Black Wall Street

In the black community today, its estimated that a dollar stays in the community for about 15 minutes. That wasn't always the case at one time. At one point in history, in our country, there was an affluent black community in Northern Tulsa called "Little Africa" or better known to some as Black Wall Street. A lot of people do not know the history of North Tulsa. In this community, 600 successful businesses thrived. 21 churches, 21 restaurants, 30 grocery stores, two movie theaters, a hospital, a bank, a post office, half a dozen private airplanes, and a bus system flourished in this community.  In Northern Tulsa, the dollar was said to circulate 36 to 100 times in the community, not leaving for a year. Black Wall Street is compared to  Beverly Hills. This community was around in the early 1900s and was home for many black people who were leaving the south and looking for a better life.

In little Africa, one could find Ph.D.'s, Black Attorney's and doctors. There was one Doctor by the name of Dr. Berry who owned the bus system. His average income was $500 a day which is pretty good in 1910; even $500 a day today one is making $3,500 a week. The area had about 36 square blocks and was home to a population of 15,000 African Americans. In this era, the motto was to educate every child.Children were seen going to school dressed in a tie and slacks. This was truly a beautiful community but of course, there were people who wanted the community destroyed and evidence of it erased.

On June 1, 1921 the Ku Klux Klan burned the community to the ground in less than 12 hours. It left 3,000 African- Americans dead and 600 successful businesses lost. Some of the survivors of today believed it was planned because neighboring communities that were predominantly white didn't help or invest to rebuild. Imagine what the community would've been like today. This post isn't to spread hate among all white people because not all white people hate black people. This is a post  to remind us that 95 to100 plus years ago, we had a community that was compared to Beverly Hills.

In today's society, there's so much hate being shown about the black community but not enough positive history being spread about the black community. The negative is always shown. A lot of us gravitate towards the history of Kemit which is cool, but a lot of people cannot relate because it's a different world. We do have something a lot closer that is similar to Kemit/Ancient Egypt and that's Black Wall Street. I'm aware that #blacklivesmatter is trying to get people to recognize there's a serious problem with police and African Americans however in the mean time, we should be trying to emulate Black Wall Street. We should be focusing on our neighborhoods..."We gotta make a change...It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes. Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live and let's change the way we treat each other. You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do what we gotta do, to survive." 2-Pac -Changes (1992)

Black Wall street was burned to the ground due to hate. A lot of us are being killed today due to hate. A lot of us are also doing things that get us put in a position to be killed. I think I've mentioned before in a post back in May, its a vicious cycle we get stuck in. A lot of people need to understand even if a person is doing dirt, they don't deserve to die. In some since, it feels like the black population is being sandwiched into extinction. Sure, we're killing our own people but when we stop that, can one guarantee the cops will stop hunting? It's not all cops either. There are good cops out there. I digress. The point of this post: Black Wall street was real. This can happen again. In today's world it doesn't feel like it but trust, if we were able to start a thriving community like this in the early 1900's, I'm sure we can emulate this today. If you have any suggestions or comments please feel free to leave your opinion. Please be respectful of others and thank you for stopping by "No Title" peace.