Latest news with #TulsaRaceMassacre
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Education Secretary Won't Say If She Knows What The Tulsa Race Massacre Is
Education Secretary Linda McMahon deflected when asked if she knew what the Tulsa Race Massacre was during a Wednesday congressional hearing, telling lawmakers that she intends to 'look into it more.' McMahon's response comes as Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) pressed her about history lessons that would be considered 'illegal DEI' by the Trump administration. (DEI stands for diversity, equity and inclusion and has been used by Republicans as shorthand for initiatives addressing race and gender, among other topics.) The comments are also the latest to suggest that McMahon — a former pro wrestling executive who's had little education policy experience — could use a lesson or two herself. 'Would it be 'illegal DEI' for a lesson plan on the Tulsa Race Massacre?' Lee asked McMahon during the Wednesday panel. 'I'd have to get back to you on that,' McMahon said. 'Do you know what the Tulsa Race Massacre is?' Lee asked. 'I'd like to look into it more and get back to you on it,' McMahon replied. McMahon was similarly evasive when asked if lessons involving civil rights trailblazer Ruby Bridges would be deemed 'illegal DEI.' 'How about the book 'Through My Eyes,' by Ruby Bridges, for instance?' Lee asked. 'I haven't read that,' McMahon responded. 'Have you learned about Ruby Bridges?' Lee said. 'If you have specific examples, you'd like to –' McMahon countered. 'That was a specific example... I named a specific book,' Lee emphasized. McMahon's exchange with Lee stood out both for her refusal to acknowledge whether she knew about major historical events as well as her reluctance to answer if the White House would target lessons about them. A January executive order from the Trump administration called for agencies to find ways to claw back resources from schools that advance 'gender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology' in their curriculum. And in April, the White House required K-12 schools to certify that they were not engaging in 'illegal DEI practices' in order to receive federal funding, an act that's been blocked by a federal judge. The Department of Education did not immediately respond to a HuffPost request for comment. Both of Lee's questions referred to significant events in U.S. history: The Tulsa Race Massacre took place in 1921 and was 'one of America's deadliest acts of domestic terrorism,' Taryn Finley previously wrote for HuffPost. During the attack, an armed white mob decimated a neighborhood in Tulsa known as Black Wall Street, killing as many as 300 people. And in 1960, Bridges was the first Black child to desegregate an all-white elementary school in New Orleans. Iconic images from that time captured Bridges, at age 6, flanked by U.S. Marshals and white crowds jeering as she entered the building. Lee emphasized that such lessons are critical for students as the Trump administration has sought to hold federal funding captive if schools advance programs that it disagrees with. 'Their lack of knowledge, denial of history, and open racism doesn't mean students across America should be deprived of learning opportunities or access to a quality education,' she told HuffPost in a statement. 'Clearly they're still needed.'
Yomiuri Shimbun
a day ago
- Business
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Tulsa Announces Reparations for the 1921 ‘Black Wall Street' Massacre
Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post Women and children wait in line for malaria medication at a health center in Nametil, Mozambique, in 2023. The city of Tulsa, home to one of the most horrifying racial-terror massacres in U.S. history and the people who tried to cover it up, has announced a $105 million reparations package that will put dollars and actions toward redress. 'For 104 years, the Tulsa Race Massacre has been a stain on our city's history,' Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols said in a speech Sunday announcing the reparations package, which will pump millions into the restoration of families and communities that had their trajectories derailed by the 1921 attack. 'We have worked to recognize and remember, but now it's time to restore,' Nichols said. It was something that families of survivors and victims have been waiting generations to hear. 'This marks a historic moment where the city of Tulsa is not just acknowledging past harm, but taking real steps toward repair,' said Kristi Williams, a justice activist in Tulsa and a descendant of survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. It took decades of research by historians and journalists – and reports and investigations by state and federal commissions – to uncover the violence that claimed more than 300 Black lives, torched at least 1,100 Black homes, led to survivors being put into displacement camps and decimated the prosperous enclave of Greenwood, known as 'Black Wall Street.' More than a riot, 'the massacre was the result not of uncontrolled mob violence, but of a coordinated, military-style attack on Greenwood,' according to a news release that accompanied a Justice Department report issued in January. 