Black Wall Street: Tulsa's Black History

"Black Wall Street" was the name given to Greenwood Avenue of North Tulsa, Oklahoma during the early 1900’s. Because of strict segregation, Blacks were only allowed to shop, spend, and live in a 35 square block area called the Greenwood district. The "circulation of Black dollars" only in the Black community produced a tremendously prosperous Black business district that was admired and envied by the whole country.

A large influx of colored people created many problems. First, there was a major problem in the availability in housing, of which was responded to with racism. This is the root for the hatred between the black and white communities. There wasn’t enough housing in the “black belt” community, so Negroes began to spill into white neighborhoods. The very existence of a colored person in a neighborhood would lower the property values. When a house was sold to a colored person, the rent for the house would be higher than the previous, white owner’s rent. Real Estate companies believed that “it is a matter of common knowledge that house after house…whether under white or black agents, comes to the Negro at an increased rental” (Sandburg 46). They sold housing despite the fact that “the Negro in Chicago, paid a lower wage than the white workman” (47), and that black people would have

Black Americans should be acknowledged for not only their contributions to American society, but also for being a part of American society and upholding the traditions and values of this country. Black History Month should not be a celebration that comes and goes in our own minds and homes. Black History Month should not be a remembrance that is acknowledged only when the official day begins.

White supremacy in Tulsa during 1917 to 1921 was soaring, white citizen of Tulsa thought with events of bombing a wealthy oilman home to the killing of a taxi cab driver that they should have take the law into their own hands. African Americans were terrified in the white citizens actions. African Americans felt that they would not get equal justice with the law, so African Americans had to stand together against white supremacy and challenge their authority. Which leads into the events that start of the Tulsa race riot. Dick Rowland work as a shoe shiner on Main Street. There were no toilet facilities for the boot shiners, so the owner of the shine parlor where Rowland worked arranged for the employees to use the restroom across the street on the top floor. So the morning of “May 31, 1921” Rowland went across the street to us the bathroom. Dick Rowland got onto the elevator to go to the top floor of the building. Minutes later the young lady ran out of the elevator with scratches on her hands,

Specifically, white efficiency expert Dwight Thompson Farnham said, “A certain amount of segregation is necessary at times to preserve the peace” (Doc. 3). This reveals how despite the popular belief in the south, the north also had segregation and racism prevalent. To further support this idea that segregation was still prevalent in the North is Document 7. Specifically, the black population grows over time, but the blacks scattering throughout the city does not change at the same rate. Even though black population is growing, they still are in a part of town they is predominately black only (Doc. 7). Next, a white-owned newspaper discusses the topic of the poor quality of life for Negros in the north: “…the decent, hand-working, law-abiding Mississippi Negros who were lured to Chicago by the ball of higher wages, only to lose their jobs, or forced to accept lower pay after the labor shortage because less acute” (Doc. 4). This reveals how African Americans did not have jobs where they had sustainable income, appreciation, and reasonable hours, which was the complete opposite of what they expected. In all, from the perspective of white men in the north, white men believed that black men should be separated and be working in poor and unbearable conditions. The black individuals had an ideal picture of life in the north, but the white men clearly explain the difference between expectations and

Why are the following events so important to America’s history? The events that include Brown V. Board of education, Emmet Till, Little Rock Nine, Freedom Summer, Chicago in the 1950’s, were all very important events to occur before a movement that was not necessarily alive, yet. These events were all important because of how they would start the momentum of the Civil Rights movement that would give African Americans the simple rights that any white man has. These events shared things in common such as the simple fact that they all involved African Americans pressing for rights that they deserved. All of these events whether they be positive or negative would be beneficial to the Civil Rights movement.

Imagine living in a town that was once thriving with successful businesses to a community that barely exist. As you travel down the deserted roads of your community you are surrounded by boarded up memorable buildings, deteriorating homes, and empty storefronts. The water tower that stands tall for all to see is now covered by rust. While the streets in which you are traveling on show signs of frequent patchwork in an effort to salvage the road. As you pass by what once was your favorite mom and pop’s restaurant you began to reminisce on the time you spent there with loved ones. This has become the story of residents in Boley, Oklahoma; one of the first all black towns in the state.

