| When Tulsa's early municipal leaders sought a name for the avenue on the eastern side of the young city, they needed to select a US city, east of the Mississippi River, beginning with the letter 'G'. Given Oklahoma's tribal roots, Greenwood was the agreed name and for over 100 years that is the official designation. The Tulsa World documented the research of the street name. In the early days of the United States, a Frenchman married a Choctaw woman and Greenwood LeFlore was born. He became the principal chief and negotiated many treaties with Andrew Jackson & other US leaders. Eventually Greenwood LeFlore became a US Citizen and opted not to relocate in Oklahoma. He gave up his tribal leadership role and became a Mississippi State Senator. His closest political ally was Jefferson Davis, the eventual president of the Confederate States of America. Greenwood LeFlore owned a massive cotton plantation in Greenwood Mississippi. He owned and abused several dozen black slaves. Even after giving up leadership of the Choctaws, he remained very influential over foreign relations between the tribe and the USA & CSA. |  |
 Greenwood Leflore was the chief of the Western District of the Choctaw Nation and arrived at the treaty grounds in a "citizen suit." He remained in Mississippi after removal and was elected to the state Senate in 1841. Photo by: Courtesy image In today's culture of toppling historic monuments and cancelling legacies for offending our sensitivities, one has to wonder why the same forces who cancelled Brady Street for a flimsy allegation of being a member of a racist secret society; is openly celebrating the slave owner by tolerating and promoting an abusive slave owner and member the inner circle Jefferson Davis consulted with? Tulsa is lacking real objective leadership and consistency of policy. Mob rule is already taking over the city, because elected officials are failing to make clear policy. |  Many see the cancel culture as an extreme intolerance, It defies rational logic that those promoting black opportunity, such as the Greenwood Chamber of Commerce; would identify by one of the South's worst and most despicable slave owners? Greenwood LeFlore helped lead the political fight to retain abusive human trafficking under law. It's just hard to take seriously the demands of name changes from folks who ignore such glaring inconsistencies in their own selective outrage. Personally I am sick of the cancel culture and the selective outrage. The Greenwood Chamber of Commerce Doesn't seem to want their own name changed, but they have demanded a whole lot of others to change their names and identities. |
