Did They Really Drop Bombs During The Tulsa Race Massacre?

There’s a strange little detail about the Tulsa Race Massacre that sounds so unbelievable you might assume somebody made it up.

There are historical accounts saying airplanes were used to attack from above.

Yeah, airplanes dropping bombs.

If you think that sounds too far-fetched, I thought so too... But then I think back to how Oklahoma history was taught when I came up through school, and we didn't even learn about this event at all, and now planes were fire-bombing the area?

You may not know about the Tulsa Race Massacre or Greenwood, but you've surely heard the story of Oklahoma's “Black Wall Street.” This is that story. White mobs looted and burned homes and businesses, while people on the ground exchanged gunfire... And apparently there was air warfare going on too.

Did Airplanes Really Attack Greenwood?

The Oklahoma Historical Society says some people who witnessed the massacre recalled seeing airplanes dropping bombs on Greenwood. Other accounts describe planes being used for reconnaissance, while some witnesses reported shooting from the aircraft and incendiary devices being dropped.

That doesn’t necessarily mean Tulsa was subjected to some sort of organized aerial bombing campaign... In fact, that’s where the story gets less clear.

What Historians Say About The Tulsa Air Attacks

The Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 devoted an entire section of its report to the airplanes. Its conclusion was essentially that some kind of aerial attack was possible, but the evidence suggested it was relatively minor and did not have a significant effect on the destruction of Greenwood.

All of that goes to show one of two things. Either it's the old human tradition of telling the most dramatic version of an experience possible, which you and I both know is completely on-brand with us, you know, humans... Or, it's the old saying that those who write the history books control the narrative.

Either is plausible, a total 50/50. But the airplanes were real. Multiple eyewitnesses talked about them. Lawyer B.C. Franklin, who survived the massacre and later became one of the most important voices documenting what happened, described aerial attacks in his own accounts. The Oklahoma Historical Society still acknowledges those eyewitness accounts today, even if they discount any effect it could have had on the situation.

Did they drop bombs on Greenwood? The evidence says the people who were there believed they did.

Was Greenwood subjected to a large-scale aerial bombing attack? The historical record doesn't mesh with that.

What Happened To Greenwood In 1921?

Either way, the larger story doesn't need the airplanes to make it horrifying. Thirty-five blocks of Greenwood were destroyed, more than 1,200 homes were burned, thousands of Black Tulsans were left homeless, and historians estimate that as many as 300 people may have died.

The airplanes are just one of those strange details that remind you how much of history can survive in fragments.