I have broken this post into two parts. No, I do not think I am Soledad. And No this is not CNN. I have so much to say. Part two is tomorrow. I’ll write about the makings of the town (along with my connection to it) and the gun shot from a Klan’s member which would destroy the once burgeoning city. Stay tuned.
I’ve had a tremendous fascination with Black Wall Street/Greenwood Ave in Tulsa Oklahoma since I was in my late teens. This fascination of the historical makings and ideology of black wealth had a lot to do with my upbringing. My parents were an odd couple both now in their early 60s. My mother from a very hardworking working class background. My father from more privilege and education-largely due to the great living his father made coming from Alabama to start one of the first black owned cab companies in DC. I had ready access to the juxtaposition. Notwithstanding the advanced degrees my father and his siblings went on to earn in the late 60s, what made these two families who migrated from the south to the DC area with similar experiences so different ? Maybe it was the risk. My paternal grandfather had much more to risk with three times as many kids than my maternal grandfather. Maybe my father’s father just tried a little harder. Maybe he expected more, and got it. Sometimes I sound like such a “self-reliant” Republican, but wait…most Black Folks do.
This is why historically black wealthy places like Tulsa Oklahoma, are so riveting to me. They were developed out of the notions of segregation and feeling safe among their own. Wealth was created because many black people could only do business with one another. It couldn’t get any more self-reliant and self-determined than that Comebackers.
But the migration to Tulsa OK (and Muskogee OK-outside of Tulsa) specifically had its own interesting and special twist. After the civil war, Slave holding Native Americans including (Chickasaws, Choctaws, Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles) provided liberation with annuity and landrights to their former slaves in Oklahoma. Hannibal Jackson in “Black Wall Street” writes: ” Oklahoma became a state of national significance with the opening of the great oil fields like Glenn Pool in 1905, Cushing in 1912, and Healdton in 1913. Private fortunes were made…Oklahoma boldly asserted itself, claiming its position as the number one oil-producing state in the entire country”.
One of my older friends and Oklahomaian reminded me that Jacob Simmons’ (1901-1981) wealth was born out of the Haskell OK land that the Creek Indians provided him when the Creek tribe disbanded (his great grandfather was a Creek Indian slave). Simmons would go on to become one of the first (and only) black oil tycoons, brokering oil deals at home and abroad (Nigeria) with people like William Skelly (Skelly Oil) and Frank Phillips (Phillips Petrolium).
(Greenwood Ave/Black Wall Street, circa 1921, courtesy Don Ross)
(Today, from Comeback Girl’s Iphone. Greenwood Ave only spans a block with a little more than a dozen businesses down from more than 600 during the early parts of the 1900 spanning many city blocks)
13 Comments
Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 1:55 pm
WOW. You dont know how good it feel’s inside to read that someone else know what happened in 1921. We can talk about 911, but those whites who were involved in this attack single handly destroy what Blacks then strived and fought for.
We as Black need to understand that it is tantamount that we come together again to achieve greatness.
in life 10% is the problem. The othe 90% is how you react to the problem. go to my blog and http://www.noblessenoire.blogspot.com
Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 7:01 pm
“We can talk about 911, but those whites who were involved in this attack single handly destroy what Blacks then strived and fought for.”
Totally true Joshua…if the old comeback girl had it in her (she actually take the LSAT once again, and finish…to go to lawschool). If ever there was a case for reparations, this is among several other places that could. And esp. since yesterday congress issued a formal apology for slavery and jim crow laws.
White people are the first to talk about how none of them directly owns slaves back in the mid to late 1800. But hell there was a form of slavery going on up to and including the late 50s that was just as much psychologically and economically damaging to Black folks.
If Jews can go back to the early part of last century certainly we can go back say 50 years or more.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 11:43 pm
It is refreshing to see someone else discuss this. Me being from down south, I’ve known about this since I was younger. Fortunately my parents taught me a lot of stuff that the “history” books fail to tell. It’s been a few few years since I’ve been to that area but I do recommend folks go at least once in their lives.
Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 8:31 am
Have you ever read up o the “Black Wall Streets” found in other cities across the U.S., and most have a similar story of their decline, might make for some interesting research…
Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Shelia ..I recommend hit it up. The whole downtown area is a ghost town now. But 7 blocks west is a HUGE…Bank of OKlahoma (BOK) center… opening in SEPT http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:20080726bokcenter.JPG . Its the most beautiful architecture EVER EVER EVER. The eagles are playing there and the seats sold out in like 5 minutes or something crazy like that.
