Black Birds in the Sky by Brandy Colbert

Author:Brandy Colbert [Colbert, Brandy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-08-03T00:00:00+00:00

Dr. A. C. Jackson

Dr. Jackson set up his medical practice on the corner of Greenwood Avenue and Archer Street, quickly gaining a clientele that respected him. In fact, he was so revered that white patients entrusted him with their medical care, too, despite Tulsa’s segregated hospitals. He established a second practice in nearby Claremore, Oklahoma, in 1916, and two years later, he was in talks with the Tulsa mayor about opening a Black hospital on the corner of Boston Avenue and Archer Street. Dr. Jackson eventually became president of the Oklahoma State Medical Association, and William and Charles Mayo, who founded the nationally revered Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, called him “the most able Negro surgeon in America.”

Greenwood was also home to well-respected attorneys. Buck Colbert “B. C.” Franklin had moved to Tulsa in 1921 from the all-Black town of Rentiesville, Oklahoma, where he’d worn many hats, including the town’s justice of the peace, the postmaster, the only attorney, and a leading entrepreneur. However, as his son John Hope Franklin later explained, “there was not a decent living in all those activities,” which brought Franklin to the oil town of Tulsa with the goal of more profitable and plentiful legal work. He set up a practice there and would later become one of the massacre’s most significant figures just months after arriving in Tulsa.

The residents of Greenwood placed great emphasis on education: Booker T. Washington High School was a top-tier institution that prepared students for enrollment at elite, predominantly white schools such as Columbia University and Oberlin College, and prestigious HBCUs (historically Black colleges and universities) like Howard University and Spelman College. Educators were so valued that they earned some of the highest salaries in Greenwood. In fact, famous educator and author Booker T. Washington is responsible for naming the district “Negro Wall Street.”

Despite Greenwood’s exceptional growth throughout the first two decades of the twentieth century, its success did not go unresented by white Tulsans—or, ultimately, unchallenged.

Black people had created Greenwood out of necessity; owning, operating, and supporting Black businesses was their only path to living the full, unbothered lives that white people were allowed to live while not violating the strict Jim Crow laws that ruled the state. Though not all Black Tulsans resided there—domestic workers performing jobs as housekeepers, drivers, cooks, and butlers often lived in Tulsa’s white communities, staying in the servants’ quarters of their white employers—by the beginning of 1921, Greenwood had attracted more than ten thousand Black residents, who were homeowners, business owners, and loyal patrons of the community’s businesses.

White Tulsans were well aware of what was going on across the railroad tracks—and many of them didn’t like it. They felt Black Americans hadn’t earned their right to such wealth and success, or to simply be left alone. Jealous of what the Black community had built on their own, some white people referred to Greenwood as “Little Africa.” Because of segregation laws and personal choices, many white Tulsans never socialized or interacted with Black Tulsans. They

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