Historical Overview

Greenwood became an incubator of success, race pride, and dignity. Greenwood was a place where success and Black excellence was the norm, not exceptional. Descended from The Promised Land is an intimate journey into the memory, pain, legacy, and theft of generational wealth. What was the Promised Land? To the envious it was described as “Little Africa.” To those like John and Loula Williams, it would become known as the “Dreamland,” a land so expansive that it would eventually become home to as many as 10-15,000 inhabitants. This film humanizes those who were dehumanized and allows the voices of remarkable ancestors to be heard in an unforgettable way. It is the unfolding of a legacy as seen through the eyes and spirit of Greenwood's descendants. We must never forget the Promised Land.

INTRODUCTION

Descended from The Promised Land: The Legacy of Black Wall Street connects the past to the present. It is an unmasking of the families whose names are etched into the bricks of Greenwood, a lucrative and industrious empire built for and by Black people in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This story is literally the tale of two cities. Its development was not solely a product of Jim Crow, a set of laws that segregated communities and individuals of color, as many have erroneously reported. The Black Township of Greenwood was a product of the more than 27 Black townships established by African Freedmen, many former slaves of Indigenous tribes who were forced to migrate to Oklahoma through the Trail of Tears, as well as other well-established Blacks who traveled to the area in the late 1800s. These towns existed before statehood and their growth and success was independent of Jim Crow laws. It is important to note that by 1921 there were as many as 50 Black townships in Oklahoma.

The Founding of Greenwood

In 1905, the educator, entrepreneur, and founder of Greenwood, Ottowa W. Gurley, came to Tulsa after selling his property in Perry, Oklahoma. He and his wife Emma Gurley purchased land in Greenwood and leveraged the prospects of the 1901 oil boom in Tulsa. Gurley used his wealth to help advance the vision and hopes of other Blacks in Greenwood. The community's rapid growth attracted the likes of J.B. Stadford who developed a strong business relationship with Gurley. Stradford would buy and sell property to other Blacks for homes and/or businesses. Stradford would eventually build the most exquisite Black-owned hotel in all of America. The growth of Greenwood attracted a large number of people from every walk of life and with every skill set imaginable, including John and Loula Williams who would eventually build an empire of their own. John would become one of Tulsa’s premiere mechanics. Loula’s Dreamland Theatre and Confectionery was the pride of Greenwood. These pioneers represent a fraction of the economic wealth builders in Greenwood. Between the oil boom in Tulsa, and the cultural renaissance it was experiencing, there was no limit to the potential of Greenwood socially, educationally, politically, and economically.

Headline from The Kansas City Star, September 6, 1913
Source: The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, MO), September 6, 1913.
https://martincitytelegraph.com/2020/01/19/who-was-the-real-sarah-rector-the-richest-black-girl-in-america/

The Rise of Black Wall Street

Sarah Rector at Age 10
Source: The American Magazine (New York, NY), Vol. 79, January -June 1915, 59.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015050596967&view=1up&seq=71

Between 1905 and 1921, the Black population in Greenwood had grown substantially. By 1921, this Black mecca had a population somewhere between 10-15,000 residents. Many of those migrating to Tulsa were Freedmen who had gained wealth through land allotments from the “Five Civilized Tribes,” which included the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole nations.¹ For example, there was a 10-year-old Black millionaire named Sarah Rector.

Headline from The Tulsa Star, January 4, 1919
Source: The Tulsa Star (Tulsa, OK), Vol. 9, January 4, 1919, 1.
https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc72778/m1/1/

Thousands migrated from the more than 50 identifiable Black townships in Oklahoma looking for opportunity in Tulsa because of its notoriety for being a town where dreams manifested with hard work and determination. Tulsa was nicknamed Magic City because it had quickly become the “Oil Capital of the World.” African Americans quickly leveraged the potential to generate wealth and create multiple streams of income. The residents of Greenwood held strong to ideas of race pride and consciousness. This was evident in the news articles published in A.J. Smitherman’s Tulsa Star newspaper. He was a fierce advocate for the uplift of the Black race and had no problem confronting oppressive laws and policies.