Alise…actually Hannibal Johnson (who wrote “Black Wall Street) has a book of other areas he’s comprised of 60 all black towns: http://www.amazon.com/Acres-Aspiration-Black-Towns-Oklahoma/dp/1571686649.
I was always partiularly fascinated by Tulsa because of its economic HIGH and then its destruction. I also have been thinking about putting together like a picture (coffee table book) or calender..maybe something complimentary to Johnson’s book: Acres of Aspiration.
Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 9:47 pm
@ author…. thanks for the link…
Wednesday, September 17, 2008 at 5:03 pm
This may or may not come as a surprise but up until just about a month ago I had no idea about Black Wall Street or the destruction of it and the murder of these people. The reason I say that it’s a surprise to ME is because I am a black man, 43yrs of age who was born in Tulsa, Ok. My mom and dad divorced when I was 9 and my mom moved us to California when I was 11 1/2 yrs old and from that point on my life changed and Tulsa had nothing to do with it anymore. I have two brothers from my mom who are still there….locked away for life in Ok prisons and my father whom I never talked to much growing up. I now have a relationship with my father from a distance and pick his brain sometimes about the stories HIS dad told him about those times. We as black people have been and continue to be treated less than human. If spirits could talk to us.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Hi Youngest
“We as black people have been and continue to be treated less than human”
I agree. but we have history to tell us still what the possibilities are.
Thursday, September 18, 2008 at 11:50 am
We are doing a play called “Pieces of the Past” Sept. 26th, 2008 at Sabathani in Mpls., Minnesota — tell your friends. A gal form Mpls. wrote and is directing it. Thanks.
Thursday, September 18, 2008 at 3:00 pm
@ Tom its about Black Wall Street? holla back!
Monday, September 29, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Hello,
I too had heard about the Tulsa riots but when the movie Rosewood came out, it sounded so much the same that I thought I had it wrong. I have found out in recent years that my ancestors were in the Tulsa riots. As I have conducted research on my family there, I have not been able to find anything on my great great grandmother and great great grand aunt and uncles after the 1920 Census. Sometimes, I wonder if they were amoung the victims who did not make it. This was truly an injustice to our black people in Tulsa as well as the many atrocities committed in so many other areas of our country. I hope that one day the reparations that so many dedicated people are working so hard to get for the survivors and their descendants will come to fruition. Thank you for bringing this to light because there are so many people who have never heard of this riot. Maybe one day it will make its way into the Oklahoma History books if it already hasn’t.
Monday, September 29, 2008 at 10:29 pm
@ Val have you checked the Greenwood’s Cultural Center for your family history info. I believe they have a record of every family and business in the area at the time of the riot/fire? Good luck in your research. Thanks for reading.
Monday, October 13, 2008 at 1:42 am
this might take you research further if you put the pieces together. . . .
1928 C.E. – 1933 C.E.
The U.S.: Bankruptcy And The Moors
The purveyors of so-called white supremacy were just walking along minding their own business; suppressing, destroying, and/or misrepresenting the truth about history… Moor’s history in particular when out of no where came the savior for the fallen people that they had extinguished the light and life within. His appellation is Noble: Drew-Ali.
Having traveled the world, Noble: Drew-Ali obtained knowledge, wisdom, understanding, and over-standing into the many truths the oppressors were working so hard to hide. After detecting our true identity as Moors and our true history as possessors of the oldest artifacts and burial sites in what has been misnomered as the so-called “Americas” as opposed to the lies the so-called white supremist was spewing forth [All “blacks” were brought to the “Americas” by us to be our slaves]; Noble: Drew-Ali implemented a series of actions to begin the process of resurrecting our people from the comatose and dead levels. These efforts culminated in the re-emergence of the Moors as a community in the sense of a body-politic that was gestating/rebuilding into a nation once again.
In 1928 C.E., the Pan-American-Conference was held in Havana, Cuba. Secretary Of State Hughes went down to represent the United:States and Noble: Drew-Ali went down to represent the Moors. At that conference, the mandate for the land mass of Greater-Amexem [North, Central, and South-Central-Amexem] misnomered as the North, Central, and South “Americas” was returned to the Moors. Noble: Drew-Ali knew what this meant and what the ramifications of this was and is. Several stop gap measures were taken by Noble: Drew-Ali to secure our [The Moors] birthright inheritance and beneficiary interest as Moors to the land mass within the aforementioned land mandate.
