HIS 100 Module Three Activity Template: Historical Context Replace the bracketed text below with your responses.
Identify the topic you chose to explore:
Tulsa Massacre Describe the historical context surrounding your historical event.
The context surrounding my historical event is racism in the 1920’s, specifically an event that took place a day before the Massacre began. A black man was accused of assaulting a white woman in an elevator and mob of white people came to the jail he was being held at and attempted to lynch him. The Sherif refused to turn him over. The next day a group of black men showed up to protect him and a group of whites showed up to take him. The events that followed are what we consider the Tulsa Massacre. Other contextual elements are Jim Crow and
“land lust.”
Describe a key historical figure or group’s participation in your historical event.
Dick Rowland participation in this event was the catalyst that set this event in motion. He was the man accused of attacking the white woman in the elevator. He was said to have escaped the
Massacre but there isn’t definitive information as to what happened to him after.
Explain the key historical figure or group’s motivation to participate in your historical event.
I don’t believe there was “motivation” for Dik Rowland to participate in this event, he was forced into it by the false accusations of Sarah Page. We can look at Sarah Page and see that she was motivated by fear, hate, and ignorance. Articulate how the historical context caused or influenced your chosen historical event.
The historical context surrounding this incident influenced me to choose this event because I really don’t understand how people can feel or act the way they did to other people based on unsubstantiated claim. How did we as a people in that time felt like this was acceptable behavior.
Explain how connecting your historical event and current event improves the understanding of your topic.
Being able to connect my historical event and a current event helps me improve my understanding by solidifying my thoughts on the repetition of events due to the lack of change and actual growth in the areas of acceptance and racial violence.
