Tag: Tulsa OK

Hellraisers Journal: The New York Age: “Oklahoma Whites Attempt To Destroy Entire Negro Section” -the Tulsa Massacre

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Claude McKay, Fighting Back, Messenger p4, Sept 1919—————-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 5, 1921
Tulsa, Oklahoma – Whites Burn Greenwood Section, Massacre Citizens

From The New York Age of June 4, 1921:

Tulsa Massacre BNR HdLn, NY Age p1, June 4, 1921——Tulsa Massacre re Negro Section, NY Age p1, June 4, 1921—–Tulsa Massacre Extra 75 Dead, NY Age p1, June 4, 1921

Tulsa, Okla, Wednesday, June1.-Governor Robertson, in a message received here at noon proclaimed all of Tulsa county under martial law, as a result of rioting which is reported to have caused the deaths of a least seventy-five persons, mostly Negroes, and the wounding of many more.

Nearly ten square blocks of the Negro section of the city, where an armed battled has been in progress since last night, in in flames……

Detachments of guardsmen, armed with machine guns, were scattered throughout the city. Guards surrounded the armory while others assisted in rounding up Negroes and segregating them in the jail. Convention Hall, Baseball Park and other places which had been turned into prison camps….. Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: The New York Age: “Oklahoma Whites Attempt To Destroy Entire Negro Section” -the Tulsa Massacre” →

Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “Tulsa, November 9th” – First-Hand Account from Secretary of IWW Local

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Don’t worry, Fellow Worker,
all we’re going to need
from now on is guts.
-Frank Little

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday April 11, 1918
From The Liberator – I. W. W. Secretary on Tulsa Mob Violence

Tulsa, November 9th

WWIR, IWW Flog Tar Feather, Morn Tulsa Dly Wld, Nov 10, 1917

[EDITOR’S NOTE:-In this story of persecution and outrage at Tulsa, Oklahoma, told in the sworn statement of one of the victims, there is direct and detailed evidence of one of the most menacing by-products of the war. Here in Tulsa, as in Bisbee and Butte and Cincinnati, patriotic fervor was used by employers with the connivance or open co-operation of local officials, as a mask for utterly lawless attacks upon workingmen who attempted to organize for better conditions. This false resort to loyalty on the part of certain war profiteers is emphasized in the recent report of the President’s Mediation Commission. These cowardly masked upper-class mobs, calling themselves “Knights of Liberty” and mumbling hypocritical words about “the women and children of Belgium,” will not succeed in terrorizing the labor movement of America, nor will they tend to make it more patriotic.]

On November 9, 1917, seventeen men, taken from the custody of the city police of Tulsa, Oklahoma, were whipped, tarred and feathered, and driven out of the city with a warning never to return.

In a letter dated December 21, a resident* of Tulsa, writes:

I think it is only fair to say that the bottom cause of this trouble locally was that a few men, presumably belonging the I. W. W. came into the oil fields something like a year ago and were meeting with considerable success in getting oil-field workers-especially pipe-line and tank builders-to fight for better wages and shorter hours.

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Hellraisers Journal: Drumright Follows Tulsa: IWW Hall Raided, FWs Forced to Throw Bricks Thru Window

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Don’t worry, Fellow Worker,
all we’re going to need
from now on is guts.
-Frank Little

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Saturday November 17, 1917
Drumright, Oklahoma – Takes Cue From Tulsa “Knights of Liberty”

From The Leavenworth Weekly Times of November 15, 1917:

DRUMRIGHT TAKES CUE;
ORDERS ALL I.W.W.’S TO FLEE
—–

ARE FORCED TO HEAVE BRICKS THROUGH
HEADQUARTERS WINDOWS
—–

IN FOR GENRAL CLEAN-UP
—–

Sheriff Issues Statement Urging Shooting on Sight of
Any I. W. W. Suspect Caught Molesting Property-
Plot to Aid I. W. W. Prisoners to Escape
Cook County Jail Frustrated-
Workers Call Convention in Omaha-
4,000 to 5,000 Members Will Be Present
—–

WWIR, IWW Flog Tar Feather, Morn Tulsa Dly Wld, Nov 10, 1917

Tulsa, Okla. Nov. 10.-Taking their cue from the actions of the “Knights of Liberty” of Tulsa who last night flogged, tarred and feathered seventeen members of the I. W. W. and warned all others to flee, officers at Drumright today raided the I. W. W. headquarters there, arrested the secretary and at the point of the pistol forced the men found in the hall to throw bricks through the window on which the sign had been painted. Then all were ordered to “get out.”

