UA Law Professor Publishes Book on Tulsa Race Riot

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – University of Alabama Law Professor Alfred L. Brophy has published an important book on one of America’s most destructive race riots. Reconstructing the Dreamland: The Tulsa Riot of 1921–Race, Reparations, Reconciliation, from Oxford University Press, chronicles the riot as well as provides a legal perspective on culpability and responsibility for damages.

The riot began on the evening of May 31,1921. African American World War I veterans living in the segregated section of Tulsa, Okla., known as Greenwood, feared a young black man-in jail on charges that he attempted to assault a young white woman-was in danger of being lynched. Stirred to action by editorials against lynching, the veterans armed themselves and marched to the courthouse, where they clashed with a white mob and Tulsa police. Reconstructing the Dreamland is a searing portrayal of the violence that followed. The National Guard, together with hundreds of hastily deputized white men, arrested thousands of African Americans and brought them to “concentration camps.” Then police deputies and mob members looted and burned Greenwood.

By the time the riot was over, around noon the next day, 35 blocks in Greenwood had been burned to the ground and thousands were left homeless. Greenwood residents unsuccessfully sought assistance from the city in rebuilding. “But instead of assistance, the city put up barriers to rebuilding. The city rezoned the entire burned district to prevent people who lost their homes from rebuilding,” Brophy comments. “The Tulsa riot provides a case study of how racial legislation regarding property led to the destruction of an entire community.”

Brophy began Reconstructing the Dreamland when he was working for the Tulsa Race Riot Commission, which recommended paying reparations to riot survivors and their descendents. The book has attracted the attention of noted historians, including Harvard Law School Professor Charles Ogletree, who wrote, “Every person interested in racial justice should have this book at his or her disposal.”

Brophy has been a guest on a number of television and radio programs discussing the riot, including NPR’s “Fresh Air” with Terri Gross. He is currently working on a study of the East St. Louis riot of 1917. Brophy joined the UA law faculty in fall 2001 and teaches Property, Remedies, Wills and Estates, and Administrative Law.

Note to Editor: Alfred Brophy can offer commentary on the current race reparations issue and other civil rights topics. He can be reached at 205/348-0841 or abrophy@law.ua.edu.