The Rest of White Tulsa
The white mobs which had rioted and run amok in the neighborhood of Greenwood were not representative of all of white Tulsa, which reacted to the carnage and damage with shock and dismay. Despite the segregation laws in force within the city limits, many white homes were immediately opened to provide temporary housing to the homeless victims. None of Tulsa’s white neighborhoods had been touched by the riot, nor had any businesses been damaged, other than slight damage at the Armory caused by the attempted break-in on the evening of May 31.
Donations of food, clothing, money and other needed items were soon pouring into organizations established by local churches to provide what relief they could. Some were made directly to black families by the donors. Churches opened their doors for black congregations to use, separately from their own services, and tents were collected and distributed. The Red Cross provided food and shelter at the detention centers.
In the aftermath of the riots the Ku Klux Klan, recognizing in the Tulsa mobs a potentially lucrative recruiting ground, began to expand in Tulsa and in Oklahoma in general. Klan membership had been expanding since the end of the First World War, but Tulsa had not included an active chapter until after the riot. Recruiting in Tulsa began later that summer, and by the end of 1921, the Klan claimed 3,200 members in Tulsa alone, out of a white population of about 62,000. Klan activity continued to expand through the first half of the decade, concentrated in urban southern areas.
A group of about 250 whites formed a committee for public safety, determined to prevent a recurrence of the racial violence and to augment the city’s police force, which had been notably absent during the riot. The police absence was explained as being the result of deploying the limited number of officers available to protect other neighborhoods from being affected by the riot. The lack of damage in other areas was claimed as an indication that the police actions had been successful. Several eyewitnesses reported officers participating in the riot, although not in uniform.
After the release of the Grand Jury’s report, the story of the riots largely vanished from the local newspapers, and the reporters from the national press soon left for other stories. The riots were forgotten. In Tulsa, the topic of the riot was simply not discussed, despite the visible evidence of the violence just across the railroad tracks from downtown. Once the initial shock of the riot and the damage caused passed, it became a symbol of community shame for many, who chose to deal with it by simply making it go away.