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Protesters disrupt 244 over-pass in Tulsa, Oklahoma at 6:01 PM on Sunday, May 31, 2020.
Published 06/01/2020 | Reading Time 3 min 2 sec
By BWSTimes Staff
TULSA, Okla. — Thousands gathered in the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to protest the continued unnecessary killings of Black Americans.
Notably, Greenwood is the site of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, where an angry White mob massacred 300 Black citizens and burned the African American business district and residents from May 31st to June 1st, 1921 to ashes.
Although the organizers for Sunday’s rally were separate from Saturday’s organizers, Sunday’s reiterated the same list of demands to Tulsa’s Mayor G.T. Bynum: (1) Police oversight and accountability, (2) Divestment in enforcement and investment in community mental health and well-being, (3) Justice for Terence Crutcher, Joshua Barre, Joshua Harvey, and countless Black lives lost to the criminal legal system and (4) End Live PD in Tulsa.
Tykebrean Natrail Cheshier was the organizer of Sunday’s peaceful protest.
Black Lives Matter Rally organizer Tykebrean Natrail Cheshier (Right) with the grandfather of Joshua Barre (left) | Photo by Nehemiah D. Frank
Cheshier said in a Facebook post that it wasn’t her intension for the march to land on top of the 244, but that it was supposed to wrap around John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park and end back at the Oklahoma State University’s Tulsa campus parking lot.
“I didn’t lead anyone to the highway, things just kind of happened that way because the crowd was too large to control. But I’m happy my city showed up to support Black lives because our lives do matter,” Cheshier stated and added that her rally was planned to end at 7 pm.
The Black Wall Street Times received information from the Tulsa Police Department that at least two different White activist groups were planning to blend within the crowd with intentions to disrupt and turn things violent. The groups were also planning to burn Greenwood. The intel resulted in Cheshier and TPD altering the route of the march to get the protesters out of the Greenwood District, which was accomplished.
Two white men were seen throwing objects into the horse trailer on the 244 that resulted in the driver advancing through the crowded freeway and striking several of the protestors. One was hospitalized.
The protesters were led south to Brookside by an unknown leader, where things took a turn for the worst.
The diverse group protesters were demonstrating peacefully at nightfall, but instigators who the protesters said were White threw objects at the police that resulted in TPD responding with pepper balls.
The instigators who seemingly had their own agenda separate from Sunday’s peaceful rally also vandalized property just south of the Brookside business district.
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