Will Tulsa pay reparations for the Tulsa Race Massacre? This group will answer that question

The commission is charged with making recommendations for possible reparations for those harmed in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and in the years after.

“The best way for us to determine the path forward for the city of Tulsa is to have Tulsans work together to talk through those different options for us as a community,” Bynum said. “We are at our best as a city when we are engaging in that dialogue, not just when we’re assuming the worst about somebody and refusing to talk.”

Bynum used an analogy to address those in the community who might not trust the city or are opposed to the very idea of reparations.

“If there were a tornado right now that hit Tulsa, you would see this community immediately move to assist our neighbors who were harmed in that,” Bynum said. “Well, in this case, we have neighbors of ours who lost far more than what you would lose in a tornado, and that damage has gone on for decades.

“So how can we as a community that is compassionate — as a community that has a demonstrated track record of helping our neighbors in need and being willing to listen to different points of view and work together to find common ground — how do we move forward? That’s the mission of this commission, to help guide that conversation in a meaningful way for us is Tulsa.”

The first order of business for the commission will be to produce a recommendation and implementation plan for a housing equity program to the mayor and City Council by Nov. 30.

Bynum said housing equity was selected as the first issue to address because of the city’s dire shortage of housing and because voters approved $75 million for that purpose as part of last year’s Improve Our Tulsa capital improvements package.

“So this is a commission that really has the power to act, that has the support of the city to follow through on the recommendations that it makes,” Bynum said. “But we as a city do not want to be prescribing what the community feels are the best path forward for reparations.”

The other areas of possible reparations to be explored by the commission are education, financial compensation, community and economic development, housing, land, health and wellness, systems change, and cultural identity.

“I want to be very clear that, again, there are eight things, and we will be focused on all of those,” said City Councilor Vanessa Hall-Harper. “We have just prioritized because of the issues that we are facing today as a nation and certainly as a community, that’s where we’re going to start this work.”

Eleven of the 13 commission members have been selected. They include an elder, TheRese Anderson Aduni; a north Tulsa community member, Corinice Wilson; a policy and legislative expert, Kristi Williams; a housing equity expert, Greg Taylor; a health equity expert, D’Marria Monday; and four at-large members: Phil Armstrong, Jacqueline Evans, Mattece Mason and Damali Wilson.

The mayor, or his designee, and the District 1 city councilor, or his or her designee, are also on the commission.

The May 31-June 1, 1921, attack on Tulsa’s Greenwood District — then home to one of the country’s most prosperous Black communities and Black Wall Street — destroyed 35 square blocks and left dozens of people dead. Some have estimated the number of dead to be in the hundreds.

Krystal Reyes, chief resilience officer for the city, led Friday’s meeting, which consisted mainly of introductions and the review of the process moving forward.

“This is going to be hard work,” Reyes said. “So having them kind of get to know each other is important.”

Speaking early in the meeting, Bynum said it is key that the commission achieve tangible and measurable outcomes.

“Community dialogue and conversation is going to be important, … but the process will be a failure if we don’t have tangible things that we are doing for our neighbors who have been harmed by this.”

Friday’s meeting ended with a sober warning from commission member Phil Armstrong. Armstrong recalled the hatred and threats he encountered when he oversaw the opening of Greenwood Rising, the Tulsa museum dedicated to telling the unvarnished truth of what happened during the Race Massacre.

“In the weeks leading up to getting Greenwood Rising established, the hate mail and the things that I and my family had to face, it literally had the Tulsa Police Department and the Eastern Oklahoma District of the FBI unit, actually monitoring,” Armstrong said.

“… So I just wanted to say, that the great work that we are going to be doing with this is going to be met with resistance. Not it might, it will be. I’ve seen it. I’ve experienced it. Councilor Harper’s aware of it. Just be ready for it.

“Don’t be shocked and surprised by it, because there are groups that when we get money and politics involved, people are gonna come out of the woodwork to try to change the narrative, to try to say, ‘Oh, this is one of the DEI things, you know, that the city’s doing. Another reason why we shouldn’t be doing this.’ It’s gonna get nasty.”

The next meeting of the Beyond Apology Commission will be 1 p.m. Nov. 1 in the 10th floor north meeting room of City Hall.

The meeting is open to the public.

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