Advertisement in The Tulsa Star, January 4, 1919
Source: The Tulsa Star (Tulsa, OK), Vol. 9, January 4, 1919, 2.
https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc72778/m1/1/

Advertisement in The Tulsa Star, April 24, 1920
Source: The Tulsa Star (Tulsa, OK), Vol. 9, April 24, 1920, 6.
https://www.newspapers.com/image/68237665

Greenwood boasted of having every imaginable resource a township could have. It had its own hospitals, the Frissel Hospital and Booker Washington Hospital, with one of the most skilled Black doctors in America, Dr. A.C. Jackson, who was a renowned innovator in the field of medicine.

Advertisement in The Tulsa Star, June 26, 1915
Source: The Tulsa Star (Tulsa, OK), Vol. 3, June 26, 1915, 2.
https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc72717/m1/2/

Advertisement in The Tulsa Star, September 14, 1918
Source: The Tulsa Star (Tulsa, OK), Vol. 6, September 14, 1918, 4.
https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc72765/m1/4/

Greenwood had multiple hotels like the Royal Hotel, The Stradford Hotel, and The Red Wing Hotel.

Greenwood had the finest Black-owned theatre in the entire state. This theatre was owned by a woman who could very well be considered the Godmother of Greenwood, Mrs. Loula Williams, whose descendants appear in Descended from The Promised Land: The Legacy of Black Wallstreet.

Advertisements in The Tulsa Star, June 26, 1915
Source: The Tulsa Star (Tulsa, OK), Vol. 3, June 26, 1915, 5.
https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc72717/m1/5/

Greenwood's spirit of cooperative economics, determination, collective work, and responsibility would be both admired and despised in the years to come. We can say with certainty that the Greenwood Historic Township rose to a level of Black excellence never seen before, and the ghosts of its past await our return.

Source: Image provided courtesy of Chief Egunwale Amusan via Ancestry.com

The Red Summer of 1919

The Red Summer of 1919 and its impact on Greenwood is critical to understanding the context in which the massacre occurred. This period was one of the most violent periods in American history. Thousands of African Americans enlisted to serve in the first World War.

Those who returned from the war came back with a different worldview – a new sense of courage, pride, and dignity. The war gave them plenty to think about as the Axis Powers bombarded African American soldiers with political leaflets reminding them that they were fighting on behalf of a country that treated them as second-class citizens and encouraging them to desert.

Propaganda leaflet distributed behind American lines by German airplanes
Original Source: National Archives.
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6655/

Many whites returned to find that the jobs they once had were filled by Blacks. The Black migration into big cities like Chicago, and even smaller cities like Tulsa, had created more opportunities for Blacks. In many ways Jim Crow served to stimulate an economy where Black people were more than happy to spend their money with each other. Black people had become even more industrious, organized, and educated across the country. The soldiers who came home carried new skill sets and a certain sense of defiance in sharp contrast to their former, more subservient presentation of themselves in the presence of white people. This new Black esteem was problematic, especially for many white Americans, and especially in Tulsa.

When Black soldiers returned, they were met with resentment, disrespect, and outright discrimination. Beginning in the summer of 1919, there were 25 significant race-based clashes across the nation. Most of these incidents were instigated by White Americans. Du Bois proclaimed in his May 1919 editorial in The Crisis, “We return. We return from fighting. We return fighting.”²

Article in The New York Times, June 20, 1921
Source: The New York Times (New York, NY), June 20, 1921, 8.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6777996/african-blood-brotherhood

“By the God of heaven,” Du Bois said of returning veterans, “we are cowards and jackasses if now that the war is over, we do not marshal every ounce of our brain and brawn to fight a sterner, longer, more unbending battle against the forces of hell in our own land.”³ Du Bois was a staunch advocate for the defense of our Black communities. This resulted in many of our soldiers joining the African Blood Brotherhood created to defend ourselves from a repeat of 1919.

Tulsa
Race
Massacre

Editorial in The Tulsa Tribune, June 4, 1921
Source: The Tulsa Tribune (Tulsa, OK), Vol. 9, June 4, 1921, 8.
https://img1.newspapers.com/clip/62959033/06041921-tulsa-tribune-editorial-it/

The events of May 31, 1921 were not at all spontaneous or coincidental. The reputation of Greenwood was a great source of envy and jealousy, and efforts to denigrate and criminalize the Greenwood district is well-documented. The only way to rally general white public sentiment against the community was to vilify Greenwood and its citizens. On June 4, 1921, the Tulsa Tribune published an article that revealed the type of hate filled propaganda that was being spewed before the destruction of Greenwood by the Tulsa Tribune, the same paper that incited the city-sponsored mob violence on May 31, 1921.

