Black Wall Street
J.B Stradford, said to be one of Greenwood’s wealthiest black men.
Many of us do not know of a small all black extremely wealthy town in Tulsa, Oklahoma named Greenwood. In the early 1900’s many blacks had moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma to make a living in an area where the oil industry was booming. They built a magnificent town with hotels, beautiful homes, churches, schools, libraries, lawyers, doctors and various other successful businesses around six hundred total and even had a public bus service as well as a public school system. One of those very successful businesses was a 65 room hotel that was owned by a black man named J.B Stradford who was also a key developer of Greenwood and at one point considered the wealthiest man in Greenwood worth over 1.6 million in today’s currency. J.B also owned fifteen homes that he rented out and an apartment building. The economy in Greenwood was so amazing that money had circulated many more times than the traditional three or four times that it had in other economies before leaving the community. Not only did they pool their resources and spend their money within the community, but also many whites came and spent money in their community as well. With their economy booming and many of the citizens doing great the self-sustained all black town became known as the black wall street and some of the envious whites also referred to them as little Africa. Black Wall Street was a remarkable feat, especially since black people only became a “free” human being in America only fifty years previous.
A sign of how well blacks were doing. Only fifty years after being freed blacks own expensive property.
On May 31, 1921 an incident happens that would change the course of history forever. A black shoe shiner named Dick Rowland had accidentally stepped on the foot of a young white girl who was an elevator operator and she screamed. Later that day police arrested Dick pending an investigation and the Tulsa Tribune newspaper had falsely reported that Dick had attempted to rape the young girl and that her clothes were torn and she had physical injuries to her hands. Also, there was supposedly an article written by the newspaper that suggested that Dick should be lynched however; evidence of such article can no longer be found. Angry whites that read the newspaper and who had heard of the alleged rape obviously agreed with the Tulsa Tribune and hundreds of them, most of which were ku klux klan members, assembled and marched down to the courthouse to lynch Dick. After hearing about a mob of hundreds of whites going down to the courthouse to get Dick for the lynching about seventy-five black World War 1 vets had headed to the courthouse to defend Dick. Fortunately, for Dick the Sheriff would not allow the whites to lynch him, however, the sheriff also turned down the blacks help in defending Dick. As the two parties were leaving the courthouse a confrontation where a white man tried to disarm a black man escalated and the fighting had begun.
The whites had begun doing drive-by shootings in Greenwood, setting fires and some even organized an invasion plan. Shortly after the confrontation started the police had deputized white civilians and klan members and some accounts report that the sheriff stated “get a gun and get a nigger”.
TULSA NEWSPAPER TWO DAYS AFTER BEGINNING OF RIOT!
The white Tulsa citizens killed, beat and burned Greenwood’s citizens as well as looted, burned, bombed and destroyed their homes, businesses, buildings and even their church. The use of heavy machine guns, torches, pistols, rifles and planes for dropping some type of explosives onto many buildings and homes was no match for the brave black community that fought off the attack as long as they could. In the end the whites outnumbered the blacks and Greenwood citizens were unsuccessful in defending all that they had worked so hard for. Everything that they had and worked so hard for was gone and approximately three hundred of their families, friends and leaders were dead, including one of the most prominent surgeons of the time A.C Jackson. While the black homes burned and crumbled the National Guard protected the white homes from any destruction or looting which was not on the minds of the Greenwood people. Some believe that the National Guard played a part in the killings, beating and destruction as well. In the end approximately 40 square blocks of beautifully developed black-owned property, 300 black lives lost, hundreds injured and over 5,000 blacks detained.
Black Wall Street after the riot.
Sadly, not even black children were spared by the white mob.
June 1, 1921 hours after of the assault on Greenwood it seemed like it was finally over, buildings reduced to ashes, bodies shot, mutilated and burned in the streets and lives changed forever. However, after all that the Greenwood citizens had been through the authorities had declared martial law in Tulsa and thousands of blacks were detained and humiliated even more. What made matters worse was that in order for the blacks to be released they had to be vouched for by a white person. This meant that any blacks that were totally independent of whites could not leave. Furthermore, those who had made it through all of that had to go back to the ruins of Greenwood and live in tents throughout the winter months. Many of the Greenwood property owners had insurance, which the insurance companies refused to pay for the Greenwood citizens losses, stating that the riots were caused by the Negro community and not covered by their policies. The courts and an all-white jury, of course, also put the blame of the death of blacks and destruction on Greenwood on the Greenwood citizens. No white man or woman was ever charged or prosecuted for the hideous acts that were committed in Greenwood in those days and in fact many blacks were jailed and arrested for inciting the riot. In 1997 a state appointed commission conducted an investigation of the riot and they recommended that reparations be paid to the remaining Greenwood survivors, however Oklahoma failed miserably by only providing 300 scholarships and a memorial park to the town. In 2009 a judiciary subcommittee adopted a bill that would allow survivors and descendants of the Greenwood Riot victims to make civil claims up to five years after the bill was enacted. Sadly, many of these brothers and sisters are gone and will not get to benefit from this supposed justice. Today Greenwood has recovered somewhat however, the economy is not doing nearly as good as it had done in the early 1900’s partly due to the desegregation laws of the 1960’s.
When I first heard this story, it was too much for me to believe, I had to go and research myself because it made my heart start racing and my jaws clench with anger as if it had happened to me. The more research that I did I began realizing how bad it really was. Yet, somehow these brave and intelligence brothers and sisters of ours made it through some of the toughest circumstances any free person has endured and still re-built their community. I decided to write about this not as an example of how horrible the European Americans were to us, but as an example of how powerful our people can get if we just stick together as a black community and race. Also, I wanted to share the story of these brave and enduring brothers and sisters of ours. If we as a people could get it together and support each other, respect each other and teach one another we too could build these types of communities that are self-sufficient and prosperous. We don’t have to be as they depict us in the movies and music videos, we can be successful and productive. Let us teach our children the truth and teach them the type of things that will help them be complete competition for anyone when it comes to opportunity in this world. It was said that the citizens of Black Wall Street did not need to leave their town for much at all. That’s the type of communities that we need to develop now a network of communities all over the country and all over the world that communicate, participate and cooperate with one another and with the sole purpose of making sure our people are taken care of.
Please check this video out people. This video has testimony from black riot survivors and white witnesses.
