Dick Rowland

Dick Rowland was an African American shoe shiner at the center of the Tulsa race massacre in 1921. On May 30, 1921, Rowland was accused of assaulting Sarah Page, a white elevator operator. The Tulsa Tribune published a story alleging rape, leading to a confrontation at the courthouse where Rowland was being held. This incident ignited the massacre, during which white mobs destroyed Tulsa's prosperous Black neighborhood of Greenwood, also known as "Black Wall Street". The massacre resulted in 30 to 300 deaths, primarily African Americans, and left thousands homeless. The event was largely omitted from historical accounts until the late 1990s.12