News

Whites, Blacks Gather to Repent

Associated Press Writer

June, 1998

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- Mabel Little had something to say to those assembled on the 77th anniversary of one of the nation's worst race riots.

"God bless you wonderful people!" said Mrs. Little, who lost her church, her business and 35 blocks of her community when white mobs torched it in two days of rioting on June 1, 1921.

Hundreds -- both black and white -- attended an emotional "assembly of repentance" on Monday in a bare lot where Tulsa's thriving black business district once proudly stood.

White ministers led whites in seeking forgiveness for the actions of their forefathers; black ministers led a smaller crowd of blacks in pardoning them.

At first, the crowd sat languidly in the evening heat. But as the ministers' fervor grew in pleas for repentance and forgiveness, whites and blacks jumped to their feet, crying "Hallelujah!" and "Amen!"

An elderly white man rushed to offer his lawn chair to an elderly black woman. A black woman and a white woman embraced. Robert Calvert, a black man, raised a communion cup to the lips of a white man who said, "I love you" and sobbed.

For Mrs. Little, a 101-year-old survivor of the riots, seeing the races shoulder to shoulder was a blessing. "I'm the happiest person in the world, today!" she said.

The riot broke out May 31, 1921, when mobs called for the lynching of a black man accused of attacking a white elevator operator. When the smoke lifted the next day, the Greenwood district lay in ruins and dozens lay dead. The death toll was put as high as 300.

"Our ancestors can now rest," said Willette DeShields, whose grandfather was a successful businessman until the race riot.

© Copyright 1998 The Associated Press &

American Visions Magazine

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