Now home to one of the nation’s largest and most popular blues festivals, “Dusk Til Dawn” and is home of one of the nation’s most well-revered historians, Dr. John Hope Franklin. Tullahassee is the oldest of the towns and was founded in 1850. While the Greenwood District is a part of the city of Tulsa, it is a Black community that at its height, was considered the wealthiest in the nation. Nicknamed “Black Wall Street,” it was home to many Black businesses and contained some of the wealthiest Black citizens per capita. It was unfortunately destroyed by white supremacists in 1921.
In the early 20th century, there were over 50 Black towns and communities in Oklahoma which was the most in the nation. There are only 13 that exist today which are Clearview, Langston, Lima. Red Bird, Tatums, Vernon, Tullahassee, Brooksville, Grayson, Rentiesville, Taft, and Boley. Oklahoma’s rich and unique history of the Black towns is vast and one that holds a big influence on the culture of the state.
