News: A Look Back on the Black Wall Street Massacre of 1921 & 5 Things We Don’t Learn in American History Text

Ahill
February 3, 2021
News
152 Comments

It’s officially Black History month 2021, and this year is all about celebrating The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity. In step with that, this month we want to delve into topics not taught in American history texts, such as the Black Wall Street Massacre of 1921. The story is that of the affluent black community of Greenwood District, Tulsa that thrived from 1906- May 31st, 1921 and met a gruesome fate in a two day ordeal at the hands of an angry white mob, to what is known to be one of the “worst incidents of racial violence in U.S. history, and one of the least-known” according to History.com. Here are five things we learned about one of the first affluent black communities in America during the early 19th century.

Funny enough I was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma but grew up in Texas where my family is from. However, growing up and going to school in the south I can never recall learning of this very monumental event that took place in American history. This tidbit is not so shocking as many atrocities against blacks throughout history have long gone undocumented, but what’s wild is that in 2018, shows such as HBO’s the “Watchmen” and even “Love Craft Country” in 2020 made it vividly real to us. Episode 1 of the Watchmen, depicts the city being burned, black citizens being killed at will, and bombs dropping from above destroying over 35 city blocks leaving the city in ruins. None of this documented in American history. Here are five things that we learned about Black Wall Street in the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Greenwood was founded by wealthy black landowner, O.W. Gurley.

Gurley was born to freed slaves parents in Huntsville, Alabama and grew up in Pines bluff, Arkansas in 1868. In 1893 Gurley participated in the Cherokee Outlet Land Rush in Indian Territory and staked a claim in Perry, Noble County. He ran unsuccessfully ran for Treasurer of the town, but later became principal of a school and operated a community store there. However, in 1905 he sold his home and land and moved 80 miles to Tulsa towards the oil boom. He then purchased 40 acres of land in North Tulsa, and opened a rooming house as his first business on what would later become Greenwood Avenue, the epi center of Black Wall Street. Gurley amassed great wealth through starting multiple businesses, and even lending to other business owners of the community. His properties included, three two-story buildings, five residential homes, an 80-acre farm in nearby Rogers County. He later went on to found, a church, today known as Vernon AME Church. As the community grew around him, Gurley prospered. Between 1910 and 1920, the Black population in the area he had purchased grew from 2,000 to nearly 9,000 in a city with a total population of 72,000. His wealth would dry up with the mass property destruction that took place following the events of May 31st 1921. He was even later arrested for inciting the wrath that took place

2. According to reports, “the dollar circulated 36 to 100 times in this tight-knit community”. The community was a self contained hub.

Greenwood was a community for black people and run by black people and it showed. Following the town being established by Gurley in 1906 on Indian Territory where other Natives had been forced to relocate, many other black followed suit after learning of the town and opportunities for blacks to thrive. By 1913, Gurley and the district had grown quite prosperous. Other Black entrepreneurs such as J.B. Stradford a lawyer and activist, established the largest Black-owned hotel in the country bearing his name in Greenwood. It was also the home of A.J. Smitherman, a publisher whose family moved to Indian Territory in the 1890s, founded the Tulsa Star, a Black newspaper headquartered in Greenwood. The outlet would become an instrumental part of establishing the district’s socially conscious mindset, and black’s being aware their rights.

The town boasted luxury shops, restaurants, grocery stores, hotels, jewelry and clothing stories, movie theaters, barbershops and salons, a library, pool halls, nightclubs and offices for doctors, lawyers and dentists. They even had their own school system, post office, a savings and loan bank, hospital, and bus and taxi service.

3. The climate began to change for the community in 1919 following the emergence of the Ku Klux klan and racial riots and violence against blacks in the U.S. and Oklahoma during that time.

As a response to the ongoing violence and happenings, the Tulsa Star informed the community of the happenings, and would rally residents to go to jails and courthouses to support blacks on trial so that they would not be carted away by angry whites lynched without question. This fueled with a growing resentment of the thriving black community would unfortunately lead to a point of no return. Things came to a fever pitch in 1921 following a young white elevator operator, screaming behind closed elevator doors and subsequently accusing a Dick Rowland, a local shoe shiner of attempting to sexually assault her. This in turned spurned violence outside the courtroom which later followed the residents of Greenwood home.

4. According to The New York Times, the death toll may have been as high as 300, with hundreds more injured and an estimated 8,000 or more left homeless,” after a mob of whites swarmed the neighborhood.

On June 1st, an angry mob of over a two thousand swarmed the community in one of the most violent events to take place on American soil in history. Residents who tried to defend themselves were gunned down senselessly. Establishments and homes were burnt to the grounds, as unbridled hatred was allowed to reign on the community. Bombs were dropped from private airplanes as citizens scurried for shelter and watched on in horror. The survivors traumitized by the horrors of that evening were subjugated even further following the police and National Guard arresting them versus the crazed mob.

5. To date, no parties were ever held responsible for the heinous events that took places on those fateful days.

Following the community being left in shambles and millions of dollars in property damage, not to mention a life-long struggle with post traumatic stress, survivors were never given any reparations for their pain and suffering. To add insult to injury, this country has since then treated it as a blight on American history, like dust swept into the shadows never given a second thought until exposed by the light. Of course attempts have been made by survivors in past to gain reparations, however each time failed due to statute of limitations.

Recently Lessie Benningfield Randle, a 105-year old survivors who suffers from “emotional and physical distress that continues to this day,” is calling for reparations according to the complaint filed back in the fall of 2020.

Until this very day, Greenwood still struggles to capture the essence of prosperity the community was built upon on almost 100 years ago. Take a look the community before and after the destruction. In the gallery below.

Visit History.com, Npr. Org, Washington Post and more for additional details.