Galleries

The Black Wall Street Experience, a temporary art exhibition at Tulsa International Airport, showcases the history of Tulsa’s storied Greenwood District. It’s the brainchild of Bill White, whose vision and creativity sparked broad community interest. Hannibal B. Johnson wrote the storyboards for the exhibit.

The exhibit highlights Tulsa’s African American entrepreneurial legacy, once on prominent display in the Greenwood District. It also seeks to inspire and nurture a modern-day “Black Wall Street” movement.

The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, the worst of the so-called race massacres of the twentieth century, destroyed a nationally renowned black entrepreneurial community fondly dubbed “Black Wall Street.” In a sixteen-hour orgy of unmitigated violence and chaos, the black community in Tulsa endured immeasurable hardship. These photographs tell part of the story: the magnitude of the mayhem; the scope of the devastation; and the depths of the despair. As you view these photographs, know that all was not lost. In the end, the human spirit triumphed, the black community rallied, and Black Wall Street rose once again to prominence.