Reliving History: Interpreting the Tulsa Race Riot and War

Saturday, January 5, 2019: 3:50 PM
Continental B (Hilton Chicago)
Konstantinos Karatzas, London Center for Interdisciplinary Research
The 1921 Tulsa Race War is one of the most violent civil unrests in the history of the United States. The presentation will examine the roots of the conflict, the role of police authorities during the clash and the impact of the riot on Tulsa, Oklahoma.

A minor incident triggered a war-like civil unrest that devastated Greenwood, the African American part of the Tulsa and probably the most robust black areas in the United States. The white gangs in cooperation with the local and state authorities looted, burned and eventually leveled the area; the brutal clashes led thousands of wounded and homeless African Americans in concentration camps operated by the Red Cross. The violent clash poisoned Tulsa so deeply that Greenwood became an alienated part of the city while the authorities manipulated mass memory so effectively that even schoolbooks were affected; for decades, students in Tulsa had access only to censored information.

The veil of violence, discrimination and nationalism that covers the United States nowadays shows that racial controversy is still at the forefront. The examination of the Tulsa Race War is more contemporary than ever because it can elucidate the repeated patterns of violent behavior, the ineffectiveness of the legal system and the rise of racism in the 21st century United States.