'The Tulsa Race Massacre stands out as a civil rights crime unique in its magnitude, barbarity, racist hostility and its utter annihilation of a thriving Black community,' Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said in the news release. Reparations for historical injustices have been studied and talked about for years as Americans reckon with the cruelties of the past and how they reverberate in society today. Legislators in D.C., Maryland and California have considered ways to right the societal inequities that resulted, but with little success. In 1994, Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles (D) signed a $2.1 million compensation bill for the Rosewood massacre of 1923. Nine survivors received $150,000 each. A state university scholarship fund was established for the families of Rosewood survivors and their descendants. In 2021, Evanston, Illinois, became one of the first U.S. cities to pay reparations to Black residents. It's complicated to put a monetary value on cruelty and the opportunities it devoured. But the Tulsa case provides clear examples of families and businesses that were impacted, as well as voices that can outline their visions of justice. The reparations will be powered by the charitable Greenwood Trust and built with private capital. The target is to spend $24 million in investments for affordable housing and homeownership; $60 million for historic preservation; and $21 million in scholarships, small business grants and to continue identifying the victims of the massacre buried in mass graves, according to Nichols's plan. 'The Department of Justice's report, while laying out the undeniable facts of the massacre, does seem to suggest that justice – in the context of the massacre – will always be acquainted with an asterisk,' Nichols said. The plan addresses that lingering question of justice, some of the families said. 'We're grateful for the community that shaped these recommendations, and we're ready for the work ahead,' Williams said. 'One of the strongest demands we heard from the community was housing. That's why we recommended $24 million for home repairs and down payments because repair without investment is just rhetoric. The mayor's support shows that Tulsa is ready to do more than talk.' The plan tries to replace the post-catastrophe mechanisms, such as lawsuits and insurance claims, that usually kick in to help victims recover. None of the thousands of White Tulsans who took part were ever arrested; no insurance claims covering the torched businesses were paid out; the suspected attackers are all dead; and the statute of limitations has expired, Nichols said. 'Every promise made by elected officials to help rebuild Greenwood at the time was broken,' he said. The survivors haven't let the city forget. 'For generations, Greenwood descendants and advocates of Black and North Tulsans have kept the flame of justice lit,' said Greg Robinson II, a member of the 'Beyond Apology' task force for reparations. Nichols, Tulsa's first Black mayor, made it a priority. 'The Greenwood community has waited over a century for meaningful repair,' Tulsa City Council member Vanessa Hall-Harper said. 'Our call for $24 million in housing reparations is a direct response to the generational theft of Black wealth that began in 1921 and continued through redlining, urban renewal, and neglect. This moment reflects what is possible when leadership listens to the people, and I am proud that we have a mayor who has done just that.' The attack was sparked in an elevator on May 30, 1921, when a shoeshiner named Dick Rowland stepped into an open wire-caged elevator operated by a 17-year-old White girl named Sarah Page. Witnesses said that Page screamed when the door opened and that Rowland fled. The Tulsa Tribune had a headline the next day that said, 'Nab Negro for Attacking Girl in Elevator,' and Rowland was arrested. Decades later, most historians believe Rowland may have stepped on Page's foot or bumped into her. The charges were dropped, and Page later wrote a letter exonerating him. But simmering racial hatred and the incendiary headline sent a White mob to the Tulsa Courthouse where Rowland was being held. That was a common pattern across America. Newspapers regularly reported on hundreds of lynchings that happened after a Black man was arrested – usually on flimsy charges – and a mob overtook the jail, dragged the prisoner out and executed him. But the murderous search for vengeance in Tulsa went beyond a single person. Black World War I veterans who heard the calls to lynch Rowland went to the courthouse to protect him. They clashed with the mob, and a shot was fired. In less than 24 hours, as many as 10,000 White Tulsa residents, many of whom had recently drilled as part of an organized, militaristic 'Home Guard,' arrived and systematically destroyed the 35 blocks of Greenwood, according to the federal investigation. Witnesses reported that planes dropped turpentine bombs on the burning city. Greenwood had been a uniquely prosperous Black community, with 'a nationally renowned entrepreneurial center – a city within a city where places like the Dreamland Theatre, the Stradford Hotel, grocery stores and doctor's offices flourished,' Nichols said. 