Reparations efforts part of global movement

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    TULSA, Oklahoma (Tulsa World) — The continuing campaign for reparations for Black Tulsans is part of a broader effort of global proportions, panelists on a Zoom conference sponsored by the University of Oklahoma College of Law said Tuesday.

“We see reparations activity taking place throughout America, throughout the world, so it’s looking good, looking hopeful. We’ve made that step,” said Ife Williams, an authority on global reparations and African American history.

Those efforts encompass injustices stemming from the trans-Atlantic slave trade, colonialism, slavery and continuing discrimination and extend well beyond the United States, Williams said.

In Tulsa, reparations are typically couched in terms of the 1921 destruction of the Black Greenwood neighborhood, but Monday’s panelists spoke in terms of what they say is continuing trauma linked to the past through ongoing economic and social oppression.

In the case of Tulsa, said Dreisen Heath of Human Rights Watch, that includes a lack of investment in Black businesses, neighborhoods, schools and health care.

Heath and Williams said important recent thrusts of the reparations movement are an attack on “arduous and unfair” statutes of limitations and to assert unjust enrichment claims against governments and businesses.

That tack is being taken by the latest lawsuit seeking compensation for the three known living survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and descendants of other victims.

That lawsuit attempts to get around time restrictions by asserting its claims under a public nuisance provision that is not covered by a statute of limitations.

Thirty-five square blocks, most of which is believed to have been owned by Blacks, were destroyed in the 1921 attack on Greenwood. Loss estimates vary but were acknowledged then to have run into many millions of dollars.

Greenwood rebuilt after the massacre and reached its peak following World War II, before going into steep decline in the 1960s. Many blame urban renewal and the construction of the Inner Dispersal Loop’s north leg with all but finishing it off.

A large housing development planned for much of what might be called the 1920s Greenwood area never materialized, and today the biggest share of that land is occupied by Oklahoma State University-Tulsa.

Reparations are often thought of in terms of cash payments, but while that is part of the equation, it is not the only element, Williams and Heath said. Official apologies, social reform, education and economic support also are factors.

“The question I always get is, ‘Where’s the check?’” said Williams. “’Where’s the money, and how are you going to distribute it?’

“It’s more than the money,” she said. “What the U.S. wants to do is say, ‘Tell us: How much? We’ll give you a check. Like the stimulus check. … And then we’re closing the argument. We don’t want to hear about it anymore. Don’t bring it up.’

“This is not what we want. We want repair over a longer period of time. It’s more than money remuneration.”

Panelist Bruce Fisher, a leading authority on Oklahoma history, recounted a family story about his pregnant grandmother escaping barefoot from the massacre and said he’s concluded that “the effects of slavery are much deeper, the scars are much deeper than anybody can comprehend.

“The solution has to be long-term,” Fisher said. “I’m not sure America is ready to make that commitment.”

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