Creating Space for Greenwood’s History and Future

Tulsa’s Greenwood District is home to the famed original Black Wall Street. This historic freedom colony held some of the most prominent Black businesses of the early twentieth century and is the site of the infamous 1921 race massacre, which left 300 Black community members dead and hundreds more injured and homeless. The citizens of Greenwood rebuilt their community after the horrific events of 1921, and the district remains a locally- and nationally-significant historic site. Today, the Greenwood Community Development Corporation (GCDC), a nonprofit partner of the Greenwood Chamber of Commerce, maintains the ten remaining original buildings of Black Wall Street. With an NEH CARES grant, GCDC repurposed an empty storefront space and adjacent corridor into a welcome center and an exhibition, created signage on the streets and in historic businesses to showcase the history of the area, and implemented sanitization and safety protocols to keep a public courtyard open to the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Greenwood Chamber's Lincoln Cochran introduces the Faces of Greenwood walk through history, a curation made possible by donations and NEH support. Video courtesy of Tulsa World.

The storefront in which the GCDC installed the welcome center is in the Botkin building, which was built in 1922 by Greenwood residents who returned after the massacre. GCDC used NEH funding to transform the building’s previously empty storefront with artwork, printed history booklets, guides to Greenwood, and televisions to display documentaries. A previously empty corridor near the Botkin building was repurposed into the “Hallway of History,” which houses an exhibition dedicated to Greenwood’s history: from the building of Black Wall Street to the present day. The exhibition also includes Black history in Oklahoma more broadly. With NEH funding, GCDC also enhanced its interpretation throughout the district. GCDC installed plaques honoring the business owners who thrived after the massacre. A famed barbershop—the last remaining original Greenwood business—now houses murals and cultural items that tell visitors about Greenwood’s history. And through the COVID-19 pandemic, funding supported deep cleaning protocols for the district’s public courtyard, allowing it to remain a safe recreational space for the community.

Chamber President Freeman Culver III says this NEH grant helped the historic district “to do something that hasn’t been done before,” promoting community dialogue and community-driven tourism and business development. The spaces are intended to encourage dialogue among local community members, providing opportunities to grapple with Greenwood stories that have been passed down over generations. The welcome center and courtyard will host cultural programming and provide space for local artists and budding businesses that do not yet have their own store fronts. And Greenwood’s increased capacity to welcome visitors contributes greatly to interest in the area, which then helps support the local chamber in maintaining community ownership of its historic sites and promoting community-driven development.