Buck Franklin is best known for defending African-American survivors of the 1921 Tulsa race riot , in which whites had attacked many blacks and buildings , and burned and destroyed the Greenwood District . This was known at the time as the " Black Wall Street " , and was the wealthiest Black community in the United States , a center of black commerce and culture . Franklin and his colleagues also became experts at oil law , representing " blacks and Native Americans in Oklahoma against white lawyers representing oil barons . " His career demonstrated a strong professional black life in the West , at a time when such accomplishments would have been more difficult to achieve in the Deep South
Tulsa race riot
Tulsa race riot
John Hope Franklin