Tulsa 100 Years Ago: The Media, Dick, and Sarah

 Avoid the boastful intriguers who speak to you of racial equality/ There has never been such a thing in the history of the world. Nor will there ever be.

From a Tulsa World editorial addressing the black population of the city a few days after the Tulsa race massacre in 1921.

At the time there were two major, white owned newspapers in Tulsa. The World, published in the mornings, was considered the more progressive of the pair. The Tribune, which hit the streets in the afternoons was more lurid in content and aimed at a blue collar readership. It is reported on the afternoon of May 31, as a black suspect accused of attacking a white girl, sat in a cell on the top floor of the county court house, it ran an op-ed piece with the headline, "To Lynch a Negro Tonight." Within a few hours of its publication the terrible pogrom began.

Hey, who says the media doesn't matter?

The 19 year old kid on the top floor of the court house was identified at the time as Dick Rowland. The Tribune reported he went by, "Diamond Dick." Later accounts spelled his last name as, Roland. Years later researchers claimed his birth name was, either Jimmy Jones, or Johnny Jones. Apparently he arrived on the planet in Vinita, OK. His father was unknown. His mother had moved to Tulsa along with her three children a year, or so before and changed her name to Rowland.

The same day the Tribune ran the infamous op-ed it reported the suspect had attacked a young white girl who was operating the lone elevator in the Drexel Building in downtown Tulsa. It noted the victim had scratches on her hands and neck and her clothing had been torn. The story also described her as an orphan working her way through business school.

This was all news to Sarah Page, the alleged victim. After the nightmare was over she wrote a letter to the sheriff stating she had screamed only because Rowland accidently stepped on her toe. Why she didn't say that immediately remains a mystery.

So does she. Sarah Page had arrived in Tulsa only a few months before. The reports of the time listed her as 17, but some have claimed she was as young as 15. Later it was speculated she had come from Kansas City and was attempting to get away from a husband who she was in the process of divorcing. There have even been questions raised about her name, some believing Sarah Page was in fact an alias she was using in her bid to get away from her unknown spouse.

Years later it was rumored Rowland and Page were romantically involved--that when he stepped into that elevator, on Memorial Day, when most of downtown Tulsa was closed for the holiday, when arguably neither one of them should have been working, they had a lover's quarrel. 

Yes, there is a possibility what has been described as the most destructive act of racial violence in the history of the republic was caused by a teenaged girl who was so pissed off at her boyfriend she decided to let him stew in jail for a couple of days. Or, that she \and he were so scared their interracial affair would be exposed they both wouldn't own up to what really happened.

After Page's letter arrived prosecutors dropped the charges against Dick Rowland. He immediately and understandably got out of town. Relatives said he initially fled to Kansas City. They claim he died years later somewhere in the Pacific Northwest.

Sarah Page took off also. No one knows for sure where to. Rumors have it she went back to Kansas City where she and Rowland hooked up once again, before eventually going their separate ways. However that ending to their tale is pure conjecture.

The Tulsa Tribune lasted for decades after the death and destruction over those horrifying 18 hours ended. All evidence of the incendiary editorial have disappeared. Even microfiche records are missing the entire op-ed page for the day of May 31, 1921.

Indeed, all we are left with is the reality of what happened and the consequences. And we are still, finally, dealing with both 100 years later.

5-29-21