President Joe Biden has publically acknowledged one of the deadliest racial attacks in the history of the United States (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
As per the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum, following World War I, Tulsa was recognized nationally for its affluent African American community -- the aforementioned district was a thriving business hub. Its surrounding residential area was referred to as “Black Wall Street.”
The museum notes that the deadly riot’s cause came on the morning of May 30, 1921, when a young Black man named Dick Rowland was riding in the elevator in the Drexel Building at Third and Main with a White woman named Sarah Page. “The details of what followed vary from person to person. Accounts of an incident circulated among the city’s White community during the day and became more exaggerated with each telling,” the museum’s account added.