Black Wall Street; and Other Betrayals in Black America

I like to debate. I have no qualms with confrontation. Generally speaking I believe I can enter into any conversation and hold by ground with the fair amount of knowledge I possess. However, every once in a while someone will bring a piece of information to my attention that sends me into a tailspin and I am left to reconsider my original position.

I have often entered into debates about what Black people should do in America in order garner more political and socio-economic clout. Recently, my arguments were met with a simple question, “Have you ever heard of Black Wall Street?” As well versed as I am in Black American History this was something I’ve never heard of. Black Wall Street was described to me as a thriving arena of Black owned and operated businesses that rivaled the most successful business communities in America at the time. Unfortunately it was bombed off the face of the planet and it probably doesn’t get talked about much outside of the occasional college classroom. The lesson in all of this for some people is that one should not make too much noise or get to successful, or you’ll be destroyed.

I had a hard time dealing with this parable so I went to do my own research and see what “Black Wall Street” was all about. I refused to listen to some crackpot story about a boomtown that was annihilated due to racial hatred of Blacks in America. As usual, my research validated the crackpot story and I was left aghast.

Our story begins oddly enough in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the early 1900’s. This is an excerpt from the Book “Black People, And Their Place In World History” by Dr. Leroy Vaughn:

“The "Black (Negro) Wall Street" was the name given to Greenwood Avenue of North Tulsa, Oklahoma during the early 1900’s. Because of strict segregation, Blacks were only allowed to shop, spend, and live in a 35 square block area called the Greenwood district. The "circulation of Black dollars" only in the Black community produced a tremendously prosperous Black business district that was admired and envied by the whole country.

Oklahoma’s first African-American settlers were Indian slaves of the so-called "Five Civilized Tribes": Chickasaws, Choctaws, Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles. These tribes were forced to leave the Southeastern United States and resettle in Oklahoma in mid-winter over the infamous "Trail of Tears." After the Civil War, U.S.-Indian treaties provided for slave liberation and land allotments ranging from 40-100 acres, which helps explain why over 6000 African-Americans lived in the Oklahoma territory by 1870. Oklahoma boasted of more All-Black towns and communities than any other state in the land, and these communities opened their arms to freed slaves from all across the country. Remarkably, at one time, there were over 30 African-American newspapers in Oklahoma.

Tulsa began as an outpost of the Creek Indians and as late as 1910, Walter White of the NAACP, described Tulsa as "the dead and hopeless home of 18,182 souls." Suddenly, oil was discovered and Tulsa rapidly grew into a thriving, bustling, enormously wealthy town of 73,000 by 1920 with bank deposits totaling over $65 million. However, Tulsa was a "tale of two cities isolated and insular", one Black and one White. Tulsa was so racist and segregated that it was the only city in America that boasted of segregated telephone booths.

Since African Americans could neither live among Whites as equals nor patronize White businesses in Tulsa, Blacks had to develop a completely separate business district and community, which soon became prosperous and legendary. Black dollars invested in the Black community also produced self-pride, self-sufficiency, and self-determination. The business district, beginning at the intersection of Greenwood Avenue and Archer Street, became so successful and vibrant that Booker T. Washington during his visit bestowed the moniker: "Negro Wall Street." By 1921, Tulsa’s African-American population of 11,000 had its own bus line, two high schools, one hospital, two newspapers, two theaters, three drug stores, four hotels, a public library, and thirteen churches. In addition, there were over 150 two and three story brick commercial buildings that housed clothing and grocery stores, cafes, rooming houses, nightclubs, and a large number of professional offices including doctors, lawyers, and dentists. Tulsa’s progressive African American community boasted some of the city’s most elegant brick homes, well furnished with china, fine linens, beautiful furniture, and grand pianos. Mary Elizabeth Parrish from Rochester, New York wrote: "In the residential section there were homes of beauty and splendor which would please the most critical eye." Well known African American personalities often visited the Greenwood district including: educators Mary McCloud Bethune and W.E.B. DuBois, scientist George Washington Carver, opera singer Marian Anderson, blues singer Dinah Washington, and noted Chicago chemist Percy Julian.”

