Local Technology Organization Partners With Microsoft To Grow Industry Talent

Black Tech Street is working to bring a technology presence to Tulsa’s Black Wall Street.

Founder Tyrance Billingsley II says a new partnership with Microsoft represents a huge shift for the Greenwood community. Black Tech Street’s goal is to rebirth Black Wall Street as an innovation tech focused economy.

This new partnership with Microsoft is called ‘The Digital Transformation of Black Wall Street' and helps support the group’s goal to produce attract and keep black cyber talent.

The partnership will provide funding for cyber security scholarships at the cyber skills center.

Black Tech Street members will also get access to Microsoft programs and can now partner with the University of Tulsa for cyber and AI technology.

Black Tech Street is hoping to see 1,000 African Americans working as cyber professionals by the year 2030.

Only 6 percent of African Americans in Tulsa are in tech and they want to get that closer to the national average of 14 percent. Billingsley II says this partnership with Microsoft is a big help to their growth efforts.

“They are the global market leader in artificial intelligence. What is going to be the most impactful and essentially the economically empowering technology humans have ever touched. So beyond it being such a cool thing Greenwood is now locked in step with one of the leading innovators on the entire planet now,” Tyrance Billingsley II, Founder Executive Director of Black Tech Street, said.

Billingsley II says long-term his organization wants to build on their local partnerships with agencies like the University of Tulsa or Cyber Skills Center.

The groups can help participants interested in tech with their tuition and get a job.