What Was Black Wall Street?

Until recently, many Americans had never heard of the Greenwood District of the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was once one of the largest Black communities in the United States. It was destroyed in 1921 during what the Oklahoma Historical Society calls the “single worst incident of racial violence in American history.” Before 1921, most of Tulsa’s 10,000 African Americans lived in the neighborhood. The Greenwood District included successful Black-owned businesses, two newspapers, several churches, a hotel and library. Some called Greenwood ‘the Black Wall Street,’ because it was so financially successful. Riots started in June of 1921 after a Black teenager was falsely accused of attacking a white woman. An armed mob took over the Black area, stealing, and setting fire to homes and businesses. When the riots ended, almost all of Greenwood’s homes and businesses had been destroyed. An investigation carried out in 2001 found that 168 people died in the violence. But other reports say the number is much higher as many as 300.