I’ll be honest, I had never heard the term Black Wallstreet until The Game (rapper) first came out with his record label of the same name. It wasn’t until several years later that I caught wind of where the term actually originated. It was the nickname of one of the most successful Black communities ever in the U.S. There were over 100 Black-owned businesses,  a couples of schools and theaters, as well as a number of doctors. It was a well-established, prosperous community located in the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, OK.

Racial tension was very high in Tulsa and the friction boiled over on May 30, 1921, when a young Black man got on an elevator to go up to the only bathroom accessible to Blacks in that part of town. The white elevator operator accused the Black man of assaulting her on the elevator. The common belief of what happened is, upon boarding the elevator, the young man slipped and accidentally touched the young woman. This was during a time period that if a Black person even glanced at a White person the wrong way it could mean jail or worse so you could only imagine touching one, accident or not.

The young man was put in jail the next day on the accusation and word quickly spread around town that he would be lynched. When that word reached the Blacks in Greenwood the men of the town armed themselves and went to the jail to make sure nothing happened to the young man, as there was already a large White mob gathered at the jail. This clash between the Black residents of Tulsa and the White mob eventually led to the White mob literally burning Greenwood down to the ground. Greenwood was bombed from the air while the mob went to each individual building and lit it on fire.

The exact death toll has never been confirmed but most estimates put the number at about 300 Blacks killed, over 100 businesses lost, over 1000 homes destroyed and thousands of Black residents left homeless in the aftermath. Take a look at the documentary below about Black Wall Street and the buildup to the events that led to it’s destruction.