By Jerry Goodwin Guest Editorial Contributor
jerry@goodwingrant.com
North Tulsa must embrace a stark reality. Communities around us are competing for business, rolling out the red carpet with tax incentives, housing options, better school districts and more. While they fight strategically for tax dollars to flow into their communities, we are busy fighting businesses that desire to serve us, and we are fighting each other. If we are going to thrive, we must learn that we are stronger together and it is integral we work together.
We must also recognize that North Tulsa has something these other communities do not. We have a story the world is interested in. We have history that no one can take from us. We have an economic current lying beneath our feet and within our DNA that only we can offer the City of Tulsa. We have the history of Black Wall Street and we are the only ones that can tell the story the way it deserves to be told.
The original 40-blocks of Black Wall Street has been redeveloped without a prominent marker to preserve or honor its history. Yes, we have the John Hope Franklin Park, the Greenwood Cultural Center and a newly painted beautiful mural… but we must ask ourselves, do they truly tell the story of courage, resilience and strength our people exemplified after everything they worked for had been destroyed? Does it tell the story of those that stayed to rebuild? The true and detailed story of Black Wall Street has the ability to educate, encourage and empower our nation. North Tulsa’s ability to endure the era after the 1921 Race Massacre and survive is a story that deserves to be told. Our ancestors were hard-working, God-fearing, respectful people that left us an inheritance that is yet to be realized.
We cannot continue to fight battles with childish solutions and refuse to recognize the true and eminent danger looking us in the eye. At current, North Tulsa’s population is slowly diminishing. Our young people are leaving for brighter horizons. Our current population is struggling to survive with minimal amenities for healthy living. Our community looks like a war ground, littered with abandoned buildings, boarded up homes and in some areas, trash littering the streets. Businesses enter our community with the threat of being boycotted if they don’t operate the way we desire, while our schools are suffering with emergency certified teachers and no tax dollars to provide adequate resources. There is a true and eminent danger surrounding North Tulsa and the only viable solution is to implement a strategic economic development plan that supports growth, stability and proper infrastructure.
It’s time to rebrand North Tulsa and solidify our land as historic ground. A positive, friendly community that looks and feels as those that came before us intended. A place where our African-American businesses can thrive and co-mingle with those that desire to provide services within our community. An environment where protecting the future of our young people and public safety come first.
Not only must we stand together and unite as one, but we must also recognize, we cannot do this alone. The same group of people cannot employ creative solutions without efficient education or resources. It is going to take open doors, researched solutions and help to strategize with those that do not look like us, but desire to assist us. Much like our ancestors and their ability to work with their Native American neighbors to establish Black Wall Street, we too must work with our neighbors to rebuild, restore and help the world remember Black Wall Street.
We cannot continue to cry, “What about us?” as if someone is going to drive to North Tulsa and hand us a check. It’s going to take our ENTIRE community to unite and come together as one to save our land, our culture, our history and our rights.