'At the same time, churches provided the foundation of faith needed to thrive in a segregated society.' All of it was decimated. 'Personal belongings and household goods had been removed from many homes and piled in the streets,' the Tulsa Daily World said on June 2, 1921. 'On the steps of the few houses that remained sat feeble and gray Negro men and women and occasionally a small child. The look in their eyes was one of dejection and supplication. Judging from their attitude, it was not of material consequence to them whether they lived or died. Harmless themselves, they apparently could not conceive the brutality and fiendishness of men who would deliberately set fire to the homes of their friends and neighbors and just as deliberately shoot them down in their tracks.' The massacre was covered up. Former Oklahoma state representative Don Ross said he had never heard about it until he was about 15 and one of his teachers, a survivor, described it in class. 'More annoyed than bored, I leaped from my chair and spoke: 'Greenwood was never burned. Ain't no 300 people dead. We're too old for fairy tales',' Ross wrote in the state's 2001 report on the massacre. His teacher set him straight. Tulsa finally apologized for its role in the massacre in 2021. Two of the last known survivors, Viola Ford Fletcher and Lessie Benningfield Randle, sued for reparations. The Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed their case last year. The announcement of the reparations plan restored hope that the city has a commitment to move past the horror. 'June 1, 2025 was the culmination of that commitment,' Williams said. 'Tulsa has finally committed to moving beyond apology to justice.'
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Tulsa's new Black mayor proposes $100M trust to 'repair' impact of 1921 Race Massacre
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Tulsa's new mayor on Sunday proposed a $100 million private trust as part of a reparations plan to give descendants of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre scholarships and housing help in a city-backed bid to make amends for one of the worst racial attacks in U.S. history. The plan by Mayor Monroe Nichols, the first Black mayor of Oklahoma's second-largest city, would not provide direct cash payments to descendants or the last two centenarian survivors of the attack that killed as many as 300 Black people. He made the announcement at the Greenwood Cultural Center, located in the once-thriving district of North Tulsa that was destroyed by a white mob. Nichols said he does not use the term reparations, which he calls politically charged, characterizing his sweeping plan instead as a 'road to repair.' 'For 104 years, the Tulsa Race Massacre has been a stain on our city's history,' Nichols said Sunday after receiving a standing ovation from several hundred people. 'The massacre was hidden from history books, only to be followed by the intentional acts of redlining, a highway built to choke off economic vitality and the perpetual underinvestment of local, state and federal governments. 'Now it's time to take the next big steps to restore.' Nichols said the proposal wouldn't require city council approval, although the council would need to authorize the transfer of any city property to the trust, something he said was highly likely. The private charitable trust would be created with a goal to secure $105 million in assets, with most of the funding either secured or committed by June 1, 2026. Although details would be developed over the next year by an executive director and a board of managers, the plan calls for the bulk of the funding, $60 million, to go toward improving buildings and revitalizing the city's north side. 'The Greenwood District at its height was a center of commerce,' Nichols said in a telephone interview. 'So what was lost was not just something from North Tulsa or the Black community. It actually robbed Tulsa of an economic future that would have rivaled anywhere else in the world." Nichols' proposal follows an executive order he signed earlier this year recognizing June 1 as Tulsa Race Massacre Observance Day, an official city holiday. Events Sunday in the Greenwood District included a picnic for families, worship services and an evening candlelight vigil. Nichols also realizes the current national political climate, particularly President Trump's sweeping assault on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, poses challenging political crosswinds. 'The fact that this lines up with a broader national conversation is a tough environment,' Nichols admitted, 'but it doesn't change the work we have to do.' Jacqueline Weary, is a granddaughter of massacre survivor John R. Emerson, Sr., who owned a hotel and cab company in Greenwood that were destroyed. She acknowledged the political difficulty of giving cash payments to descendants. But at the same time, she wondered how much of her family's wealth was lost in the violence. 'If Greenwood was still there, my grandfather would still have his hotel,' said Weary, 65. 