Black Wall Street

ScoopUSA Newspaper Black History Archives This article was originally published in ScoopUSA Newspaper in June 2009 and was published every June until 2016. We need to tell these stories...

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The date was June 1, 1921, "Black Wall Street." The name fittingly given to one of the most affluent all-black communities in America was bombed from the air and burned to the ground by mobs of envious whites.

In a period spanning fewer than 12 hours, a once thriving black business district in northern Tulsa lay smoldering -- a model community destroyed and a major African American economic movement resoundingly defused.

The night's carnage left some 3,000 African Americans dead and over 600 successful businesses lost.

Among these were 21 churches, 21 restaurants, 30 grocery stores, and two movie theaters, plus a hospital, a bank, a post office, libraries, schools, law offices, a half dozen private airplanes, and even a bus system.

As could have been expected, the impetus behind it all was the infamous Ku Klux Klan, working in consort with ranking city officials and many other sympathizers.

The best description of Black Wall Street, or Little Africa as it was also known, would be to compare it to a mini-Beverly Hills.

It was the golden door of the black community during the early 1900s, and it proved that African Americans could create a successful infrastructure.

That's what Black Wall Street was all about. The dollar circulated 36 to 100 times, sometimes taking a year for currency to leave the community.

Now, a dollar leaves the black community in less than 15 minutes. As far as resources, there were PhDs residing in Little Africa, black attorneys, and doctors.

One doctor was Dr. Berry, who owned the bus system.

His average income was $500 a day, a hefty pocket change in 1910.

It was a time when the entire state of Oklahoma had only two airports, yet six blacks owned their own planes. It was a very fascinating community. The mainstay of the community was to educate every child. Nepotism was the one word they believed in.