On Sunday, June 1, 2025, at 3:30 pm in front of a crowd gathered at the Greenwood Cultural Center, Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols delivered a historic speech marking the city’s first official observance of the Tulsa Race Massacre. As the city’s first Black mayor, Nichols used the moment to announce a bold $105 million reparative initiative—the Greenwood Trust—dedicated to restoring what was stolen from the survivors and descendants of the 1921 tragedy. His historic “Road to Repair” remarks, deeply rooted in faith, justice, and reconciliation, signaled a turning point not only for Tulsa but for the nation’s reckoning with its past.
A video of this speech is also available at the end of the transcribed speech.
Full-Transcript of “Road to Repair” Speech by Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols
All right. That wasn’t part of the program.
I thought they tried to get me. Dr. Crusher has been trying to get me to cry for a long time. This is the closest she’s ever been.
To Mother Fletcher, Brother Randall, descendants of Greenwood, Deputy Mayor Reyes, Councilor Hall Harper, Senator Goodwin, I think I saw Senator Dosset, Representative Stewart, our city auditor, special guests, members of the clergy, my fellow Tulsans, and all of our visitors from across the country. I am honored now to be an awardee — uh — the Eddie FA Gates Award. Something I did not expect, but it is a special honor given the other two folks who I’ve been honored with. Dr. Eric Miller came to my office a few weeks ago with Damario [Solomon-Simmons] — there’s a spider right there — we’re going to get rid of him — but Damario to talk about ways in which we might repair and move forward and the incomparable Sheila Jackson Lee who has been a strong and powerful voice for all that is right no matter who was doing the wrong. Thank you for being here to represent your mother.
For the last 5 years, Legacy Fest has provided our city with a platform to lead this entire nation in spreading truth, inspiring hope, and ensuring the story of Greenwood remains alive, and that the descendants have a place in space where they are centered.
Those five years, this has been an event attended by stars and entertainers and leaders from across the nation, including, as you heard, the president of the United States, solidifying its place in the national consciousness. No one has been more instrumental in driving that vision than Dr. Tiffany Crutcher and her team at the Terren Crutcher Foundation. Dr. Crutcher, I commend you and everyone that had a role in planning this year’s event.
It is my great honor now to be here as the first sitting Tulsa mayor to speak as a part of [Applause] Legacy Fest.
In the 61st chapter of the Book of Isaiah, the seventh verse, we find the words: “Instead of your shame you shall have double honor, and instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double. Everlasting joy shall be theirs.”
For 104 years, the Tulsa Race Massacre has been a stain on our city’s history. While hidden from history books for decades, the darkness of the events of May 31st and June 1st have now been well documented.
A 2001 state commission, numerous books, personal accounts, and most recently the United States Department of Justice investigation documenting the horror of that less than 24-hour period that changed absolutely everything.
If we were to rewind history 104 years and two days, I am right now standing in a nationally renowned entrepreneurial center. I’m standing in a city within a city where places like the Dreamland Theater and the Stratford Hotel and grocery stores and doctor’s offices flourished while churches provided the foundation needed to thrive in a segregated society.
But at this very hour on June 1st, 1921, smoke darkened the Tulsa sky, rising from 37 blocks of Greenwood that was burned to the ground. In less than 24 hours, 1100 Black homes and businesses were lost. Thousands were left destitute, homeless, or forced into camps.
The massacre still stands today as the only documented domestic aerial assault on an American city. Yet no arrests were made. There was no proper accounting for the dead — its death toll believed to be more than 300 — only to be reported as 36 by local officials at the time.
Mother Fletcher and Mother Randall were witnesses to those dark moments. They with their families had to flee a home that they had built in a community that within it held every possibility of a bright and prosperous future. Before their 10th birthdays, they saw the very face of evil, of hate and domestic terrorism.
Since then, they have been boldly on the pursuit for justice. And although at sometimes their pursuit has been met with indifference, they have inspired us all as the keepers of Greenwood, reminding us to never go — to never give up and to never grow weary.
