Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh visited Tulsa, Okla., to highlight the need for economic justice for underserved communities, particularly Black communities.

He visited the Greenwood Rising Black Wall Street History Center and toured the city's historic Greenwood District with chamber leaders and small business owners to learn about the significant role it played in Tulsa’s economic development and the contributions made by area residents to the civil rights movement, according to a Feb. 9 news release.

“Understanding history’s successes and failures allows us to change our present and our future by ending economic injustice and making sure people in underserved communities share in our nation’s prosperity,” Walsh said, according to the release.

He spoke with descendants of survivors of the devastating 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, where the once-thriving, 35-square-block area of successful Black-owned businesses was leveled, resulting in as many as 300 deaths, the release reported. He emphasized the importance of supporting Black business owners in creating good jobs and improving the lives and opportunities of Black workers and underserved communities.

Walsh described the Labor Department's efforts to support them and how supporting Black businesses builds Black wealth and provides good-paying jobs for workers in these communities, according to the release.

He also spoke with students from the Tulsa Job Corps Center and met with journalism students from Langston University and Tulsa Community College, the release reported. He spoke with several small business owners and visited facilities supported by the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to respond better to the needs of underserved communities, such as the Greenwood Women's Business Center and the Talking Leaves Job Corps Center in Park Hill.