Timothy B. Tyson is a teacher, historian, research scholar, and an award-winning author. Tyson was born in North Carolina in 1959 and was raised there his whole life. In 1987, Tyson earned a B.A. at Emory University and then his Ph. D in history at Duke University in 1994. He also became an assistant professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin -Madison the same year he received his Ph.D., and later became a full-time professor. Tyson currently stays in Madison, Wisconsin with his wife Perri and their two children, and serves as a Senior Research Scholar at Duke University for Documentary Studies. Tyson has also received many book awards such as the John Rawley Prize and the Frederick Jackson Turner Prize for one of

This paper is going to present the view from the black population of Tulsa at the time of the riots. Events took place prior to the riot and created more tension to the race debate. These will need to be explained to set the tensions that led to the burning homes and brutal violence taken on the black citizens.

The Tulsa Riot of 1921 was a tragic racial riot that resulted in the periodic destruction of Greenwood, a neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Nicknamed “Little Africa”, Greenwood was described as a vibrant community, and was built up by African Americans. This community, however, was completely destroyed by a massive mob of white men, whose anger stemmed from rape allegations of an African American man. Before and after the Tulsa Riot occurred, African Americans of the Greenwood community faced social issues due to the prevalence of racism among white men across the nation.

Pre-existing racism in Tulsa was the foundation on which all the other causes of the riot were built upon. Wide-spread segregation was still common in America at that time and it was accepted by many in the North and South that whites were inherently superior to blacks. These views were particularly strong in the South, where emancipated blacks were seen as a threat and scourge to white Southern culture, a culture which was utterly dominated by whites and where blacks were oppressed with no hope of equal protection under the law, equal representation, etc. This was also the case in Tulsa in the early 1900s. Blacks were segregated against by the white residents and as a consequence formed their own community, called Greenwood, on the north side of the Frisco Railroad tracks, which was heralded by

By the 1920’s the amount of African Americans in New York City had more than doubled. Meanwhile the roadways and subway system had just begun to reach Harlem, where some of the most influential Blacks had situated themselves. Soon after, Harlem became known as “The Black Mecca” and also as “The Capital of Black America”.

Founded around the same time as Shippensburg itself, Orange Street has a local, but distinctive history. A diverse group of people, including African Americans, sites, and stories fills the street’s history. Along Orange Street, one of the three black neighborhoods is located between Fayette Street and Morris Street, known as Branch Creek. African Americans moved in the Locust Street Neighborhood at the same time when Shippensburg’s black population increased after the Civil War. Among the African Americans who moved into Shippensburg during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was Reverend Joseph Robinson, who later became a prominent member within the black community. Thirty years after Robinson moved into Shippensburg,

It was a way to constraint African Americans to areas that were far away from those with status, class, and power. Segregation led to discrimination in economic opportunities, housing, and education. The black culture has suffered from the barriers that were placed through segregation. However, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 tried to limit some of the discrimination associated with segregation. It was discovered that even a “rising economic status had little or no effect on the level of segregation that blacks experience” (Massey and Denton 87). The authors imply that “black segregation would remain a universal high” (Massey and Denton 88). The problem with the continuing causes in Segregation is that even though the Fair Housing act was placed, many realtors still discriminate against blacks “through a series of ruses, lies, and deceptions, makes it hard for them to learn about, inspect, rent, or purchase homes in white neighborhoods” (Massey and Denton 97). Segregation and discrimination have a cumulative effect over time. Massey and Denton argued that the “act of discrimination may be small and subtle, together they have a powerful cumulative effect in lowering the probability of black entry into white neighborhood” (98). William Julius Wilson had

This brings me to what I call “White Wall Street”. Wall Street today is still a symbol of economic oppression and racial inequality. Wall Street was founded on slavery to begin with. Wall Street is located in New York City. New York City was originally a Dutch settlement called New Amsterdam. The Dutch West India Company utilized slaves. These slaves built the actual wall that gives Wall Street its name. What a way to have a constant reminder of slavery in your face every day. Do people even know the history as they walk by it, or do they even care to know the history? I didn’t know about the wall until I did this research. The slaves had many jobs including construction of buildings and roads, farming, and clearing the land. Southerners aren’t the only ones guilty at the time of using slaves, northern colonies also participated in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. In 1664, New Amsterdam became New York when Britain took over. “In 1682, slave masters were given the power of life-and-death over their slaves. Twenty years later, in 1702, New York adopted its first comprehensive slave code and it equated slave status with being African. The entire system of slavery was justified by an ideology of white supremacy that considers black Africans inferior and white Europeans superior-an ideology that still exists”(Hudson, 2012). Slavery was said to be the driving force of the economy in the first half of the 19th century. The South, and the white man, was very