Deep dive
The Tulsa Race Massacre
How a white mob destroyed the wealthiest Black community in America in 1921.
In 1921, the Greenwood district of Tulsa, Oklahoma, known as "Black Wall Street", was among the most prosperous Black communities in America. Over two days, a white mob, deputized and armed by city officials, burned it to the ground.
Hundreds were killed and thousands left homeless. The massacre, long omitted from textbooks, is a stark example of how racial-capitalism and white-supremacy targeted Black wealth. It connects to the broader story of redlining that would lock Black families out of recovery.
Sources & further reading
The federal review of the 1921 destruction of Greenwood.
Contemporary newspaper coverage of the 1921 massacre.
Scholarly overview of the destruction of Greenwood.
Machine-generated suggestions of what this entry may be missing or where it is contested, surfaced for you to evaluate, not stated as fact. Verify before relying on them.
- Open questionThe death toll remains unknown; mass-grave excavations begun in 2020 are ongoing., Numbers range widely across sources and should be presented as unresolved.City of Tulsa, Mass Graves Investigation
- Possible gapThe insurance denials and legal aftermath that blocked Greenwood's rebuilding are under-covered., The economic destruction was compounded by the courts, not just the mob.
The web
Connections to other moments, systems, and investigations, the links rarely drawn together.
- documented by·ThreadRacial Capitalism (Profit)
Greenwood's destruction shows how Black wealth was violently targeted.