When white attackers destroyed the prosperous Black neighborhood of Greenwood 100 years ago this week, they bypassed the original sanctuary of the First Baptist Church of North Tulsa.
Robert R.A. Turner (center) draws attention to the 1921 Tulsa massacre every week in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Courtesy photo)
On the first Wednesday in May, as the centennial of the Tulsa massacre approached, Robert R. A. Turner stood outside Tulsa City Hall with his megaphone, as he does every week.
“Tulsa, you will reap what you sow, and that which you have done unto the least of these my children, Jesus said, you have done also unto me,” said Turner, 38, the pastor of Historic Vernon African Methodist Episcopal Church. “We come here to say, for your own benefit, you ought to do reparations not tomorrow, not even next week, not next month, not next year, but we demand reparations now!”
POLITICO
Speakers emphasized a call for financial reparations.
People attend a service for the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre at First Baptist Church of North Tulsa on May 30 in Oklahoma. | John Locher/AP Photo
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Link Copied
TULSA, Okla. When white attackers destroyed the prosperous Black neighborhood of Greenwood 100 years ago this week, they bypassed the original sanctuary of the First Baptist Church of North Tulsa.
By the church’s own account, the attackers thought the brick veneer structure was too fine for a Black-owned church. The mob destroyed at least a half-dozen other churches while burning and leveling a 35-square-block neighborhood in one of the nation’s deadliest spasms of racist violence. Estimates of the death toll range from dozens to 300.
Tulsa (US), May 31: When white attackers destroyed the prosperous Black neighborhood of Greenwood 100 years ago, they bypassed the original sanctuary of