Oklahoman
TULSA A group of Tulsa City Council members, led by the council s only Black member, want the City of Tulsa to apologize for the Tulsa Race Massacre and commit to addressing the ways the tragedy devastated the predominantly Black Greenwood area.
Ward 1 Tulsa Councilwoman Vanessa Hall-Harper, who is African American, said she and three of her fellow council members Lori Decter-Wright, Mykey Arthrell-Knezek and Kara Joy McKee plan to introduce the Greenwood Prosperity, Legacy and Restoration resolution at Wednesday s city council meeting. The Greenwood District is divided between Hall-Harper and McKee s wards 1 and 4, respectively.
She spoke about the resolution at an interdenominational worship service Sunday at First Baptist Church of North Tulsa, where a racially diverse crowd gathered to commemorate the race massacre s centennial.
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee encouraged people to keep fighting for Tulsa Race Massacre reparations during her speech at a luncheon event in Tulsa.
As Tulsa commemorates the 100th anniversary of the brutal 1921 race massacre, political tensions and racial divisions have erupted in a city still grappling with how to heal a century after one of the worst incidents of racial violence in U.S. history.
Much of the acrimony in Tulsa revolves around the issue of reparations for the 1921 race massacre, which left as many as 300 dead and 10,000 homeless and destroyed one of the most prosperous Black neighborhoods in the country.