Archive Record
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Metadata
Catalog Number |
2012.050.253 |
Object Name |
Clipping, Newspaper |
Date |
07/15/1921 |
Scope & Content |
Newspaper clipping from the Tulsa Daily World published July 15, 1921 and entitled "Tulsa Sheriff Slept Through Tulsa Riot; Admits Offering No Assistance To Chief of Police; Little Damaging Evidence Against Gustafson in Fourth Day of Ouster Proceedings; Testimony Indicates Whites Who Fired Negro's Homes Are known to Blacks." This article reports upon court testimony from the fourth day of the trial of suspended Tulsa Police Chief John A. Gustafson, who faces five criminal counts, including one felony charge of conspiracy. The article reports that the outstanding feature of the day's testimony included the fact that Tulsa County Sheriff William McCullough [sic, Willard M. McCullough] gave "practically no assistance during the rioting June 1 to the police force of the city." In his testimony, McCullough stated that his full attention was on protecting the African American prisoner, Dick Roland, from a potential lynch mob. The article also states that several African American witnesses could identify Caucasians who set fires to homes in the African American community on the morning of June 1, 1921. The article then provides more precise testimony given by Sheriff William McCullough concerning the gathering mob at the courthouse on the evening of May 31, 1921. He stated that he spent the night in the courthouse protecting the prisoner and "knew nothing of the rioting until 8 o'clock the next morning." The article also contains a summary of the testimony of E. L. Wheeler, an ex-service man who volunteered his service during the violence to command a machine gun he obtained from Inspector of Police C. W. Daley. He states that a young man shot him when he tried to get a group of Caucasian men to stop shooting. The article reports that African Americans G. E. Gurley [sic, O. W. Gurley] and V. B. Bostick also testified. Gurley states that during the violence his hotel was burned and he fled and hid in the basement of the Dunbar School until it too was burned. Bostick testified that several armed men under the supervision of an officer in a traffic uniform transported his family to the detention center at Convention Hall. As they were leaving their home the man in the uniform prepared to burn the house by pouring oil on the front porch. The article clipping also contains a summary of the testimonies of Fred S. Cook, H. H. Townsend, and C. O. McInturff. |
Search Terms |
Dunbar School fires Greenwood District law enforcement Oklahoma National Guard Tulsa County Courthouse Tulsa County Sheriff Tulsa Police Chiefs Tulsa Police Department Tulsa Race Massacre |
People |
Adkison, James M. Blaine, George H. Bostick, V. B. Cleaver, Barney S. Cook, Fred S. Daley, C. W. Freeling, S. P. Gibbons, Ira Gurley, Ottaway W. Gustafson, John A. Horrigan, J. B. Kelly, W. S. McCullough, Willard M. McGee, J. W. McInturff, C. O. Roland, Dick Townsend, H. H. Wheeler, Edward L. |