Black Wall Street

King of Spades

O. W. Gurley

Land Developer & Hotelier

The Developer Who Helped Lay Greenwood's Foundations

Ottawa W. Gurley — known in the record as O. W. Gurley, with Ottowa and Ottaway also appearing — was born on December 25, 1868, in Huntsville, Alabama, to John and Rosanna Gurley, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. His family moved to Arkansas around 1876, and the 1880 census places them in Vaugine Township, Jefferson County.

King of Diamonds

A. J. Smitherman

Publisher, The Tulsa Star

The Pen Warrior of Greenwood

Andrew Jackson Smitherman, known as A. J. Smitherman, was born in 1883 in Alabama. By April 1913 he had established the Tulsa Star in Greenwood, arriving with very little cash and obtaining his printing equipment on credit, according to Barbara Seals Nevergold's study of his life in The Chronicles of Oklahoma. J. B. Stradford befriended the young publisher and provided a short-term loan that helped the paper get established.

King of Hearts

J. B. Stradford

Attorney & Hotel Proprietor

The Hotelier Who Refused to Accept Segregation

John the Baptist Stradford — J. B. Stradford — was born in Versailles, Kentucky, in 1861; his father was Julius Caesar Stradford. He studied at Oberlin College in Ohio, where, according to his descendant Tucker C. Toole, he met his first wife, Bertie Wiley. The couple returned to Kentucky, where Stradford worked as a school principal and owned a barbershop.

King of Clubs

T. J. Elliott

Clothing Merchant

The Merchant Who Built a Store From a Suitcase

T. J. Elliott was a Black clothing merchant in Muskogee, Oklahoma, documented in Oklahoma newspaper history. A 1977 retrospective in the Oklahoma Eagle recalls that around 1900 he began selling clothing from a suitcase. Around 1903 he married a woman born and raised near Wagoner, Oklahoma — the article does not give her name — and in 1904 the couple opened the T. J. Elliott Store on South Second Street in Muskogee.

Queen of Hearts

Laura Stradford

Identity Not Established

Named on the Black Wall Street card roster — historical identity not established

The Moors Card Company roster for the Black Wall Street deck names this figure as Laura Stradford and describes her as the wife of hotelier and attorney J. B. Stradford. The sources reviewed for this page do not confirm either point: none identifies a wife of J. B. Stradford named Laura, and none places a woman named Laura Stradford in Greenwood in 1921.

Queen of Clubs

Mary Elliott

Identity Not Established

Named on the Black Wall Street card roster — historical identity not established

The Moors Card Company roster for the Black Wall Street deck names this figure as Mary Elliott and describes her as the wife of merchant T. J. Elliott. The sources reviewed for this page do not confirm either point: none identifies a woman named Mary Elliott in Greenwood in 1921, and none gives the first name of T. J. Elliott's wife as Mary.

Queen of Spades

Loula Williams

Proprietor, Dreamland Theatre

The Entrepreneur Behind Greenwood's Dreamland

Loula T. Williams — recorded as Loula Thomas Cotten Williams, with the spellings Lulu, Lola and Cotton also appearing — was born in Tennessee to Thomas and Sallie Cotten, according to the Women of Black Wall Street research project. She was educated at Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee, and became a teacher.

Queen of Diamonds

Mary E. Jones Parrish

Educator, Journalist & Massacre Chronicler

The Witness Who Made Sure Greenwood Would Be Remembered

Mary Elizabeth Jones Parrish was born in Mississippi; Trinity University Press gives her birth as 1892 in Yazoo City, though other records suggest 1890 or 1895. She married Simon Parrish of Quincy, Illinois, and their daughter, Florence Mary, would be with her during the most dangerous hours of her life. She studied shorthand at the Rochester Business Institute in New York.

Jack of Spades

Dr. A. C. Jackson

Physician & Surgeon

The Surgeon Greenwood Lost

Andrew C. Jackson — Dr. A. C. Jackson, recorded by his family as Andrew Chesteen Jackson — was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in February 1879 to Townsend D. and Sophronia Jackson, according to researcher Carlos Moreno. The family settled in Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory, around 1889. Jackson trained as a physician at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, one of the principal medical schools for Black physicians of his era.

Jack of Hearts

Buck Colbert Franklin

Attorney & Defender of Greenwood

The Lawyer Who Fought for the Right to Rebuild

Buck Colbert Franklin — B. C. Franklin — was born on May 6, 1879, in Homer, in the Chickasaw Nation of Indian Territory, to David and Millie Franklin. He attended Dawes Academy and Roger Williams University in Nashville, where he met Mollie Parker and the educator John Hope. He followed Hope to Atlanta Baptist College, graduating in 1903 according to the Tulsa Historical Society.

Jack of Diamonds

Simon Berry

Transportation Entrepreneur

The Entrepreneur Who Kept Greenwood Moving

Simon Berry was born in Mississippi on July 6, 1890, according to researcher Carlos Moreno. Before his Tulsa career he taught automobile mechanics at West Tennessee College — training that would shape everything he built. Newspaper and other records place him in Tulsa by 1915.

Jack of Clubs

Ellis Walker Woods

Principal, Booker T. Washington High School

The Educator Who Built a School Into a Legacy

Ellis Walker Woods was born in 1885 in eastern Mississippi to formerly enslaved parents. He farmed as a young man and worked his way through secondary school and college at Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi.