Black Birds in the Sky: May 30, 1921–Chapter 1

Ford moved to the Greenwood District, a thriving Black community in Tulsa across the train tracks from where most of the white homes and businesses were located.

The landmark 1896 US Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson, which established the legality of Jim Crow legislation, stated spaces and accommodations segregated by race were legal as long as they were comparable; this is where the standard of “separate but equal” was born.

The “equal” part rarely came to fruition with Black spaces and accommodations; Greenwood, however, was something of an anomaly in this respect. By 1914, the neighborhood boasted all kinds of Black professionals, from doctors and lawyers to business owners, educators, and newspaper publishers—and they kept their wealth within the community, continually supporting the businesses of what became known nationwide as Black Wall Street.

The “equal” part rarely came to fruition with Black spaces and accommodations; Greenwood, however, was something of an anomaly in this respect. By 1914, the neighborhood boasted all kinds of Black professionals, from doctors and lawyers to business owners, educators, and newspaper publishers—and they kept their wealth within the community, continually supporting the businesses of what became known nationwide as Black Wall Street.

As a young kid, Rowland was a good student, but his interest in academics waned the older he got.

But it was also said by some, including Rowland’s Aunt Dame, that they had, perhaps, been romantically involved—and one of the biggest taboos in early-twentieth-century America was a relationship between a Black man and a white woman.

French military dictator Napoleon Bonaparte had acquired the Louisiana Territory from Spain in 1800—with plans to use the land as a granary for his proposed sugar empire—and this had made Americans nervous; the French, who were more powerful, now controlled New Orleans, which was significant because it served as a port for Americans to trade goods.

Today, Indigenous people and Alaska Natives comprise 17.4 percent of Oklahoma’s population—second only to Alaska, where Indigenous people encompass 27.9 percent of the population.

Today, Indigenous people and Alaska Natives comprise 17.4 percent of Oklahoma’s population—second only to Alaska, where Indigenous people encompass 27.9 percent of the population.

Jackson was born into poverty but grew his wealth through slave labor: he enslaved about 150 people, some of whom were forced to serve him even during his tenure at the White House.

Jackson didn’t see Indigenous people as fully human, much less American; he believed they were uncivilized simply because they had different ways of life than white people, and he referred to them with paternalistic ethnic slurs to justify his anti-Native views.

The Five Tribes of Oklahoma, previously referred to as the Five Civilized Tribes, hail from the southeastern United States and include the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole Nations.

The term Five Civilized Tribes was primarily assigned to these Native Nations because of their perceived assimilation into white US culture.

While some leaders within these Native Nations saw adopting parts of Anglo customs as necessary to avoid removal and stop the encroachment of whites taking their land, they were mistaken.

They sent young representatives around the country to speak out on the issue; circulated a petition that garnered thousands of signatures of Cherokee people protesting the removal; started a newspaper to broadcast their opinions; and tried to appeal to Congress, even going as far as the US Supreme Court, which ruled in their favor.

A Choctaw leader called this brutal and often deadly migration that forced Indigenous people from their land “a trail of tears and death,” and it has been known as the Trail of Tears ever since. The National Park Service has commemorated the plight of the Cherokee people with the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, which encompasses 5,043 miles across nine states.

The Council Oak Tree is a historic landmark that denotes the site where the Muscogee (Creek) citizens settled, marking present-day Tulsa.

Like those of many cities and towns in the United States, its name was derived from an Indigenous language. According to some historians, Tulsa comes from the word Tullahassee, which was a Muscogee (Creek) town in present-day Alabama. Still, others believe it was derived from the Mvskoke word Tallasi, a shortened version of Tullahassee or Tallahassee, which means “old town.”

In 1887, the Dawes Act—also known as the General Allotment Act—was passed by Congress, which allowed the federal government to parcel out tribal lands into individual plots.

In 1887, the Dawes Act—also known as the General Allotment Act—was passed by Congress, which allowed the federal government to parcel out tribal lands into individual plots.

In March 1889, President Harrison announced that 1.9 million acres of Indian Territory would be ready for the taking at noon sharp on April 22. People traveled from all over the United States to lay claim to the land, and per the Homestead Act of 1862, passed during the American Civil War, anyone who remained on the land for five years, had “never borne arms against the United States government,” and “improved” the land would be the owner.

Throughout these six years and seven events, the government implemented a lottery system to assign the claims.

Perhaps the two most famous Bartlesville residents who earned their riches from oil are J. Paul Getty, who secured his first million from oil investment at the age of twenty-three and went on to build the J. Paul Getty Museum, which is part of the renowned Getty Center in Los Angeles; and Frank Phillips, founder of Phillips Petroleum Company, which was based in Bartlesville from 1917 until it merged with Conoco in the early 2000s.

And, finally, some residents were in favor of piecemeal absorption, which meant Oklahoma Territory would gain statehood immediately, and Native Nations throughout Indian Territory could be added individually.

While some believed Indian Territory should form its own state called Sequoyah, this hope was eventually squashed by the Curtis Act, which abolished tribal courts. This meant enforcing laws and court rulings of the Five Tribes of Oklahoma was defunct, and residents of Indian Territory were now held to federal law.

Back in the late 1800s, Republicans primarily controlled states in the North and were the party responsible for helping implement state universities, a national currency, and the transcontinental railroad, among other initiatives.

This all began to change in the 1930s, with the presidency of Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, who passed the New Deal to offset the detrimental effects of the Great Depression.

Over the next decade, white Southerners began to support the Republican Party in greater numbers, particularly in the wake of Richard Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign, wherein Republicans implemented the "Southern strategy," using overtly racist and faith-based appeals to win over white voters in the South who were appalled by the dismantling of Jim Crow laws.

Originating in the South after the Civil War, Jim Crow laws, and the “Black codes” that preceded them, were a collection of various state and local legislation that enforced segregation in nearly all aspects of American life. They were used to subjugate Black Americans, who had recently gained their freedom from slavery, and forced them to live as second-class citizens.

Fines for violating the law were steep, running as high as $1,000 for businesses that did not comply, $25 for passengers who did not sit in their assigned cars, and $500 for conductors who did not enforce segregation.

Through this legislation, Oklahoma developed a culture that was intolerant of the mere existence of Black Americans.

Black Americans first made their way to Oklahoma with the forced migration of the Five Tribes. Several of the tribes, though they themselves were oppressed by white colonizers, also enslaved Black people and brought them to Oklahoma along the Trail of Tears.

The Cherokee Nation held the most enslaved people among the Five Tribes; by 1860, they reportedly owned 4,600 Black people. While this form of chattel slavery was similar to that practiced by white people, meaning the enslaved were forced to work long, difficult days tending to farmland, or in house jobs as servants and maids, the Cherokee used them in other ways, too.

Although some historians claim that the Indigenous people who enslaved Black people treated them more as indentured servants—a fixed term of slavery in which the enslaved often retained some rights—enslavement is enslavement.

In all-Black towns, they were safe from the violence and prejudice they were used to enduring from white people, and they could support one another by patronizing businesses owned and operated by other Black people.