Drumright recently was the center of a threatened I. W. W. uprising in the adjacent fields.

Sheriff Griff Graham of Washington county issued a statement today urging the shooting on sight of any I. W. W. suspect caught molesting property.

Several letters were received today by Tulsa newspapers asking if they could put the writers in touch with the “Knights of Liberty” saying they would like to organize other bodies of the same order. No one here can be found who will admit knowing anything of the inside workings of the order.

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Hellraisers Journal: Night of Terror in Tulsa: IWWs Taken From Jail, Whipped & Tarred by “Knights of Liberty”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Strangle the I. W. W.’s.
Kill them, just as you would kill
any other kind of a snake.
Don’t scotch ’em; kill ’em.
And kill ’em dead.
–The Tulsa Daily World

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday November 12, 1917
Tulsa, Oklahoma – Fellow Workers Face Night of Terror

From The Tulsa Daily World of November 10, 1917:

WWIR, IWW Flog Tar Feather, Morn Tulsa Dly Wld, Nov 10, 1917

Three automobile loads of I. W. W.’s, in charge of policemen, were halted on Boulder avenue, near Archer, last night at 11 o’clock by a crowd of men garbed in long black robes and wearing black masks. The officers were forced to drive their prisoners to a secluded spot west of Irving Place, where, with impressive ceremonies each of the I. W. W.’s was lashed with a cat-o’-nine-tails. Then a coat of hot tar was applied to the bleeding back and feathers applied.

With each stroke of the brush the black-robed man in charge of the ceremony uttered the words:

“In the name of the outraged women and children of Belgium.”

With nothing on but their trousers the men were started toward the Osage hills. Hundreds of rifle and revolver shots were fired in the air and they sped into the inky darkness of the night.

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Hellraisers Journal: The International Socialist Review on the September 5th Raids Made Upon the IWW and the SPA

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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We ask the membership to redouble their efforts
to build up the organization to the end that
the lot of the workers may be bettered,
and their toil-worn existence brightened.
-Big Bill Haywood

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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday October 2, 1917
From the International Socialist Review: Raids and More Raids

This month’s edition of the Review describes the raids conducted September 5th by Federa Agents at the behest of the U. S. Department of Justice upon the headquarters and regional offices of the Industrial Workers of the World and the Socialist Party of America:

SP Nat HQ w Germer, ISR Oct 1917

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The I. W. W. and the Socialist Party

SIMULTANEOUSLY on September 5th, representatives of the U. S. Government raided the national offices of the Socialist party and of the I. W. W. Chicago, and of some twenty branch offices of the I. W. W. in different states. U. S. marshals armed with search warrants have taken files, records, pamphlets, leaflets and in many places the entire offices were cleaned out.

Such a wholesale and simultaneous invasion upon the offices of a labor and Socialist organization have never taken place before in the history of this country. The charge has been made that the I. W. W. is a seditious organization and that the I. W. W. and the Socialist Party headquarters are guilty of violating the Espionage Act.

From the National Office

SEPTEMBER 5th a force of Federal Agents took possession of the national office. A thoro search of the office was made and later copies of books, leaflets, records and lists were taken.

This material is to be placed before the grand jury. The charge made against the national office is that some of the comrades have violated the Espionage Act.

It may have been the intention to conceal the real purpose of this search, but the inference was left that there was no disposition to interfere with the routine work of the party. If the information given us is correct, we will be permitted to continue our regular activities except so far as we interfere with the war program.

We appeal to the members of the party to lay special stress on organization at this time. Every member should enlist as a recruiting officer in order to build up the party machinery so that we can win a sweeping victory in the congressional elections of 1918.

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