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Nearly 100 years ago, Tulsa, Oklahoma’s “Black Wall Street” was an anomaly. The flourishing community of black-owned businesses in a neighborhood known as the Greenwood District was a place where the prospect of black wealth was real at a time when white supremacy was the order of the day.
But on May 31, 1921, a horrific attack destroyed the community. In what’s now known as the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, white mobs burned more than 1,200 buildings in Greenwood and killed an estimated 300 people. It’s considered one of the worst episodes of racial violence in the US, yet it’s largely been left out of history books.
This video about that incident is the first in a series we’re creating around hidden histories, especially within marginalized communities — and we need your help to keep the series going.
