Dick Rowland

Dick Rowland or Roland was an African-American teenage shoeshiner whose arrest for assault in May 1921 was the impetus for the Tulsa Race Massacre. Rowland was 19 years old at the time. The alleged victim of the assault was a white, 17-year-old, elevator operator Sarah Page. She had declined to prosecute. According to conflicting reports, the arrest was prompted after Rowland tripped in Page's elevator on his way to a segregated bathroom, and a white store clerk reported the incident as an "assault" or a rape.