Chapter Objectives

Chapter Overview

By the 1920s an oil boom in Oklahoma produced great wealth. But corruption, political instability, and violence marked the decade. In this chapter, we will learn that the Tulsa Race Massacre led to massive casualties and the destruction of Black Wall Street. In the “Reign of Terror,” Osage people were murdered by white men in plots to gain control over inherited mineral rights. This period in Oklahoma’s history was marked by violence and suspicion. Students will consider how conflicts in the early statehood period resulted in instability and uncertainty for different groups of Oklahomans.

“I feel that this damnable affair has ruined us all,” said Carrie Kinlaw as she described her frightening experience in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Kinlaw’s statement referred to the significant loss of life and property Black Tulsans suffered, but it could well apply to everyone who was touched by or who contributed to the horrifying events that took place in Tulsa. While many Oklahomans had welcomed the dawn of the new decade with hope and enthusiasm, the 1920s proved to be a decade of contradictions and extremes. The First World War ended in late 1918. The flu epidemic raged on, but it too subsided in another year’s time. Oklahomans, along with other Americans, felt a renewed sense of hope and prosperity. The higher wartime prices for crops like cotton and wheat began to decrease once the war ended. Soldiers returned home and competition arose for jobs and other opportunities. While manufacturing and farming industries began to struggle, the oil boom proved beneficial especially in the first half of the decade as a record number of Americans bought automobiles and demand for oil remained high.

So, on the face of it, the 1920s were ripe with possibility. But as it happened, the decade was full of challenges and no small amount of horror. Racial tensions were flaring. The far-away Bolshevik Revolution in Russia created fears at home. As Communists gained control of Russia and promised to spread communism to the rest of the world, Oklahomans distanced themselves from their radical past. The Green Corn Rebellion and the Jones Family conspiracy trial had already led to a significant decrease in Oklahoma’s Socialist Party membership. Many Oklahomans developed an increasing fear of anti-American and pro-Communist movements that unfolded nationally after the First World War. Now they wanted to rid themselves of any lingering sympathies for socialism or antigovernment ideas.