Carlos Moreno, author of “The Victory at Greenwood,” believes a true compensation for Greenwood survivors and their descendants should also include the losses from the destruction that followed in the 1960s and 1970s, when all but a block was again destroyed for construction of highways and then with clearance by the Tulsa Urban Renewal Authority.
“Let’s look at the market value of all those homes and businesses and find out how much the city paid through eminent domain,” Moreno said. “When we talk about reparations, let’s add that number.”
Moreno has a hunch on how much might have been due to survivor Mabel Little, who was penniless when at age 17 she sought out a future in Greenwood. She met her future husband, Pressley Little, on her first day in Greenwood at a cafe.
Mabel Little got a job at the Brady Hotel, which was built by Tulsa founding father and Ku Klux Klan member Tate Brady.
She and Pressley Little married in 1914, and they soon sought to emulate the entrepreneurial success stories happening around them. Mabel Little opened a beauty shop, and Pressley Little opened a cafe next door. They also invested in some rental properties.
“Mabel Little lost her home and business in 1921 and then lost her home and business again during urban renewal,” Moreno said. “The city paid her $16,000.”
Moreno estimates that if Little had not lost everything in 1921 and again in 1971, her estate could have been worth about $1.3 million in present value, far more than what she had left when she died in 2001.
“She was living in a little apartment,” Moreno said. “She wasn’t living in poverty, but she wasn’t rich by any stretch of the imagination. She was denied that generational wealth twice. And there were many families in Greenwood who shared that same story.”
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