Volume 14 , Issue 47

Greenwood (Little Africa) The Black Wall Street of Tulsa

In 1921, Tulsa was considered the "Oil Capital of the World," and the black community was among the most prosperous in the nation. The Greenwood section of town was known both as "Little Africa" and as "The Black Wall street."

The catalyst for the violence was a misunderstood incident where a black man named Dick Rowland accidentally fell onto a white female elevator operator, who screamed for help. As historyian Don J. Guy points out, though, this wasn't the real incident, that occurred at the local newspaper, The Tulsa Tribune, which published an afternoon article distorting the event and calling for a lynching. By that evening, crowds of white men were gathered at the jail seeking blood, and violence soon broke out between them and a much smaller group of blacks.

The sheriff began deputizing any white citizen who wanted to join the police force. Soon hundreds of Klansmen, now representing the law, began organizing what was effectively a military operation. By the next day, over 300 blacks had been killed, over 1,200 homes had been burned, and the surviving African-American population of Tulsa was forced into confinement. Those who were vouched for by whites were released, but made to wear ribbons that immediately brought to mind the later yellow stars used by the Nazis to mark the Jews.

The newspapers continued to retell the incident, and all copies of the initial incendiary article disappeared. The city council passed laws that effectively made it impossible for the black community to rebuild. A tent city was created to house the impoverished homeless population.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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