Race
riot victims get reparations
Survivors of the 1921 Tulsa race riots, which
left a countless number of Blacks dead and thousands homeless, were finally compensated
with a gift of $28,038 raised by the Tulsa Metropolitan Ministry (TMM). "This is a
gift from the religious community which acknowledges that reparations are owed to the
survivors," TMM Executive Director Steven Cranford told The Final Call about the
recent payment. "We understand this is not full reparations. This is just the
beginning. This fund is not intended to be the only fund. In fact, its very purpose is to
inspire the wider community to take similar action."
The drive to compensate the victims was started in January when the 65-year-old group,
comprised of Christians, Muslims and Jews, decided to raise funds to make quarterly
payments. Checks were sent out the first week of April to 131 survivors, each receiving
$214. "Each quarter we'll be soliciting funds from the religious community. Various
groups and community members have contributed to the special Race Riot Reparations Fund so
each month the amount will vary depending upon the amount of money raised," said Mr.
Cranford.
The group is responding with urgency to the Oklahoma Commission to Study the 1921 Tulsa
Race Riot Report, which recommended reparations. "We're limited in time. The people
are now over 80-years-old and four have died since January. They're not going to be here
much longer. We said let's just start a fund and deliver the money immediately,"
explained Mr. Cranford.
"We will continue to make distributions as long as money comes to the fund and as
long as there are living survivors. It is a gift by which the religious community
acknowledges the debt that is owed to people who have lived their whole lives with the
images of that violent time."
That "violent time" was 1921 and the headline on the May 31 issue of the Tulsa
Tribune newspaper read, "Nab Negro for Attacking Girl in Elevator," and a back
page editorial was titled, "To Lynch Negro Tonight." The paper reports what W.D.
Williams, a high school senior, said at the time: "Dick Rowland, who had dropped out
of high school a few years before to become rich in the lucrative trade of shining shoes,
was in jail, accused of raping a White woman, Sarah Page, on a public elevator in broad
daylight."
State Representative Don Ross explained that when Mr. Rowland was arrested, angry White
vigilantes gathered at the courthouse intent on lynching the shine boy. Armed Blacks
integrated the mob to protect him. There was a scuffle between a Black and a White man and
a shot rang out. The White mob grew increasingly larger as the lie grew bigger and Whites
destroyed 35-square-blocks of the Black community during the evening of May 31 through the
afternoon of June 1, 1921, Mr. Ross explained.
The militia was called in to quell the disturbance but joined the rioters. Things went
from bad to worse with U.S. airplanes for the first time dropping bombs on the city.
When it was all over Black Wall Street of America lay in ruins, according to survivors,
there was murder, false imprisonment, forced labor and a cover-up.
While the official damage was estimated at $1.5 million, the Black community filed more
than $4 million in claims. Even though Tulsa leaders promised compensation, all claims
were denied and full restitution has yet to arrive. Only emergency aid was provided. The
Black community never fully recovered from what the Tulsa Tribune described as, "the
brutality and fiendishness of men who would deliberately set fire to the homes of their
friends and neighbors and just as deliberately shot them down in their tracks."
Years passed and neither the city nor the Black community healed from the riots. The Tulsa
Race Riot Commission was organized in 1997. Four years later, in February 2001, the
commission produced a 188-page report that documents the facts of the race riots and the
culpability of all involved.
Among its recommendations are reparations, creating a tax incentive zone and scholarships
for the dependants of survivors.
"We didn't want to wait while the commission debated the issues of how they were
going to give reparations. We wanted the people to get some money. We raised it and gave
it to them," said Mr. Cranford. |
