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Dear John, 

This month, for the 100th Anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, Tulsa,
Oklahoma’s city officials plan to host a monumental celebration of racial
progress and reconciliation while they are actively denying justice to the
survivors and descendants of this horrific tragedy. Tulsa’s government has
repeatedly denied reparations to the descendants and survivors. Now, for
the centennial year celebration, the mayor is co-opting their movement for
justice by instead promoting the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Centennial
Commission—a group that has excluded and refused to meet with survivor
Mother Randle, yet claim to be working in honor of her. While the
Centennial Commission received $30 million in funding for the celebration
and stands to gain more in revenue from the upcoming Greenwood Rising
Museum, Mother Randle still lives in poverty at age 106. This is simply
theft—theft of her legacy, image, and pain. We cannot allow the city
leaders to champion their revisionist history and continue to exploit the
very people affected by it.

[ [link removed] ]Demand that the centennial commission and the city of tulsa give 80%
ofthe $30 million raised to the survivors and descendants of the tulsa
race massacre!

In 1921, Tulsa’s historically Black Greenwood district, known as Black
Wall Street, was destroyed by a white mob that included city and county
leaders. Out of fear and jealousy of Black economic success, they burned
and looted the thriving community of Black businesses and families,
killing hundreds and forcing thousands to flee the area. Over the years,
the government resurrected Greenwood into a whitewashed commercial
district that is primarily owned by wealthy white developers while pricing
Tulsa’s Black entrepreneurs out of the area. In rebuilding the district,
city leaders implemented “race-neutral” policies, which benefited everyone
but Tulsa’s Black entrepreneurs, who should be the primary owners of that
land. Now the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Centennial Commission is using the
anniversary of the massacre as another opportunity to profit from the pain
of Black people. We cannot allow city leaders to continue to erase
Greenwood’s Black community.

[ [link removed] ]STAND WITH JUSTICE FOR GREENWOOD, THE SURVIVORS AND DESCENDANTS OF THE TULSA
RACE MASSACRE!

The centennial celebration should be about honoring the legacy of Black
Wall Street, both before and after the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921,
celebrating the ingenuity of the Black people who created that thriving
community—in the midst of Jim Crow segregation—and continuing their legacy
of Black excellence. The spirit of Black Wall Street should be revived.
There are real steps that city leaders can take to forge a path of truth
and reconciliation, starting with re-allocating 80% of the funding for the
Centennial Commission to the survivors and descendants and removing
barriers to ensure that Tulsa’s Black residents are an integral part of
the revitalized Greenwood District.

With the momentum building around the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa
Massacre, we are nearing a crossroads. Right now, media outlets are
claiming that Tulsa is “leading America’s journey to racial healing.” We
must make the full truth known in order to foster reparative justice for
the survivors, the descendants, and Tulsa’s current Black community. We
cannot allow the mayor and the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Centennial Commission
to exploit the history of Black Wall Street and the massacre of Black men,
women, and children. We stand in solidarity with the Justice for Greenwood
organizers and ask that you stand with us!

[ [link removed] ]Sign the petition: Demand that the Centennial Commission and the City
of Tulsa give the majority of funds raised to the survivors and
descendants of the Tulsa massacre for the harms to their livelihood, their
families, and their community!

Until justice is real, 

--The Color Of Change team


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