The Fight For Justice For Surviving Massacre Victims
In this year, the search for justice for the 1921 Race Massacre continues in many ways. There is the search for the fallen, the effort to teach the real history, to honor the legacy of Black Wall Street and to honor the surviving members of the massacre. Is it too little too late or does justice never have a deadline?
A suit filed by Damario Solomon-Simmons and others is going to try and answer that question by suing the City of Tulsa. He is also suing the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission and the Tulsa Development Authority for what he says are violations of the Oklahoma Open Records Act and for the denial of access to public records related to the 1921 Race Massacre.
The survivors Solomon-Simmons is representing are 106-year-old Lessie Benningfield “Mother” Randle, 106-year-old Viola “Mother” Fletcher, and 100-year-old Hughes Van Ellis. It is utterly amazing they are still with us and the centenarians cannot afford to wait any longer. Their attorney has been seeking records to help establish information on the continuing impact of the massacre on the Greenwood District.
Clearly if anyone is deserving of the records requested by Solomon-Simmons and his legal team, it is the Greenwood 3 who survived bombs, murder, arson, and a century of cover-ups. Tulsa keeps stumbling over its own feet and trying to appear like the city has progressed. Atonement has a price and the thoughts and prayers of the oppressors are tuneless as the coverup of the ongoing damage Tulsa has inflicted on Greenwood marches on 100 years later.
State Bills To Ok Running Over Citizens And Criminalized Free Speech
While Oklahoma lags behind every progressive state in education and health standards, much of this session’s work has been to legalize running over fellow citizens exercising their constitutional rights. Free speech and the right to assemble will be undermined and criminalized by proposed state laws speeding through the Oklahoma legislature.
House Bill 1674 as opposed by State Representative Regina Goodwin would waive criminal liability for anyone who runs over citizens exercising their right to free speech and assembly. The bill is in response to the gatherings of people opposed to the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis policemen. A protest in Tulsa spilled onto a highway and a truck towing a trailer drove through the crowd injuring several people and knocking one man from the bridge breaking his back. No one was charged in the incident. This poorly crafted bill of course sends Oklahoma back into the dark ages.
Senate bill 806 is also meeting small opposition and would send people exercising their rights to free speech and assembly to jail for a year if they block a street because of a riot. Who determines it is a riot, the police? When protesting the police, the police get to determine there is a riot and everyone on the street protesting is now a criminal. In a time where most progressive governments are looking for ways to protect citizens from the fate of Floyd, Oklahoma is doubling down.
Do not look for moral support from Mayor G.T. Bynum who said he appreciates the legislature trying to protect citizens. He did not mention anything about citizens like George Floyd. We need to beat back this law and elect lawmakers who represent the best interests of Oklahomans; all Oklahomans.
Hall-Harper Taking On Devaluing Property Belonging To People Of Color
Not all city councilor probes are exciting on their face; however some may expose and change long-standing procedures that harm citizens of color in real ways. First District councilor Vanessa Hall-Harper has been examining the practices that often lead to devaluing homes in black and brown neighborhoods. She says it’s time to bring together vital leaders to a roundtable discussion on possible solutions.
Hall-Harper is inviting Oklahoma United States Senators James Inhofe & James Lankford, state lawmakers, Tulsa city officials and federal housing officials to discuss with her what to do with the current situation. And to find solutions.
The suspect appraisals, current policies, and development of an appeals process are some of the initial proposals on the table for discussion. Simply put, people of color find their wealth shrunk after years of paying for property. They are at times unable to leverage their properties to sell at its real price. The American Dream should be available to them and not robbed from them based on a racially biased appraisal.
A positive outcome to this roundtable discussion could be fair appraisals and the collective wealth of homeowners increased based on real assessments of their property. Here is wishing them good luck in this important effort.
Black On Asian Attacks Has To Stop
As disturbing news reports discuss the rise in anti-Asian assaults the narrative is that it is part of a white supremacy agenda fueled by leaders like former president Donald J. Trump who blames China for Covid-19. The results have resulted in attacks on Asians by people blaming all of them for the virus. This is of course a horrible lie promoted by Trump to deflect his responsibility for the spread of the pandemic that effected America. Also disturbing are the growing number of assaults on Asians perpetrated by African Americans.
No numbers are available yet, but several high profile attacks have been caught on video surveillance by African American men on elderly Asians. There is a history of poor relations between some Asian store owners who do business in black neighborhoods, and the people who live in and around those neighborhoods. The tension has at times created racially charged confrontations.
Black and Jewish communities often worked together in the furtherance of civil rights against common enemies. But because of poor business practices by some not all black-Jewish commerce, it has resulted in strained relations. Efforts were and are being made to repair those relationships. It is not only right it is the best interest to do so. The same efforts of racial reconciliation need to commence between black and Asian neighbors.
Leaders need to step up and together to find ways to mend the injuries that have caused friction and discord. Faith leaders, political leaders and commerce should lead the way. We are not enemies but brothers and sisters in the struggle for freedom.
