Research Catalog

The nation must awake : my witness to the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921

Title

The nation must awake : my witness to the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 / Mary E. Jones Parrish ; foreword by John Hope Franklin ; introduction by John Hope Franklin and Scott Ellsworth ; afterword by Anneliese M. Bruner.

Author

Parrish, Mary E. Jones

Publication

San Antonio, Texas : Trinity University Press, [2021]
©2021

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request Scan Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schomburg Center to submit a request in person.	Text	Use in library	Sc D 22-443	Schomburg Center - Research & Reference

Details

Additional Authors

Description

xviii, 129 pages : illustrations; 22 cm

Summary

"Mary Parrish was reading in her home when the Tulsa race massacre began on the evening of May 31, 1921. Parrish's daughter, Florence Mary, called the young journalist and teacher to the window. "Mother," she said, "I see men with guns." The two eventually fled into the night under a hail of bullets and unwittingly became eyewitnesses to one of the greatest race tragedies in American history. Spurred by word that a young Black man was about to be lynched for stepping on a white woman's foot, a three-day riot erupted that saw the death of hundreds of Black Oklahomans and the destruction of the Greenwood district, a prosperous, primarily Black area known nationally as Black Wall Street. The murdered were buried in mass graves, thousands were left homeless, and millions of dollars worth of Black-owned property was burned to the ground. The incident, which was hidden from history for decades, is now recognized as one of the worst episodes of racial violence in the United States. The Nation Must Awake, published for a wide audience for the first time, is Parrish's first-person account, along with the recollections of dozens of others, compiled immediately following the tragedy under the name Events of the Tulsa Race Disaster. With meticulous attention to detail that transports readers to those fateful days, Parrish documents the magnitude of the loss of human life and property at the hands of white vigilantes. The testimonies shine light on Black residents' bravery and the horror of seeing their neighbors gunned down and their community lost to flames. Parrish hoped that her book would "open the eyes of the thinking people to the impending danger of letting such conditions exist and in the 'Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.' " Although the story is a hundred years old, elements of its racial injustices are still being replayed in the streets of America today. Includes an afterword by Anneliese M. Bruner, Parrish's great-granddaughter, and an introduction by the late historian John Hope Franklin and Scott Ellsworth, author of The Ground Breaking: An American City and Its Search for Justice."--Provided by publisher.

Subjects

Genre/Form

Personal narratives.
History.

Note

Includes the original 1923 version of Parrish's "Events of the Tulsa Disaster".

Contents

Foreword to the new edition / John Hope Franklin -- Introduction to the new edition / John Hope Franklin and Scott Ellsworth -- Events of the Tulsa disaster / Mary E. Jones Parish -- Preface ; My experience in Tulsa ; Testimonials of the Tulsa riot ; Partial list of losses sustained by victims of the Tulsa riots -- Afterword / Anneliese M. Bruner.

Call Number

Sc D 22-443

ISBN

159534943X
9781595349439
9781595349446
1595349448

LCCN

2021939585

OCLC

1252906287

Author

Parrish, Mary E. Jones, author.

Title

Publisher

San Antonio, Texas : Trinity University Press, [2021]

Copyright Date

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Physical Medium

perfect binding rdatb

monochrome rdapcc

illustrations

Chronological Term

1900-1999

Local Subject

Black author.

Added Author

Franklin, John Hope, 1915-2009, writer of foreword.

Ellsworth, Scott (Historian), writer of introduction.

Bruner, Anneliese M., writer of afterword.

Container of (work) : Parrish, Mary E. Jones. Events of the Tulsa disaster.

Research Call Number

Sc D 22-443

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