When Mobs Ruled The Streets

In the 1920s Tulsa was a modern, growing community. It was also a city with a bloody history, a city that served as a spawning ground for some of the most vicious criminal gangs in the United States. And as with many American communities in this era it was a simmering cauldron of prejudices that was one spark away from exploding.

Near midnight on August 28, 1920, masked men barged into the Tulsa County Courthouse and held Sheriff James Woolley and his deputies at gunpoint while removing prisoner Roy Belton, aka Tom Owens, from the jail. The crowd outside the courthouse grew in number as the vigilantes drove Belton to a rural location on Southwest Boulevard—Route 66 after 1926—and hanged him from a billboard.

In this episode of 5 Minutes With Jim, we share the story of one of the most violent racial incidents in American history.