Black Dollar Circulates 36 Times Within Greenwood Before Leaving Community

In the Greenwood district of Tulsa and similar enclosed Black economic communities that emerged under segregation, the economic dollar was estimated to circulate within the community multiple times before leaving — creating a self-sustaining economic ecosystem. This recirculation was an unintended consequence of Jim Crow that forced Black consumers and entrepreneurs into a closed economy. Greenwood's 35 square blocks contained banks, law firms, hotels, theaters, grocery stores, and a hospital. This economic vitality would be destroyed in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.