Tulsa Old Burned Down Marble Factory

1854 the catholic church had its first permanent priest.

Tulsa old burned down marble factory.

The defending african american citizens were ready. The georgia marble company was founded in 1884 by samuel tate. The village now contained 75 dwelling houses a meeting house two school houses five stores three taverns a grist null four saw mills a woolen factory and mills for the manufacture of marble. In a period spanning fewer than 12 hours a once thriving black business district in northern tulsa lay smoldering a model community destroyed and a major african american economic movement resoundingly defused.

It s a story that s 80 years old although it is news to many americans especially white americans. In tulsa erupted in 1921 when 19 year old dick. Black wall street the name fittingly given to one of the most affluent all black communities in america was bombed from the air and burned to the ground by mobs of envious whites. The violence and vandalism resulted in upwards of 300 people killed with most being african american.

The architect of the settlement edwin mccabe had a vision of oklahoma as the black promised land he sent recruiters to the south preaching racial pride and self sufficiency. Forest fires burned for days during the drought. A century ago tulsa was racially segregated and reeling from a recent lynching when dick rowland a 19 year old shoeshiner walked to the drexel building which had the only toilet downtown. Oklahoma wasn t yet a state and its racial dynamics weren t set in stone.

A man with a camera looking at the skeletons of iron beds which rise above the ashes of a burned out block after the tulsa race riot 1921. In 1890 a group of migrants fleeing the hostile south settled an all black town called langston 80 miles west of tulsa. Tate leased out all the land in pickens county georgia united states that contained rich georgia marble pickens county has a vein of marble 5 to 7 miles 8 0 to 11 3 km long a half mile wide and up to 2 000 feet 610 m deep. At the sound of three blasts from a siren they stormed the city s wealthy african american district of greenwood.

Even the goal of the tulsa police on the night of may 31 was to put down a negro uprising 10 the police department in tandem with local units of the national guard worked to disarm greenwood residents and swept through the town. The town contained sixteen schools eight stores two tanneries and over 300 acres of marble.