Add Tulsa Mayor Unveils Staggering $100M Reparations Plan
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Tulsa-Mayor-Unveils-Staggering-%24100M-Reparations-Plan.md
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<br>The first black mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma has unveiled an ambitious reparations prepare that would see more than $100 million invested in the descendants of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.<br>
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<br>Mayor Monroe Nichols announced on Sunday that the city is opening a $105 million charitable trust consisting of personal funds to resolve problems including housing, scholarships, land acquisition and financial development for north Tulsans.<br>
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<br>Of that money, $24 million will go towards and own a home for the descendants of the attack that eliminated as many as 300 black individuals and razed 35 blocks, according to [Public Radio](https://onshownearme.co.za) Tulsa.<br>
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<br>Another $21 million will money land acquisition, scholarship funding and financial advancement for the blighted north Tulsa neighborhood, and a massive $60 million will go toward cultural conservation to improve structures in the once prosperous Greenwood area.<br>
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<br>'For 104 years, the Tulsa Race Massacre has actually been a stain on our city's history,[' Nichols](https://utahoffice.space) said at an occasion honoring Race Massacre Observance Day.<br>
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<br>'The massacre was hidden from history books, only to be followed by the deliberate acts of redlining, a highway constructed to choke off economic vigor and the perpetual underinvestment of local, state and federal governments.<br>
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<br>'Now it's time to take the next big actions to restore.'<br>
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<br>But the proposition will not consist of direct money payments to the last known survivors, Leslie Benningfield Randle and Viola Fletcher, who are 110 and 111 years of ages.<br>
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<br>Mayor Monroe Nichols revealed on Sunday that the city is opening a $105 million charitable trust making up personal funds to resolve issues including housing, scholarships, land acquisition and economic advancement for north Tulsans<br>
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<br>His strategy does not [consist](https://nigeria-real-estate.com) of direct cash payments to the last known survivors, Leslie Benningfield Randle (left) and Viola Fletcher (ideal), who are 110 and 111 years old. They are envisioned in 2021<br>
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<br>They had been combating for reparations for many years, and previously this year their lawyer Damario Solomon-Simmons argued that any reparations plan ought to include direct payments to the 2 survivors along with a victim's compensation fund for outstanding claims.<br>
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<br>However, a suit Solomon-Simmons - who also founded the group Justice for Greenwood - was struck down in 2023 by an Oklahoma judge who [declared](https://laviniapropertieslanka.com) the plaintiffs 'don't have unlimited rights to compensation.'<br>
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<br>The ruling was then upheld by the Oklahoma Supreme Court last year, moistening racial justice [supporters' hopes](https://fabrealtygroupnc.com) that the city would ever make monetary amends.<br>
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<br>But after taking office earlier this year, Nichols said he examined previous propositions from regional neighborhood organizations like Justice for Greenwood.<br>
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<br>He then discussed his plan with the Tulsa City Council and descendants of the massacre victims.<br>
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<br>'What we wanted to do was discover a method which we could take in a variety of these recommendations, so that it's reflective of the descendant neighborhood, of the folks that produced some recommendations,' Nichols stated as he likewise pledged to [continue](https://www.360propertyrentals.co.uk) to browse for mass graves believed to contain victims of the massacre and release 45,000 previously categorized city [records](https://www.aber.ae).<br>
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<br>No part of his plan would need city board approval, the mayor kept in mind, and any fundraising would be performed by an executive director whose wage will be paid for by [personal financing](https://landpointgroup.com).<br>
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<br>A Board of Trustees would also figure out how to disperse the funds.<br>
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<br>Still, the city council would need to license the transfer of any city residential or commercial property to the trust, something the mayor said was extremely likely.<br>
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<br>People take photos at a Black Wall Street mural in the historical Greenwood area<br>
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<br>He explained that a person of the points that actually stuck to him in these discussions was the destruction of not simply what Greenwood was - with its restaurants, theaters, hotels, banks and supermarket - however what it could have been.<br>
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<br>'The Greenwood District at its height was a center of commerce,' he informed the Associated Press. 'So what was lost was not just something from North Tulsa or the black neighborhood. It really robbed Tulsa of a financial future that would have rivaled anywhere else worldwide.'<br>
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<br>'You would have had the center of oil wealth here and the center of black wealth here at the exact same time,' he added in his remarks to the Times. 'That would have made us an economic juggernaut and would have most likely made the city double in size.'<br>
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<br>Many at Sunday's occasion said they supported the strategy, although it does not include money payments to the 2 elderly survivors of the attack.<br>
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<br>As numerous as 300 black individuals were killed in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, which took down 35 blocks in the then-prosperous Greenwood area<br>
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<br>The neighborhood was once filled with restaurants, theaters, hotels, banks and grocery shops before it was burned down<br>
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<br>Chief Egunwale Amusan, a survivor descendant, for example, said the he has worked for half his life to get reparations.<br>
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<br>'If [my grandfather] had been here today, it probably would have been the most restorative day of his life,' he told Public Radio Tulsa.<br>
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<br>Jacqueline Weary, a granddaughter of massacre survivor John R. Emerson, Sr., who owned a hotel and taxi business in Greenwood that were ruined, on the other hand, acknowledged the political trouble of [offering](https://www.part-realtor.ae) money payments to descendants.<br>
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<br>But at the very same time, she wondered just how much of her family's wealth was lost in the violence.<br>
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<br>'If Greenwood was still there, my grandpa would still have his hotel,' stated Weary, 65.<br>
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<br>'It rightfully was our inheritance, and it was actually removed.'<br>
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<br>A group of black were marched past the corner of second and Main Streets in Tulsa, under armed guard throughout the Tulsa Race Massacre on June 1, 1921<br>
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<br>Nichols stated the community was once a center of commerce<br>
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<br>The violence in 1921 erupted after a white lady informed police that a black guy had actually gotten her arm in an elevator in a downtown Tulsa commercial building on May 30, 1921.<br>
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<br>The following day, police jailed the guy, who the Tulsa Tribune reported had tried to attack the woman. White individuals surrounded the courthouse, requiring the man be turned over.<br>
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<br>World War One veterans were among black males who went to the [courthouse](https://vibes.com.ng) to face the mob. A white guy tried to deactivate a [black veteran](https://paradisecostaricarealty.com) and a [shot rang](https://www.buyasiaproperty.com) out, touching off even more violence.<br>
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<br>White individuals then robbed and burned buildings and dragged the black people from their beds and beat them, according to historic accounts.<br>
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<br>The white people were deputized by authorities and instructed to shoot the black locals.<br>
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<br>No one was ever charged in the violence, which the federal government now categorizes as a 'collaborated military-style attack' by white people, and not the work of a rowdy mob.<br>
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