Drexel Building

The initial events leading to the Tulsa Race Massacre occurred on Monday, May 30, 1921, when Tulsa’s white community began rallying to lynch a young Black man named Dick Rowland. The trigger was that a white elevator operator named Sarah Page screamed when Mr. Rowland entered the elevator in the Drexel Building, most likely because he tripped into her. He was arrested the following day.

Dick Rowland was a shoe shiner who regularly entered the Drexel Building at 319 S. Main Street to use the restroom during his break. Restrooms were segregated in Tulsa in the early twentieth century, and he could not use the facility at the Main Street parlor where he worked. However, he had received permission from the Drexel Building’s owner to use the restroom on the top floor. On May 30, he got onto an elevator operated by a 17-year-old white woman named Sarah Page. Although historians do not know exactly what happened, most conclude that he tripped when entering the elevator and broke his fall against Ms. Page, causing her to scream. He instinctively ran, knowing the trouble he was facing. A store clerk in the building heard the scream, saw Mr. Rowland running away, and called the police.

The Tulsa Tribune, a white-run newspaper, published an inflammatory article on May 31 (re-printed on June 1, as in the image above) titled “Nab Negro for Attacking Girl in Elevator.” The article claimed that Mr. Rowland had been stalking Ms. Page, and had attempted to rape her. Mr. Rowland’s supporters countered that he had simply tripped when entering the elevator, and accidentally bumped into Ms. Page. During this time period in the Jim Crow South, claims of sexual assault by a Black man against a white woman frequently led to a lynching or attempted lynching. Mr. Rowland was arrested on May 31. By the time the afternoon edition of the Tulsa Tribune came out that day, some accounts state that an editorial advertised the call far and wide: “To Lynch a Negro Tonight.” Although this newspaper edition has not been located, it is clear that this was the message spreading through the Tulsa community.

Balkansky, A. (2021, May 27). Tulsa Race Massacre: Newspaper Complicity and Coverage. Library of Congress Blog. https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2021/05/tulsa-race-massacre-newspaper-complicity-and-coverage/ 

Briggs, A. (Host). (2021, May 18). A Reckoning in Tulsa (Episode 3) [Audio podcast episode]. In Overheard. National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/podcasts/article/episode-3-a-reckoning-in-tulsa 

Drexel Building [Image]. (2016, May 10). Tulsa World. https://tulsaworld.com/drexel-building/image_2da2af57-d141-57f5-a3b5-6ec39ad1c9ae.html

[Newspaper clipping from the Tulsa Tribune] [Image]. (2019, April 19). Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nab_Negro_for_Attacking_Girl_in_an_Elevator.png 

Tulsa Race Massacre: Timeline. (2021). McFarlin Library Special Collections. https://exhibits.utulsa.edu/