FishWrap, a blog associated with the website “https://www.newspapers.com/ which is an online archive of historical newspapers, has recently announced the addition of Tulsa World to their collection.
The digital organisation have excitedly made known the inclusion of the Tulsa World into their newspaper archives. The newspaper was established in 1905, when Oklahoma was still a territory and two years away from gaining statehood. The most significant event in Tulsa at the time was the laying of a new strip of cement pavement in front of the Alexander building on Main Street. Since its inception, the Tulsa World has been documenting local, national, and international news for over a century and includes issues from The Tulsa Evening Sun and The Tulsa Sentinel.
Just two months after the publication of the first Tulsa World newspaper, oil was discovered on a property owned by Tulsa resident Ida E. Glenn, known as the Glenn Pool Oil Reserve. The oil boom brought tremendous growth to the state, with the fields producing over 20 million barrels by 1908. Tulsa proclaimed itself as the “Oil Capital of the World” and attracted oil tycoons like Harry Sinclair and J. Paul Getty.
In 1921, Tulsa was the site of a violent outbreak known as the Tulsa Race Massacre. After World War I, Tulsa received national recognition for its thriving Black community, known as the Greenwood District. However, the area became the centre of violence for 18 hours between May 31st and June 1st, 1921. On May 31st, a young Black man was accused of assaulting a white woman in an elevator in a South Main Street office building. Stories of the event spread and became exaggerated, leading to a white mob attacking residents and properties in the Greenwood District. 35 city blocks were destroyed, leaving many injured and killed, with death certificates issued for 37 people, but the actual death toll is believed to be higher. Recently, Tulsa has started excavating a cemetery to find and identify the victims of the 1921 massacre.
The Tulsa World offers a valuable resource for researching the city’s residents and history. If you have ancestors from Tulsa, you may discover their stories in the news articles, obituaries, birth announcements, personal columns, and more.
