For Us, By Us: Black Wall Street

600 Businesses, 21 Churches, 21 Restaurants, 30 Grocery Stores, 2 Movie Theaters, 6 Private Airplanes, 1 Hospital, 1 Bank, 1 Post Office, 1 Library, Law Offices, AND a transit system.

Greenwood Avenue, more famously known as Black Wall Street, was founded in 1906 (👀 Alphas stand up🤙🏾). A wealthy land owning business man, O.W. Gurley, moved from Arkansas to Tulsa and bought 40 acres of land *no mule*. He was definitely on a mission with his young entrepreneurial spirit and vision. He wanted to create a self-sufficient, industrious, and enterprising town for African Americans by African Americans. And that’s exactly what he did. At this time in America, during the Jim Crow Era, African Americans could not take part in the surrounding white community. Greenwood Avenue was important because it was home to luxury shops, hotels, restaurants, grocery stores, jewelry and clothing stores, movie theaters, barbershops and salons, a library, pool halls, nightclubs, offices for doctors, lawyers, and dentists, that African Americans could freely and safely take part in. Greenwood also had its own school system, post office, a bank, hospital, and bus and taxi service. Truly the definition of a self-sufficient community.

Black Wall Street thrived for just 15 years until the Tulsa race riots in 1921.

However, in spite countless lives lost, millions of dollars in property damage, and no help from the city of Tulsa, Greenwood was able to quickly start the process of rebuilding. Thanks to surrounding African American communities, donations from Black churches, and the NAACP the community was able to restore much of what it had lost and by 1925, they were back like they never left.

The success and financial independence demonstrated by the Greenwood community was inspiring, amazing and truly something to admire. The story of Black Wall Street is a story of enterprise, entrepreneurship and in the end, resilience.

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