In 1921, Tulsa’s Greenwood District - known then as the nation’s “Black Wall Street” - was one of the most prosperous African American communities in the United States. But on May 31 of that year, a white mob, inflamed by rumors that a young black man had attempted to rape a white teenage girl, invaded Greenwood. By the end of the following day, thousands of homes and businesses lay in ashes, and perhaps, as many as 300 people were dead.

With the clarity and descriptive power of a veteran journalist, author Randy Krehbiel digs deep into the events and their aftermath and investigates decades-old questions about the local culture at the root of what one writer has called "a white-led pogrom".

Krehbiel analyzes local newspaper accounts in an unprecedented effort to gain insight into the minds of contemporary Tulsans. In the process, he considers how the Tulsa World, the Tulsa Tribune, and other publications contributed to the circumstances that led to the disaster and helped solidify enduring white justifications for it. 

In its wake, black Tulsans were denied redress and even the right to rebuild on their own property, yet they ultimately prevailed and even prospered, despite systemic racism and the rise during the 1920s of the second Ku Klux Klan.

The book is published by University of Oklahoma Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

Praise for the book:

"The best book on the Tulsa tragedy of 1921 to come out in the past twenty years, or possibly ever." (Alfred L. Brophy, author of Reconstructing the Dreamland: The Tulsa Riot of 1921 - Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation)