Greenwood, Tulsa, Oklahoma

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Greenwood is a black neighborhood that first flourished in Tulsa, Oklahoma during the oil boom of the early 1900s. It was the largest and wealthiest of the Oklahoma black communities and was known nationally as the "Black Wall Street". The neighborhood was a hotbed of jazz and blues in the 1920s. The scene in Greenwood was so hot, story has it that in 1927 while on tour, Count Basie heard a dance band in a club in Greenwood and decided to focus on jazz.

In 1921, the Tulsa Race Riot occurred, and was one of the nation's worst acts of racial violence. The 35 blocks of businesses and residences were burned in the Greenwood District and as many as 300 persons were left dead; a large majority were black. The Oklahoma State Legislature passed laws in 2001 aimed at revitalizing Greenwood, setting up a scholarship fund for college-bound descendants of riot victims and appropriating $2 million for a riot memorial. Greenwood has never fully recovered, but two blocks of the old neighborhood have been restored and are part of the Greenwood Historical District.

Efforts for reparations for the survivors and descendants of victims of the Tulsa Race Riot are ongoing (2005). Reparations were recommended by the Oklahoma Commission

[edit] See also:

• Mass racial violence in the United States
• African American History
• Tulsa Reparations Coalition
• Black Wall Street
• Rosewood Massacre
• 16th Street Baptist Church bombing

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