The luxury 55-room Stradford hotel in Greenwood, Tulsa, was a symbol of the city’s success. It was the largest black-owned hotel in the US and one of several businesses that belonged to JB Stradford, a former slave who moved to Tulsa in the late 19th century.
The Ku Klux Klan was on the march across Oklahoma and other southern states, and the Jim Crow laws that enforced segregation in most of the South convinced leaders like Stradford that black people would need to build their own communities if they were to succeed.
He lent money to other black businessmen, helping Greenwood to flourish. At its peak, there were about 200 black-owned organisations in the area and at least four millionaires.
“At the turn of the
