Episode 288 - Black History Month - Black Wall Street and the Tulsa Race Massacre with Carmita from Missing in the PNW

About this episode

This episode discusses the rise of Black Wall Street in Oklahoma and the events leading to the Tulsa Race Massacre.

TW - This episode we drop a few 'f' bombs, and a few other words we would not normally use. But we are dealing with an act of domestic terrorism that has been concealed by polite history. We discuss the rRise of Black Wall Street in the Greenwood District of Oklahoma. How discovering oil in the early twenties brought people of all colors to to the young state of Oklahoma unintentionally creating a community of Black entrepreneurs, lawyers, doctors and other professionals,,This created a segregation and suspicion drove them into the community of Greenwood where they built black schools, black theaters, black hotels and black shops. Their community was so good and prosperous that even whites would shop there when they could get a product better or cheaper. However, one night, a young man named Dick Rowland who worked in Tulsa had to use the restroom. Being black, he couldn't go to the bathroom where he worked he had to go to one of the 'Black Only' bathrooms and the closest one was on the top floor of the nearby Drexler Building. The elevator was operated by one Sarah Page and as Dick rode the elevator, it shook briefly, causing Dick to wobble, he grabbed Sarah's arm to right…

People in this episode

Guest: Carmita

Topics covered

• Black Wall Street
• Tulsa Race Massacre
• domestic terrorism
• Black entrepreneurship
• segregation

Keywords

• history
• true crime
• Greenwood District
• Dick Rowland
• Sarah Page

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Missing in the PNW, Murder in the PNW

Places: the Greenwood District, Oklahoma, Greenwood, Tulsa, America

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