The massacre began over
Memorial Day weekend after 19-year-old
Dick Rowland, a black
shoeshiner, was accused of assaulting Sarah Page, the 17-year-old white
elevator operator of the nearby Drexel Building. He was taken into custody. A subsequent gathering of angry local
whites outside the courthouse where Rowland was being held, and the spread of rumors he had been
lynched, alarmed the local
black population, some of whom arrived at the courthouse armed. Shots were fired and 12 people were killed: 10 white and 2 black.
[18] As news of these deaths spread throughout the city, mob violence exploded.
[2] White rioters rampaged through the black neighborhood that night and morning killing men and burning and looting stores and homes, and only around noon the next day
Oklahoma National Guard troops managed to get control of the situation by declaring martial law. About 10,000 black people were left homeless, and property damage amounted to more than $1.5 million in real estate and $750,000 in personal property (equivalent to $32.25 million in 2019). Their property was never recovered nor were they compensated for it.