The Rise and Fall of Greenwood: A Legacy of Prosperity and Destruction

Today, to start a three-part series examining America's persistent racial wealth gap, we head to Tulsa, Oklahoma. There, in 1921, a violent white mob destroyed the thriving Greenwood neighborhood — then known as America's "Black Wall Street.” The event wiped out much of the prosperity experienced by the area’s Black residents and, along with it, the opportunity for intergenerational wealth-building. We'll learn about the history and attempts at restitution. But first: a downgrade of the nation's credit rating.