State of Fear: Murder and Memory on Black Wall Street

Tulsa, Oklahoma is renowned as “the oil capitol of the world” – once home to the most prosperous black community in the United States known as “Black Wall Street.” In 1921, after members of the KKK had effectively taken control of the city, Black Wall Street was destroyed in a massacre known as “The Tulsa Race Riot.” Black Wall Street, formerly known as the Greenwood District was then renamed the Brady District for Tulsa’s Ku Klux Klan-affiliated Mayor. Ever since, the area has known extensive, community-wide victimization by racist members of the Tulsa law enforcement community. In April 2015, a Reserve Deputy killed Eric Harris, an unarmed suspect, as he ran from members of the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office.