Buck Colbert Franklin: “The Tulsa Race Riot and Three of Its Victims”

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Buck Colbert Franklin:“The Tulsa Race Riotand Three of Its Victims”
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Abstract

Buck Colbert Franklin was an attorney in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who is perhaps best known for defending the survivors of the Tulsa race massacre, also known as the Tulsa race riot, of 1921. The massacre began when the Tulsa Daily Tribune printed a story about an alleged assault of a white female elevator operator by a young Black man, identified as Dick Rowland. Events quickly spiraled out of control as mobs of white people gathered on May 31 and began attacking the people and property of the Greenwood district of Tulsa, known as “Little Africa.” Numerous lives were lost (estimates ranged from thirty- nine to a few hundred) and several hundred people were injured that night, and homes and businesses were destroyed over thirty-five square blocks.

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