Module 3-2 HIS

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Feb 20, 2024

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HIS 100 Module Three, Revising Questions Shaquon L. T. Forbes Southern New Hampshire University HIS-100-H7398: Perspectives in History Nick Ceh January 27, 2024 1

Module Three Activity Revising Questions Learning about the Tulsa massacre has intrigued my interest in one other area, and that area is the psychological perspective. At first, I was only interested in the economic effect of the Tulsa massacre. After learning that a 35 square block radius was destroyed, and no insurance company would compensate the African American residents of Greenwood. The only thing that I kept thinking about was the money lost due to the riot and how they were going to rebuild. However, after listening to the testimony of Mother Viola Fletcher, I realized that there may have also been a psychological effect on not just the African American residents of Greenwood, but also the White residents. In Mother Fletcher’s eyewitness testimony, she states, “I will never forget the violence of the white mob when we left our home, I still see black men being shot, black bodies lying in the streets, I still smell smoke, I still see black businesses being burned (Wills, 2023). This leads me to believe there was some type of psychological or mental effect on the people of Greenwood. This is a good historical perspective that could be applied to my research question. Fetcher even goes as far as to say that for many years after the massacre, she and her family would jump out of their sleep thinking that fire was falling from the sky. In her interview with Sunday Today, Fletcher and her brother Van Ellis stated that they think about it every day and for many years they were scared to interact with white people (Today, 2021). That’s when I realized there may be more to the Tulsa massacre than just economic loss. This information has led me to revise my research question, my new question is, what were the economic and psychological effects of the Tulsa Race Massacre? Based on the evidence from the testimony of Mother Viola Fletcher, Hughes Van Ellis, and Lessie Benningfield Randle aka Mother Randle, this new research question is very evident. 2

My first question was, what were the past and present economic effects of the Tulsa Race Massacre? After utilizing primary and secondary sources from online and the Shapiro Library, I realized that the Tulsa Race Massacre had a mental effect on both its White and Black residents. Why else would they try to hide such a huge event? Could it be that the White residents of Tulsa were embarrassed by what they did? In the article, ‘A conspiracy of silence’: Tulsa Race Massacre was absent from schools for generations, it states, The Oklahoman surveyed 305 people, nearly all of them Oklahomans, and found 83% said they never received a full lesson on the Tulsa Race Massacre or Black Wall Street in their K-12 school (Martinez-Keel, 2021). This information may have purposely been left out of the curriculum for grades K-12. Sometimes as human beings, we tend to do things we are not proud of. When people do things that they are not proud of, they often try to hide or cover it up because they are ashamed of the things they did. With Tulsa trying to maintain its place as the oil capital of the world, the riot reflected terribly on the city and subsequently wasn’t included in history books or newspapers for decades, nor openly discussed in either the Black or White communities. Some newspaper accounts from the period were even removed before editions were recorded onto microfilms (Clark, 2021). Tulsa was known as the oil capital of the world. Something as huge as a race massacre would have looked bad on the residents of Tulsa. They minimized the story of the Tulsa massacre to save the reputation of Tulsa Oklahoma. White residents didn’t want to admit that relatives or friends had participated in the massacre and Black residents didn’t want to pass on their pain to their children (Clark, 2021). This information would lead an individual to believe that not only did the Tulsa race massacre have an economic effect on the residents of Tulsa, but it also had mental effects on both sides. With this new (to me) information I have decided to change my question from, what are the past and present economic effects of the Tulsa 3

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Massacre, Instead I choose to ask the question, what are the economic and psychological effects of the Tulsa Race Massacre? The evidence from primary and secondary resources indicates that my new research question is valid. The evidence also indicates that the Tulsa Race Riot had an economic and psychological effect on both the White and Black residents of Tulsa’s Greenwood district. The historical evidence from the primary and secondary sources of the Tulsa Race Massacre that I chose to utilize has greatly influenced my finalized research question. It has given me a different perspective on the Tulsa massacre. I can now understand that not only did the Tulsa massacre have an economic effect on the residents of Tulsa, Oklahoma, but it also had a mental effect on them as well. This is very evident in many of the testimonies given by the surviving members of the Tulsa race massacre. In the Good Morning America interview in October of 2023. Mother Fletcher stated in her own words that she still thinks about the Tulsa massacre to this day (Good Morning America, 2023). This leads me to believe that it had such a mental effect on Mother Fletcher that she thought about it every day for the last 100 years! Could you imagine something having such a huge effect on your life that you thought about it every day for 100 years? This statement is what made me begin to research the psychological effect of the Tulsa massacre. Listening to Mother Fletcher's interview on Good Day America and Today, challenged my prior research question because it made it clear that there were psychological effects of the Tulsa race massacre. I also realize that there is no way to talk about the economic effects of the Tulsa race riots without talking about the psychological effects of it. I believe that both effects go hand in hand. The information within my primary and secondary resources helped me to understand why the government of Oklahoma went to such extents to hide it. The Tulsa race massacre affected the White residents of Tulsa Oklahoma, through shame and guilt. 4

This is what leads me to believe that even the White residents suffered psychological effects from the Tulsa race massacre. The Good Morning America and Today interviews, along with other primary and secondary resources show me different perspectives, and that is what has influenced my finalized research question. In conclusion, my finalized research question is What are the economic and psychological effects of the Tulsa race massacre? 5

References Today, (2021), Viola Fletcher And Hughes Van Elis Reflect On Surviving Tulsa Race Massacre, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fw1hAOFP6k&t=652s Good Morning America, (October 18, 2023), Tulsa massacre survivor speaks out, https://www.google.com/search? q=Tulsa+Massacre+survivors+alive+today&gs_ivs=1#fpstate=ive&tts=0&vld=cid:3a1aae6b,vid :RN0n03FsmXg,st:0 Clark, A., (September 11, 2023), How the Tulsa Race Riot Was Covered UP, History.com, How the Tulsa Race Massacre Was Covered Up | HISTORY Martinez-Keel, N., (May 26, 2021 ), A Conspiracy of Silence: Tulsa Race Massacre Was Absent From Schools for Generations, The Oklahoman, 'A Conspiracy of Silence': Tulsa Race Massacre Was Absent From Schools for Generations (edweek.org) 6

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Module 3-2 HIS

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