Front page of The Tulsa Star, April 10, 1920
Source: The Tulsa Star (Tulsa, OK), Vol. 9, April 10, 1920, 1.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/data/batches/okhi_delaware_ver01/data/sn86064118/00237281020/1920041001/0091.pdf

Greenwood's success wasn't the only thing white Tulsans despised. Black people in the district were gaining significant political status. This was largely due to the relentless efforts of The Tulsa Star owner A.J. Smitherman. Blacks were convinced to take over the democratic party and only lost the ticket by 206 votes. The loss was not as valuable as the realization that they possessed the political strength that would lead them into the future. It is equally clear that white Tulsa realized it as well.

Front page article in The Tulsa Tribune, May 31, 1921
Source: The Tulsa Tribune (Tulsa, OK), Vol. 9, May 31, 1921, 1.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/data/batches/okhi_delaware_ver01/data/sn86064118/00237281020/1920041001/0091.pdf

Tulsa County Courthouse
Source: Oklahoma Publishing Company Photography Collection, OHS
https://www.okhistory.org/learn/trm4

On May 30, 1921 a teenager named Dick Rowland entered the Drexel building to use the restroom on the second floor. When Dick Rowland entered the elevator, he was met by Sara Page, the elevator operator. Upon entering the elevator Dick Rowland tripped and allegedly grabbed the arm of Sara Page who screamed. A clerk in the building who claimed to have heard Sara scream reported the incident to the police. Dick Rowland was arrested by Tulsa Police on May 31, 1921 and later taken into custody by the Sheriff. A newspaper article published by the Tulsa Tribune was the fake news of the day. The article is largely responsible for the large crowd of citizens that gathered in front of the courthouse building demanding the release of Rowland so that they could lynch him.

African American soldier dressed in WWI uniform
Source: Unknown
https://www.tulsahistory.org/exhibit/the-great-war-tulsans-during-wwi/#gallery/d2478948390a8a2545ea429e8c97b6ea/115

By the evening of May 31, 1921 a small crowd of whites transformed to thousands in a very short period. Word spread in Greenwood that a mob had stormed the courthouse building. An armed group of Black businessmen and veterans organized themselves and marched to the courthouse building to defend the courthouse and prevent Dick Rowland from being lynched. When they arrived, one of the armed Black men was confronted by one of the white deputies who attempted to disarm him. In the scuffle the gun went off and the battle began.

The Black defenders retreated to Greenwood where they were greeted by Black soldiers who had set up a line of defense on first street and the Frisco tracks. These defenders successfully protected Greenwood from the attempted invasion on May 31, 1921.

Top Left: Destruction and devastation. Source: Oklahoma Historical Society/Getty Images https://www.vox.com/22456481/tulsa-race-massacre
Top Right: More than 1,000 houses and businesses were destroyed. Source: Oklahoma Historical Society/Getty Images https://www.history.com/news/black-wall-street-tulsa-race-massacre#&gid=ci024dc7d0400027cb&pid=tulsa-riot-gettyimages-956085192
Bottom Right: The burning Greenwood District. Source: American National Red Cross Photograph Collection (Library of Congress) https://www.history.com/news/black-wall-street-tulsa-race-massacre#&gid=ci024dc7d0400027cb&pid=tulsa-riot-gettyimages-956085192
Bottom Left: Racial tensions erupt. Source: Oklahoma Historical Society/Getty Images https://www.history.com/news/black-wall-street-tulsa-race-massacre#&gid=ci024dc7d0400027cb&pid=tulsa-riot-gettyimages-956085192

By midnight the local national guard was called to round up as many Black people as possible including those who were live-in servants to whites. Throughout the early morning hours, hundreds of whites were deputized and organized into bands. At 5 am a whistle blew and the invasion, looting, larceny, murder, and bombing of Greenwood would be complete over the next 24 hours.

