A highway destroyed Tulsa’s thriving Black Wall Street – now there’s hope it could come back

The Historic Vernon African Methodist Episcopal Church, left, is pictured next to Interstate 244 in Tulsa, in this 2021 picture. Photograph: Sue Ogrocki/AP

Twenty-five years before Don Shaw was born in Greenwood, a white mob invaded the Tulsa neighborhood and killed more than 300 people. Much of the tight-knit community was burned to the ground, including his grandfather’s pharmacy.

But when Shaw was growing up in the 1950s and 60s, few people wanted to talk about the massacre – perhaps in part because much of the damage was no longer visible.