Tulsa race riot

The Tulsa race riot (also called the Tulsa massacre, Greenwood Massacre, or the Black Wall Street Massacre) of 1921 took place on May 31 and June 1, 1921, when mobs of white residents attacked black residents and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has been called 'the single worst incident of racial violence in American history.' The attack, carried out on the ground and from private aircraft, destroyed more than 35 square blocks of the district – at that time the wealthiest black community in the United States, known as 'Black Wall Street'.

More than 800 people were admitted to hospitals and more than 6,000 black residents were arrested and detained, many for several days. The Oklahoma Bureau of Vital Statistics officially recorded 36 dead, but the American Red Cross declined to provide an estimate. A 2001 state commission examination of events noted estimations from between 36 and 300 killed in the rioting, and based on contemporary autopsy reports and death certificates, the commission confirmed 39 black males, 13 white males, and 4 unidentifiable bodies.