2021 marks 100 years since the Tulsa Race Massacre in the Greenwood District, also known as Black Wall Street. In 1921, this area was one of the most affluent black communities in the United States.
On May 31 and the early-morning hours of June 1, 1921, Tulsa exploded. Enraged by rumors a black youth sexually assaulted a white girl, a mob of several thousand white Tulsans orchestrated a violent attack on the Greenwood District. In 12 hours of violence thirty-five square blocks including more than a dozen churches, five hotels, thirty-one restaurants, four drugstores, eight doctors’ offices, two dozen grocery stores, a public library, and more than a thousand homes were ruined.
It is estimated as many as three hundred people, mostly black, died in the attack on the Greenwood District.
