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Tulsa's "Black Wall Street" continues to bring dreams to life

Jun 26, 2024
Kellen James, the new owner of Silhouette Sneakers & Art, talks about what purchasing the business meant to him.
The Greenwood district of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images

For this Black Wall Street business, it's time to "pass the torch on to another entrepreneur"

Mar 11, 2024
Venita Cooper made the decision to sell her sneaker store, Silhouette Sneakers & Art. "There's a certain type of person that it was important to me that they would take over Silhouette," said Cooper. "And to me, it's someone from Tulsa, from North Tulsa, who has roots here."
After five years, Venita Cooper (right) has announced she's selling her Black Wall Street sneaker store to Kellen James (left), a third-generation Tulsan.
Courtesy Venita Cooper

On Tulsa's Black Wall Street, shop owner finds inspiration in local sports history

Jun 15, 2023
Venita Cooper, owner of Silhouette Sneakers & Art, recently released an apparel line inspired by the Tulsa Fast Breakers.
A mural pays tribute to the Greenwood district's onetime identity as Black Wall Street.
Seth Herald/AFP via Getty Images

A Tulsa sneakers store plans for a year of uncertainty

Feb 28, 2023
For Venita Cooper, owner of Silhouette Sneakers & Art, business is up. But will it last? "The big challenge is just trying to keep engagement," she says.
Venita Cooper, owner of Silhouette Sneakers & Art, at a Valentine's Day event for the store.
Courtesy Gary Mason

A sneakers store builds a bridge where Black Wall Street once stood

Dec 15, 2022
Venita Cooper says Silhouette Sneakers & Art is "destination retail." But the store is helped by tourists visiting the historic site.
"We have a very fraught history of separation and division," Venita Cooper says. "Sneakers is one of those things that really brings people together."
Courtesy Gary Mason

To narrow racial wealth gap, Biden plan takes aim at home appraisal inequality

Jun 1, 2021
Homes in most white neighborhoods are worth an average of $250,000 more than those in mostly Black and Latinx neighborhoods.
President Joe Biden laid out policy proposals aimed at narrowing the racial wealth gap during a speech in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Above, Biden speaks with Michelle Brown-Burdex of the Greenwood Cultural Center.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

TikTok fans and K-pop stans deluge Trump campaign with bad data

Jun 22, 2020
While it's unclear whether the social media campaign affected turnout at the president's Tulsa rally, fake signups to campaign events can corrupt data used for voter outreach.
The upper section of the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is partially empty as President Donald Trump speaks at his campaign rally on June 20.
Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images

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In Tulsa, evictions were a crisis even before the pandemic

Jun 19, 2020
A new effort taps behavioral science to keep more renters in their homes.
During a Juneteenth march in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Friday, people carry an empty, flag-draped casket to symbolize the destruction of Black Wall Street in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
Win McNamee/Getty Images