This is Karen Hunter and welcome to the hub. I recently read an article in the Smithsonian magazine about a manuscript that they got in,

10 pages, eyewitness account from a man that has survived the Black Wall Street massacre.

Now if you don't know about Black Wall Street, I talk about it incessantly.

It is the most amazing community, black-owned, black-run, black-inspired community that this country, the United States, has ever seen.

Founded on a vision, well actually it was a land, a land, not a land grab, but the United States

to set aside land just for black folk.

Of course, it wasn't fertile land.

They didn't expect it to be anything.

The couple of men that founded it started building homes. The first guy, O. W. Gurley, built a rooming house and he built

a hotel. So did J.B. Stratford, he built hotels. But it was built on this, you know, kind of notion that we can do things ourselves and I've been on this mission of we are enough, you know, kind of getting that message out there. But before Robert Smith said, we are enough,

Black Wall Street sent the message and actually delivered.

And in that community, they have more doctors,

more lawyers than any place else in America, more black doctors, and more

black lawyers, teachers. They had movie houses and restaurants, of course. As I

mentioned, hotels. Actually, the largest hotel, black-owned hotel in America was in Tulsa, Oklahoma,

Greenwood, which is the street that, the main street running through the town.

There was a report that several residents in Greenwood had airplanes.

That's how wealthy it was.

And it was known throughout the country as Black Wall Street.

Now, the lie was May 30th, a young man, he was a shoe shine guy, was going to

the bathroom in one of the few places that you go to the bathroom in the

white side of town in this department store. He was in an elevator.

...