Tulsa Survivors Back in Court | MiniPod

happening in Tulsa, Oklahoma this week. You guys, remember a few years ago, everybody was paying attention to Tulsa, Oklahoma because it was the one hundred year anniversary in twenty twenty one of the Tulsa Race massacre, and so you know, yeah, it shows out like Lovecraft Country and Watchman, and everyone was focused on this. And unfortunately, after that centennial went away, so too did a lot of the attention. However, what

happened in Tulsa is still very much active. Let me first take you back in history to nineteen twenty one. There was a young man by the name of Dick Rowland who was an elevator operator in the white part of the community. He was on an elevator when a white woman, Sarah Page, got on this elevator with him. Sarah Page alleged, as so many people did at that

time when it came to young black men. Sarah Page alleged that Dick Roland had acted improperly with her, and news spread throughout this white town, with each telling being more exaggerated. There's doubt that anything even happened on this elevator. However, when the white people heard about this, they had already felt away about the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, which

housed black businesses, black professionals. I believe the dollar passed through the neighborhood over thirty times before leaving the community. This was a self sufficient black community of what WB Dubois would call the talented tenth. When news spread, a white violent mob attacked the Greenwood District, destroying over twelve hundred homes, innumerable black businesses. We don't know if this could have been the next Hilton, so to speak, black

owned Hilton. There were black doctors practices there and they attacked, killing hundreds of people. The exact number to this date is still not known because they have not excavated all the bodies. There's alleged participation from state elected officials, so this is very much state sanctioned violence. Now they were back in court this week before the Oklahoma Supreme Court, and I'm going to kick it to you, Angela, to tell us why they were in court.

constitution of Article two, Section six quote. The courts of justice of this State shall be open to every person, and speedy and certain remedy afforded for every wrong and for every injury to person, property of reputation and right, and justice shall be a minister without sale, denial, delay of presidents. Yet these planets have been ready for almost one hundred and three years for our opportunity to be in court to prove what happened to them and their community.

We're just simply asking that this court give us the opportunity to be remanded it back to the district court to prove our claims, and if we have an opportunity at another time or discuss it after patroal, we look forward to that. Thank you.

is a case in point. If Greenwood are the financial district where this happened in Tolsa was the only place that it took place, that would be one thing, But it's happened in multiple other states in multiple other time periods. White mob's destruction because of you know, Project twenty twenty five, like goals, there's always people who seek to deal, kill and destroy. With this particular suit, all the attorneys were asking was for this case to actually have its just

day in court. They appealed to the Supreme Court after the case was dismissed at the district court level. And the point is they're arguing that the statute of limitations has not run on this despite it being one hundred plus years old. The fact that it was a public nuisance that took place and has impacted people on a multi generational level, this should mean that they have their opportunity to pursue justice against the city of Tulsa and

the state of Oklahoma. Of course, there's been broad pushback on this. I have the opportunity to be in Tulsa actually with U tiv During the centennial, I did a special with title where I got to interview the three remaining survivors. At that point. Of course, now we've lost Uncle Red, and I think the real issue here is how much longer you know, are they for these folks to die out, which it seems like is in fact the case. As you know, one survivor after another is

no longer with us. You just wonder if they're not here, then there really isn't standing for the case. They were adversely impacted by what happened in Tulsa personally. Some of them had to flee their homes personally, so you wonder what all is at stake. So I appreciate the justice who talked about learning about the trail of Tears but not learning about this. I was stunned by the number of people in Tulsa who had not heard the story of Greenwood, even folks who are descendants of survivors.

And even in Tulsa today, on the north side of Tulsa, where the Greenwood District is housed, you can still see the economic impact and you literally work alongside the descendants of people who our families are suspected of participating in that. I was down there for a special as well with MSNBC at the time, and I was able to interview the mayor, Mayor T. T. Bynum and his family. The Black Wall Street Times uncovered that his family had enslaved

nearly I believe eighty people. And he is somebody who is stauntly against reparations. The audacity, the caucacity of it all is mind baffling, and I just want to say to your point, Angela, Tulsa was not an anomaly. It was the norm at the time. You can look at the red Summer of nineteen nineteen in city. I wrote about this extensively in my book in City after city after city, from Indiana to Charleston, South Carolina, to Cleveland, Ohio,

to Gary, Indiana, and cities everywhere. At that time, we're under attack, constant attack of violent white mobs. And I've talked about this before. This is how law enforcements swole their ranks because they said there was so much violence against black people. They said, hey, if you guys are going to beat and murder black folks, you can do it, but you gotta wear a badge while you do it. So there's a long history in this country when it comes to racial violence, and people love to quote Chicago

and talk about how Chicago can't govern themselves. It started the original destruction of Chicago was by a mob of violent white people, and it was followed by decades of unfair policies ever since.

this not on his merit, not on the merit. They're not trying to demand, they're not trying to deny what happened, but rather they're finding technical reasons of the law standing, you know, even being partially you know, in an issue here statue of limitations of which Jamrio points out in his or arguments before the court in that state. In its constitution and it's effectuating. Statutes don't have a limitation

of statutes when it comes to issues of light. So you can directly core late the blight in that community. When that community began to experience blight was after this massacre, and every point since then, the the the quality of life goes down, and prior to it, this was the Black Wall Street. The point of the the point of departure is extremely clear. At what point decline and blight, the issues upon which they are seeking a legal reprieve began,

you know, the exact moment that this happened. Unfortunately, in the case of of of the massacre that that that took place there in Oklahoma and the Greenwood district, So the court doesn't have I think it realizes that if it has to hear the fullness of this argument on its merits, that there is no way that they can, as constitutional officers of that state turn a blind eye to what occurred. It is well documented, it is well recorded.

