Feb 5, 2025 Story by: Editor
Tulsa’s newly elected mayor expressed support on Tuesday for increasing aid to victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and their descendants but did not specify how the city should further address one of the most devastating racial attacks in U.S. history.
Monroe Nichols, who became the first Black mayor of Oklahoma’s second-largest city in November, stated his endorsement of “significant elements” of Project Greenwood, a broad initiative named after the once-thriving Black neighborhood destroyed by a white mob.
The initiative is being championed by massacre survivors and their descendants, who last year lost their legal battle at the Oklahoma Supreme Court to compel the city to provide financial compensation for the tragedy. The massacre claimed the lives of up to 300 Black residents and forced thousands of survivors into National Guard-run internment camps.
Project Greenwood includes demands for financial compensation for the last two known living survivors—both 110 years old—a scholarship program for victims’ descendants, and the recognition of June 1 as an official holiday.
“I look forward to implementing significant elements of the plan in partnership with Justice for Greenwood and other stakeholders,” Nichols said in a statement. “In the coming weeks, I will share the framework my administration will use to heal the open wounds left by the Massacre and create a stronger, more unified Tulsa for all.”
A spokesperson for Nichols stated that he was unavailable for further comment.
In January, a Justice Department report, released in the final days of the Biden administration, concluded that there was no longer a legal path for criminal prosecution related to the massacre.
Tulsa City Council members did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
Brian Crain, a Tulsa attorney and former state senator, voiced support for memorials and funding a cultural center in Greenwood. However, he noted that winning over the general public for other proposals could be a challenge.
“Most of my conversations with other people in Tulsa don’t involve discussions on cash payments for something that happened 100 years ago,” he said.
Other aspects of Project Greenwood include granting hiring and contracting preferences to descendants, exempting them from city taxes and utility payments, and conducting a comprehensive audit of city-owned land in historic Greenwood to determine how it was acquired.
Lessie Benningfield Randle and Viola Fletcher, the last two known survivors of the massacre, did not attend a news conference in Tulsa urging city leaders to support the plan. The initiative has been spearheaded by attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons.
“It would be a tragedy,” Solomon-Simmons said, “for these two 110-year-old women to pass away with the justice that they so rightly deserve.” Source: US News
