One down, two to go. It may not be fair to attribute that as the reaction of the city of Tulsa and other entities to the death of Hughes Van Ellis, but Tulsa has not treated Ellis and others like him fairly for more than 100 years. Ellis died Oct. 9 at the age of 102.
pictorial history of an ugly chapter in U.S. history On June 1, groups of white men went to the courthouse with the intent of lynching the Black teen. Twice, they were confronted by dozens of armed Black men, many World War I veterans, who were there to protect the teen. They did, but they could not stop the orgy of violence to come. Black Tulsans, including women and children, fell to fire from machine guns and were attacked from airplanes, from which incendiary devices were dropped.