THE BLACK DISPilTCH
I EDITORIAL PAGE OF THE BLACK DISPATCH |
iKSKMaHHMHaaaiHMiHKaHl
The Black Dispatch
Box 68, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Phone Maple 818
Snterad at the Post Office at Oklahoma City, as second class mail,
under act of March 3, 1879.
Year^
III Months     •:
*************
Three Months
ttOSCOE DUNJEE   — 
DRU8ILLA DUNGEE HOUSTON     Contrlliutlnfl Editor
FREEDOMFOR ULLTOREVI
MEMBER
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tirstt in
service
WHERE THE RESPONSIBILITY LIES
We like the position of the New York World in summing up the causes
of the Tulsa tragedy. Listen to this from the World:
"Government ceased for the time being to exist and the streets of
Tulsa ran with blood. But in vast sections of the country government has a
habit of ceasing to exist where the legal rights of the Negro are concerned.
Altho white men are sometimes lynched when accused of crime the general
presumption is that they will not be. Altho black men are often not lynched
when accused of crime, the general presumption in many parts of the United
States is that they are likely to be. Out of that presumption came Tulsa's
race war."
Nobody knows better than Mr. Negro that government ceases to exist
at times when the mob begins to function. If we are to give credit to a
statement that Governor Robertson is quoted as making to a delegation of
ministers, the sheriff of Tulsa county sent for certain black men to help pro-
tect the jail on the theory that an outlaw element of whites would attempt
to destroy Dick Rowland's chance to get into a court of law. In our jugd-
ment, when you go to discuss the presence of armed Negroes at the jail of
Tulsa county, you ought go to the bottom of the facts. We should not con-
demn their presence until we find out WHY THEY WERE THERE. They
were there because they knew that there was a grave and almost certain
chance for government and order to blink out. The men whose evil intentions
they thwarted are the element of evil that should be (jarved out of our so-
cial fabric.
But there is another side to the question of, who is to blame. We
agree with the Emporia Gazette which says:
"Of course, it was not the best of the white race that created the hell-
ish situation in Tulsa. But none the less, the best of the white race is re-
sponsible. The leadership of a community is responsible for the deeds of
the community."
And it is doubly responsible (the leadership) when it takes the vicious
attitude of several of the white ministers of Tulsa, who in their sermons
fail to face the issues that stand out so plainly to view, that a blind man
could at least feel them even tho he could not see them. "Social Equality,"
or rather social intermingling had nothing to do with Tulsa's trouble, and
yet several of the white ministers of Tulsa refused to discuss anything else
with reference to the affair. One openly endorsed the violence that was
wrought upon black folk and said that the Negro might look for this if he
sought to intermingling with the whites.
Striking at the truth, James Weidon Johnson, associate editor of the
New York Age, says, "One incident never causes a race riot, Ihe causes ac-
cumulate for weeks and months before the outbreak." White people laugh
when they read that some black boy killed another black boy about a dime
in a crap game. It looks so foolish, but, is that act more foolish than the
conduct of men who would murder and burn groups of men because one
man accidentally stepped on a woman's foot?
In either case one would have to study the underlaying causes before
he could understand how the mental and moral processes of the black Crap
Shooter and the White Mob got its ground of justification. Take for exam-
ple, a condition right here in Oklahoma City. The papers stated this week
that a Negro attempted to assault a white woman. If the whole story were
told it would show that the man is insane and belongs in the asylum. This
would put an entirely different color on the story. In the Tulsa affair, Walter
F. White, of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,
checks the whole trouble up to "ABUSE AND MISUSE OF THE WORD
'ASSAULT."' Here was a case wherein a boy stepped on a girl's foot; this
gets dished out to the white public by the white press as an assault. Being
fed up on this insidious and vicious propaganda by the white press every
day, the average white man thinks that the average Negro is obsessed with
a desire to rape his women. He never stops to think that all Negroes are
pretty much like the one he goes off and leaves very day in the house with
his wife and daughter and who drives them down town and over the country
roads ALONE in the car. He never stops to think that Mr. Average Negro
is no different than the black man who he left alone with his women in the
South and went off to war for four long years and returned to find those wo-
men, everyone of them, undefiled.
Men strike matches into flame, but there are a lot of folks busy,
methodically busy, fixing that match so that combustion will take place long
before the individual who strikes the match thinks to strike. No mere
shamful illustration of this abuse and misrepresentation of the Negro can
be shown than in the Tulsa affair. Sarah Page is not so much to blame, for
in a degree, she had the same thing to fear as did Dick Rowland—MIS-
REPRESENTATION. If a white man saw Dick Rowland too near her she
had to explain, the easiest way was to her the best way.
