‘We have to be part of the solution’: building the Black Wall Streets of tomorrow

How activists and visionaries across the nation are designing the new hubs of Black commerce

When most people hear the words Black Wall Street", their thoughts tend to dart straight to Greenwood, the prosperous Tulsa enclave that rose to prominence in the early 1900s and lay in ruins after the 1921 Tulsa massacre. In a horrific flashpoint of US history, a white mob descended on the north Tulsa neighborhood, looting and burning down Black-owned businesses and killing approximately 300 people.

Phil Armstrong, a Tulsa resident and the president and CEO of the Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice, says that the ruinous massacre is only half the story. In fact, the city of Tulsa began rebuilding the Greenwood district almost immediately after the riots. By 1942, one year after the devastation, the zone was home to 242 Black-owned businesses including bowling alleys, hotels and boutiques - double the amount there had been 12 months prior.