A section of railroad line at North Cincinnati Avenue
Source: Photographer unknown. June 1, 1921. Tulsa Historical Society and Museum. Catalog Number 1981.032.009
https://www.tulsahistory.org/exhibit/1921-tulsa-race-massacre/photos/#gallery/79fff4159cc1ef156d2a88222449c2e5/1521

The Gurley Hotel in ruins
Source: Jacob H. Hooker, 1921. Tulsa Historical Society and Museum. Catalog Number 2002.209.001.
https://www.tulsahistory.org/exhibit/1921-tulsa-race-massacre/#gallery/10152ca5274ab75ae60a5b2d19323f31/46

40 square blocks, burned to the ground. As many as 3,000 homes were destroyed. The number of dead will never truly be known as witness accounts reveal that many were buried in mass graves. There were many reports that hundreds were dumped in the Arkansas River. The memories, the legacy, the hopes, and dreams of an entire community destroyed with many who either died or fled for their lives never to return. Thousands more were taken to detention centers. Many were taken to a convention hall never to be seen again. It is important to note that not one white offender was ever brought to justice due to the fact that this was a government-sanctioned holocaust. The loss of life and wealth can never be overstated.

Caption states: “Chared Negro Killed in Tulsa Riot 6-1-1921”
Source: Photographer unknown. June 1, 1921. Tulsa Historical Society and Museum. Catalog Number 1977.025.004
https://www.tulsahistory.org/exhibit/1921-tulsa-race-massacre/photos/#gallery/79fff4159cc1ef156d2a88222449c2e5/639

The Dreamland Theatre in ruins
Source: Photographer unknown. 1921. Tulsa Historical Society and Museum. Catalog Number 1984.002.024
https://www.tulsahistory.org/exhibit/1921-tulsa-race-massacre/photos/nggallery/page/3#gallery/79fff4159cc1ef156d2a88222449c2e5/1318

A flat-bed truck in front of the Convention Hall
Source: Photographer unknown. June 1, 1921. Tulsa Historical Society and Museum. Catalog Number 1982.033.003
https://www.tulsahistory.org/exhibit/1921-tulsa-race-massacre/photos/nggallery/page/2#gallery/79fff4159cc1ef156d2a88222449c2e5/673

Excerpt from front page article in The Black Dispatch, June 10, 1921
Source: The Black Dispatch (Oklahoma City, OK), Vol. 6, June 10, 1921, 1.
https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc152336/m1/1/

According to the OKC Dispatch, the people of Greenwood suffered an estimated 4 million dollars in property damages in 1921. This equals anywhere from 50 to 100 million in today's numbers. There were hundreds of insurance claims filed. Every claim was denied because of a riot clause in the insurance policy they held. One claim filed by a white gun shop owner was approved.⁴

Front page of The Lincoln University Herald, June-August 1921
Source: The Lincoln University Herald (Chester County, PA), Vol. 26, June-August 1921, 1.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/lincoln-university-herald/b9245fe1-3440-4420-90cd-faedd64ea24d/?itid=lk_inline_manual_22

Rebuilding and Failure to bring remedy/restoration

Fifteen days after the riot, Judge Loyal J. Martin, chair of the Executive Welfare Committee appointed to restore order after the riot, acknowledged that “Tulsa can only redeem herself from the country-wide shame and humiliation into which she is today plunged by complete restitution and rehabilitation of the black belt. The rest of the United States must know that the real citizenship of Tulsa... will make good the damage, so far as it can be done, to the last penny.”⁵

Tulsa was now the shame of the nation, so it had to figure out ways to change the optics of Tulsa as a den of race hatred. Three days after the massacre The Lincoln University Herald newspaper did a story on President Harding’s visit and commencement speech. “President Harding commended the work of the institution and contrasting the commencement scene before him with the recent riots in Tulsa, said: ‘God grant that in the soberness, the fairness and the justice of the country, we shall never again have a spectacle like it.’”⁶

Front page of the Tulsa World, June 2, 1921 – Source: Tulsa World (Tulsa, OK), Vol. 15, June 2, 1921, 1. – https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/june-2-1921-read-the-tulsa-worlds-account-of-the-tulsa-race-riot/article_961aa345-9109-5d44-b73e-13dd2b69a7c4.html

The mayor of Tulsa, T.D. Evans, dismantled the emergency committee chaired by Loyal Martin and promised to restore Greenwood's burned out district on his own terms. It was all propaganda to get the negative media attention off the city of Tulsa. The mayor collected $2000 and rejected all outside donations to help restore Greenwood.

By June 6-7, 1921, the plan to steal the land in Greenwood was publicly revealed. Also, the plan to move the Black district further north was being enforced with the issuance of a fire ordinance. On the 7th of June, the Executive Welfare Committee created a body called the Tulsa Real Estate Exchange which was essentially designed to gentrify the Greenwood District and turn the area into an industrial and wholesale district. The Real Estate Exchange’s leadership included city booster W. Tate Brady. Tate Brady exalted himself as a proud Klansman and leader of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.⁷

Simultaneously the City Commission passed a fire ordinance that required any new structures in Greenwood to be at least two stories high and be made of concrete, brick, or steel. This effort was designed to block Greenwood’s Black residents from rebuilding. The real estate exchange, along with Mayor Evans, wanted the burned-out district to be used as a train depot among other uses.

