Help pass the Historic Greenwood District - Black Wall Street National Monument Establishment Act
The Historic Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, known as Black Wall Street, was built on the 1866 Reconstruction treaty between the Cherokee Nation and the United States. This area, originally occupied by Cherokee Freedmen, grew economically through the Black community supporting Black-owned businesses. Greenwood District became a thriving metropolis of Black wealth and one of the most affluent Black communities during Jim Crow, comprised of Black-owned buildings, businesses, grocery stores, libraries and more. The community was heralded as a successful model for Black economic success in segregated cities of the early 20th century. However, this would forever dramatically change on the evening of May 31, 1921.
Over the course of one night, the thriving community would be burned to the ground based on the false account of a white-owned newspaper story sensationalizing an interaction between a 19-year-old Black man, Dick Rowland, and a 17-year-old white woman, Sarah Page. The exaggerated facts as printed by the newspaper resulted in a clash between Black men gathering at the Tulsa County Courthouse to protect Rowland from lynching and white men acting on the factless news story. When the group of Black men retreated to their homes in the Greenwood District, the white mob, growing in numbers, descended on the neighborhood, murdering more than 300 Black people and burning more than 35 square blocks to the ground over night, leaving an estimated 10,000 Black residents unhoused. The community’s decimation, known as the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, is considered one of the worst acts of racial violence in US history.
The Historic Greenwood/Black Wall Street Coalition is seeking to preserve, protect, and tell the community story of this part of our history, for us to learn, to respect, and to understand the resilience and resurgence the Black community has experienced following the Tulsa Race Massacre. Through the establishment of the Historic Greenwood District - Black Wall Street National Monument, key portions of Greenwood District will be protected to unite all Americans in learning from our past to support our future. Join us in supporting this effort.