Black and Indigenous People of Color in Business

Pictured here is Lloyd H. Williams, the owner of Williams Drugs. He is standing in front of his store. The Williams family played an illustrious in the history of Greenwood. The next time you visit Greenwood, you can see the Williams building, on the northwest corner of N. Greenwood Ave. and Archer Street, which named for John W. and Loula Williams. Photo Credit: Tulsa Historical Society and Museum

This week’s topic is Black and Indigenous people of color (BIPOC) in business. Greenwood was built by Black Oklahomans, but the community’s roots go back to the period when the area that is now Oklahoma was known as Indian Territory. The businesses of the Greenwood Chamber of Commerce are located at the northern edge of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. The very name of the city, Tulsa, reflects this reality as it comes from the Creek language, being first called Tallasi and later Tulsey Town.



As discussed in last week’s post, historian Hannibal Johnson describes Greenwood’s illustrious origins as being the result of the “economic detour” necessitated by segregation. Commerce on Greenwood had its start in 1905 when O.W. Gurley opened a grocery store as his first development. This was just two years before statehood, and the opportunity provided by Tulsa’s growth came at the expense of Muscogee (Creek) land.

However, no historic shift is permanent, and today Greenwood continues to be a place on an edge where people meet to seek opportunity. The Historic Greenwood Chamber of Commerce has an active membership of Black and Indigenous entrepreneurs who continue to create thriving businesses. Visit https://www.historictulsagreenwoodchamber.org/greenwood-business.html to learn more about the many businesses that call Historic Greenwood home.



1 Hannibal Johnson, Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District (Fort Worth,TX: Eakin Press), 1.
2 Hannibal Johnson, Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District (Fort Worth, TX: Eakin Press), 1.
3 Hannibal Johnson, Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District (Fort Worth, TX: Eakin Press), 13.

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