Lost Black History: Black Wall Street of Tulsa, OK

A Sense of the Time Period

The twenties in America brought the overwhelming feeling of prosperity and abundance and a revolution of rights for what seemed like just about everyone. Women were taking on more roles in society and defying the normal odds of what women were known to do in the past because they were working and being more promiscuous. On August 18th of 1920, the nineteenth amendment was passed also known as granting women’s voting rights. There was a larger sense of a growing consumer economy and people spending their money like never before.

In addition to this 1924, Congress passed a law about granting citizenship to all Native Americans. It seemed as though everyone was living a better life including African Americans in Tulsa, Oklahoma who developed the Greenwood District. Oklahoma was originally positioned as a safe haven for African Americans after emancipation to settle down. The state founded more than 50 townships between 1865 and 1920.

The Start and the Power of Unity

Ottawa ‘O.W.” Gurley is remembered for being the wealthiest man in Tulsa, Oklahoma after purchasing 40 acres in the oil booming town and naming it after Greenwood, Mississippi. He started building this amazing empire by building boarding houses for African Americans which aided in spreading the word fast to those looking for a gateway to a better life. While people were boarding in Mr. Gurley’s boarding house, they would also receive loans from Mr. Gurley to start a business and a support system already in place for new aspiring business owners to improve their chances of success. Eventually he was able to create other black and wealthy entrepreneurs.

Gurley and J.B. Stradford, a former slave who eventually owned a 55-room luxury hotel, worked together to build up Greenwood Avenue with black-owned businesses. There were luxury shops, restaurants, pool halls, nightclubs, post office, savings and loan bank, hospital, its own school system and more. The men decided to concentrate their business to this area for protection from the growing racial tension in Oklahoma over the years. It was said that a dollar would change hands 19 times before leaving the community. There were affluent jobs and wealthy African Americans but also those who worked menial jobs and had their own struggles.

Gaining Attention

Overtime as the community grew to be richer and have nicer things with large nice homes with nicer things to go with it, it gained attention to many of their White neighbors who were enraged with the idea of African Americans having nice things - most of them could not afford.

During this time there was a huge presence of the KKK, lynchings, literacy tests in place designed for failure for minorities. In addition to this, many accusations of sexual assault on white women pointing to African American men and boys.

This is what ignited the tensions of Black Wall Street being destroyed. On May 30, 1921 a black teenager named Dick Rowland entered an elevator, at some point a white elevator operator Sarah, screamed. The teenage boy fled and eventually was arrested. A mob of white men began to surround the courthouse and tried to attack the teenager by storming in and was unsuccessful. Armed black men showed up trying to assist the sheriffs in protecting Rowland but shots rang out and the armed black men retreated to Greenwood, as being outnumbered.

Destruction

Within hours of the men retreating, many white residents began to show up in Greenwood and committed acts of violence against blacks like shooting someone unarmed in the theater. Early in the dawn of June 1st, they began looting and burning buildings down. There were statements of local firefighters coming early on to put out the fires but they said they were threatened with guns and forced to leave.

All in all, the charges were dropped against the young teenager, Dick Rowland. The policed summed it up to something small like stepping on her foot by accident but when he left Tulsa the next morning after being guarded in jail during the riot and never was seen again.

The actual number of deaths not determined from the Tulsa Race Massacre was not estimated until 2001 by the official Tulsa Race Riot Commission. They estimated in a matter of 18 hours, 8,000 people became homeless, between 100 and 300 were killed.

Information courtesy of https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties, https://www.history.com/news/black-wall-street-tulsa-race-massacre, https://www.britannica.com/place/Black-Wall-Street

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