people like yourself and in people several of whom the president is going to meet with today who saw it themselves, people well past well in into their hundreds. your grabbed father, he was a survivor. i just want to ask you, because of that personal connection, what does this day mean to you? well, it means a whole lot to me and the people here in tulsa, oklahoma, and the people across this country. that this horrific act took place during a time when blacks were very prosperous. we had had everything that we needed. within our own community and it was all destroyed. and it s a day of me really looking at the elders who came before me. because i m standing on their shoulders right to this day. nothing has never, has ever been done about the massacre. the city of tulsa never said nothing. everybody tried to keep it
bill and in so many states across the countryst. but this is an important battleground. this all comes together. joining me right now is our cnn chief political correspondent dana bash. dana, presidents commemorate anniversaries and if we take the kind of in parts to where the president s heading to tulsa. i mean i was thinking, presidents commemorate anniversaries often. biden traveling to tulsa, honoring the victims on this anniversary, what is the opportunity here for the president and the administration? well, it s a big opportunity. as you said, just the fact that u.s. president is going. it is a big anniversary. but this is a massacre that barely got a mention in most of our history books growing up. and the fact that you have a president shining a light on it speaks to a lot of things. first of all, the world
commemorating what was lost 100 years ago during the tulsa race massacre. also, marking what happens in the 100 years since that massacre. which was the disinvestment of the black community here in tulsa. the theft of land and property as a result of that massacre and as a result of decades of racist policies enacted by governments and by cities. and so what you re going to hear from biden is a broader agenda that addresses some of the racial inequities starting actually with the federal government. the biden administration says they re going to announce that they re going to increase a federal contracting with minority owned businesses. they re going to also address certain issues like access to transportation and minority communities. issues like fund that they proposing that would invest in minority communities as well. and also housing discrimination. so it s a broader agenda that is tied to the legacy of racism
that has that came out of incidents like the massacre 100 years ago in tulsa. incidents like this happened all over the country. you ll hear biden, i think, expanding this agenda not just to tulsa but looking at decades of racist policies and how the federal government can rectify the policies. the some of this, kate, will require congressional action. but for the people here in tulsa, you hear them talking a lot about how the fact that greenwood which is where black wall street stood is now almost entirely white owned now. that is one of the lasting legacies of that massacre. it s one of the things you re going to hear the biden administration addressing not just with his words but also with some of the policy recommendations that they re putting forward today. yeah. and that speech coming up later today. we ll bring that to you live. there is also new developmentes in the battle over voting rights in america. texas governor greg abbott is threatening to defund the state legislatu
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