The actions of Noble: Drew-Ali were detected by the so-called white-supemists and they immediately proceeded to act to do all they could to impede his work and take him out.
Fortunately natural law governs all events thus by the time the oppressor made his move on Noble: Drew-Ali, Noble: Drew-Ali had already put things in motion. This scared the international banksters because land and labor is where all of your wealth comes from in the carnal world and Noble: Drew-Ali had just yanked all the land from so-called “Alaska” to so-called “Argentina” out from under them. Even though we, the Moors as a community were mentally comatose at that time the international banksters recognized that the potential for our instant return to our place of prominence on the global scene existed. Thus the international banksters recalled all of their loans in a panic which in turn put a squeeze on their stock market which caused its collapse 2 months after the assassination of Noble: Drew-Ali.
Nevertheless the so-called European on both sides of the Atlantic knew that their system was and is existing and functioning on borrowed time. They also realize that the length of that borrowed time is directly tied to the length of our [The Moors] ignorance/lack of knowledge of our self, our history, our culture, and what is rightly/justly ours. This fact is what has compelled the so-called white supremist to do all that is possible to keep the undeclared/mentally-comatose-Moors from ever waking up and reclaiming all that rightly belongs to our people and at the same time; keep the rank and file unsuspecting so-called “Europeans” from finding out what is really going on.
Noble: Drew-Ali’s works as a result of what transpired at the Pan-American: Conference touched off a flurry of activity on both sides of the Atlantic because the so-called “European” from both sides of the Atlantic knew what was coming as a result. The actions of Noble: Drew-Ali caused the so-called “Europeans” to assemble themselves to conspire and plot a way to deal with what they thought would be the re-emergence of the Moors to whom their respective countries are tributary to as they always have been [The U.S. And Barbary Powers by David Macritchie written in the 1800’s C.E. documents this fact].
Noble: Drew-Ali knew that the time of our [The Moors] resurrection had not come and knew that his days were numbered. In fact, Noble: Drew-Ali stated “ It will take you Moors 50 years to figure out what I have done. What I have done is not for you Moors but for the 3rd and 4th generation from now. There will be new Moors that will come with their eyes open seeing and knowing and they will set you old Moors in the back and carry out my law”. The so-called “European” was horrified at the potential of our people rising 71 years ago yet Noble: Drew-Ali knew our minds were not ready then.
Nevertheless the so-called United:States, Great-Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Portugal convened in Geneva, Switzerland for 5 continuous years [1928 C.E.-1932 C.E.] to set up what would be the policy of all of the participating countries. These 5 years of meetings became known as the Geneva-Convention. In 1930 C.E., the so-called United:States, Great-Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Portugal all declared bankruptcy. Any attempt to obtain the minutes of the 1930 C.E. Geneva-Convention are futile because they publish the volumes of minutes for every year of the Geneva conventions including 1930 C.E. but refuse to make the 1930 C.E. minutes available to the public because they contain the evidence of the bankruptcy.
Going into 1932 C.E., the aforementioned states stopped meeting in Geneva. In 1932 C.E. Franklin-Roosevelt became the U.S.: President and his job was to put into place and administer the bankruptcy that the United:States had declared 2 years earlier and hide the bankruptcy from the unsuspecting public by establishing a re-organization plan [ The New Deal/Administrative State that functions under the “color” of the United States of America]. The United States of America and the United States for America along with the United-States: Constitution became defunct from that moment on and all that remained was the insolvent/bankrupt for profit corporation known as the United:States/UNITED STATES[Codified and documented in Title 26 of the Code of Federal Regulations section 1.911-2(h), In Re Merriam 36 NE 505. 141 N.Y. 479 upheld by the 16 S. Ct 1073. 163 U.S. 625 41 L.Ed 287 See also 16 Stat 419 and District-Of-Columbia-v-Cluss 103 U.S. 705.26-1 Ed.455] operating a democratic military venue
under martial law [War Powers Act] and the Uniform-Commercial-Code [Hebrew Commercial Law].
The so called “States” all revamped their local constitutions by 1938 C.E. to take into account their capitulation to the bankrupt mother corporation doing business as the United:States thus clearing the way for the Buck Act of 1940 allowing the corporate United:States to extend its jurisdiction and by default usurp all sovereignty over the now defunct State-Republics.
