World Wars, Migration & Segregation
Global wars called for patriotism abroad while segregation persisted at home. African Americans served in uniform, migrated north and west, reshaped cities, and fueled industrial growth. Cultural movements flourished.
Black Wall Street: What Greenwood Built (c. 1906–1921)
Born from Jim Crow segregation laws that confined Tulsa's Black residents to one district, Greenwood became the wealthiest Black community in America — over 300 Black-owned businesses lined ‘Black Wall Street’ before a white mob destroyed it in the 1921 massacre, killing hundreds and burning 35 blocks to the ground.
Read entry →The Red Summer of 1919 — When Black Soldiers Came Home and White America Responded With Terror
In the summer of 1919, the United States returned from the battlefields of Europe and turned its violence on Black communities at home. In at least 26 cities, white mobs attacked Black neighborhoods, Black veterans, and Black homes. The federal government watched, documented, and in some cases participated. The NAACP called it the Red Summer. The 20,000 Black men and women who joined the NAACP in the months that followed called it a declaration.
Read entry →The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 — Black Wall Street Burned to the Ground
On the night of May 31, 1921, a white mob supported by the Tulsa Police Department and deputized civilians invaded the Greenwood District — the wealthiest Black community in America, known as Black Wall Street. Over 18 hours, they burned 35 square blocks, killed an estimated 300 Black residents, and left 10,000 people homeless. No one was ever charged. The city of Tulsa buried the massacre in its official record for the next seventy-five years.
Read entry →A. Philip Randolph & the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (1925)
In 1925, Asa Philip Randolph — the most dangerous Black man in America according to the U.S. Department of Justice — organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first Black-led labor union to win a contract with a major American corporation. Twelve years later, the Pullman Company signed. What Randolph built was not just a union — it was the organizational backbone of the civil rights movement.
Read entry →Dr. Charles R. Drew — Father of the Blood Bank
In 1930 blood had a shelf life of days. By 1940 Dr. Charles Drew had solved the problem. His research at Columbia University produced blood plasma preservation techniques that saved housands of lives in World War II. He built America's first national blood bank, invented the bloodmobile, and trained more than half of all Black surgeons practicing in the U.S. by 1950. He was 45 when he died.
Read entry →Frederick McKinley Jones — The King of Cool
Frederick McKinley Jones had no education beyond eighth grade. He was orphaned at 9, ran away at 11, and taught himself everything. By 1940 he had patented the world's first practical portable refrigeration unit. During World War II his units were parachuted into combat zones to keep blood plasma, medicine, and food cold on the front lines. He held 61 patents. In 1991 he became the first Black American to receive the National Medal of Technology. His company, Thermo King, still operates today.
Read entry →Dr. Charles R. Drew — The Army’s Rules About His Own Blood
Charles Drew built the American blood banking system. Then the U.S. Army declared that Black blood would be stored separately from white blood — acknowledging in writing that the policy had no scientific basis. Drew resigned in protest. The Red Cross did not lift the segregation policy until after his death. He was locked out of the AMA his entire career. He died on a North Carolina road at 45, driving to a free clinic for Black patients who had no other access to care.
Read entry →"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.