That evening, a crowd began to form around the Tulsa County Courthouse, where Rowland was being held. No doubt most had read the Tribune story about his arrest or heard about it.
Certainly they had heard another lynching might be in the works.
How many of those people were actually intent on getting to Rowland and how many were spectators is unclear. Sheriff W.M. McCullough said the only attempt to take his prisoner occurred at 8:20 p.m., when three white men entered the courthouse and were quickly turned away.
In the meantime, someone had called a Greenwood theater with the information that an attempt would be made on Rowland’s life.
This mobilized a portion of the African American population bent on saving any black Tulsan from the same fate as Claude Chandler, a black man who was lynched in Oklahoma County in 1920. Armed and organized, they proceeded to the courthouse, where McCullough and Deputy Sheriff Barney Cleaver were at first able to persuade the men that Rowland was safe.
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But McCullough could not get the white crowd to disperse, and that in turn precipitated a return of Rowland’s defenders.
According to several witnesses, an unsuccessful candidate for sheriff named E.S. MacQueen, tried to take a pistol from a young black man in the crowd. The gun discharged, and chaos ensued.