After oil was discovered in 1901, Tulsa shifted from being a “cow town” to a “boom town.” Thousands of men and their families moved there to work in the oil industry.
In addition to being barred from participation in this industry, Black newcomers were relegated to North Tulsa.
In 1905, Emma and O.W. Gurley purchased land that was designated for “coloreds only.”
Black entrepreneurs actively developed the district into a self-sustaining economic neighborhood. Renamed Greenwood, community members worked to create a society that benefited and honored them.
Several men set up offices where they provided medical, legal, and professional services. Men and women alike owned and operated grocery stores, restaurants, salons, and barbershops.
Oklahoma State University-Tulsa. Library. Special Collections and Archives
Some businesses were located on the southern end of Greenwood Avenue. This part of town was nicknamed “Deep Greenwood,” and was home to dozens of Black-owned businesses such as the Economy Drug Company, William Anderson’s jewelry store, Henry Lilly’s upholstery shop, and A.S. Newkirk’s photography studio.
Historians and economists estimate that a dollar circulated up to 19 times in Greenwood before it left the community.
The community also boasted of two Black-owned newspapers, the Tulsa Star and the Oklahoma Sun.
Visitors to Greenwood were common and could find a room in Greenwood’s four hotels. There they could join friends and family in movie-going at two theaters.
In 1913, the community opened Dunbar Grade School and Booker T. Washington High school to educate its youth.
By 1920, more than 10,000 people made their homes in Greenwood.
While Greenwood sparkled in some places, neglect by the city of the Tulsa and its refusal to serve Greenwood, showed in others. Several members of the community suffered from a lack of running water, sanitary sewage systems, and paved roads. Greenwood inhabitants were denied these basic rights by Tulsa politicians who “practically laughed [residents of Greenwood] out of the room” when they asked for better infrastructural services.
Though numbers of White Tulsans ridiculed the district, calling it “Little Africa” or “N-word town,” Black Americans all over the country celebrated the accomplishments of many Greenwood men and women despite the odds.
Greenwood attracted nationally renowned African American leaders and activists such as Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois.
Though it cannot be verified, Washington supposedly gave Greenwood its nickname: “Black Wall Street.”
by Piper Reese and Elizabeth Thomas
Bibliography:
Tara Aveilhe, “Oklahoma: Home to More Historically All-Black Towns than Any Other U.S. State.” Oklahoma Center for the Humanities. The University of Tulsa, March 16, 2018. https://humanities.utulsa.edu/oklahoma-home-historically-black-towns-u-s-state/Jimmie
Larry Hill, Antoine Gara, Janice Gerda, and Karen Sapp. “Ottowa W. Gurley: The Visionary” in Black Wallstreet, n.d. http://blackwallstreet.org/owgurley
Franklin Lewis, “African Americans,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=AF003.
Stan Hoig, “Land Run of 1889,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=LA014
Randy Krehbiel, Tulsa 1921: Reporting a Massacre. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019.
“The Tulsa Race Massacre,” The Tulsa Race Massacre Oklahoma Historical Society. https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=TU013
Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. Tulsa Race Riot: A Report by the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. 2001. https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=TU013
Citation:
To cite this essay, use the following citation: Piper Reese and Elizabeth Thomas, “Black in Oklahoma,” in Women of Black Wall Street, 2021, Brandy Thomas Wells, Ed. https://blackwallstreetwomen.com/?page_id=1173.
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