A Bench by the Road

In the early 20th century, Tulsa was home to one of the most prosperous Black communities in the country, with flourishing businesses along Greenwood Avenue supported by thriving Black residential neighborhoods. On the morning of June 1, after Dick Rowland, a young Black man, had been falsely accused of assaulting a White girl, violence erupted. A White lynch mob burned, shot, and pillaged its way through the Greenwood District, destroying its businesses and homes. Along Archer and Greenwood Streets, Black men fought valiantly, but unsuccessfully, to hold off the attackers. By the evening of June 1, most of Tulsa's Black population had been left homeless, and the once-thriving business area known as Black Wall Street had been burned to the ground. Many who survived the Tulsa Massacre of 1921 refused to leave the area and rebuilt on the very streets that had been destroyed, and their defense of their homes and businesses and the self-determination of Black Tulsans who rebuilt the Greenwood District endured in memory.

Tulsa, Oklahoma · United States