounded in action in France—went out with his 45-calibre Army revolver in an attempt to stem the invasion of whites into Greenwood. He held his position throughout the night, and when morning broke, returned to his home. There, he claimed, his life was saved by his wife, who took his gun away from him when a group of whites came to their door. He had planned to meet them armed. Interview with Seymour Williams, June 2, 1978, Tulsa.

19
. Tulsa
Star,
September 4, 1920, p. 4.

20
. Tulsa
Times,
October 30, 1917, p. 1; Tulsa
Democrat,
October 29, 1917, pp. 1, 8; Tulsa
World,
October 30, 1917, pp. 1, 6.

21
. Tulsa
Times,
October 30, 1917, p. 1.

22
. Tulsa
World,
October 30, 1917, p. 1.

23
. Tulsa
Times,
November 2, 1917, p. 1.

24
. Tulsa
World,
October 31, 1917, p. 4.

25
. H. C. Peterson and Gilbert C. Fite,
Opponents of War, 1917–1918
(Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1957), 40–41; David A. Shannon,
The Socialist Party of America: A History
(Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1955), 106–109; Federal Writers’ Project of Oklahoma,
Labor History of Oklahoma
(Oklahoma City: A. M. Van Horn, 1939), 40–42; James R. Green,
Grass-Roots Socialism: Radical Movements in the Southwest, 1895–1943
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1978), 360–66.

26
. Tulsa
Democrat,
November 11,1917, p. 3; Tulsa
World,
October 31,1917, p. 4, and November 7, 1917, p. 12.

27
. Tulsa
Democrat,
November 5, p. 1, November 6, p. 5, and November 11, 1917, p. C4; Tulsa
Times,
November 6, 1917, p. 1; Tulsa
World,
October 30, p. 1, November 2, p. 1, November 3, p. 1, November 5, p. 1, and November 6,1917, p. I; Tulsa
City Directory, 1917
(Tulsa: Polk-Hoffhine Directory Company, 1917); National Civil Liberties Bureau,
The “Knights of Liberty” Mob and the I.W.W. Prisoners at Tulsa, Okla., November 9,1917
(New York: National Civil Liberties Bureau, 1918), 4–5; Joyce L. Kornbluh (ed.),
Rebel Voices: An I.W.W. Anthology
(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1964), 332–34.

28
. Tulsa
World,
October 30, p. 1, November 2, p. 1, November 3, p. 1, November 5, p. 1, and November 6, 1917, p. 1; Tulsa
Democrat,
November 6, p. 5, and November 11, 1917, p. C4; Tulsa
Times,
November 6, 1917, p. 1.

29
. Tulsa
World,
November 6, 1917, p. 1.

30
. As for the overall political climate of Tulsa during this period, two incidents which occurred as the trial of the union men began seem relevant. On Wednesday, November 7, 1917, W. Tate Brady, “former Democratic national committeeman from Oklahoma, heavy property owner here and Oklahoma commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans,” assaulted E. L. Fox, owner of the building where the IWW hall was located, “following an argument over the I.W.W. situation in Tulsa.” And later that same day, one Tulsan shot and killed another in the streets over a violent argument which their wives had had over the European war. Tulsa
World,
November 7, pp. 8, 12, and November 9, 1917, p. 16; Tulsa
Times,
November 8, 1917, pp. 1, 2, 6; Tulsa
Democrat,
November 7, 1917, p. 1.

31
. Tulsa
World,
November 6, p. 1, and November 7, 1917, p. 8; Tulsa
Democrat,
November 7, 1917, p. 1; Tulsa
Times,
November 8, 1917, p. 1.

32
. Tulsa
World,
November 9, 1917, p. 3; Tulsa
Times,
November 9, 1917, p. 5.

33
. Elsewhere in the same editorial, the
World
stated that anyone trying to decrease the supply of oil “for one-hundreth of a second is a traitor and ought to be shot!” Tulsa
World,
November 9, 1917, pp. 3, 4.

The authorship of this unsigned editorial is unclear. Eugene Lorton was at the time the “senior” editor of the
World,
and Glenn H. Condon was the newspaper’s managing editor. In its pamphlet on the incident, the National Civil Liberties Bureau [NCLB] made the following assertion in regards to the editorial: “It may be interesting to note that the editor of the Tulsa World, Glenn Conlin [sic], who personally wrote this, attended all the trials, and that he and his wife were witnesses to the whipping, tarring and feathering, having gone along in the automobile as spectators,” NCLB,
The “Knights of Liberty” Mob,
10. Yet, regardless of the question of the authorship of the editorial, it would appear that the World’s pro-vigilante, pro-terrorism stance against Tulsans who opposed the war was approved, if not actually fostered, by Lorton.

Although “Get Out the Hemp” was undoubtedly the acme of the World’s rabid, wartime sensationalism, it should not be assumed that the newspaper directed its venom only against political radicals and union men during this period. For example, Tulsa was at this time involved in a Liberty Bond campaign, and two days after the Pew bombing the
World
published a front-page story about a local launderer who would not purchase any bonds, entitled “Say Laundry Man Is Unpatriotic.” The story listed the man’s name and place of employment, predicting that he “may be in serious trouble before nightfall.” Tulsa
World,
October 31, 1917, p. 1.

34
. Tulsa
World,
November 10, 1917, pp. 1, 2; Blanche Riehn [?] to “Dear Comrade”— with note on back signed by Frank Ryan—October 10,1914, Oklahoma State File, SPA Papers, Duke.

35
. Tulsa
Democrat,
November 10, 1917, p. 1; Tulsa
World,
November 10,1917, pp. 1, 2; Tulsa
Times,
November 10, 1917, p. 1.

36
. Tulsa
Democrat,
November 10, 1917, pp. 1, 8; Tulsa
World,
November 10, 1917, p. 1; Tulsa
Times,
November 9, p. 1, and November 10, 1917, p. 1; NCLB,
The “Knights of Liberty” Mob,
6–7.

37
. A
Times
reporter stated that the “Knights of Liberty,” garbed as Ku Klux Klansmen, “presented a picturesque scene.” Tulsa
Times,
November 10, 1917, p. 1; Tulsa World, November 10, 1917, p. 1; Tulsa
Democrat,
November 10, 1917, p. 1; NCLB,
The “Knights of Liberty” Mob,
7.