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Causes Of The Oklahoma Race Riot

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Greenwood was an African American community that thrived in Tulsa, Oklahoma and was well flourished with limitless opportunities. It was separated from white Tulsa by railroad tracks but was under white Tulsa’s political and police authorities. The Tulsa Race Riot happened in 1921. The residents and businesses of the African American community of Greenwood were attacked by a white mob killing many and bringing the whole community to ashes. There were many deeply rooted social causes that contributed to the horrendous action, as the elements fueling the riot were there long before.
The trigger for the Tulsa riot was the arrest of a black man for allegedly assaulting a white female in an elevator and an inflammatory article that was published in a white newspaper. Greenwood residents feared a lynching and so gathered in front of the courthouse where he was held, to protect him from a lynch mob. While a deputy was trying to disarm an armed black man, a shot was fired, and this triggered the riot. The National Guard units, the law enforcement officers and the men deputized by Tulsa officials worked together to control what they termed as a Negro uprising. The whites invaded the black Tulsa community, looting and burning their properties and preventing any rescue operations because they saw that such behavior had been legitimized. The black Tulsa was turned into a mass of black clouds of smoke.
The aftermath of WW1 was a time of racial violence in America because whites reacted

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