The Building of a Black Promised Land: Prominent Business Owners of Historic Black Wall Street

O.W. Gurley

Mabel B. Little

A.J. Smitherman

In this episode we turn to three prominent entrepreneurs of Greenwood before the 1921 massacre – O.W. Gurley, Mabel B. Little, and A.J. Smitherman – to help us create an understanding of this historic community before its destruction.

Sources:

Hirsch, James S. Riot and Remembrance: the Tulsa Race War and Its Legacy. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015054106227&view=1up&seq=8.

Wills, Shomari. Black Fortunes: the Story of the First Six African Americans Who Escaped Slavery and Became Millionaires. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2019.

Butler, John S. Entrepreneurship and Self-Help Among Black Americans : A Reconsideration of Race and Economics. SUNY Series in Ethnicity and Race in American Life. Albany: SUNY Press, 1991. http://search.ebscohost.com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=7356&site=ehost-live.

Jonita Mullins. 2016. The Jefferson Highway in Oklahoma: The Historic Osage Trace. American Heritage. [N.p.]: The History Press. http://search.ebscohost.com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1429857&site=ehost-live.

Moreno, Carlos. “The Victory of Greenwood: Mabel B. Little.” Tulsa Star, May 11, 2020. https://newtulsastar.com/2020/05/11/the-victory-of-greenwood-mabel-b-little/.

Davis, Olga Idriss. “Snoop, Dig, and Resurrect: What Can Scholars of African American Communication Learn from the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921?” The Electronic Journal of Communication 13 (2003). http://www.cios.org/EJCPUBLIC/013/2/01321.html#Little.

Gates, Eddie Faye. They Came Searching: How Blacks Sought the Promised Land in Tulsa. Austin, TX: Eakin Press, 1997. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/004575055?

Greer, Bert R. The Perry Daily Times. (Perry, Okla.), Vol. 2, No. 148, Ed. 1 Saturday, March 16, 1895, newspaper, March 16, 1895; Perry, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc115638/m1/2/?q=gurley+building+tulsa: accessed May 5, 2021), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.

Messer, Chris M., Thomas E. Shriver, and Alison E. Adams. “The Destruction of Black Wall Street: Tulsa’s 1921 Riot and the Eradication of Accumulated Wealth.” American Journal of Economics and Sociology 77, no. 3-4 (October 29, 2018): 789–819. https://doi.org/ https://doi-org.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/10.1111/ajes.12225.

Dyson, Michael Eric, and Brophy, Alfred L.. Reconstructing the Dreamland: The Tulsa Riot of 1921 – Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation. Cary: Oxford University Press USA – OSO, 2003. Accessed March 6, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Magliulo, Myrna Colette. “Andrew J. Smitherman: A Pioneer of the African American Press, 1909-1961.” Afro-Americans in New York Life and History 34, no. 2 (July 2010): 119–53. http://gateway.proquest.com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:bsc:&rft_dat=xri:bsc:rec:iibp:00395492.

Smitherman, Andrew Jackson. The Tulsa Star (Tulsa, Okla.), Vol. 10, No. 30, Ed. 1, Saturday, October 23, 1920, newspaper, October 23, 1920; (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc72822/m1/8/?q=gurley: accessed May 5, 2021), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.

Smitherman, Andrew Jackson. The Tulsa Star (Tulsa, Okla.), Vol. 2, No. 24, Ed. 1, Saturday, April 4, 1914, newspaper, April 4, 1914; Tulsa, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc72659/m1/4/?q=gurley%20tulsa: accessed May 5, 2021), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.

Smitherman, Andrew Jackson. The Tulsa Star (Tulsa, Okla.), Vol. 7, No. 21, Ed. 1, Saturday, February 15, 1919, newspaper, February 15, 1919; Tulsa, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc72780/m1/1/?q=greenwood: accessed May 5, 2021), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.

White, Walter F. The Eruption of Tulsa. New York, NY: Nation (Magazine), 1921. https://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cbibliographic_details%7C4392725.

“Three Canon Shots” by Omar Alvarado, licensed under CC BY-NC 3.0

Additional sounds obtained from www.zapsplat.com