A Case for Turning Tulsa Into the Next Big Tech Hub

The Greenwood District of Tulsa , Oklahoma , was once known as America ’s Black Wall Street.

At the start of the 20th century , Greenwood was home to one of America 's most affluent Black communities .

The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre killed as many as 300 Black Tulsans , devastating what sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois called the most “highly organized” Black community he’d ever seen.

Tulsa has fallen out of step with innovation economies that have bloomed on the coasts.

The American Heartland is a political and economic organ that transcends geography, an idea shaped by our worldviews.

The city's mix of demographics and its cultural ambiguity has made it ideal for piloting new products for decades .

Every city wants to become a tech hub, but only a handful on the coasts rule America ’s innovation system.

Big coastal cities like New York , San Francisco , Los Angeles , Seattle , Boston , and Washington, DC , have monopolized innovation and its myriad benefits.

This narrow geographic distribution of the innovation economy leaves Heartland cities out and restricts opportunities for most of the population.