The Chicago Tribune thinks that corrupt politics are behind this re-
cent outbreak. In our judgment this is true, provided we are going to stick
to the argument made in the foregoing paragraph. For example, a man
running for the legislature from Pittsburg county last year said in one of his
speeches that he did not think NIGGERS WERE A3 GOOD AS MULES."
That man did not believe that himself but the people who voted for him had
confidence in his judgment and it is quite likely that such propaganda of lies
reach out and fixes itself into the body politic thru such sources. Men kill
snakes and mules too without any compunction or qualm of conscience. It is
logical to suppose that the common ordinary white man would not have much
qualms of conscience when he started out dealing with a creature whom
his best minds, or those who he felt were his best minds, had told him were
lower in the scale than mules.
Tulsa can never restore what she has destroyed. In a discussion of
RESTITUTION there-are some- other items that enter into the equation that
are r.ot entirly physical. Getting back to first causes and factors what the
Negroes need have restored is their good name. We believe in that passage
of scripture which reads: "A GOOD NAME IS BETTER TO BE CHOSEN
THAN GREAT RICHES." The intelligent Negro it a better Negro than he
was when he was the white man's slave. A propaganda of lies has made this
seem not to be. If the awakened white ministry, the white newspaper
and the white statesman will stand up and tell the truth as he knows it he
can do more to crush the brutality among his masses than all the anti-lynch
laws and like legislation that states and the federal government can enact.
In Hour of Mob Violence
The Lesson of the Tulsa Riot
A Blessing In Disguise
By Drusilla Dunjee Houston
No beter thing could have happen
ed for the Negro race than the brutal
race riot at Tulsa. The white man
got a chance to look at the naked
heart, of its masses. In Headlining the
Gegro's sins he has grown callous to
the corruptions growink in the white
race. The sufferers of Tulsa are but
our martyrs, that shall bring to us a
quicker and a brighter dawn. I am
not much impressed with the TER-
ROR and COWARDICE showing up in
some of the advice that we are getting
from some of our leadership,
There is no greater mistake that
we could make just now, than to be
cowardly and cringing. We nave been
laying treasures upon earth and now
we are frightened about them. Bet
ter to have worn the things of this
world as a loose garment! Our cour-
age has left us because we have been
worshipping the idols with which this
land is filled. There is no house, or
wardrobe or furnishings that shall
rob me of the courage to look the
white man unflinchingly in the face.
What a pity that we have undermined
our courage with these things!
Some of those Tulsa homes had
eight hundred dollar bed room sets.
Have we gone mad? Do we not real-
ize that if our bank account ran into
five figures THAT WE WOULD
STILL BE POOR? We are adding
city lot to city lot, building to build-
ing and they are but barriers to God
and the right to life. Tulsa shows us
how easily all this can be swept away
without hope of insurance or damage.
We who are laying up treasures witn
little care of God and the uplift of a
downtrodden race might well TREM-
BLE.
Fifty-six years ago we were led
through a RED SEA of northern and
southern BLOOD to freedom: but we
have forgotten this. We are as sub-
jectly worshipping style, folly and
wealth as did Israel the Golden Calf.
We are squandering thousands on
show and giving nickles and dimes to
the church and educational growth
God is angry.
the Bible fro mthe public schools and
the substitution of the dance over the
protest of hundreds of fathers and
mothers with a conscience on the sub-
ject. This ministerial Alliance said
that the dance weakens the moral fi-
bre. Our people have rushed into
this thing with all the vim character-
istic of the Negro yet without fore-
thought and reflection. That we are
imitating WHITE FOLK Is sufficient.
Tulsa had a wide open Sabbath.
Amusement houses, parks, anything
ran on the Lord's Day. The motion
picture show popularizing dancing,
drinking, the use of weapons, pictured
lust and the breaking up. of homes, j
The Christian ministry, home and the
church are the subject for jokes.
Criminals, these pastors charged,
were .given freedom by powerful
friends with a political pull. Boot-
legging and blind joints flourished.
When these things come into full
growth, a city is ripe for destruction.
In such an hour sell out and move
out.
Because of our friendship for those
who have been weak enougn to invest
their substance in such follies, we fail
to cry out against those things which
will ruin the community. The Scrip-
tures tell us that, "WEALTH GOT-
TEN BY VANITY SHALL BE DI-
MINISHED." Why cannot we tell
the TRUT Hto our friend before he
has heaped up the meausre of ini-
quity. Some of our people are ter-
ribly alarmed at what seems to lie!
before us. If we have been living
right ( why should we need to fear.
Hath not the Master said, "The terror
shall not come nigh thy dwelling."
"In the hour of peril mine own shall
be HID.
I was in Tulsa one hour before the
riot began. I had noticed the wicked
air of the streets and ha donly been
in Tulsa three times in four years.
