The 1921 Tulsa race riot was the result of economic competition , and white resentment of black successes in Greenwood , which was compared to Wall Street and filled with independent businesses . In the immediate event , black people resisted white people who tried to lynch 19-year-old Dick Rowland , who worked at shoeshines . Thirty-nine people ( 26 black , 13 white ) were confirmed killed . An early 21st century investigation of these events has suggested that the number of casualties could be much higher . White mobs set fire to the black Greenwood district , destroying 1,256 homes and as many as 200 businesses . Fires leveled 35 blocks of residential and commercial neighborhood . Black people were rounded up by the Oklahoma National Guard and put into several internment centers , including a baseball stadium . White rioters in airplanes shot at black refugees and dropped improvised kerosene bombs and dynamite on them
Tulsa race riot
Tulsa race riot
Mass racial violence in the United States