So far, so good. This is clearly an indication of how anyone can make it in America. An entire race of people can be freed from the bondage of slavery and stake their claim in the American dream of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But it never is that easy. This tale of unbridled success and pride was smote in one series of horrific events. More from Dr. Vaughn’s book:

“On May 31, 1921,the successful Black Greenwood district was completely destroyed by one of the worse race riots in U.S. history.

A 19 year old Black male accidentally stumbled on a jerky elevator and bumped the 17-year-old White elevator operator who screamed. The frightened young fellow was seen running from the elevator by a group of Whites and by late afternoon the "Tulsa Tribune" reported that the girl had been raped. Despite the girl’s denial of any wrongdoing, the boy was arrested and a large mob of 2000 White men came to the jail to lynch the prisoner.

About 75 armed African Americans came to the jail to offer assistance to the sheriff to protect the prisoner. The sheriff not only refused the assistance but also deputized the White mob to disarm the Blacks. With a defenseless Black community before them, the White mob advanced to the Greenwood district where they first looted and then burned all Black businesses, homes, and churches. Any Black resisters were shot and thrown into the fires. When the National Guard arrived, they assisted the others by arresting all Black men, women, and children, and herding them into detention centers at the Baseball Park and Convention Hall. As many as 4,000 Blacks were held under armed guard in detention…

The "Chicago Tribute" Newspaper reported that Whites also used private airplanes to drop kerosene and dynamite on Black homes. By the next morning the entire Greenwood district was reduced to ashes and not one White was even accused of any wrongdoing, much less arrested.”

How do you argue with a man that says, “There’s no point in Black folks trying to take on the government?” I think this sad episode is evidence enough that the deck is often stacked against Black American’s when they have been unduly wronged.

This is not an isolated event either. There was of course the Rosewood massacre that John Singleton made a movie about. “Rosewood was a small community located in the swamps of northwest Florida. All but one of the 150 families living there in the early 1920s were African-American. The residents of the peaceful neighborhood were fairly well off; many of the men worked in the sawmill while the women traveled to the nearby town of Sumner to clean house for its white residents. Poor racial relations and outbreaks of violence against blacks plagued post-World War I America, and Florida was no exception. The haunting history behind this community began the first week of January 1923. On New Year's Day, a white woman in Sumner falsely accused a black man of breaking into her house and beating her. Within the hour, a white mob of about 1500 people determined to "protect white womanhood" began its week-long attack on the citizens of Rosewood. After the lynchings, shootings, rapes, beatings and burnings were over, the town of Rosewood had been wiped out.” (Credit myflorida.com)

And then of course there was the summer and fall of 1919 that featured 26 bloody race riots in large cities across the country, which became known as the Red Summer.

Certainly with the advent of the civil rights movement, Gandhi and television, the American elite has been embarrassed into offering inclusion to the Black community. But while Black people in America have accomplished unparalleled success, the echoes from ages gone by apparently still haunt them. The older men whom I deal with at work remember those tumultuous times. Parents in the know still tell these stories over and over again to their children, because lord knows “Black Wall Street” doesn’t exactly fit in to the school curriculum of pro-America propaganda passing as history.

Where exactly does this leave us as a country? Where does this leave Black people in America? Is the lesson here that one should look out for ones own self, his people be damned, because if you don’t crazy White people will blow up your city? Have the vast majority of Black people allowed themselves to forget the lessons of “Black Wall Street” on the assumption that those days are long over? Or is it those very lessons that take the very heart of Black people from NY City to Los Angeles and condemn them to an existence in the success shadow of every other race in America?

It’s all very overwhelming for someone like me who dreams of the day when political equity and power for Black Americans means something more than Al Sharpton’s half-assed run for the Presidency. I long for the day when Black Americans evolve from being a voting block to a powerful lobbying group that rivals Jewish, Christian-Right and Hispanic interests.

How do I look my clients in the eye after an incident like the burning of “Black Wall Street”? Does the guilt and the shame ever wash away with time?