SPF/MS November 2, 1921. Honorable James E. Markham, Assistant Attorney General, St. Paul, Minnesota. Dear Mr. Markham: This is in answer to your letters of recent date with regard to the situation at Tulsa, Oklahoma, concerning which a requisition has been asked for the return of a defendant charged with participating in a riot there. I investigated this entire matter before the Grand Jury of Tulsa County, and I think you may rely upon the following as a brief statement of facts: A negro boy was charged and arrested, with making an assault upon a white girl in an elevator, and delivered to the custody of the Sheriff of Tulsa County. The assault was not one of that serious nature which the mind usually associates with such an offense when such a charge is made. An article appeared in an afternoon paper, stating that the charge had been made and that the defendant was in custody. Various black men living north of the Frisco tracks in Tulsa, phoned the Sheriff, asking if there would be mob violence, and were told that there would not be. Later, in the evening, a crowd of white people, consisting of curiousity seekers, and parties driving cars, stopped in the vicinity of the jail. The crowd was orderly, and there was not the slightest sign of any attempt at mob violence on their part. The negro population became inflamed, and marched upon the scene armed with pistols and rifles. The Sheriff had some conversation with one or two of them, but no effort was made to disarm any of the belligerents. They left the scene, however, returning later in great numbers, flurishing revolvers and guns, and intimidating white people, and marched on the principal streets of the city in military formation, and armed to the teeth. This enraged the white population, who had made not the slightest attempt to lynch anyone, nor to disturb the negro population; but this action of the negroes, undoubtedly precipitated the action of the white people and as the white population began to fire, it gave opportunity to the lowest elements of the white population to pillage and murder. I sought, before the Grand Jury, to indict every negro who precipitated the riot and every white man who took advantage of the situation to violate the law, and commit not only robbery
Letter to James E. Markham, Assistant Attorney General, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1921 November 2, from S. P. Freeling, Attorney General, Oklahoma, replying to recent letter regarding the treatment and fair trial of black citizens accused of crimes during the Tulsa riot. Also provides a summary describing how the riot began.
Letter Attorney General to James E. Markham, 1921 November 2, Box 25, Record Group 1-2, State of Oklahoma vs. John A. Gustafson, Chief of Police Tulsa (Tulsa Race Riot Investigation Vice Condition); Civil Case No. 1062, Attorney General, Oklahoma State Archives Division, Oklahoma Department of Libraries, Oklahoma City, OK
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Oklahoma State Archives Division, Oklahoma Department of Libraries. For further information regarding the rights to this collection, please visit www.crossroads.odl.state.ok.us/cdm4/rights.php
SPF/MS November 2, 1921. Honorable James E. Markham, Assistant Attorney General, St. Paul, Minnesota. Dear Mr. Markham: This is in answer to your letters of recent date with regard to the situation at Tulsa, Oklahoma, concerning which a requisition has been asked for the return of a defendant charged with participating in a riot there. I investigated this entire matter before the Grand Jury of Tulsa County, and I think you may rely upon the following as a brief statement of facts: A negro boy was charged and arrested, with making an assault upon a white girl in an elevator, and delivered to the custody of the Sheriff of Tulsa County. The assault was not one of that serious nature which the mind usually associates with such an offense when such a charge is made. An article appeared in an afternoon paper, stating that the charge had been made and that the defendant was in custody. Various black men living north of the Frisco tracks in Tulsa, phoned the Sheriff, asking if there would be mob violence, and were told that there would not be. Later, in the evening, a crowd of white people, consisting of curiousity seekers, and parties driving cars, stopped in the vicinity of the jail. The crowd was orderly, and there was not the slightest sign of any attempt at mob violence on their part. The negro population became inflamed, and marched upon the scene armed with pistols and rifles. The Sheriff had some conversation with one or two of them, but no effort was made to disarm any of the belligerents. They left the scene, however, returning later in great numbers, flurishing revolvers and guns, and intimidating white people, and marched on the principal streets of the city in military formation, and armed to the teeth. This enraged the white population, who had made not the slightest attempt to lynch anyone, nor to disturb the negro population; but this action of the negroes, undoubtedly precipitated the action of the white people and as the white population began to fire, it gave opportunity to the lowest elements of the white population to pillage and murder. I sought, before the Grand Jury, to indict every negro who precipitated the riot and every white man who took advantage of the situation to violate the law, and commit not only robbery
Oklahoma State Archives Division, Oklahoma Department of Libraries. For further information regarding the rights to this collection, please visit www.crossroads.odl.state.ok.us/cdm4/rights.php
Identifier
001_Letter Attorney General to James E. Markham, 1921 November 2; Page 1.tif
