Black Wall Street

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The failure by city and state authorities in Tulsa, Okla., to provide comprehensive…

For District 1 Tulsa City Councilor, The Black Wall Street Times proudly endorses Vanessa Hall-Harper for reelection, as she clearly demonstrates she is for ALL Tulsans. Not only is Harper the best representative for Black Tulsans living within her district, but for Black lives dwelling beyond her district’s borders. 

In the real world, 74-year-old Donald Shaw is walking on the empty, parched grass slope by Tulsa’s noisy crosstown expressway. He’s on the other side of the city’s historical white-black dividing line from where President Donald Trump will hold a rally Saturday with his overwhelmingly white supporters.

Mayor Bynum has the power pursuant to Title 8, Tulsa Revised Ordinances, Section 200 and the Oklahoma Emergency Management Act, 63 O.S. § 683.3, to place a moratorium on large indoor gatherings, or to at least limit their size. This is a public health issue and not a political one. Lives are on the line.

“To choose the date, to come to Tulsa, is totally disrespectful and a slap in the face to even happen,” said Sherry Gamble Smith, president of Tulsa’s Black Wall Street Chamber of Commerce, an organization named after the prosperous black community that white Oklahomans burned down in a 1921 attack.

“As we head into the 100th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, a horrific and racist event, let’s make no mistake about it: our leaders did not care about Black lives then, and our leaders do not care about Black lives now. If they did, they would not be rolling out the red carpet, celebrating and capitulating to the most racist president we’ve had in our modern history,” Kojo Asamoa-Caesar says.

Join scholars, activists and other leaders as we address the current events and history that compels reparations and the passage of Congressional Bill H.R. 40 for Black communities impacted by America’s legacy of slavery and racism.