Greenwood District, Tulsa

Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, grew from Black migration into Indian Territory and later Oklahoma into one of the nation’s most prominent Black business districts, known as Black Wall Street. Formally organized in 1906, it developed along Greenwood Avenue into a prosperous community of businesses, churches, hotels, and homes, helped by leaders such as O. W. Gurley and J. B. Stradford. Segregation concentrated Black economic life there and strengthened local enterprise. In 1921, that prosperity was devastated when a white mob destroyed much of the district during the Tulsa race massacre, killing many residents and burning thousands of homes. Survivors rebuilt, and Greenwood endures as a place of memory and preservation.

Tulsa, Oklahoma · United States