A little known American History Fact...From Walk It Out Magazine-June 2011 Issue

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Greenwood Oklahoma-The Black Wall Street.

A piece of American history that I can guarantee you, gets very little press, centers itself in the northern suburbs of Tulsa OK, the Greenwood District. A product of the land-run of 1887, freed slaves moved west to settle in the frontier states to the west. Oklahoma itself was split into two territories with the intent of segregating Indian lands from lands intended for “American” settlers. Even in that, the lands forced on minority settlers and Indians turned out to be very rich in oil and other natural resources. So, literal black oil tycoons and millionaires were created by business ventures. Greenwood’s economy was wholly controlled by black men and women. There was no welfare, state or federal aid. Black men and women created wealth, invested that wealth into the creation of thriving black owned businesses, built their own banks that financed up and coming black businesses and infrastructure supports. Greenwood’s very existence handily dispels the stereotype that black men and women are not capable of building thriving cities and economies. Unlike other thriving black districts across the United States, black Tulsans “Owned” lands and property and built a structure for prosperity that would span generations.

We as black men have to be very careful about how we study history. The incident that wiped Greenwood OK off of the map was called the Oklahoma Race Riot of 1921. This “Riot” was basically a deputized mob of whites that invaded this area and destroyed it completely. In what was described as the most violent race riot in the history of the United States, this mob reduced the fruit of this society and the north end of the city of Tulsa to ashes and cinders. So what we saw here was an envious hatred, that manifested itself financially. Moving in a new dimension of blessing and prosperity caused this society to be targeted and it was destroyed for that distinction.

So why does it matter? Sometimes when I debate online, some of the views held by people on the other side literally stun me. It stuns me, that people are that satisfied with their own current level of mis-education, anger and proud ignorance and sometimes I can’t even speak. “What’s wrong with you black people?” “Why don’t you just build your own society and stop talking about what ours isn’t doing?” “Stop crying about slavery and the plight of black Americans!” It seems that people of this ilk never take the time to understand “Their Own” history before attempting to berate mine and point out what my people have never done successfully. Not true folks!

For us, however, we need to know that many of the stereotypes portrayed are entirely false. So when challenged by one of these “Blessed” people, you should know, we’d probably own a great portion of the country’s wealth if our sub-societies were not destroyed while everyone elses were allowed to grow. Just a thought.

K.F.