O.W. Gurley
1868–1935
Founder of Greenwood, the Tulsa district known as Black Wall Street.
📖Biography
Ottawa W. Gurley was a Black educator, postal worker, and landowner who became one of Oklahoma's wealthiest Black businessmen. In 1906 he purchased forty acres of land in Tulsa and sold lots only to Black buyers, founding the Greenwood district. By 1921 he owned more than one hundred properties there, including a grocery store and rooming house. He lost nearly everything in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and later moved to Los Angeles.
Key Achievements
Purchased 40 acres in Tulsa in 1906 and sold land only to Black buyers
Founded the Greenwood district, later called Black Wall Street
Owned over 100 Greenwood properties by 1921
Built one of the district's first grocery stores and rooming houses
Life Timeline
Born in Huntsville, Alabama
Purchased forty acres in Tulsa, sold only to Black buyers
Opened a grocery and rooming house on Greenwood Avenue
Lost his Greenwood empire in the Tulsa Race Massacre
Passed away in Los Angeles, California
Legacy & Impact
Gurley's vision created one of the most prosperous Black communities in American history, proving what Black economic self-determination could achieve under segregation.