A law firm operating from a temporary tent – Source: Photographer unknown. June 6, 1921. Tulsa Historical Society and Museum. Catalog Number 1977.046.045 – https://tulsahistory.pastperfectonline.com/photo/EEF16407-AB37-4800-B547-221226047264

“Merritt J. Glass, the Real Estate Exchange president, argued that building a railroad station in Greenwood ‘will draw more distinctive lines between them and thereby eliminate the intermingling of the lower elements of the two races … the root of all evil which should not exist.’” The rebuilding and resilience of Greenwood rests on the ancestral shoulders of attorney B.C. Franklin. The city was planning to rezone the destroyed area from a residential to a commercial district. Franklin led the legal battle against this ordinance and sued the city of Tulsa before the Oklahoma Supreme Court, where he won. The reconstruction was made possible because of the courage and brilliance of attorney B.C. Franklin and his partner I. S. Spears.

In 1925, the National Negro Business League held its annual conference in Tulsa. This was important because many feared coming back to Tulsa after the massacre. Black Tulsa wanted to reassure Black investors that Greenwood had regained its economic and social stability.

Source: Original source unknown.
http://www.batesline.com/archives/2017/07/greenwood-expressway-demolition-1967.html

Urban Renewal and Highways

A May 4, 1967 story in The Tulsa Tribune shows and discusses the construction of the Crosstown Expressway and Interstate 244 in the Greenwood District. Source: The Tulsa Tribune (Tulsa, OK), May 4, 1967.

In 1959, the Tulsa Urban Renewal Authority (TURA) was established. By 1961, Tulsa began its urban renewal efforts. The plan for Greenwood was defined as “slum clearance.” As one can imagine there was a great distrust in urban renewal. Greenwood was inside what was known as the model cities planning area. A 78 million dollar federal grant was requested by the City for the Greenwood project which would affect roughly 1400 families, 158 businesses, and almost 2000 buildings. This would officially become the death of the Greenwood district. TURA claimed that the majority of buildings in the district were unfit. Most of those who were business owners within the urban renewal area refused but were eventually forced to relocate. After their forced removal TURA purchased 89 acres of land in and around the Greenwood district. Due to a lack of funding and poor planning the Greenwood project was halted and left large tracts of open land in the area.

In the photo (in the previous slide) taken in 1967, you can see the destruction of the buildings on the east side of Archer and Greenwood. You can see Vernon AME in the background to the right. Interstate 244 was part of the inner-city traffic dispersal loop that cut right through the heart of Greenwood. The Promised Land never recovered.

In 1979, the Greenwood Chamber was witnessing the final demise of its legacy and began working with city redevelopment specialists to get government funding to restore 13 buildings at Greenwood and Archer. After a series of failed attempts to gain investors, the Tulsa Urban Renewal Authority stepped in as general partner. The Greenwood Chamber continued to participate as a limited partner. Moton Health Systems also came on as a partner. So did two non-profit groups, Preservation Inc. and the Tulsa Urban League. The new partnership would become known as Greenwood Centre Inc. according to an article published by the Daily Oklahoman on Monday, February 4, 1985.

Source: J. Kavin Ross. Image Title Unknown, 2003. The Oklahoma Eagle. (Tulsa: James O. Goodwin, 2003), 1.

Failure to Bring Justice

In 2001, Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating rejected the state’s culpability in the massacre and maintained the position that Oklahoma state law prohibited reparations from being administered on the state’s behalf. In February 2003 a pro bono legal team headed by Harvard law professor Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. filed a reparations lawsuit on behalf of more than 200 survivors of the Tulsa 1921 Massacre. The team of attorneys included Charles Ogletree, Dennis Sweet, Willie Gary, and Johnnie Cochran.

In March of 2004 U.S. Senior District Judge James Ellison stated that the “plaintiffs’ claims are barred by the statute of limitations is strictly a legal conclusion and does not speak to the tragedy of the riot or the terrible devastation it caused.”⁹ By September 2004, there were only 106 survivors remaining. The city and state asked the judge to dismiss the case because of a two-year statute of limitations in civil cases.

