Black Wall Street Revolution

An armed confrontation between an angry white mob and Black leaders resulted in gunfire. Within twenty-four hours, the wealthiest Black city in America was burned completely to the ground.

It was the only time Americans used planes to attack and kill its own citizens while destroying an entire city.

Hundreds were dead, hundreds of homes and businesses were destroyed, and thousands were left homeless and without livelihoods.

BLACK WALL STREET

One hundred years ago, Greenwood, Oklahoma, was the most prosperous Black town in the United States— it was known as “Black Wall Street.”

On June 1, 2021, rumors of a lynching began circulating; a teenage Black boy was apprehended as the result of a false sexual assault accusation by a young white girl.

The crime wasn’t acknowledged by the city of Tulsa or the State of Oklahoma for over seventy years. Tulsa’s Black Wall Street wasn’t the only Black town to be ethnically cleansed in America. It wasn’t the only city forgotten, where no one was ever arrested or prosecuted, or where the victims were never compensated.

Time has passed, memories have faded, and survivors have died, taking the knowledge of not only how the cities were destroyed but, arguably even more tragic, the knowledge of how the more than 100 all-Black towns were built. Was a biblical blueprint left behind?