Dr. C. Aujean Lee, an Assistant Professor in the Regional + City Planning Division, is the first author on the report Oil and Blood: The Color of Wealth in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This report is part of a series of reports that investigates the modern racial wealth gap in six major U.S. cities published by the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University.
Oil and Blood explains how the Tulsa Massacre destroyed the economic gains previously attained by Black residents of Tulsa in the wake of the oil boom at the turn of the twentieth century. While Tulsa was once home to a thriving “Black Wall Street” in the Greenwood district, it now has the largest Black-white wealth gap in the six cities the Samuel DuBois Cook Center has studied. The average Black household in Tulsa possesses just 9% of the wealth of the average white household. The report finds that the specific Black-white wealth gap in Tulsa stems largely from differences in the rate of entrepreneurship and homeownership between the two groups. The differences in entrepreneurship and homeownership are likely the long-lasting effects of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre during which many businesses and homes of Black residents were destroyed.
Gibbs College of Architecture is proud to recognize Petya Stefanoff, who is pursuing her doctorate in the Planning, Design & Construction (PDC) program, has been appointed the new role of Director of Community Development for the City of Shawnee, Oklahoma. She joined the city in 2024.
Gibbs College of Architecture is pleased to announce that Amber N. Wiley, Ph.D., associate professor in the Division of Planning, Landscape Architecture and Design and director of the Institute for Quality Communities, has received national recognition for her book Model Schools in the Model City. The book has been named a finalist for the 2026 the PROSE Awards.
Gibbs College of Architecture Regional + City Planning Professor of Practice Vanessa Morrison and Associate Professor of Architecture Deborah Richards’ Open Design Collective received top honors at the inaugural BlackSpace Urbanist Collective Studio KIN Pitch Night Competition, held last month in Brooklyn, New York City.
