The Tulsa Outrage was an act of vigilante violence perpetrated by the Knights of Liberty against members of the

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), whose members are nicknamed "Wobblies", is an international labor union founded in Chicago, United States in 1905. The nickname's origin is uncertain. Its ideology combines general unionism with indu ...

amidst

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

on November 9, 1917, in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa ( ) is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, second-most-populous city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the List of United States cities by population, 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The po ...

. In April 1917 the United States entered

and Governor Robert L. Williams extralegally created the State Council of Defense and local county councils to help administer the state during the war. County councils, staffed by local elites, frequently targeted their local enemies, including union organizers. On November 5, 1917, the Tulsa Police Department raided the local IWW headquarters and arrested 11 men. After a trial November 8, the men were loaded into vehicles, taken to the edge of town, and tar and feathered by a group of men affiliated with the Knights of Liberty that include W. Tate Brady. Local media praised the incident, while it was largely denounced by national media.

Background

Prior to

, the

(IWW) saw some success in unionizing oil workers in

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

. In April 1917 the United States entered World War I while the

Oklahoma Legislature The Legislature of the State of Oklahoma is the state legislative branch of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The Oklahoma House of Representatives and Oklahoma Senate are the two houses that make up the bicameral state legislature. There are 101 ...

was out of session. Governor Robert L. Williams used the war as justification for the creation of the State Council of Defense and local county councils of defense to oversee the state during the war. Williams personally appointed members to these councils. Since the councils in Oklahoma were created without the approval of the state Legislature, they lacked legal authority and were extralegal. The Councils of Defense relied on public opinion in order to maintain legitimacy. In practice, this meant the councils frequently targeted local enemies with violence and intimidation. The Tulsa County Council of Defense (TCCD), the state's most aggressive and powerful county council, was formed July 11, 1917. Its inaugural members were J. Burr Gibbons, Robert M. McFarlin, Glenn Condon, H. C. "Harry" Tyrrell, and Lilah Denton Lindsey. Glenn Condon was named managing editor of the '' Tulsa Daily World'' months earlier in March 1917 and began publishing "increasingly bloody-minded editorials" against the

. On August 2, 1917, the Green Corn Rebellion uprising led to an increase in anti-socialist and anti-union sentiment in the state. After an explosion at the home of J. Edgar Pew, the vice-president of Carter Oil Company, on October 29, 1917, the TCCD announced the creation of a 150-man

Home Guard Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense. The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting ...

. The TCCD would later call the Home Guard its "right arm of power". The Home Guard attracted influential members including Eugene Lorton and W. Tate Brady. Carter Oil Company and the Tulsa Police Department blamed the IWW for the bombing based on testimony from private investigators hired by Carter Oil Company and the ''Tulsa Daily World'' publicly blamed the union for planning a "reign of terror" in the state. Federal investigators who had infiltrated the Tulsa IWW found they were "doing nothing or planning nothing directed against the Government" and that there was "no talk of violence." After the bombing, the ''Tulsa Daily World'' escalated its rhetoric, writing that the solution was "a wholesale application of concentration camps. Or, what is hemp worth now, the long foot?" On November 5, the Tulsa Police Department raided the IWW headquarters in Tulsa, arresting 11 men for

vagrancy Vagrancy is the condition of wandering homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants usually live in poverty and support themselves by travelling while engaging in begging, waste picker, scavenging, or petty theft. In Western ...

. On November 6, Home Guard member W. Tate Brady assaulted E. L. Fox, the owner of the building the Tulsa IWW rented for their headquarters. By November 7, federal agents had heard rumors of a plan "by which the men are to be given a hearing tomorrow evening, remanded to jail, and later some businessmen are to escort the men to the City limits and make them leave, with a warning not to return."

Trial

The trial began in front of Judge T. D. Evans on November 8 with the prosecutor largely ignoring the charge of

and instead asking the defendants about their loyalty to the government and support for Liberty Loans. The IWW members were represented by Chas. A. Richards. On Friday, November 9, the ''Tulsa Daily World'' published an editorial entitled "Get Out the Hemp" which wrote: At the conclusion of the trial the 11 arrested IWW members were convicted of either vagrancy or failure to own a

Liberty Bond A liberty bond or liberty loan was a war bond that was sold in the United States to support the Allied cause in World War I. Subscribing to the bonds became a symbol of patriotic duty in the United States and introduced the idea of financi ...

(the second of which was not a crime). Frank Ryan, another IWW member who had testified at trial, was also arrested at the end of trial along with other suspected IWW members in attendance. After sentencing, the police had arrested a total of 17 men. Some sources indicate that each individual was charged a $100 fine, while others question whether the fine was enforced or legitimate.

Incident

Shortly after midnight, the men were loaded into three police cars by three officers and six other men. It was reported that police beat the IWW members before delivering them to the Knights of Liberty. Shortly after leaving, the convoy was seized by the Knights of Liberty. The Knights of Liberty abducted the men at gunpoint and drove them to a deserted location west of town. The men were then, one by one, bound to a tree, whipped, then

tarred and feathered Tarring and feathering is a form of public torture where a victim is stripped naked, or stripped to the waist, while wood tar (sometimes hot) is either poured or painted onto the person. The victim then either has feathers thrown on them or is ...

. ''Tulsa Daily World'' editor and Tulsa County Council of Defense member Glenn Conlin witnessed and reported on the attack.

Perpetrators

The Knights of Liberty was a short-lived organization. Known members in Tulsa were suspected to include former Tulsa Police Chief Ed Lucas, other Tulsa Police officers such as George Blaine and H. H. Townsend, City Attorney John Meserve, and W. Tate Brady. Other Knights of Liberty groups sprung up around the country shortly afterwards.

Aftermath

National reaction

Deputy US Marshal John Moran denounced the attack, saying, "I am opposed to that kind of business and I tried to get them not to do it. You would be surprised at the prominent men in town who were in this mob." Some national media responded with criticism of the attack including the New York ''Evening Post'', Louisville ''Post-Dispatch'', Minneapolis ''News'' and St. Louis ''Post-Dispatch''.

Local reaction

After the attack, the Tulsa Home Guard denied involvement in the attack, but would not say none of its members participated. Two victims who did not leave the city were rearrested four and six weeks later. One left the city with his wife after his arrest. The other was reportedly arrested again later after not leaving the city. The prosecuting attorney, Tulsa City Attorney John Meserve, would later join the TCCD in December 1917 as their "prosecuting attorney".

Media reaction

The ''Tulsa Daily World'' approved and encouraged the incident. '' The Tulsa Democrat'' ran the headline "General Approval Is Given." ''Harlows Weekly'', another Oklahoma newspaper, justified the

anti-German sentiment Anti-German sentiment (also known as anti-Germanism, Germanophobia or Teutophobia) is fear or dislike of Germany, its Germans, people, and its Culture of Germany, culture. Its opposite is Germanophile, Germanophilia. Anti-German sentiment main ...

behind the attacks by referencing the ongoing war effort.

Knights of Liberty

The Knights of Liberty would go on to be involved in two other attacks in the city before fading away. On October 11, 1918, the group marched in uniform through Tulsa as a "Liberty Loan slackerism warning". The group would disband shortly after when member S. L. Miller shot and killed a Tulsa waiter for "disloyal statements" and three weeks later organized the beating of an alleged adulterer.

References