You are standing on the southeast corner of Greenwood and Archer, just outside the state-of-the-art Greenwood Rising/Black Wall Street History Center. This is the gateway to Greenwood.

In the early 20th century, Tulsa was on its way to becoming the self-described Oil Capital of the World. But in this increasingly segregated environment, Black Tulsans had to chart their own path to financial success. They had to build their own economy. And they did it particularly well at the corner of Greenwood and Archer.

The Greenwood District was fertile ground for those with entrepreneurial aspirations. Distinctly set apart from the whites-only downtown, Greenwood was a place where Black consumers could do business with Black-owned businesses. Tapping into a pent-up demand for the kind of shopping, entertainment, and social life that oil-rich Tulsa was becoming famous for, businesses on Greenwood flourished so much so that the community would eventually earn the nickname Black Wall Street.

Restaurants, hotels, and theaters. Newspapers, doctors, and law firms. Tailors, barbers, and churches. All of that and more could be found right here. Some would remark with pride, and others with envy, that the possibilities along these streets were more than a match for anything white Tulsa could offer.

But what took more than 20 years to build took less than twenty-four hours to destroy. An angry and armed white mob would invade Greenwood, attack and kill its residents, loot and steal its wealth, and burn it to the ground. It was a deliberate and, by some accounts, premeditated act of hatred and violence meant to wipe Greenwood and its residents from the land. It was an act so shocking that many Tulsans would come to this very corner in the aftermath to see it for themselves, touring the area and taking photographs of the devastation. Like a scene from a war movie, Black Wall Street was a smoking ruin.

On May 31, 1921, Dick Rowland, a Black teenager, was accused of assaulting a young white woman in a downtown elevator. He was arrested and jailed at the Tulsa County Courthouse. Some men from Greenwood went there to make sure that Rowland would not be lynched that night, a serious possibility as racially motivated violence was on the rise across the nation. According to witnesses, such a lynching had even been encouraged in an editorial in the Tulsa Tribune that very day.

While Dick Rowland would survive the night and the assault charge would later be dropped, Greenwood would pay a terrible price for confronting the mob and standing up for one of their own. The murder, looting, and burning of thirty-five square blocks of Greenwood was meant to break the community’s spirit and its growing resistance to the mistreatment of Black Americans by their white neighbors. In this, the mob failed completely. Not only would Greenwood rise again, it would reach new heights and continue as a place where entrepreneurs, leaders, and visionaries would pursue the opportunities, liberty, and justice America has promised to all.

For the next stop on the tour, move directly north across the street on Archer to the next tour marker.