Lena and the Burning of Greenwood

Greenwood, Oklahoma Memorial Day May 30, 1921 9:00 a.m.

I stood at the living room window and stared up at the dark gray clouds in the sky. Moody. That’s what the weather was.

I’d been hoping for a sunny Memorial Day. I’d been hoping Mama and Daddy might surprise me and my big sister, Cora, with a trip to downtown Tulsa for the Memorial Day parade.

Looks like the only surprise will be rain, I thought.

Daddy came into view from the side of the house where he had been trimming the roses. He smiled and waved at me. Daddy loved his roses.

“Mama,” I called, still staring out the window, “do you think they’ll still have the parade even if it rains?”

In the kitchen, Mama shut off the faucet. A few seconds later, she appeared in the living room. “I don’t know, Lena. Probably.”

Cora, who sat in an armchair in the corner of the living room, closed the book on her lap. She kept her finger in there to mark her page. Cora’s nose was always in a book.

“I bet they will,” she said.

I looked over at her. I hadn’t realized she was listening, but I hoped she was right.

Just then, Daddy came in through the front door. He handed Mama some fresh cut roses.

I sighed. “I wish we could go.”

“Go where?” asked Daddy.

“To the Memorial Day parade,” I said.

I had never been to downtown Tulsa. In fact, I had never left Greenwood. The only things I knew about life outside the Greenwood District were the things I had heard from my friends at school.

My parents glanced at each other. Sometimes I thought they had a secret eyeball language only they understood. I waited for one of them to say something.

“There’s nothing for us in downtown Tulsa,” said Mama finally. “No shops open to us and no bathrooms we can use. Black people are second class citizens there.”

I frowned. I knew Tulsa was segregated, but I was still curious. I wanted to see it at least once.

“We have everything we need right here in Greenwood,” Daddy added. “No need to go anywhere else. We have our own little slice of America.” He chuckled. “That’s why Booker T. Washington called it Negro Wall Street.”

Even though I hadn’t seen anything but Greenwood, I knew it was special. The entire Greenwood District was about thirty-five blocks and had some of everything. We had our own schools and libraries, hotels, restaurants, a skating rink, a theater, a post office, and even a brand-new church called Mount Zion.

I looked at Cora. She opened her book and started reading again. Daddy was always talking about how great Greenwood was. He loved to tell us about how Negroes had settled here and built it from the ground up into the richest, most successful Black community in the country.

Cora never seemed interested. She was sixteen, four years older than me, and her mind was on two things: getting into Tuskegee and getting out of Greenwood. Going to college in Alabama gave her the perfect reason.

Daddy went on. “Greenwood has its own spirit,” he said. “It’s in the town, but it lives inside the people. You know people have actually walked to Greenwood from other states? That’s how great it is!” he said.

Usually, I liked to listen to Daddy’s stories about Greenwood, but not today. Today, I wanted to go to the parade.

Cora had told me all about it before we fell asleep last night. She had heard about it from a friend at school whose daddy was a landscaper in downtown Tulsa.

“They’re selling silk poppies straight from France,” Cora had said. “Hundreds of them. There’s going to be a motorcycle escort and a seventy-piece marching band. And I heard some of the ladies in town are buying new spring dresses just for the parade.”

I looked out the window again. There wasn’t going to be any band marching down Greenwood Avenue. And Daddy’s roses were pretty, but they sure weren’t silk.

Daddy clapped his hands. “Tell you what. We can have our own little parade in our own downtown. We can march right on into Deep Greenwood and do a little window shopping. Maybe even get a treat.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea,” said Mama.

Cora let out a deep breath and closed her book again. She didn’t look excited.

I smiled at Daddy. Better than nothing, I thought.

Deep Greenwood
May 30, 1921
10:45 a.m.

By the time we got into Deep Greenwood, I was excited. I had even put on my pink Easter dress and shiny black shoes, since the people at the parade were dressing up. The whole time we walked, I imagined I was at the parade in downtown Tulsa.

It seemed silly to me that Daddy wouldn’t take us there. It was just across the Frisco train tracks from Deep Greenwood.

How can a skinny line of tracks make such a big difference? I thought.

I stopped in front of a shop and elbowed Cora. “Look, Cora. Fur coats. One day I’m going to have a fur coat,” I said.

Cora laughed. “One day, I’m going to have two. And I’ll wear them both at the same time.”

“You certainly could have two,” Daddy said with a laugh. “In Greenwood, anything is possible.”

We passed by the barbershop, and the barber waved at Daddy. He had been cutting Daddy’s hair since Daddy was young. The barber yelled through the open door. “Hey, Calvin!”

Daddy grinned and waved back. “Hey, Mr. Wilson! I’ll be in next week,” he said.

Mr. Wilson looked too old to still be a barber, but he didn’t act old. His wife had passed away last year, and now he lived by himself. He never seemed lonely, though.

Cora and I walked ahead of Mama and Daddy and stopped in front of the jewelry store window. Daddy had told me that this was where he had bought Mama’s two rings. Her engagement ring was a gold band, and her wedding ring was a gold band with one diamond right in the middle.

“After I finish college and become a doctor,” said Cora, “I’m going to come in here and buy some diamond earrings.”

I looked at my sister. “I thought you said you were leaving Greenwood? You’re going to come back just to buy earrings?”

“Nope. I’m coming back to visit you all and buy diamond earrings. Two pairs. One for you and one for me.”

I didn’t know any women who were doctors, but I knew Cora was smart enough to be one. She’d probably read all the doctor books in the library before she graduated from high school.

I wished she wanted to come back and be a doctor here. Greenwood would be even better with my sister, the doctor, in it.

Daddy said the people made Greenwood what it was. They were hardworking, dedicated, and smart.

My parents fit right in. Mama taught at Booker T. Washington High School, and Daddy was a lawyer. Even though I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up, I fit in too. I always got top marks in school.

Daddy came up behind us. “Want to stop at the bakery?” he asked. “Best jelly rolls in the world, right here in Greenwood!”

Cora and I nodded, and we headed toward the bakery. Farther down the street, a jazz band sat outside the club and played on the sidewalk.

We got our treats, and even though it was raining a little bit, we sat on a bench to listen.

Cora smiled, took a bite of jelly roll, and pulled her jacket tighter around her.

I watched a few people in raincoats walk in and out of the shops. A man and a woman walked past.

“Sure was strange,” said the woman. “Dick Rowland running through here like his hair was on fire.”

“Wonder where he was running to,” the man said. “Or running from,” said the woman.

I looked at Mama and Daddy. They were listening too. I didn’t know who Dick Rowland was, but Daddy looked like he might.

“Daddy, what do you think happened?” I asked.

Mama answered, “Worry about yourself, Lena. It’s probably just gossip.”

But Daddy looked worried. “Hopefully nothing,” he said.

From the way he said it, I had a feeling it might be something.