Remembering the Excellence in Black Wall Street
posted by Dominque Elliott | February 24, 2017 | In NewsAfter the oil boom of the 1910s, Tulsa, Oklahoma flourished. And the Greenwood neighborhood was also known as the “Black Wall Street.” It was also called “The Negro Wall Street” and “Little Africa.”
Black Wall Street was victim of one of the worst race riots in America on June 21, 1921 and it left the city scorched. More than 10,000 citizens were left homeless, and an estimated 300 people died, and many businesses were destroyed.
The area was home to many successful business owners, physicians, and educators. Black Wall Street was home to over 600 business that included 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. A dollar in Black Wall Street circulated 36 to 100 times before leaving the city. Many of the businesses only serviced black people because the black people in the city weren’t serviced by white businesses.
There were many unknown and successful black citizens in this city. Some died in the race riots and others continued their successes after the riots. If we lived in a world where these race riots didn’t happen, these people would probably had many of their names in textbooks and would be remembered a little better during Black History Month.
Dr. A.C. Jackson- Dr. Jackson was one of well-known black physicians in Tulsa at the time. He was considered the “most able Negro surgeon in America” by one of the Mayo brothers, founders of Mayo clinic. He treated patients of both races and was sadly shot to death during the race riots whilst defending his family.
O.W. Gurley– The young entrepreneur moved to Tulsa after resigning from a presidential appointment under President Grover Cleveland. Gurley bought land and built a rooming house along the railroad tracks. It was a refuge for African Americans fleeing the oppressive South. In addition to his rooming house, Gurley built three two-story buildings, five residences, and bought an 80-acre farm in Rogers County. Gurley also founded what is today Vernon AME Church. During the 1921 race riots, Gurley survived but lost most of his property, which estimated to around $200,000.
J.B Stradford- Another black American entrepreneur, he believed that black people, to gain economic success, should put their resources together and support each other’s businesses. He bought large amounts of real estate in Tulsa, that he subdivided and sold only to blacks. He inspired others to do the same. Stradford built the Stradford Hotel on Greenwood, and it was said to be the largest black-owned hotel in the United States.
Mabel B. Little- Little was a woman who opened and operated thriving beauty salons and other enterprises, and she continued for fifty years after fleeing Tulsa. In her biography, “Fire on Mt. Zion: My Life and History as a Black Woman in America,” Little tells of growing up in a segregated society and recounts the riot’s destruction. She died at age 104 in 2001.
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