In 2005 after an appeal by Attorney Ogletree, the case went to the Supreme Court. The US Supreme Court declined to hear the case without comment. The Supreme Court did not offer any comment on its decision not to hear the case. In 2007 Congressman John Conyers introduced his bill to support the survivors. The Tulsa-Greenwood Race Riot Claims Accountability Act of 2007 “provides that any Greenwood, Oklahoma, claimant (a survivor or descendant of victims of the Tulsa, Oklahoma, Race Riot of 1921) who has not previously obtained a determination on the merits of a Greenwood claim may, in a civil action commenced within five years after enactment of this Act, obtain that determination.”¹⁰ Conyers vowed quick action, only to see the bill fail to move. Concerns expressed that year by Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor may have played a part in dooming the 2007 measure. Much like the Supreme Court, Taylor declined to comment about Conyers’ renewed effort, as did Gov. Brad Henry and Rep. John Sullivan.

In September 2020, Tulsa attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons, representing a group of survivors and their descendants, filed a lawsuit against the city in the Tulsa County District Court demanding reparations for the long-lasting harm experienced by Black residents both during and after the events of 1921. The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit is Lessie Benningfield Randle, 106 years old, one of the three known survivors of the massacre still living. The lawsuit lists seven defendants, including the Tulsa County sheriff, the Oklahoma National Guard, and the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce.

This Historical Overview was written by

Chief Egunwale Amusan,
CEO/Consultant,
Little Afrika Market

Consultant and History Recovery Specialist Chief Egunwale Amusan is a highly sought-after expert who is committed to the positive transformation of Global African Identity. As a key influencer in the Black Wall Street movement, Amusan has served as Adviser to the Black Wall Street Chamber of Commerce and is the founder of the Black Wall Street Memorial March Weekend, which has been active for the past 25 years and its mission is to preserve the history of Greenwood. He is the co-founder and Owner of The Real Black Wall Street Tour. Chief Amusan is a Board member at the Center of Public Secrets, and Advisor for the New Tulsa Star Online Publication. Chief Amusan is an entrepreneur and the CEO of Little Afrikan Market. Chief Amusan is a member of the Tulsa Remembrance Coalition, working inPartnership with Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative Soil Collection Project.For the past four years he has worked as a consultant for writer producer Tricia Woodgett and writer/director Darnell Martin. Chief Amusan is a certified Traditional Ancestral Chief. Title bestowed in 2012 in Abeokuta, Nigeria. He is the President of the African AncestralSociety with members in Oklahoma, Dallas,Houston, Louisiana, and Kentucky. The Society has a social justice arm that work closely with the Terence Crutcher Foundation, HRW(Human Rights Watch), ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), and LDF (Legal Defense and Educational Fund) currently serves on several boards including American Baptist College, Nashville; Bread for the World, Washington, DC; and, is a member of the National African American Reparations Commission.

Citations

1. Clinton, Fred S. “Oklahoma Indian History.” National Archives Catalog, The Indian School Journal, Dec. 1915, catalog.archives.gov/id/2745554.

2. W.E.B. Du Bois, “Returning Soldiers,” The Crisis 18 (May 1919), 13, https://glc.yale.edu/returning-soldiers

3. W.E.B. Du Bois, “Returning Soldiers,” The Crisis 18 (May 1919), 13, https://glc.yale.edu/returning-soldiers

4. Perry, Andre M., et al. “The True Costs of the Tulsa Race MASSACRE, 100 Years Later.” Brookings, Brookings, 28 May 2021, www.brookings.edu/research/the-true-costs-of-the-tulsa-race-massacre-100-years-later/.

5. The Editors, Walter F. White. “Tulsa, 1921.” The Nation, The Nation, 10 June 2021, www.thenation.com/article/society/tulsa-1921/.

6. “President Harding at Lincoln University.” Lincoln University Herald, June-August 1921, 1.

7. Chapman, Lee Roy. “The Nightmare of Dreamland: Tate Brady and The Tulsa Outrage.” Center for Public Secrets, Center for Public Secrets, 28 Oct. 2020, www.centerforpublicsecrets.org/post/the-nightmare-of-dreamland-by-lee-roy-chapman

8. James S. Hirsch, Riot and Remembrance: The Tulsa Race Massacre and its Legacy (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), 136.

9. https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/house-bill/1995

10. https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/house-bill/1995