Few Americans remember Greenwood, a once-prosperous African-American neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that was known as Black Wall Street. In 1921 Dick Rowland, a black shoeshiner, was charged with attempting to rape a white lift-girl in a downtown office building. An incensed white mob gathered at the courthouse to lynch him, then proceeded to Greenwood for two days of rioting, looting, and murder.

City officials aided and abetted the violence. In the end, 35 blocks were destroyed, 10,000 black people were made homeless, and as many as 300 were killed. Residents reported airplanes flying overhead, dropping explosives. It was one of the worst incidents of racial violence since the civil war. Tens of millions of dollars in black wealth were destroyed or stolen. No compensation was awarded to either the victims or their descendants.