How One Night Killed America's Wealthiest Black City: Tulsa, Oklahoma

Before the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre leveled thirty-five blocks in eighteen hours, the Greenwood District was the wealthiest Black community in America. Its main street held hotels, theaters, law firms, newspapers, and a hospital — all Black-owned, all built from scratch in the shadow of Oklahoma's oil boom. This is the story of how Greenwood rose from a forty-acre land purchase into a self-sustaining commercial district that rivaled any in the country, and how one night of coordinated violence, followed by decades of insurance denial, rezoning schemes, and interstate highway construction, ensured it would never fully return.
Sources:

"A Walk Along Black Wall Street," American Experience, PBS (pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience)
"The Past, Present and Future of Black Wall Street," Oklahoma Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, May 2021
"Greenwood District" and "Tulsa Race Massacre," Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, Oklahoma Historical Society
"The 1921 Tulsa Massacre," National Endowment for the Humanities (neh.gov)
"Justice Department Announces Results of Review and Evaluation of the Tulsa Race Massacre," U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, January 2025
"Interstate 244: 'It Took the Heart Out of Greenwood,'" Tulsa World, 2021

Видео How One Night Killed America's Wealthiest Black City: Tulsa, Oklahoma канала Paul McAllister