Research Catalog

Title

Reconstructing the dreamland : the Tulsa riot of 1921 : race, reparations, and reconciliation / Alfred L. Brophy.

Author

Brophy, Alfred L.

Publication

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2002.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xx, 187 p. : ill.; 25 cm.

Summary

"The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot was the country's bloodiest civil disturbance of the century. With perhaps 150 dead, 30 city blocks burned to the ground, and more than a thousand families homeless, the riot represented an unprecedented breakdown of the rule of law. It left the prosperous black community of Greenwood, Oklahoma reduced to rubble." "In Reconstructing the Dreamland, Alfred Brophy draws on his own extensive research into contemporary accounts and court documents to chronicle this devastating riot, showing how and why the rule of law quickly eroded. Brophy offers a gut-wrenching portrait of mob violence and racism run amok, both on the night of the riot and the morning after, when a coordinated sunrise attack, accompanied by airplanes, stormed through Greenwood, torching and looting the community. Equallty important, he shows how the city government and police not only permitted the looting, shootings, and burning of Greenwood, but actively participated in it. The police department, fearing that Greenwood was erupting into a "negro uprising" (which Brophy shows was not the case), deputized white citizens haphazardly, gave out guns and badges with little background check, or sent men to hardware stores to arm themselves. Likewise, the Tulsa-based units of the National Guard acted unconstitutionally, arresting every black resident they could find, leaving Greenwood property vulnerable to the white mob, special deputies, and police that followed behind and burned it."--Jacket.

Alternative Title

Tulsa riot of 1921 : race, reparations, and reconciliation

Subject

• 1900-1999
• African Americans > Tulsa > History > 20th century
• African American neighborhoods > Tulsa > History > 20th century
• Riots > Tulsa > History > 20th century
• Violence > Tulsa > History > 20th century
• African Americans > Tulsa > Claims
• Racism > Tulsa > History > 20th century
• African Americans > Reparations > Tulsa
• Tulsa (Okla.) > Race relations

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 176-182) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Prologue -- Seeking justice and the origins of the riot -- "Thinking he can whip the world": the riot -- Picturing the riot -- "A white wash brush and a big one in operation in Tulsa": Tulsa interprets the riot -- Tulsa will! Tulsa will! Tulsa will dodge: the failure of reconstruction -- Epilogue.

ISBN

0195146859 (hc)

LCCN

^^2001036770

OCLC

47746406

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library