"How long will you let mob violence reign supreme?"

They still do.

The scene was horrific a century ago when the armed white mob, fortified by law enforcement, descended on Greenwood, an all-Black district just north of downtown Tulsa.

They skipped the lead-up by a whole fuck-ton. This information is comming from just wikipedia to show you how truly biased this is going to be.

Lyncherdom was already a problem in Oklahoma, as a white accused murderer had been previously lynched by a white mob. In this case, the suspect, Mr. Rowland was investigated for a possible assault and was briefly detained. The alleged victim of the assault was not interested in pressing charges.

None the less, the media fanned the flames of outrage and helped to send a white lynchmob to the courthouse where the Mr. Rowland was being held.

Black residents assumed that the police may turn Mr. Rowland over to the mob and gathered weapons to escort him out, since the police had not intended to press charges. Some members of the black community were worried that this would cause a confrontation because of the fevered pitch the media had whipped people up into.

This is the statement given by the Sherrif:

I saw a car full of negroes driving through the streets with guns; I saw Bill McCullough and told him those negroes would cause trouble; McCullough tried to talk to them, and they got out and stood in single file. W. G. Daggs was killed near Boulder and Sixth street. I was under the impression that a man with authority could have stopped and disarmed them. I saw Chief of Police on south side of court house on top step, talking; I did not see any officer except the Chief; I walked in the court house and met McCullough in about 15 feet of his door; I told him these negroes were going to make trouble, and he said he had told them to go home; he went out and told the Whites to go home, and one said "they said you told them to come up here." McCullough said "I did not" and a negro said you did tell us to come.

Key phrase: "I saw a car full of negroes driving through the streets with guns; I saw Bill McCullough and told him those negroes would cause trouble"

Now remember what NPR lead the story with:

"Mother, I see men with guns," said Florence Mary Parrish, a small child looking out the window on the evening of May 31, 1921, when the siege began.

NPR is doing the same shit that the media did 100 years ago. Riling people up at the sight of men with guns.

Whites assumed that blacks had taken over the police and were letting a rapist go free because they saw black people with guns. Now NPR is pushing an identical narrative that the police were in support of the other side because they saw men with guns.

The media is the enemy of the people.

Anyways. Law enforcement was continuing to hold the white mob at bay (not in support of it), and the National Guard armory was already attacked by a white mob attempting to seize weapons from them (again, not in support of it). The situation at the court-house degraded quickly and it led to an exchange of gunfire that led 10 whites and 2 blacks dead. The white mob, outnumbering the armed blacks 2,000-50 forced them back into the rest of the town and seem to target blacks indiscriminately as the group of 50 withdrew.

The narrative at the court-house appears to be the origin of a "negro uprising" as that stemmed from claims that the police where being controlled by a black militia. This rumor seems to have spread through official channels as the situation spiraled out of control.

White racial partisans appeared to launch, what I would refer to as, raids into the black neighborhood of Greenwood. These raids were met with stiff resistance, and heavy gunfire in response. Where successful, white partisans burned buildings and fired on white firefighters who attempted to put out blazes. They also fired on a train of non-combatants that they assumed was a trainload of black partisan reinforcements. The white partisans would also seize black servants of white families as they raided white communities as well, and these black servants would then be taken to law enforcement. How that worked when LE still had no idea what was going on, makes no sense to me.

However, during the conflict, it's clear that this was not all one side. The initial push by white partisans was one-sided by as non-combatants fled Greenwood, black partisans seemed to engage in, what I would call, combat patrols for white partisans and cause ensuing gunfights. Black partisans also seemed to take up sniper positions as well, firing on white partisans.

Again, the claim of "fortified by law enforcement" is a curious one to me, as white Firefighters report being actively shot at by White Partisan raiders as they attempted to put out fires in Greenwood. And this was inspired by an exchange of gunfire at the courthouse which the police were protecting.

Once the National Guard arrived to restore order, it appears that the white partisans were able to be dispersed rather peaceably, but the remaining black partisans in Greenwood seemed to be hostile to the predominantly white National Guard forces... no shit. Apparently, the National Guard did clear out Greenwood due to receiving black partisan sniper fire, and a few small skirmishes. I don't doubt for a moment that due to the terror of the situation, the remaining black partisans of Greenwood assumed that the National Guard was there to kill them.

The National Guard seemed to somehow receive the rumor about a "negro uprising" and they seemed to treat Greenwood in that way, conducting mass arrests under martial law of many blacks in the area. IIRC from previous research, this may have been from local/state government forces that were on the side of the white partisans passing along bad information.

As to whether or not the National Guard was acting in explicit support of white partisans, this line from Wikipedia is pretty telling:

By June 6, the Associated Press reported that a citizens' Public Safety Committee had been established, made up of 250 White men who vowed to protect the city and put down any more disturbance. A White man was shot and killed that day after he failed to stop as ordered by a National Guardsman.

The NG were probably not white partisans, since they were still shooting at white partisans in later weeks.

And as for the famous "dropping bombs on people", there appears to be no evidence of this besides... ahem... discovered witness testimony that only appeared past the end of the millennium. Law enforcement admit to there being 1 plane they used for observation, there is apparently no evidence to support the claims of turpentine bombs, or strafing runs.

The article actually doesn't contain much in the way of a description of the events but it seems pretty clear to me that you can't call this a "massacre" even from a source as biased as Wikipedia who already changed the name of the damn article.

I'm also alarmed by the use of sources that were "discovered". Not to mention the heavy politicization of the events.

"How do you get past the trauma, the hurt, the pain, the fear, the chaos without truth?"

You don't. That's why you don't tell the truth. It's more profitable this way.