BLACK WALL STREET

In 1921, Tulsa, Oklahoma was considered the "Oil Capital of the World," and the black community that existed there was among the most prosperous in the nation. The area was home to several prominent black businessmen, many of them multimillionaires. Greenwood boasted a variety of thriving businesses that were very successful The Greenwood section of town was known both as:

 "Little Africa" and as "The Black Wall Street."

After the civil war many African-Americans settled in Oklahoma because of employment opportunities from the oil fields. Around 1908 the community of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma was established. Based on the growth of African-Americans in Greenwood, Jim Crow laws legalizing segregation were passed in 1908.

However, following World War I, the United States Supreme Court declared the Jim Crow segregation laws unconstitutional in 1915. African-Americans progressed thereafter without restriction. Growth ensued. Consequently, the African-American community became subjected to continual harassment and other discriminatory actions from white mobs.

As time went on the level and frequency of violence against the black community, in Greenwood escalated. In 1919 two Black prisoners were removed from incarceration and lynched.

On the Night of May 31, 1921, mobs called for the lynching of Dick Rowland, A black man who shined shoes, who was accused of sexually assaulting a white woman named Sarah Page, an elevator operator. Although no "official" report of Ms. Page's accusation was ever made it was later uncovered that she informed authorities that Rowland had merely lost his balance and fell into her.

Seizing an opportunity to confront the successful black residents of Greenwood a local newspaper, the Tulsa Tribune, printed the fabricated story that Rowland tried to rape Page. A crime, for which he was never formally charged. In an editorial, the same newspaper told enraged white residents that a hanging was planned for that night.

The confidence of the black community members in the security of Dick Rowland was non-existent. Small groups of armed black men began to venture toward the courthouse in automobiles, partly for reconnaissance, but with their weapons visible, they were also demonstrating that they were prepared to take necessary action to protect Dick Rowland. The white community members quickly interpreted these actions as a "Negro uprising".

On June 1, 1921 confrontations between angry white mobs and the black people of Greenwood ensued. Outnumbered and outgunned Blacks were viciously attacked.  Led by the Ku Klux Klan and their sympathisers, "deputized" by ranking officials of the police department, the black people of Greenwood were lynched, shot, and murdered. Their homes were looted and burned. In a period spanning 12 hours, the carnage left over 300 Black Americans dead and over 600 highly successful businesses burned and destroyed. Over 1,500 homes were burned as members of the police flew airplanes overhead, dropping nitroglycerin and incendiary kerosene bombs on homes and businesses over a 35-square block radius. Although many of the residents affected by the riots had insurance, the insurance companies refused to make good on their policies.

The attack completely destroyed Greenwood. Those citizens who were not killed fled the area, because there was nothing to come back to. The governor declared martial law and the National Guardsmen reestablished law and order. Eventually, the community was rebuilt; however, it never again regained its former prominence.

In 2003, a lawsuit for reparations was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, seeking damages and restitution, based on violations of the Fourteenth Amendment. To date, no reparations have been given to the victims, or their descendants, of what has come to be referred to as the Black Holocaust.