black entrepreneurship. people call it the black wall street. like putting harlem, bourbon street, and chocolate city all in one place. but white paulsons talked about it as little africa or land. tulsa was a powder keg, needing only something to set the community alight. between 100 and 300 people, most of them black, were killed. today we call it a massacre. they were hastily trying to get rid of the bodies. by dumping them in mass graves around the city. we of tulsa of an undetermined number, it should have not taken any nine years. anyone who thinks this crime scene is not going to speak does not have the ears to hear. the earth is shaking. i came to tulsa when i was in the sixth grade, so that has been well, i don t know how many years. my mother is from oklahoma. and there was a strong black community in tulsa called greenwood. these people were the core of black entrepreneurship. and they would help you get your business started. 1920 greenwood was booming.
that didn t happen. around 10:30 at night, a little before then a rumor hits greenwood that whites are storming the jail. 75 african american men all armed drive to the courthouse. they march up to the courthouse, they go up to the sheriff who s waiting for them on the steps, and they say we are here to help to protect the prisoner if you need our help. sheriff mccullf says get the hell out of here, i don t want you. as they are leaving, an elderly white man goes up to a tall, black vet and says, where you going with that gun? and the vet says, i m going to use it if i need to. white man says, like hell you are, tries to get the gun, there s a struggle, a shot goes
on the morning of june 1st after the massacre, the national guard and some police and maybe some civilians began rounding up all of the african american population in greenwood that they could. there were between 5 and 7,000 people detained. and the reason given for that was that it was for their own protection, that they were going to be put someplace safe. everybody who was still in custody was moved to the fairgrounds east of greenwood. they setup cots, a kitchen, they dug latrines. the people who stayed there were expected to work. the women would prepare the
ideas. how do you survive if you re a black person in america during this era? and part of the answer came through african american veterans of world war i. they fought in combat units in france where they were treated with respect and with hawnonor,d they came back to the united states and found none. we have black veterans in greenwood. they fought for their country. they fought for their freedom, so when they come home they expect to be respected. but what they come home to is again more jim crow laws, more prejudice and more restrictions on their freedom that they fought for. after world war i there are a number of incidences of black soldiers in uniform being lynched by white mobs.
and they became prosperous. creating and living in this insular economic community of the greenwood district. the greenwood district was like mainstreet. mom and pop operations, small businesses, hotels, restaurants, grocery stores. theaters, nightclubs. you had the offices of african american lawyers, there were more than 12 physicians and surgeons who had their offices in greenwood. greenwood had about 10,000 people. they were in search for a way to be masters of their own fate. today, most of the people connect to greenwood, they think