Category: Trips

Greenwood District

Tulsa OK

The worst race massacre in American history occurred here in Tulsa, May 31-June 1, 1921.

In the early 1900s, Tulsa’s African-American community, the “Greenwood District”, was nationally known for its prosperity. “Black Wall Street” was populated with entrepreneurs, doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, dentists, beauty parlors, barbershops, dance halls, pool halls, movie theaters, restaurants, grocery stores, and much more. Greenwood Avenue was favorably compared with Beale Street in Memphis and State Street in Chicago.

On May 31, 1921 Dick Rowland, a 19 year old African-American was accused of assaulting a white woman. He was jailed, but the charges were later dropped.

The local Tulsa Tribune published an inflammatory story that mobilized a white mob to lynch Rowland.

African-Americans stationed themselves outside the courthouse to protect Rowland.

The white mob pursued the retreating African-Americans into the Greenwood District, terrorizing the entire community, shooting African-Americans, burning homes and businesses to the ground.

When the Oklahoma National Guard was called in, they ignored the rampaging mob and instead arrested hundreds of African-American survivors.

Public officials failed to keep records of people who were wounded or killed. The estimated number of deaths is at least 36, but witness accounts put the number at more than 300 African-Americans killed. The massacre lasted two days.

Murals depicting Black Wall Street.
Vernon AME Church on Greenwood Avenue, the only surviving foundation from the 1921 Massacre.

John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park

Tulsa OK

Tulsa was the site of the most deadly race massacre in US history, in 1921. Race relations were raw for decades. John Hope Franklin was an historian from Oklahoma whose most famous work was a book titled “From Slavery to Freedom”. His father was a lawyer who defended African-American survivors of the race massacre.

A man fully armed for assault
A man with his hands raised in surrender
Maurice Willows, Director of the Red Cross holding a baby born June 1921.
The Reconciliation Tower. At the center of the Park, the 26 foot tall memorial tower depicts the history of the African American struggle from Africa to America – from the migration of enslaved men, women and children with Native Americans on the Trail of Tears, the slave labor experience in the Territories, the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry that won the Battle of Honey Springs – to statehood, the immigration of free African Americans into Oklahoma, and the All-Black towns and Greenwood. It honors Buck Colbert Franklin (prominent attorney and Dr. Franklin’s father) and other early Tulsa African American prominence.

Sights around Tulsa OK

The Golden Driller, the symbol of the International Petroleum Exposition, 1966.
For scale…
The “Blue Dome”. This was the White Star Service Station, built in 1925. It was Tulsa’s first filling station with compressed air pumps, restrooms with hot and cold running water, and 24-hour service. The blue dome was originally quarters for the station attendant.

The “Blue Dome District” is now an arty area, with theaters, restaurants, hotels, shops and even a minor league baseball stadium.
This house was the setting for the 1983 movie “The Outsiders”, which starred Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Tom Cruise, Diane Lane and Leif Garrett early in their careers.
1949 Plymouth Special Deluxe four-door sedan, similar to the one featured in the movie.
Downtown Tulsa.
Downtown Tulsa.

Westhope (Richard Lloyd Jones House)

Tulsa OK

Westhope is one of three buildings in Oklahoma that were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, America’s most famous architect.

Wisconsin newspaperman Richard Lloyd Jones asked his first cousin Frank Lloyd Wright to build him a residence when Wright was struggling to get commissions.

Commissioned before the Great Crash and finished during the Great Depression, Westhope was built at a difficult time in Wright’s career amid an even more tumultuous time for American society.

Westhope is made with alternating piers of square glass windows and cement “textile” blocks. A limited number of concrete block homes were done in between Wright’s better-known Prairie and Usonian houses.

This is one of the largest residences Wright ever built and its interior is among the most elusive for photographers.

Oral Roberts University

Tulsa OK

Oral Roberts University was started by televangelist Oral Roberts in the 1960s. Currently about 4,000 students are enrolled here. At one entrance to the university is the Praying Hands sculpture. One of the more famous landmarks in Tulsa.
Another famous landmark at ORU, the Prayer Tower.
Looking up at the Prayer Tower,
Sculpture of Jesus instructing students.
Eternal flame and water fountain.
The architecture is like a step back in time to the 1970s. Kind of “70s Futuristic”. There are quite a few new construction projects going on here, so the architecture will be modernized.
Concrete and gold hued metal accents.
Residence halls
Auditorium