When people hear “Black Wall Street,” Tulsa’s Greenwood District usually comes to mind first. That makes sense. Greenwood became one of the most famous examples of Black wealth in American history, especially after the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre nearly destroyed the district. But the larger story of Black business districts stretches far beyond Oklahoma. Across the country, Black entrepreneurs were building banks, insurance companies, newspapers, hotels, restaurants, theaters, stores, and entire commercial ecosystems at a time when segregation often blocked them from doing business freely elsewhere.
Greenwood was extraordinary, but it was not alone.
In Tulsa, Greenwood grew after O.W. Gurley purchased land in 1906 and helped establish a district where Black residents could own businesses and property. By 1921, Tulsa City-County Library records show Greenwood had 108Black-owned businesses, including grocery stores, restaurants, hotels, and boarding houses. In a segregated city, spending money inside the community was not simply about supporting Black businesses. The library notes that “buying Black” became “more a matter of survival and less a matter of choice.”…