19 min listen
The Rise and Fall of Black Wall Street
ratings:
Length:
25 minutes
Released:
May 30, 2021
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
May 30, 1921. Dick Rowland, a Black teenager, works as a shoeshine in the predominantly white downtown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. On his break, he goes into a nearby office building to use the restroom, and gets on the elevator. Sarah Page, a white teenager, is the elevator operator. What happens next is just an innocent accident, but it sparks the deadliest episode of racial violence in American history. What was the story behind Greenwood, the Tulsa neighborhood known as “Black Wall Street?” And why was it decimated on one horrific night?Special thanks to Kalenda Eaton, professor of Africana Literature at the University of Oklahoma, and Kendra Field, professor of history at Tufts University and author of Growing Up with the Country: Family, Race, and Nation after the Civil War.And for more history around the end of Reconstruction, listen to our episode from November 2, 2020, "Stealing the Presidency." Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.
Released:
May 30, 2021
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
When Black Men Won the Vote: February 3, 1870. The 15th Amendment is ratified, which establishes the right to vote for black men in America. While Jim Crow laws would grip the south by 1877, there was a brief, seven-year window of opportunity. Half a million black voters turned ou... by HISTORY This Week