To Mother Fletcher, Mother Randall, for what you have endured, the mantle you continue to carry, for your grace — as your mayor — I just simply say thank you. [Applause]
The massacre was indeed fueled by hate. It robbed not only the Black community of its future, but our entire city.
Imagine a city without the massacre. Imagine if Greenwood would have continued to thrive uninterrupted. Imagine what that would have meant for our economy. Imagine what it would have meant for outcomes for our children. Imagine what it would have meant for public safety. And most importantly, imagine the trust and faith we would have built in each other over these last 104 years.
There is not one Tulsan, no matter their skin color, who wouldn’t be better off today had the massacre not happened or if generations before us would have done the hard work to restore what was lost.
Instead, the massacre was hidden from history books only to be followed by the intentional actions of redlining, a highway built to choke off economic vitality, and the perpetual underinvestment from local, state, and federal governments. [Applause]
Given all of this, our city remains resilient. Our community has been working to bind the wounds left open for ten decades. We’ve worked to recognize and remember, but now it’s time to take the next big steps to restore.
The Department of Justice report, while laying out the undeniable facts of the massacre, does seem to suggest that justice in the context of the massacre might always be acquainted with an asterisk. Lays out that no perpetrator of the massacre is still living. It talks about the statute of limitations being lapsed. It talks about maybe no obvious legal avenue to hold the guilty fully accountable.
And additionally, 104 years later, the businesses who lost everything have had no recourse with the insurance companies that denied their claims. It lays out that every promise made by elected officials to help build Greenwood at the time was broken.
So decades later, we are simply left with the hard facts, some deep frustration, and an awareness of some limitations that we might have given everything we know.
We must, as President Biden said on his visit four years ago on this very day, in this very place, find the courage to change the things we know we can change.
For years, residents have come together to consider ways in which we move this city forward. Descendants and other community members have laid the groundwork, and I’m deeply appreciative of the work of these groups.
When I call out a group that you have served on or currently serve on, I want you to stand: the city’s Greater Tulsa Area African-American Affairs Commission — Commissioners, stand up and stay standing — the Beyond Apology Commission, the Mass Graves Public Oversight Committee, the leadership at the Greenwood Cultural Center and Greenwood Rising, community advocates at Justice for Greenwood and the Deep Greenwood Foundation — please stand.
These commissions and organizations and advocates have been pushing toward unity and justice, resulting in a number of recommendations that hit my desk soon after I took office. And I have to say, as the calls for repair continue to mount, it is my belief that we can no longer wait to ignore these powerful voices for unity and progress.
I thank Senator Lankford for working to keep the story of Greenwood alive in the halls of Congress. Absolutely. With this effort, as you’ve heard, to ensure that the Greenwood District is indeed a national monument. I look forward to working with Congressman Hearn on making this a reality as the bill heads over to the United States House of Representatives.
With all the work to date as a backdrop, on my 104th day in office, I signed an executive order recognizing today, June 1st, as Tulsa Race Massacre Observance Day in the City of Tulsa.
And on this first day of observance, I’m announcing that my office has been working alongside our legal department on the establishment of the Greenwood Trust — a private charitable trust that will raise and facilitate the investment of $105 million in private funds along our road to repair, restoration, and righteousness.
With the descendants of Greenwood victims at the center and our survivors, the trust will invest in affordable housing and home ownership by raising a $24 million fund — an investment that’s aligned to — you heard Christie, she’s ready to go — in alignment with the Beyond the Apology Commission recommendations.
We will also invest in culture and historic preservation by investing $60 million to preserve Greenwood’s history through place-based projects including our investment in the surviving entities from the massacre and other cultural landmarks.
The trust will also be involved in economic development and education by establishing a $21 million endowment for educational scholarships, small business grants, no-interest loans, and continuing the work to bring closure to the families of the victims through our commitment to the mass graves investigation.
For the next 12 months, the trust will be in a planning gear focused on raising the private capital necessary to make these programs a reality — setting up the programs that will be overseen by a board of trustees and a board of advisors that will be appointed over the course of this next year.