We know what happened, we know what went down, right, and so Angela Tiff I think they can't go there because they're terrified of what this may signal. What does this signal if our communities rose Wood and Florida and elsewhere around the country, Chicago. What might it signal if we then open up a legal doorway for the communities who have been who are surviving and in some cases thriving prior to the point at which white mobs turned

against them, burned them down, and massacred its residents. If they actually have to go back and make that wrong right, there's no way to ever make it right right. There's no real justice that can be gained in this case because because most of its survivors have gone on to glory, they're waiting for these final two so that they will have no individual left standing who will have literals standing

in the court for the case to be heard. They don't want to open that door, y'all, because if they open it, that door then looks like it can be opened all across the country. I hate it for these two women, I hate it for their descendants, but mostly, y'all, I hate it for us because I think they are foreclosing a legal pathway because they don't want to have to reckon with the history here and what that history has wrought.

Atlanta nineteen oh six, East Saint Louis nineteen seventeen. Tiff already talked about Red Summer nineteen nineteen, Arkansas, Maryland, New York, DC. Two places in Maryland, Annapolis and Baltimore, New Orleans, Chicago, and there were more at least twenty five. Right, Corbin, Kentucky, Rosewood. You just mentioned all of these places, and we have never been made whole from those situations, those violent attacks that caused death and mass destruction in our communities. We've

been forced to rebuild. Yeah, of course, we've been forced to rebuild from being stripped from our original home. We've been forced to rebuild after being sharecroppers. We've been forced to rebuild after being redlined out of entire neighborhoods and racially restrictive covenants. And then once we were able to to survive. They burned our shit down to the ground. But we don't deserve but we didn't earn it. What

are you talking about? That's what's maddening to me. Tip, Just this last point, what's maddening to me, and why I wanted to talk about this, to throw this in y'all's faces to every conservative outlet that tried to make us look dumb when we addressed reparations last time, and the fact that we probably do deserve a tax credit. That's the least this country owes us as a tax credit and an apology.

for the summer of nineteen nineteen. Of course we looked at other acts of violent white aggression as well, but the emotional toll of just reading about this and taking it in one particular case of Elaine Arkansas. I won't tell the story here, but the story of Elane, Arkansas is bone chilling when you hear about how women and children were murdered just for trying to organize. So I want to bring this full circle because we are this

summer will be the anniversary of August teenth. A lot of people know about Juneteenth, but August teenth was the day that the folks aboard the Harriet in Louisiana band together and defended the captain of that boat. And so we have August teenth. This would be the one year since that happened. This was the original Dick Rowland was a child and the man in that community said, not Slim, not today. We are going to stand on the front

lines and we are going to defend our families. Our women, our children, our homes, with everything we have, and there is something beautiful about a community that we belong to coming together locking arms saying I wish you would they did. They paid with their lives and many paid with their livelihoods. It's not fair, but just seeing how tight knit of a community we are, we don't have the privilege to dislike each other, even if we kind of dislike that.

We don't have the privilege when we get out here in the world. I gotta fight for you, you gotta fight for me. And that's just the way it is. And there's something beautiful I think about that.

taken from the cores light Amheuser Busch. So just similarly, who knows what was what could have been birth there all these all these businesses that we know as Fortune one hundred and five hundred corporations, you know, real bootstrap you know American uh uh industrial stories that we hear that we know about that is created not just a couple millionaires, but the founders, the founder's children, the founders

children's children, the founders children's children's children, legacies, centuries of wealth that started on a storefront, So which which storefront? And in Oklahoma and the Greenwood District, which storefront got burned? That terrible naive many that could have been part of the one hundred of the part top fifty corporations in America. So just consider when you're thinking about folks begging and getting something they don't deserve, the fact that we just

don't know what could have happened. We know what was happening, we know what got snuffed out, but we don't know what potential got killed, not just there but all over this country where we've seen these recorded events, and those recorded events had the benefit of stymying anybody else from dreaming and thinking about what we could have accomplished, because

that same fate could have awaited them. So I just missed me with all of the jokes in the unearned and undeserved and all that kind of stuff that folks like to throw on these kinds of conversations because you don't know, because you ain never had your life disrupted in quite that way. Well, your businesses are on that top one hundred five hundred.

I should say. But he's on the front lines of a lot of other legal battles, including the freedmen in Oklahoma who are denied citizenship by some of the indigenous communities there. He's worth a follow. He's an inspiration. Tomorrio, we love you. You are never standing alone in this fight. Me Inngel Andrews send our love to you. All right, thank you guys for tuning in to our mini pod. We so appreciate you tuning in, so please be sure to rate and review the show and forget. Full episodes

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