"Barney S. Cleaver, the first African-American policeman in Tulsa, was born in Newbern, VA in 1865 (the actual date was January 2, 1867). In Newbern, he attended public school until he was fifteen. He then moved to Charleston, WV where he initially worked on a steamer and later worked in the coal mines.

The church, like others in Greenwood, was a symbol of economic might that became symbolic of the largest concentration of black wealth in America. To have Mount Zion return in a state “as good as it ever was,” said Givens, inspired the district’s black residents to move forward.

A.J. Smitherman, newspaper editor and publisher of the Tulsa Star, was not only an influential leader in Tulsa's wealthy and growing black community, he was its conscience. He helped shape the spirit of The Black Wall Street of America with his continuous and fearless denunciations against Jim Crow.

It has been noted the origin of war is theft, a collective will for a collective purpose. Tulsa's blacks may have fallen victim of the axiom. They had refused to sell their land, with its strategic location, before and after the catastrophe.