And on or before June 1st of 2026, the trust will be fully operational and making investments to restore the Greenwood District and Tulsa overall.
We will be making these investments to restore the Greenwood District and Tulsa overall to the community we should have been.
We will find the courage to change the things we know we can change, and that starts today.
On top of this historic announcement, I’ve also committed to standing alongside our community advocates that have been fighting for justice for years. Today, at the direct recommendation of Justice for Greenwood, I will be releasing more than 45,000 historical and relevant records directly related to the massacre.
These are records that have not been shared publicly to this point. It is in alignment with our belief at the city that it’s time that our history is no longer shrouded in the shadows but fully understood and brought to light.
As I speak right now, these documents can be found at www.cityoftulsa/roadtorepair.
As mayor, I also recognize the need to continue our 1921 graves investigation. In my budget proposal to the council, I presented a budget to continue the excavation work at Oaklawn Cemetery, which experts say is absolutely needed as we seek our path to truth.
At this point in our investigation, nearly 200 graves not previously known to us have been found and more than 40 sets of remains are in different stages of the DNA and genealogy process. One individual, as you may know, has already been identified from these excavations — a veteran, Mr. C.L. Daniel — and we are confident that we are very, very close to identifying additional victims.
Our effort is not to assign blame. It’s not simply to dig up the past, but this is about bringing closure to families.
Some might ask us why we do it. Because that’s what decent people in great societies do.
On March 7th of this year, I stood on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. The event was the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday.
On that bridge, I met with Freedom Riders — many of them in wheelchairs. I shook their hands. I thanked them for their courage — that courage to act. I introduced myself as the mayor of Tulsa. It was the tears in their eyes. It was the firmness with which they hugged me that I understood that this is not just a Tulsa story. This is an American story.
So today brings a new chapter for our city, but also a new opportunity for our entire country.
The Greenwood story is one of a people defying the odds and achieving the American Dream. A people who made a way out of no way.
The massacre — a reminder that in the words of Winston Churchill: “To build may be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the act of a single day.”
We now begin that laborious work of building once again.
This effort is not a quest to assign blame to folks who had no culpability in the events of the massacre. But we gather together to speak with one voice that hate — even aged 104 years — will never win.
This is not the age-old battle of Black versus white or the more contemporary battle of blue versus red. This is about putting those petty divisions and outdated thinking behind us as we press on together.
This effort is about reconciliation. It is about repair. It’s about renewal. And it’s about righteousness.
Make no mistake, this is not a question about your politics. This is a question of your faith — and us finding our way back to each other.
There are some — I am sure — that will say: “Why after 104 years?” Others who will say: “After 104 years, this is not enough.”
I can tell you I see it both ways — but I’m going to offer a counterargument. I’m going to say that greatness is not always defined by perfection. Greatness is defined by the pursuit for better.
Greatness is defined by a people who will look 104 years back and dare to be better. To dare to come together to face a difficult past and commit to each other for a better future.
On this day, in this place, greatness is defined by us.
The Greenwood Trust is the next big step on our road to repair — a road that we as Tulsans, as Oklahomans, and as Americans will boldly travel together. Not compelled by law, but resolved in our commitment to ensure that our tomorrows are far better than our yesterdays.
“If the house is to be set in order, one cannot begin with the present. He must begin with the past.” Those are the words of John Hope Franklin.
And it’s time we get our house in order.
“Instead of your shame, you shall have double honor. And instead of confusion, they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore, in their land, they shall possess double. Everlasting joy shall be theirs.”
It has been said that all great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties — and both must be overcome with answerable courage.
We are a great city with a proud and difficult past. I pray that God instills in all of us the courage — the answerable courage — to change the things we know we can change.
God bless the souls lost in the massacre.
God bless these survivors who remain.
God bless the descendants who still fight for justice.
And God bless our great city, the state we call home, and this great country whose ideals continue to inspire us on that pursuit for a more perfect union.
Thank you guys. I love you. Thank you.
