HISTORIC BLACK VEGAS: Black Wall Street and the legacy of Greenwood

BY CLAYTEE D. WHITE

In February of this year, I attended a program at the Smith Center that reintroduced me to the horror of the Tulsa “Race Riot” of 1921. 

The title gives the immediate impression that Black people were enraged and destroyed property. No — not at all. This was a riot by the White people of Tulsa that destroyed “Black Wall Street,” as the Greenwood area was called. 

National Geographic brought Alicia Odewale to Las Vegas for a Saturday evening presentation. The question-and-answer portion was too short. We could have talked to her all night. She told the story and then talked about the archaeological dig that she was working on. I wanted to see for myself. I wrote about this before, but now, I have seen the place and stood on the sidewalks, and viewed the forty-block area that was burned to the ground. 

On October 31, 2024, I flew to Oklahoma City, rented a car, and drove to Tulsa. When you decide to do this, begin your tour at the History Center and the Fulton Street Books & Coffee. Then take a walking tour. The exhibits in the History Center are marvelous. The community planned it and fundraised for five years. All their planning and brilliant work paid off. The most memorable exhibit was sitting in the barbershop to get a haircut. Holograms cut my hair as the three barbers talked about the history of Greenwood. I sat in a barber chair in front of a mirror and was taken back into the history of that heartless, terrifying period. I did not see the Greenwood Cultural Center, but the plaques outside listed all the destroyed businesses and the unpaid financial claims of $2,719,745.61. Over 600 businesses were listed on a wall that shone so brightly in the sun that I am guessing at the number because my camera could not adjust to the light. 

Quoting from a plaque in front of the Cultural Center prepared by the Equal Justice Initiative, is the gist of the Greenwood story: 

Founded in 1906, Tulsa’s Greenwood District was one of many Black communities created to welcome African Americans seeking freedom and opportunity in Oklahoma after suffering generations of slavery elsewhere. In 1889, O.W. Gurley, a wealthy Black man from Arkansas, purchased over 40 acres of land and sold it to Black people relocating to the area. 

Legally barred from white businesses, Black people spent their money in Greenwood creating a self-sustained economy. By 1920, Greenwood boasted dozens of Black-owned businesses and an educational system for Black students. J.B. Stafford built and operated a luxury hotel that became the largest Black-owned hotel in the country. 

Simon Berry ran transportation services including a chartered plane service. John and Loula Williams owned a theater in addition to several other businesses. A.J. Smitherman founded the Tulsa Star, a key resource in documenting the community’s events. Dr. A.C. Jackson, a prominent Black surgeon, treated both Black and white patients. 

What a place! I counted seven attorneys, too many restaurants to number, investment businesses, grocery stores, several office buildings, over a dozen doctors, shoe shops, beauty shops, barber shops, drugstores, tailors, real estate offices, hardware stores, jewelry stores, and other retail establishments. These, along with homes, were all burned to the ground. Blacks rebuilt — but by the 1970s, urban renewal and other factors destroyed the neighborhood again. 

Dick Rowland allegedly assaulted Sarah Page in an elevator in Tulsa’s Drexel Building. On May 31, the following day, a white mob of 400 men assembled outside the jail holding Rowland. Rumors of a lynching reached Greenwood where 105 Black men — some armed — went to the jail to protect Rowland. Around 11 p.m., the National Guard mobilized and the police department deputized white men who began to loot and ransack Greenwood. By 6 a.m., the destruction was in full swing. The white mob burned 2,000 buildings and homes and prevented firefighters from entering the area. White mobs stole valuables; burned buildings; and killed men, women, and children while white authority figures disarmed and rounded up Blacks. About 6,000 were housed in internment camps. 

Fire and hate destroyed the community but not its enterprising spirit. Greenwood was built back better.