Reporter brings ’21 Tulsa race riots to attention of today’s youth
by Dennis Dobson, reporter

    America’s hidden history includes a time when lynching and public execution of African Americans were advertised like sporting events in local papers and reported on as if they were box scores, a local reporter told South Campus students last week.

   Tim Madigan, author of The Burning, brought the dark side of America’s past into the light for one campus and will share his story with NE Campus students Wednesday, Feb. 27, at 12:30 in the Center Corner.

   In front of a packed auditorium, Madigan addressed an issue that most Americans are totally unaware of, the history that one will not find in any U.S. history book or in any classroom.

   Madigan referred to that history as “a metaphor of the times and culture of the whole country,” a fear and jealousy of anyone who looked, talked or acted contrary to the white majority.

   This social attitude was so prevalent that in 1915 America’s first big blockbuster film in was D W Griffith’s Birth of a Nation, the story of the formation of the Ku Klux Klan, Madigan pointed out.

   The film was watched and reportedly endorsed by President Woodrow Wilson, along with other high-ranking public officials.

   The number-one Halloween costume of the times was the hood and robe.

   In the winter of 2000, Madigan’s editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram assigned a follow-up to an article about the Tulsa Race Riot Commission. As he began to research deeper into the events of June 1, 1921, in Tulsa, Okla., Madigan said he was shocked and horrified not just by the events of the day, but also by the lack of mention of the atrocity for over 50 years.

   Outside Tulsa, a black community called Greenwood was made up of an affluent group of small business owners, hard-working people and World War I veterans, Madigan said.

   A young black shoe-shine boy was accused of assaulting a white girl. In an attempt to boost sales of the local paper, the editor chose to play the race card and printed the headline “To lynch a Negro tonight.”

   As was the custom, a huge mob of whites showed up outside the courthouse to witness the hanging. The black community showed up to protect the rights of the young boy. An argument broke out, and a shot was fired as an old white man lunged for a gun held by a black man.

   The black community returned to Greenwood, and shortly after, a battle raged as the white mob laid siege to Greenwood.

   Out-numbered and out-gunned, the mob marched through          Greenwood similar to Hitler’s Third Reich.

   When the National Guard arrived just a few hours later, the community of Greenwood resembled Hiroshima more than a rural community in Oklahoma. Three hundred men, women and children were killed, and 35 square blocks were burned to the ground, Madigan said.

   Madigan said there was a good reason to write about this event now and come to college campuses to talk about it.

   “My target audience is college-age young adults. They are the ones who can change the future,” he said.

   Madigan concluded the talk by holding up a simple 1921 penny charred and stained black. It is one of the few remnants of the massacre of 1921.

   “The penny is a small but strong reminder of the darkness and evil that can exist within the hearts of all of us,” he said.

   One student asked how writing this book has changed Madigan’s life.

   “I can’t look at a black person the same way ever again,” he said.

   “I hope that all who read my book will feel the same way.”