Dick Rowland was an African-American shoeshiner whose arrest in May 1921 was the impetus for the Tulsa Race Riot. African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa Shoeshiner is a profession in which a person polishes Shoes with Shoe polish. Year 1921 ( MCMXXI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1921 calendar of the Gregorian calendar The Tulsa race riot, also known as the 1921 race riot, The night that Tulsa died, the Tulsa Race War, or the Greenwood riot, was a massacre At the time of his arrest, Rowland was said to have been nineteen-years-old.
Rowland's birth name was reportedly Jimmie Jones. [1] It is not known where he was born, but by 1908 he and two sisters were orphans and were living in Vinita, Oklahoma. Year 1908 ( MCMVIII) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year Vinita is a city in south-central Craig County, Oklahoma, United States. Jones was informally adopted by an African-American woman named Damie Ford. In approxiamtely 1909 Ford and Jones moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where they were reunited with Ford's family, the Rowlands. Year 1909 ( MCMIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Eventually, Jones took Rowland as his last name, and selected his favorite first name, Dick, as his own. Rowland attended the city's segregated schools, including Booker T. Washington High School. Booker T Washington High School is a high school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. [2]
Rowland reportedly dropped out of high school to take a job shining shoes in a white-owned and white-patronized shine parlor located on Main Street in downtown Tulsa. There were no toilet facilities for blacks at the shine parlor where Rowland worked and the owner had arranged for his Black employees to be able to use a "Colored" restroom that was located on the top floor of the nearby Drexel Building at 319 S. This article is about the term used for African-Americans You might be looking for Coloured people or Color (disambiguation. Main Street.
On May 30, 1921, Rowland attempted to enter the Drexel building's elevator and, although the exact facts are disputed and unknown, according to the most accepted accounts he tripped and grabbed the arm of the 17-year old white female elevator operator, Sarah Page. The startled Page reportedly screamed and a white clerk in a first floor store reported seeing Rowland flee from the elevator and building. The clerk called police and reported the incident as an attempted assault. Assault is a Crime of Violence against another person. In some Jurisdictions including Australia and New Zealand,
Rowlands was arrested on May 31, 1921. Subsequent actions by white citizens in an apparent attempt to lynch him, and by black citizens to protect him, sparked a riot that lasted 16 hours and caused the destruction by fire of 35 city blocks and 1,256 residences in Tulsa's African-American neighborhood of Greenwood, and over 800 injuries and the deaths of at least 26 blacks and 13 whites. White People is the second album by Handsome Boy Modeling School. Lynching is an Extrajudicial punishment meted out by a mob Lynching an enumerated Felony in some states in the United States, is defined by some The term black people usually refers to a racial group of Humans with dark Skin color, but the term has also been used to categorise a number of diverse Greenwood is a predominantly black Neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the south end of Greenwood Avenue [3]
The case against Dick Rowland was dismissed at the end of September, 1921. The dismissal followed the receipt of a letter by the County Attorney from Sarah Page in which she stated that she did not wish to prosecute the case.
According to Damie Ford, once Rowland was exonerated he immediately left Tulsa, and went to Kansas City. [4] Little else is publicly known about the remainder of Rowland's life.
References
- ^ Ellsworth, Scott Black Wall Street Tulsa's Successful History.
- ^ Excerpts from Eyewitness Accounts, Tulsa Reparations Coalition.
- ^ Final Report of the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.
- ^ Ellsworth, Scott Black Wall Street Tulsa's Successful History.
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