On Tulsa News Today

Where black businesses, entrepreneurs, art, culture thrived. in 18 hours it was destroyed and burned to the ground by a racist mob. historians believe as many as 300 black residents were killed. what do reparations mean to you? >> reparations, the root was to repair, must have financial compensation to those that suffered the massacre. >> reporter: with the eyes of the world trained on tulsa, an attorney is fighting back, suing the city for restitution, calling for the massacre centennial commis...

That not happened, had our family not been destroyed. >> repair me as a person, as a citizen. whatever that takes. whatever it looks like. were talking about going on four generations of tragedy. >> four generations unable to build on the wealth of their ancestors. you think about the 35 blacks here in greenwood, the 12 mile stretch where hundreds of black businesses that churned wealth into the community. after the massacre hundreds deaded. these communities have not been able to build back. >>...

Measures. both are un-american. you have to be consistent. the republicans right now are anti-democratic in every sense of the word. lower case d. to the extent shes part of it. shes part of the problem. >> as ive mentioned several times in the show, i interviewed vice president kamala harrison friday. we talked a lot about a lot of things. the george floyd justice and policing act. we talked about tulsa. the fact that has not been previously known, she met with two of the survivors of the tulsa...

Week. its the first time they asked the question. i think the answer is maybe. possibly. when you think about even centering the narratives. having the commemorations and the concerts and the speakers and the services does little to shrink that gap. when you think about here in tulsa, the black folks are twice as likely to be in poverty. twice as likely to be unemployed. across the country, the typical black family has tenth of what the white family has. we know specific injury from 100 years ag...

And the trauma they inherited instead of wealth. >> and you know, the big stories about tulsa, what happened there a hundred years ago, but, also, what is happening right now in terms of the controversy over the congressmen -- commemorations. have all the plans done more to maybe -- i was going to say bring people together but tear them apart? >> reporter: in so many ways, i think it reveals a different form of violence. right. the community suffered the violence of the massacre. then the violen...

Question, why is the senator from delaware in tulsa this morning? >> im here as part of a congressional delegation. as you know well, faith and politics is an organization that was long lead by our dear departed friend congressman john lewis of georgia. most years we would go on a pilgrim amg to historic sites in alabama. we also went on other pilgrimages to places like tennessee and south carolina and south africa. today we, as a delegation, are here in tulsa, to participate in the commemoratio...

Grace and dignity and the depth of their pain that they still carry." she talked about how she remembered -- shes talking about mother fletcher talked about she remembers so well hearing the crowds as they were approaching and they lost everything. congresswoman edwards, earlier in the show, i was talking to senator coons there in tulsa and, you know, he talked about how, you know, even right now in that state, there are people who are so afraid of history, our history, that theyre legislating a...

Where i grew up or in my state. im joining congressman clyburn and others to add an important part about brown v. board of part of our national history. i think the reason, frankly, its not taught more deeply in tulsa and oklahoma, in my home state, or elsewhere, were afraid to open up the box of ugly chapters in american history. we can only come to appreciate how far weve come and we know how deeply wrong and badly broken these critical chapters in american history really were. >> the thing ab...

Human being. the fact we dumped bodies of human beings, of patriots, of veterans, teachers, husbands, wives, children in mass graves. >> mr. nelson, were running out of time. ill end with you, you were there on the ground in tulsa, umm, are the commemorations and the remembrances 100 years later, are they from youve been able to see, are they healing for tulsa? for greenwood? are they sort of adding to the pain? >> i think, you know, its a first step in a healing but its just the first step. you...

Lessons of the tulsa massacre of 1921. >> why are people afraid of history? i mean, we know that after the tulsa race riot in 1921, tulsa worked very hard to completely erase any mention about what happened in tulsa. as youre alluding to in oklahoma, theres now a law that says, well, you cant basically teach history. why are people afraid of history? >> you know, jonathan, its something ive wrestled with myself in my own state. brown v. board of education is one of the most iconic supreme court ...