Ruins after the race riots. The Tulsa race riot of 1921 began over Memorial Day weekend after 19-year-old Dick Rowland, a black shoeshiner, was accused of assaulting Sarah Page, a 17-year-old white elevator operator. After he was taken into custody, a group of armed black men, worried about a possible lynching, rushed to the police station where they encountered a crowd of white men and women. Shots were fired, and 12 people were killed, 10 white and 2 black. Mob violence exploded. 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 ($32 million in 2019). American National Red Cross photograph collection, 1921.