Tulsa Race Massacre

Greenwood, the black neighbourhood in Tulsa was known as Black Wall Street because of its thriving community of commerce and family life to its residents of roughly 10,000 residents. Greenwood had Brick and wood frame homes and blocks with grocery stores, nightclubs, billiard halls, theatres, doctor's offices, churches and hotels.

On 30 May 1921, a 19-year-old African-American shoe shiner named Dick Rowland entered an elevator at the Drexel building and encountered Sarah Page, a 17-year-old white elevator operator. Rowland asked her for permission to use the restroom only to trip and grab her arm which caused Sarah to scream in response.
The incident was treated as assault and it resulted in a riot by the white community in Tulsa after 25 armed black men offered to help guard Rowland at the courthouse. When they were turned away, a group of white people tried to break into the National Guard armoury nearby before showing up at the courthouse with guns of their own. The outnumbered Black men retreated after chaos broke out to Greenwood where the agitated whites followed them and attacked Greenwood, committing numerous violent acts.

Within hours, the African American neighbourhood in Tulsa had perished to at the hands of the white riot. More than 1,350 homes were burned to the ground, thousands of people were killed and many years of Black success was erased.
The charges against Dick Rowland were dropped and Black Tulsans worked together to rebuild Greenwood. The death toll may have been higher as 300 and the Tulsa Race Massacre is one of the deadliest riots in US history, only behind the New York Draft Riots of 1863, were at least 110 people were killed.