Black Wall Street - Tulsa Race Massacre Painting

Black Wall Street “Built for Black People by Black People” The residents of Black Wall Street, we’re living an upscale lifestyle. This upscale lifestyle attracted attention of white people fast and made them jealous because of their less prosperous lives and disrupting the status quo. The financial power of Black Wall Street was being felt all across America and you could feel the movement growing in power. African American people were striving to do better for themselves, just as Booker T. Washington suggested. They spent all money earned from working abroad in the community over and over. Historians have noted that money would change hands 19 times before it left the community. Jealousy and envy fueled the minds of white people, KLAN members, racist and the federal government. The Massacre of Black Wall Street began on May 31st, 1921, and lasted two horrifying days. They set over 40 blocks of the city on fire, raping women, torturing men and killing babies and kids. A Mob of 1,700 racist infested the city with no recourse or mercy? To destroy all evidence of the massacre, the US government targeted the city for destruction with the dropping of a bomb.