According to the Community Service Council Tulsa Equality Indicators, home ownership for Black Tulsans (32%) is roughly half of home ownership for white Tulsans (57.9%). This disproportionately low level of ownership by black individuals and family is due to historic, city-wide racism in housing.
Learning the roots of this historic racism and inequity in North Tulsa, the true narrative of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massare, is the rupture that led to the launching of 1256 Movement.
Ten thousand black Tulsans lost their homes. Three hundred black Tulsans lost their lives. Hundreds lost their businesses and churches. The race massacre is the biggest scar known to Tulsa.
There is no way to adequately repay what white people robbed and destroyed from Greenwood, Black Wall Street, and the lives of black businesses, churches, and families in Tulsa. Black Tulsans did rebuilt in the years following the massacre, but white Tulsans did very little to help. No major reparations, insurance claims, or reparative building plans were undertaken by white Tulsans in one hundred years since the massacre.
We must wait no longer to pay restitution reparations to black Tulsans. The 1256 Movement is not waiting any longer on courts or legislation, because these efforts have failed black Tulsans many times over. Instead, partnerships with faith, business, and the city will build the future.