Old friends lived there who gave me
a most cordial invitation but my work
kept me from ever going. The day of
the riot I passed through on my way
to Muskogee. All day my mind told
me to return on the early train. So
insistant was the warning that I left
the college campus on the first car
from the grounds. The Midland Val-
ley train arrived in Tulsa about eight
o'clock.
My husband was there to meet me.
He was not feeling well but I remem-
ber he almost ran to the Frisco sta-
tion but the train was gone. We made
the same rush for the Interurban sta-
tion. I wondered at my husband. I
could hardly keep up with him. There
was then no hint of trouble. MY
GOD WAS TAKING ME OUT OP
THE DOOMED DISTRICT IN TIME.
Let us live right and God will con-
tinue guide us. Our race life paral-
lels the Jews. The Promised Land
was theirs at the end of SEVENTY
years. We have passed over only
5ft.
For four or five years more, race
terror .will brood over this nation. At
least from reasons of self-protection
the government will be forced to act.
Until then our fine clothes, furniture
and homes can go up in thin air. Let
us take our minds off this trash. I
gave up all three, six years ago for
God's work. Just now you could not
interest me in anything but NAKED
LAND. In 1915 in San Francisco 1
saw a Negro woman, hired out in
service, who was buying a thousand
************
MADAM JESSIE CARTER
WONDBNPUs. HAIR BROWER
No Mors—DANDRUFF.
NO dUre— FALLING HAIR.
No Moro—ITCHING SCALP.
NO More—TETTER.
No More—ECZEMA.
Gives h«alth to tho Seal*; Pro-
motes Growth of Long Fluffy
HAIR.
Utl Madam Jsssls Carter's
Wonderful Oils.
..Mo
Auer using two years i  now
.22 inches long
2761 Glensrm 8t., Denver, Col.
—PRICEB-
QROWING OIL 
PREMINO OIL 969 %
temple oil ** i
AGENTS WANTED ^
Cnelese Is Btamp fer Reply to ^
tetter*
* * * JS * « j,
Madam Jessie Carter
* * * * * t ****** *
* * *
THE MELROSE
For the Best
SERVICE IN THE CITY AND STATE
Twenty-four Cool, Clean, Newly Decorated Rooms
A HOTEL OF QUALITY AND SERVICE
For the Weary Colored Travelor
MRS. A. L. SMITH, Prop.
Great Western Temple, No. 20, ofi
Ancient Egyptian Arabic order off
Nobles °f the Mystic Shrine meets]
the first Friday night in each month.l
«n members are requested to be]
present at the next regular sesisonl
as we have some very important bus-,
iness to transact. I
T. S. Smith, 32nd, Illustrious Poten-,
tate 1
A. L. McKay, 32nd, Illustrious Re-|
corder
He will utterly des-
troy our idols, the white man is his        _  
SCOURGE. We are nautrally a spirit- dollar dining room set and SHE DID
ual people, any other kind of Negro NOT OWN A HOME. The Tulsa riot
will run counter to the place we must may bring us back to our senses,
occupy in God's plans. This is but a small fraction of the
Night after nigljt American youth money with which the Astors bought
sit to view lurid incitements to sen-up the acres through which they af-
suality and crime. The moving pi< tenvards became the richest family of
ture play paints life as cheap. It is New York. Let us put aside this friv-
an easy thing in the hour of mob vio-olous squandering of our money and
lence for the youth-or Uit.s nation to buy up land around the segregated
carry out the scenes that they view districts, from which the white rental
constantly. As a people we are fol agents are now gathering riches. We
lowing closely after these things that will have to look unflinchingly in the
are the ruin of the other race. We face of the low white and show him
are failing to put our money and tal- that we do not intend to RUN. You
ent into those things that would lift have looked into the eye of a vicious
a down trodden race. IMITATION of dog and by strength of will prevent-
FOLLY bids fair to lead us as a raceed an attack. Had you turned your
to RUIN. back he would have torn you in
The white pastors of Tulsa found pieces. It is the COWARD who is
the root of the riot in the moral de- killed, rarely ever the brave man.
cline of the city. The outlawing of 
FIGHT IT OUT IN THE COURTS
The Black Dispatch thinks that there ought immediately be started by
the Negroes of Tulsa a test case as to the responsibility of the municipality
for the destruction of their homes. .In all probability there will be no chance
for the Negroes to recover from the insurance companies who have no pro-
vision in their contracts for losses sustained thru riot, insurrection or civil
commotion. No attention should be paid to crocodile tears about restitution,
based on the theory that "we will GIVE YOU SOMETHING." We have head
the statements which infer that $1000.00 and $500.00 homes will be erected.