Getting back to Roosevelt, he was sworn into the United-States: Presidency in January 1933 C.E. and wasted no time getting started with the bankruptcy. Roosevelt immediately shut the banks down [Banking Holiday] and proceeded to pull all of the gold out of circulation while replacing it with a debt currency/tender/i.o.u. with the Moors’ seal [The pyramid with the all seeing eye] on the back of the U.S.: 1 dollar bill/federal reserve note.
The Clock of Destiny Book II by C.M.: Bey on page 6 states “ The Amazon red skin white moors’ progress was guided by the cycle of the planets Jupiter and Mars from 1789 C.E. to 1933 C.E., a period of 140 years. Mars passes through the 12 signs of the zodiac 72 times and Jupiter passes through the 12 signs of the zodiac 12 signs in a 140 years. Thus from 1789 C.E. to 1933 C.E. spelled the rise and fall of Rome on a universal scale [Take note of the Fasci symbols on both sides of the speakers podium in the U.S.: Congress]. Keeping in mind that the first 8 presidents were Moors and they were in power from 1776 C.E. to 1789 C.E. when the keys of power were transferred into the custodianship of the Mystic Turks [So-called “European” Masons] and Shriners that the Moors charged with the duty and responsibility of protecting our sacred shrine [New-Jerusalem/Washington, D.C.] and our sciences until we as a people arose from our state of spiritual, moral and ethical decay and awaken from our slumber to reclaim all that rightfully belongs to us from their custodianship.
The 9th U.S.: President, George-Washington was a Grand Master Mason under the tutorage of Emmanuel-Mu-Ali-Ben: Bey [Benjamin-Banneker]. George-Washington was the first and U.S.: President and Grand Master Mason Franklin Roosevelt was the last so-called “European” President to rule in that 140 year cycle.
Roosevelt knew that he was the last to rule in the 144 year progressive cycle of Roman universal influence when he established a new order or new deal idea and broke the Roman order by ruling for 12 years which is the measurement of man. When Roosevelt was giving those famous fireside chats, he knew what was taking place [ The beginning of the gradual return of the keys of power to the rightful owners, the Moors]. Everything that was taken from us [Moors] is quietly being prepared for its eventual return to us [Moors]; the gold [The U.S. is tributary to the Moors and they have to repay a 25 million dollars in gold loan that we made to the U.S.: Government in 1861 C.E. that the U.S.: Congress is responsible to repay which is why the seal of the Moors is on the back of the U.S. 1 dollar currency/tender/i.o.u.] and all of the land was taken and so called whites were reduced from landowner status to mere land user status. The land they murdered my ancestors for and stole so that they could fraudulently provide their silent cohorts/their people with fraudulent land grants, land patents, and allodial titles that those thieves and their descendants have no spirtual, moral, or ethical right to [ The same applies in Kenya, Zimbabwe, so-called South-africa, Australia, etc.] yet they claim they are a “God fearing nation”… If this is so, the Doctrine of Discovery from the Vatican which is still in force would cease to exist effective immediately. If this is so then the so called whites will gladly return our lands, repay the loan we made to them, make recompense to us for the Tuskegee Experiment, Emmitt Till, Maurice Bishop, The Berlin Conference, and way too much to list here [But don’t worry… We will get to that too!!!] to be in harmony with the God the so called “European” claims to love, honor, respect, and obey.
The United:States is bankrupt and its sovereignty is gone. The courts in the U.S. and the States are not solvent thus the Courts and Prosecutors cannot have nor bring a claim against anyone because as a bankrupt entity it has no authority to operate. Therefore the courts in the U.S. and the States cannot and will not resolve any issues. Technically, there are no more courts in the U.S. and the States. There are only private corporations doing business as quasi courts with magistrates and administrative judges (An administrative judge is not the same as a judge).
The U.S.: Bankruptcy is expressed in Franklin-Roosevelts’ Executive Order Numbers: 6073,6111, and 6260 (See U.S. Senate Report 93-549 pp. 187, 594) under Trading With The Enemy Act of 1917 codified as United-States-Code: Title: 12: Section: 95a: House Joint Resolution 192 of June 5, 1933 C.E. confirmed in Perry-v-U.S. (1933), case site 294 U.S. 330-381 and United-States-Code: Title: 31: Sections: 5112 and 5119.
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