Responding to a 'Negro Uprising'

In the response stage of riots, officials make several decisions that are critical to the communities seeking to recover. First, officials make decisions about maintaining order and returning to the status quo. Second, they decide how they will publicly present, or frame the events. Broader perceptions of the riot will be heavily influenced by the official narratives that have been crafted for public consumption. Third, authorities must make a determination regarding resources. What, if any, will be made available? How will they be distributed? To whom will economic support be allotted? Finally, officials must take the future into consideration. What, if any, measures can be taken to rectify the conditions that led to the riot? What can be done for the people who had their property destroyed or lost family members? This chapter will examine the response stage of the Tulsa Massacre. While the massacre itself was devastating to Greenwood residents, government and agency responses to the violence were themselves crippling, and often amounted to a re-victimization of those already harmed.