'It rightfully was our inheritance, and it was literally taken away.' Tulsa is not the first U.S. city to explore reparations. The Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, was the first U.S. city to make reparations available to its Black residents for past discrimination, offering qualifying households $25,000 for home repairs, down payments on property, and interest or late penalties on property in the city. The funding for the program came from taxes on the sale of recreational marijuana. Other communities and organizations that have considered providing reparations range from the state of California to cities including Amherst, Massachusetts; Providence, Rhode Island; Asheville, North Carolina; and Iowa City, Iowa; religious denominations like the Episcopal Church; and prominent colleges like Georgetown University in Washington. In Tulsa, there are only two living survivors of the Race Massacre: 110-year-old Lessie Benningfield Randle and Viola Fletcher, who is 111. The women, both of whom were in attendance on Sunday, received direct financial compensation from both a Tulsa-based nonprofit and a New York-based philanthropic organization, but have not received any recompense from the city or state. Damario Solomon-Simmons, an attorney for the survivors and the founder of the Justice for Greenwood Foundation, said earlier this year that any reparations plan should include direct payments to Randle and Fletcher and a victims' compensation fund for outstanding claims. A lawsuit filed by Solomon-Simmons on behalf of the survivors was rejected by the Oklahoma Supreme Court last year, dampening racial justice advocates' hopes that the city would ever make financial amends. ___ This story has been corrected to show one of the two living survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre is Lessie Benningfield Randle, not Leslie, and that the other living survivor, Viola Fletcher, is 111, not 110. Sean Murphy, The Associated Press
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Business
- Washington Post
Tulsa announces reparations for the 1921 ‘Black Wall Street' massacre
The city of Tulsa, home to one of the most horrifying racial-terror massacres in U.S. history and the people who tried to cover it up, has announced a $105 million reparations package that will put dollars and actions toward redress. 'For 104 years, the Tulsa Race Massacre has been a stain on our city's history,' Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols said in a speech Sunday announcing the reparations package, which will pump millions into the restoration of families and communities that had their trajectories derailed by the 1921 attack.
New York Post
2 days ago
- Business
- New York Post
Oklahoma mayor proposes $100M reparations plan for descendants of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre
Tulsa's first black mayor proposed creating a $100 million private trust as part of a reparations plan for the impact of the Tulsa Race Massacre which took place more than 100 years ago. Mayor Monroe Nichols IV, elected mayor in November, says the trust would be used to provide scholarships and housing to the descendants of those impacted by the massacre. He clarified that the trust would not involve direct cash payments, however. 'For 104 years, the Tulsa Race Massacre has been a stain on our city's history,' Nichols said Sunday. 'The massacre was hidden from history books, only to be followed by the intentional acts of redlining, a highway built to choke off economic vitality and the perpetual underinvestment of local, state and federal governments.' 'Now it's time to take the next big steps to restore,' he added. 3 Tulsa's first black mayor proposed creating a $100 million private trust as part of a reparations plan for the impact of the Tulsa Race Massacre. AP The private charitable trust would be created with a goal to secure $105 million in assets, with most of the funding either secured or committed by June 1, 2026. Nichols says the City Council would have to approve the transfer of any city assets to the trust. The plan calls for the bulk of the funding, $60 million, to go toward improving buildings and revitalizing the city's north side. 3 The private charitable trust would be created with a goal to secure $105 million in assets. Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images 'The Greenwood District at its height was a center of commerce,' Nichols told the Associated Press. 'So what was lost was not just something from North Tulsa or the black community. It actually robbed Tulsa of an economic future that would have rivaled anywhere else in the world.' Nichols' push comes just weeks after Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., announced plans to introduce the Reparations Now Resolution, which calls for the US to spend trillions of dollars on reparations for black Americans. 3 Mayor Monroe Nichols IV clarified that the trust would not involve direct cash payments. REUTERS Lee's resolution cites US slavery, Jim Crow laws, and other racially discriminatory laws and policies to justify spending trillions of dollars supporting the descendants of black Americans in the US. 'That's why we recognize that the fight to restore black folks has to be so much more substantive,' she added. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
