Greenwood District, Tulsa

File:Greenwoodtulsa.jpg

The Greenwood neighborhood today

Greenwood is a neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. As one of the most successful and wealthiest African American communities in the United Stated during the early 20th Century, it was popularly known as America's "Black Wall Street" until the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. The riot was one of the most devastating race riots in history and it destroyed the once thriving Greenwood community. Greenwood is still being rebuilt today because of the destruction over 80 years ago.

The Roots

Many African Americans moved to Oklahoma in the years before and after 1907, which is the year when Oklahoma became a state. Oklahoma represented change and provided a chance for African Americans to get away from slavery and the harsh racism of their previous homes. Most of them traveled from the states in the south where racism was very prevalent, and Oklahoma offered hope and provided all people with a chance to start over. They traveled to Oklahoma by wagons, horses, trains, and even on foot.

Many of the African Americans who traveled to Oklahoma had ancestors who could be traced back to Oklahoma. A lot of the settlers were relatives of African American slaves who traveled on foot with the 5 Civilized tribes along the Trail of Tears. Others were the descendants of runaway slaves who had fled to Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma) in an effort to escape lives of oppression.

When Tulsa became a booming and rather well noted town in the United States, the residents and government attempted to leave out important aspects of the city. Many people considered Tulsa to be two separate cities rather than one city of united communities. The white residents of Tulsa referred to the area north of the Frisco railroad tracks as “Little Africa” and other derogatory names. This community later acquired the name Greenwood and in 1921 it was home to about 10,000 African American men, women, and children.

Greenwood was centered on a street known as Greenwood Avenue. This street was important because it ran north for over a mile from the Frisco Railroad yards, and it was one of the only streets that did not cross through both black and white neighborhoods. Greenwood Avenue was home to the African American commercial district with many red brick buildings. These buildings belonged to African Americans and they were thriving business, including grocery stores, clothing stores, barber shops, and much more. Greenwood was one of the most affluent communities and became known as “Black Wall Street.”

"The Black Wall Street"

During the oil boom of the 1910s, the area of northeast Oklahoma around Tulsa flourished—including the Greenwood neighborhood, which came to be known as "the Negro Wall Street" (now commonly referred to as "the Black Wall Street") The area was home to several prominent black businessmen, many of them multimillionaires.

In northeastern Oklahoma, as elsewhere in America, the prosperity of minorities emerged amidst racial and political tension. The Ku Klux Klan made its first major appearance in Oklahoma on August 12, 1921.

The Tulsa Race Riot

Black Wall Street in flames, June 1921

Main article: Tulsa Race Riot

One of the nation's worst acts of racial violence—the Tulsa Race Riot—occurred there on June 1, 1921, when 35 square blocks of homes and businesses were torched by mobs of angry whites. Although the official death toll claimed that 26 blacks and 13 whites died during the fighting, most estimates are considerably higher. At the time of the riot, the Red Cross estimated the toll to be at 300. However, some maintain that as many as 3,000 African Americans were killed.

Over 600 successful businesses were lost. Among these were 21 churches, 21 restaurants, 30 grocery stores and two movie theaters, plus a hospital, a bank, a post office, libraries, schools, law offices, a half-dozen private airplanes and even a bus system. Property damage totaled $1.5 million.

Post riot

The community mobilized its resources and rebuilt the Greenwood area within five years of the Tulsa Race Riot, but the neighborhood fell prey to an economic and population drain in the 1960s, and much of the area was leveled during urban renewal in the early 1970s to make way for a highway loop around the downtown district. Several blocks of the old neighborhood around the intersection of Greenwood Ave. and Archer St. were saved from demolition and have been restored, forming part of the Greenwood Historical District.

The neighborhood was a hotbed of jazz and blues in the 1920s. Count Basie himself claims the first big band he heard—Walter Page and His Blue Devils—was in Greenwood in 1927.

Revitalization and preservation efforts in the 1990s and 2000s resulted in tourism initiatives and memorials. Hope Franklin Greenwood Reconciliation Park and the Greenwood Cultural Center honor the Tulsa Race Riot, although the Greenwood Chamber of Commerce plans a larger museum to be built with involvement from the national parks service. In 2008, Tulsa announced that it sought to move the city's minor league baseball team, the Tulsa Drillers, to a new stadium to be constructed in the Greenwood District. The proposed development includes a hotel, baseball stadium, and an expanded mixed-use district.

References in popular culture

• Originally hailing from Greenwood, music group the Gap Band's name is a shortening of their original name, the Greenwood, Archer and Pine Street Band, after three of Greenwoods major roads.
• Rapper The Game's record label is named The Black Wall Street Records; he's said that he wants to bring back the spirit of the original.

See also

• Ethnic enclaves
• History of Tulsa, Oklahoma
• Oklahoma State University–Tulsa
• Langston University

Further reading

• Alfred L. Brophy, Reconstructing the Dreamland: The Tulsa Riot of 1921: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation, foreword by Randall Kennedy. Oxford University Press, USA; New Ed (February 14, 2003) ISBN 0195161033
• Hannibal B. Johnson, Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa's Historic Greenwood District. Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum (September 1998) ISBN 157168221X