Tulsa Proposes Reparations Program For 1921 Massacre Survivors And Descendants

City Councilor Vanessa Hall-Harper is pushing for cash payments to the victims.

Officials in Tulsa, Oklahoma, have announced the formation of a new Beyond Apology Commission to advocate for reparations for survivors and descendants of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. City Councilor Vanessa Hall-Harper is pushing for cash payments to the victims.

According to the Associated Press, a 13-member commission will review two reports that called for financial reparations—one from the city in 2023 and another by a state commission in 2001. Hall-Harper and Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum each selected one representative for the commission, with the remaining 11 members chosen by community members and city staff.

“One of the most challenging issues to navigate during my time as mayor has been that of reparations for the victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and their families,” Bynum said.

As previously mentioned by BLACK ENTERPRISE, Black residents in Tulsa were massacred by a white mob during the racially-motivated Tulsa Race Riots which also destroyed the city’s thriving Greenwood District. For years, Oklahoma has failed in its efforts to acknowledge the violent acts and take action.

City Councilor Hall-Harper, who is a Tulsa native and district includes Greenwood, supports financial reparations and said she would be disappointed if cash payments are not included. Mayor Bynum has opposed the demand for financial reparations and instead, asserted other proposed requests from the city’s Beyond Apology report to provide residents with improved housing, economic development, health care and education. His first order to the Beyond Apology Commission is to create a housing equity program intended for survivors, race riot descendants, and north Tulsa residents.

Additionally, the 2023 report recommended survivors and descendants are offered a return of land.

BE previously noted that Lessie Benningfield Randle, 109, and Viola Fletcher, 110, the last known massacre survivors, and Hughes Van Ellis, who died in 2023, sued for reparations from the city and state, but their appeal was denied. In June, the lawsuit from the two survivors was dismissed by the Oklahoma Supreme Court.