The Burning: Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921

by Tim Madigan

That paper’s chief local rival distanced itself just as aggressively. In the spring of 1971, after seven months of research, a local writer named Ed Wheeler submitted his account of the burning to Russell Gideon, editor of the Tulsa World’s Sunday magazine. Wheeler had previously published several articles in the World’s magazine, but this time, Gideon told Wheeler that the newspaper needed to pass. “This is a hell of a good article,” the editor told Wheeler then. “But there is an unwritten rule at this paper that we don’t touch this subject with an eleven-foot pole.” By then, of course, Wheeler was not surprised.