What can a black man or a white man build for $1000.00? Rather than take
such a miserable substitute for fairness, we believe that the Negroes should
at once institute a test case. All energy should be placed behind one case.
If one wins, all win, so far as ultimate and fair restitution is concerned.
There is plenty of law to back up such legal action as is herein proposed.
Money has been recovered where property was destroyed under such circum-
stances and we believe that the Negreos of Tuisa have a right to recover NOT
AS BEGGARS BUT AS AMERICAN CITIZENS, in the courts of the land.
those who are charged with being led. Dr. Page is a leader. Let us ac-
cept him as such and fall behind and push. Co-operation is what he needs
in putting across HIS PROGRAM. Anybody who has one, please shove it in
the discard for once and let us all look up to the man on the job who is big
enough to map out his own way.
Oklahoma's Riot Statute
If we are to have an honest and fearless investigation and
punishment of those who ruthlessly, wantonly and murderously
entered the homes of defenseless men and women and children in
the city of Tulsa, June 1st, the Black Dispatch wants to offer the
statutes as the ground for action of all of the 25,000 rioters as
murder. Read what the laws says and if justice is meted out on
a basis of the facts already established, there is a nelectric chaii
awaiting for hundreds of Tulsa's treacherous white vandals.
ARTICLE XLV.
OTHER CRIMES AGA'NST PUBLIC PEACE
2557. DISTURBING LAWFUL MEETINGS. Any person
who, without authority of law, wilfully disturbs or breaks up any
assembly or meeting, not unlawful in its character, other than a
religious meeting, public meeting of electors, or funeral, is guilty
of a misdemeanor.
2553. RIOT DEFINED. Any use of force or violence, or
   any threat to use force or violence if accompanied by immediate
In the judgment of the Black Dispatch, the thing for the Negroes cf power of execution, by three or more persons acting together
the city to do just now is to let Inman E. Page hoe his own row. We have, ^nd Without authority Js riot.
LET'S FOLLOW
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We are after a big gusher where a well is worth a million. TheS
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Second. If the purpose of the riotous assembly was to resist
the execution of any statute of this State or of the United States
or to obstruct any public officer of this State or of the United
States, in the performance of any legal duty or in serving or
executing any legal process, such person is punishable by im-
prisonment in the penitentiary not exceeding ten years and not
icss man two.
Third. If such person carried at the time of such riot anv
species of firearms or other deadly or dangerous weapon, or was
disguised, he is punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary
not exceeding ten years and not less than two.
Fourth. If such person directed, advised, encouraged or so-
'•cited other parsons who participated in the riot to acts of
force or violence, he is punishable by imprisonment in the peni-
tentiary for not exceeding twenty and not less than two years.
Fifth. In all other cases such person is punishable as for a
misdemeanor.
2560. ROUT DEFINED. Whenever three or more per-
sons acting together make any attempt to do any act toward the
commission of an act which would be riot if actually committed
such assembly is a rout '
2561. UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY DEFINED. Whenever
three or more persons assemble with intent or with means and
preparations to do an unlawful act which would be riot if actual-
ly committed, but do not act toward the commission thereof, or
whenever such persons assemble without authority of law, and in
such a manner as is adapted to disturb the public peace or excite
public alarm, such assembly is an unlawful assembly.
ccudi2?2-.PUN,8HME?t FOR ROUT OR UNLAWFUL AS-
SEMBLY. Any person who participates in any rout or unlawful
assembly is guilty of a misdemeanor.
2563. WARNING TO DISPERSE. Any person remain-
ing present at the place of any not, rout or unlawful assembly
after the same has been lawfully warned to disperse exceDt
public officers and persons assisting them in attempting to dis-
perse the same, is guilty of a misdemeanor.
2564. PRESENCE AFTER UNLAWFUL PURPOSES BE-
COMES KNOWN. Where three or more persons assemble for
a lawful purpose and afterwards, proceed to commit an act that
would amount to riot if it has been the original purpose of the
meeting, every person who does not retire when the charge of
purpose is made known, except public officers and persons as-
sisting them in attempting to disperse the same, is guilty of mis-
demeanor.
THE MASONIC ANNUAL THANKSGIVING PROGRAM
At Tabernacle Baptist Church, Sunday, June 19, 1921, 2 30 p m '
Introduction by Master of Ceremonies; Selection, A. M. E Choir- 'invo.
cation. Dr. E. W. Perry; Selection. A. M. E. Choir; Paper, Mrs' Clara Bunn
Vocal solo, Mrs. M. W. Hawkins; Paper. Mrs. Bettie Osborne; Music, Prof'
£2\£C.:   
L
Ceremonies; E. Huff-
overt act of Dr. Page just now would place him in the same catagory with in the same manner as a principal in such crime.
1
man and E. C. Dunn, Marshalls.