Black Wall Street: Arson.Loot.Murder.
“Black Wall Street: Arson, Loot and Murder” portrays one of the most devastating acts of racial violence in American history. In Thomas Williams’ haunting artwork, survivors walk through the ruins of their once-prosperous community, their silhouettes set against the skeletal remains of burned buildings. The artist weaves period newspaper headlines and historical photographs into a compelling collage, creating a stark visual document of May 31, 1921—the day a coordinated mob destroyed 35 blocks of Black achievement and prosperity in Tulsa’s Greenwood District.
Within hours, methodically organized white mobs, many deputized and armed by city officials, systematically destroyed what had taken a generation to build. The devastation was comprehensive: 1,256 homes burned, dozens of businesses reduced to ashes, and a community’s economic foundation shattered. The destruction of Black Wall Street erased an estimated $32 million in Black wealth (in today’s dollars), including a hospital, a library, multiple churches, and hundreds of thriving businesses. Williams captures this calculated devastation through a masterful interplay of vintage sepia photographs and stark documentary imagery, rendered in somber blacks, whites, and deep browns that echo the charred remains of Greenwood’s dreams.
Through this powerful 18×27-inch giclée print, Williams ensures that the deliberate destruction of Black Wall Street—an atrocity long hidden from history books—can never be forgotten. Each historical photograph and newspaper headline woven into the composition serves as evidence of what was lost: not just buildings and businesses but lives, futures, and a model of Black economic sovereignty that had proven what was possible.
This open edition giclée print is expertly reproduced on premium archival paper and comes signed by the artist Thomas Williams. Part of his essential Black Wall Street series, this artwork stands as both historical document and memorial, using vintage photography and collage techniques to preserve the truth of what happened when America’s most prosperous Black community was systematically destroyed through arson, looting, and murder.
