The Black Press was fierce in its coverage of The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, scooping major national newspapers

 By DeNeen L. Brown

The Black press covered the heck out of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, scooping major national newspapers with detailed reports about the white mobs attacking the all-Black community of Greenwood. 

The Black Dispatch, whose editor Roscoe Dunjee was fearless, began publishing stories about the "Tulsa Race Riot" on June 1, 1921. 

Here is an early report:

"The first intimation of what was actually happening in Tulsa came Wednesday when Rev. R.A. Whittaker, pastor of the Mount Zion Baptist Church, Tulsa, came into The Black Dispatch office and reported that his daughter had just phoned him from the stricken city that bands of white men had burned their home and were at his church then setting it on fire. His church was worth $85,000. The Black Dispatch immediately got in touch with the Governor's office and reported the complete breaking down of law and order. A few moments later the Governor received a message from Adjutant General Barrett, confirming the Black dispatch report. 'You are correct,' said the Governor's secretary in a latter conversation, 'as usual the authorities have failed to do their duty.' "

A special edition of The Black Dispatch reported on June 1, 1921:

"Hundreds of black men, women and children are scattered through the bottoms of Verdi Gras River and the Arkansas, naked, barefooted, women with children in their arms and giving birth to children, are scattered everywhere as they hurry farther from their burning homes and the holocaust of bullets of the white assassins who rushed upon their defenseless homes in the wee hours of this morning, spreading fire and bullets everywhere.

Back in the charred, smoking ruins of what was once the finest business district that progressive Negroes had in the United States, two and one-half million dollars worth of homes and property, arson reigns supreme, punctured here and there by the still smoking carcasses of men, women and children.

"Nothing remains.

"The Stratford Hotel, Red Wing Hotel, the Dreamland Theatre, Dixie Theatre, Gurley's Hotel, Tulsa Star, Oklahoma Sun, A.M.E. Church, the new $485,000 Second Baptist Church, Welcome Grocery Store, Elliott and Hookers Clothing, everything on North Greenwood, together with the whole residential section, a mile square, all in ruins.

:Fires were started simultaneously in at least 50 places this morning, beginning at Boston and Archer. The whole of the Negro district, including Boston, Exeter, Easton, Greenwood and Hartford and the North Addition, was laid waste."

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