A New York professor and Tulsa DA helped clear records of Black men accused of wrongdoing in Race Massacre

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    TULSA, Oklahoma (Tulsa World) — During a cold winter day in Tulsa, the Greenwood Cultural Center was one of the few places in the city at the time that had working utilities.

That’s because days earlier, on Dec. 8, 2007, a storm encased Tulsa in ice and snow that led to 80% of residents being left without power and the city losing an estimated 20,000 trees when it was over.

Three days later, on Dec. 11, then-Tulsa County District Judge Jesse Harris, former Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris and others gathered inside the multipurpose space near downtown for a special court hearing that would right what some had long considered a historic wrong.

Tim Harris filed a motion for dismissal of a then-86-year-old indictment related to the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

It involved charges for various offenses against 56 men — all of them Black — issued by a Tulsa County grand jury nearly two weeks after the event.

In addition to allegations of rioting, unlawful use of firearms and theft on the night of May 31, 1921, one of the more serious charges was murder stemming from the death of Walter Daggs, a white man who was among the first people confirmed to have died during the violence.

After Tim Harris argued that he could not find evidence supporting the original indictment, Jesse Harris granted the overture to drop all the charges.

“Justice delayed in this instance is not justice denied,” Jesse Harris said during the 10-minute proceeding. “Justice at any time is an essential part of justice at all times.”

That chapter of massacre lore might have been closed if not for the efforts of Barbara Nevergold, a University of Buffalo professor and historian who researched and wrote extensively about A.J. Smitherman, one of the men later indicted by authorities.

Nevergold’s campaign for Smitherman began in 2003 shortly after an interaction with Tulsa educator and activist Eddie Faye Gates.

Gates, who devoted much of her life documenting the massacre, told Nevergold about Smitherman, then described as one of the “principal” figures during the event. Her curiosity, said Nevergold, about Smitherman’s role in the massacre was piqued.

“I really committed the next three years or so, and did a lot of research,” she told the Tulsa World during a recent phone interview.

She and colleague Peggy Brooks-Bertram launched an Oklahoma Centennial Commemorative Project with an accompanying book titled, “Uncrowned Queens, African American Community Builders of Oklahoma” that contained a biography of Smitherman written by Nevergold.

Smitherman, a crusading and fiery journalist who founded the Tulsa Star, was a prominent voice for Black empowerment and vehemently spoke out against lynchings and corruption.

An accounting of the massacre identified him as a leader of a group of armed Black men who went down to the Tulsa County Courthouse on the belief that Dick Rowland might be targeted by a white mob.

A confrontation at the courthouse then ensued, which sparked 16 hours of violence and destruction that left hundreds injured and thousands more homeless.

The massacre, which occurred over May 31-June 1, 1921, when white mobs invaded the predominantly African-American Greenwood District in Tulsa, resulted in desolation of 35 blocks of the community.

It also resulted in at least 37 fatalities. Unofficial estimates suggest the death toll is substantially higher.

Smitherman, whose newspaper and home were destroyed, was arrested along with his brother, Sheriff’s Deputy John Smitherman. The men, however, fell victim — like many others who faced charges — to general predispositions of who was responsible for the turbulence.

Adjutant General Charles Barrett, in command of the Oklahoma National Guard at the time, was quoted in local newspapers saying that the riot was caused by “an impudent Negro, a hysterical girl, and a yellow journal reporter.”

Tulsa Mayor T.D. Evans, elected in April 1920, said in a statement published by the World that culpability rested solely on “armed negroes and their followers who started this trouble and who instigated it. And any persons who seek to put half the blame on the white people are wrong and should be told in no uncertain language … It is the judgment of many wise heads in Tulsa, based upon observation of a number of years, that this uprising was inevitable.”

Some later faulted Tulsa newspapers — the World and Tulsa Tribune — for publishing stories and editorials before and after the massacre that sparked the attack on Greenwood.

Despite Black Tulsans in Greenwood suffering the brunt of damage and witness testimonies stating that law enforcement actively assisted white mobs in damaging the thriving community, authorities shifted blame heavily on African American actors instead.

An all-white grand jury summoned the second week of June to investigate the massacre concluded only the armed Black men at the courthouse — not any whites who participated — were the direct cause of the uproar.

“We find that the recent race riot was the direct result of an effort on the part of a certain group of colored men who appeared at the courthouse on the night of May 31, 1921, for the purpose of protecting one Dick Rowland,” according to a statement found in the June 26, 1921, issue of the Tulsa World with the headline, “Grand Jury Blames Negroes for Inciting Race Rioting. Whites Clearly Exonerated.’’

After bonding out of jail and his business and property left in ruins, A.J. Smitherman exited Tulsa for stops in St. Louis, Boston, then Buffalo.

In between, there were attempts by Oklahoma authorities to extradite Smitherman back to the state to stand trial on charges of inciting a riot but officials elsewhere in did not capitulate.

In retaliation for the lack of cooperation, members of the Ku Klux Klan in Oklahoma reportedly attacked and cut off John Smitherman’s ear as an act of intimidation.

Except for a few cases and a trial that resulted in the suspension of Tulsa Police Chief John Gustafson for dereliction of duty, there were no real criminal charges levied against anyone related to the massacre.

It was western New York, in 1925, where Smitherman, his wife and children finally settled. The longtime journalist soon started the Buffalo Star newspaper in 1932. He would later rename it the Empire Star.

Along the way, he achieved prominence in the Black community by running for the city council and was heavily involved in the local YMCA.

It was Smitherman’s lifelong valor and impact in Buffalo that prompted Nevergold to call and write Tim Harris for nearly a year to make a case for expungement.

“I laid out the fact that I thought he was a person who led an exemplary life,” Nevergold said. “And even having lost everything, he rebuilt his life and became an outstanding citizen in Buffalo with very few people knowing about his background.”

At her request, Harris studied the records and other information released by the Tulsa Race Riot Commission as what he described “a legal duty to dig deep.” Among the items discovered was an affidavit requesting a change of venue on the behalf of Smitherman over concerns he couldn’t get a fair trial due to the racial make up of the jury, and that they would be influenced by grand jury statements reported in local newspapers.

In examining documents, Harris concluded that the evidence presented did not support the guilt of Smitherman or any other person accused by law enforcement, especially after authorities failed to aggressively pursue prosecution in the months after the massacre.

A relative of Smitherman also pressed Harris to dismiss the charges, too.

“I couldn’t really find any strong evidence to support the allegation,” he said. “And I said, ‘You know what, I think one part of what Tim Harris might be able to do as healing for this community is to clear your family’s name and take this outstanding indictment that hangs over A.J. Smitherman and all the other defendants.’”

Charges against J.B. Stradford, one of many indicted along with Smitherman, were dismissed by then-Tulsa County District Attorney Bill LaFortune in 2000.

Reflecting back some 14 years later, Nevergold — with no other ties to the massacre other than chronicling a singular character in the incident — was pleased that her work resonated enough to clear the records of otherwise innocent men and help uncover another untold portion of history.

“For me, this was a significant individual whose story was significant,” said Nevergold, who will host a webinar detailing her investigative work. “He’s a man whose story should come out of the shadows and should be well-known.

“I just like to think of him being a phoenix that really rose from those ashes. I know there are other men and women who survived who also have lives that should be amplified.”

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