One hundred years after the Tulsa Race Massacre, a descendant is fighting for reparations and racial equity. 'Justice would look like paying the reparations, the restitution, with interest that has incurred in the last 100 years.'
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In fact, one 2018 journal article estimated that the destruction of 1,200 median-priced Tulsa homes would cost $150 million in today’s dollars, and the loss of other assets like cash, commercial property and personal belongings could push that figure over $200 million. — Nehemiah Frank, founder and editor-in-chief of the Black Wall Street Times Frank, 37, who founded The Black Wall Street Times in 2017 and splits his time between Tulsa and Atlanta, is one of many voices now calling for reparations to address the massacre’s grim legacy — decades after the state commission concluded that “reparations are the right thing to do.”
Michelle Brooks, a spokeswoman for Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum, declined to comment on the pending litigation. The city will also launch a full excavation of the “Original 18” site in Oaklawn Cemetery on Tuesday to determine if individuals found in its last “test excavation” were race massacre victims, Brooks said. “When that determination is made, we can then move to next steps as it relates to DNA testing and genealogical research to bring some healing and justice to the Tulsa community,” she said.
MarketWatch: Greenwood’s surviving residents rebuilt, but they obviously lost millions of dollars. How do you process the lost potential of that generational wealth that was never passed down to future generations, including your own? Generational wealth — that’s a powerful thing that you get to pass on from one generation to the next. And if it’s disrupted, the generations that follow the disruption are the ones that suffer. Those who are lucky enough to not have to deal with the disruption, they’re the victors.
[Editor’s note: Oklahoma’s governor last month signed into law H.B. 1775, a bill that observers say takes aim at teaching critical race theory in public schools. State Rep. Kevin West, a Republican who authored the bill, has said it wouldn’t impact history lessons; only prevent teachers from forcing students “to answer that they are inherently racist or sexist or that they must feel personally responsible for things perpetrated in the past by people of a similar race or gender.
That means better schools. That means finding a group of people who could help us build a hospital in north Tulsa. More grocery stores — we just opened the first [full-service] grocery store [in more than a decade]. When it comes to taxes, annual taxes, we shouldn’t have to be paying any of that stuff. … Another form of reparations that should be coming from this city [is that] Black business owners should be having subsidized rent. That can make a huge difference.
Frank: I would say that we are all capitalizing on the growing national attention in more than one way, but there’s not even enough of us down here to really feel the entire impact in our community. Had we had more Black-business restaurant owners in the district today, they would fill it. Black folks would be coming in and eating in the district.
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