GREENWOOD, TULSA, OKLAHOMA

'Greenwood' is a predominantly black neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the south end of Greenwood Avenue.

Contents

"The Black Wall Street"

The Tulsa Race Riot

References in popular culture

References

See also

Further reading

"The Black Wall Street"

During the oil boom of the 1910s, the area of northeast Oklahoma around Tulsa flourished—including the Greenwood neighborhood, which came to be known as "the Negro Wall Street" (now commonly referred to as "the ''Black'' Wall Street").
The area was home to several prominent black businessmen, many of them multimillionaires.

The Tulsa Race Riot

On June 1, 1921 , one of the nation's worst acts of racial violence—the Tulsa Race Riot—occurred there. Thirty-five square blocks of homes and businesses were torched by mobs of angry whites; as many as 300 people were killed, the majority of them black.^[1] Property damage totalled $1.5 million.^[2]
Despite the devastation, the community mobilized its resources and rebuilt the Greenwood area within the next five years. Greenwood never fully recovered but two blocks of the old neighborhood have been restored and are part of the Greenwood Historical District.
The neighborhood was a hotbed of jazz and blues in the 1920s.^[3] Count Basie himself claims the first big band he heard—Walter Page and His Blue Devils—was in Greenwood in 1927.^[4]

References in popular culture

★ Originally hailing from Greenwood, music group the Gap Band's name is a shortening of their original name, the Greenwood, Archer and Pine Street Band, after three of Greenwoods major roads.

★ Rapper The Game's record label is named The Black Wall Street Records; he's said that he wants to bring back the spirit of the original.

References

1. "The Eruption of Tulsa", Walter F. White, ''The Nation,'' June 29, 1921. On line.
2. White, "The Eruption of Tulsa"
3. Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame
4. Good Morning Blues—The Autobiography of Count Basie, , Count, Basie, Da Capo, 2002,

See also

★ Ethnic enclaves

★ History of Tulsa, Oklahoma

★ Oklahoma State University–Tulsa

★ Langston University

Further reading

★ Alfred L. Brophy, ''Reconstructing the Dreamland: The Tulsa Riot of 1921: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation,'' foreword by Randall Kennedy. Oxford University Press, USA; New Ed (February 14, 2003) ISBN 0195161033

★ Hannibal B. Johnson, ''Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa's Historic Greenwood District.'' Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum (September 1998) ISBN 157168221X