Greenwood, Negro Wall Street, destroyed in 1921 and rebuilt by its own people.
Greenwood
In 1906 Tulsa's Black community was formally organized under the name Greenwood. O. W. Gurley, a Black landowner who had moved to Tulsa, bought land there, and he founded the church that is today Vernon AME. J. B. Stradford built a hotel said to be the largest Black-owned hotel in the United States. Booker T. Washington called the neighborhood Negro Wall Street.
May 31 To June 1, 1921
After Dick Rowland, a young Black shoeshiner, was accused of assaulting Sarah Page, a white elevator operator in the Drexel Building, white mobs attacked Greenwood. Between May 31 and June 1, 1921, they burned and destroyed more than 35 square blocks of the neighborhood in one of the worst incidents of racial violence in American history. The state recorded 36 deaths, and the 2001 state commission gave estimates ranging from 39 to around 300.
Rebuilding
Greenwood fought back in court and with its own hands. The lawyer B. C. Franklin and his partners I. H. Spears and T. O. Chappelle set up a tent as their office to give legal help to the victims, and in the case of Joe Lockard against the city they argued that Tulsa had no right to stop Black property owners from rebuilding on their own land. The city's appeal was turned down in September 1921.
Within ten years, the residents who stayed had rebuilt much of the district, and by 1941 Greenwood had more than 240 Black businesses. Later, the I-244 highway cut through it, and the community has called for its removal.
Remembering
In 2010 the state dedicated a park in memory of the victims at 415 North Detroit Avenue, later named for John Hope Franklin, B. C. Franklin's son, who became a prominent historian. In 2021, the centennial year, the Greenwood Rising History Center opened at 21 North Greenwood Avenue to tell the district's story.
Black Tulsa Today
Greenwood Avenue carries this history, and Black-owned restaurants, shops, salons and brands are building on the business district its founders created.
Shop Black-owned businesses in Tulsa on CashBlack.
Photo Credits
Two-story buildings on North Greenwood Avenue. Photo: G. Edward Johnson, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons Vernon A.M.E. Church in Greenwood. Photo: G. Edward Johnson, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons