Deep Greenwood - Plaques Underfoot
Photo: G. Edward Johnson, CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
A stop on Greenwood: Tulsa's Black Wall Street, a free self-guided tour.
Look down as you walk this block. Small plaques set into the sidewalk mark Black-owned businesses that stood here before the massacre: cafes, groceries, tailors, offices. Each one is a household's livelihood. They were paid for through a city improvement program with the North Tulsa Community Task Force, and some have gone missing over the years during sidewalk work, which is its own kind of loss.
This stretch was called Deep Greenwood. After 1921, owners rebuilt in brick despite huge losses. John and Loula Williams, whose Dreamland Theatre had shown films and hosted live shows for Black audiences, rebuilt their Williams Building in 1922 and reopened the theater. Today the Greenwood Chamber of Commerce cares for the few historic buildings that remain on the block.
Read a few plaques slowly. Each name is a family that built something here and had to start over.
Getting here: Walk north from the corner along the 100 block of North Greenwood Avenue, watching the sidewalk.
Did you know?: The Williams family's Dreamland Theatre seated about 750 people and offered silent films, live music and stage revues.
Photo op: Crouch to frame a sidewalk plaque in the foreground with the brick storefronts of Deep Greenwood behind it.
More on Wikipedia: Greenwood District, Tulsa · Tulsa race massacre
Stops on this tour
- Greenwood Rising - Where Black Wall Street Began
- Deep Greenwood - Plaques Underfoot
- I-244 Overpass - The Second Destruction
- Vernon AME Church - The Basement That Survived
- Greenwood Cultural Center - Keeping the Memory
- Black Wall Street Memorial - Names That Remain
- Mount Zion Baptist Church - A Debt Paid in Full
- Reconciliation Park - Hostility, Humiliation, Hope
- Pathway to Hope - Stitching Greenwood Back Together
- Oaklawn Cemetery - The Search for the Missing