Deadline Soon For New Designs For City Of Tulsa's Flag

You have five days left to submit a design for a new City of Tulsa flag; after that, the public will vote on the top three.

The designs will likely acknowledge a dark part of Tulsa's history that many cities would rather forget.

"We need you to tell us what the new Tulsa flag should represent by answering one simple question: 'What is an event that was critical in defining and shaping Tulsa'?"

The group put out that question on the Tulsa Flag's Facebook page and elicited hundreds of responses. The top two events were the Oil Boom and the 1921 Race Riot.

1/2/2017 Related Story: Plan To Redesign Tulsa Flag Moves To Next Phase

Tulsa Flag Co-Founders Joey Wignarajah and Jacob Johnson haven't seen the designs yet but believe, based on the response to that Facebook question, the Race Riot will be included somehow.

"Important to think about,” he said. “That was their way of communicating to the designers that we want to see this on the flag."

Hannibal Johnson has written extensively about the history of Tulsa's Greenwood District and said he's optimistic about the possible inclusion of the tragedy on a city flag.

"People are beginning to understand how important it is for us as a community. If we ever want to heal we have to deal with our past," Johnson said. "The real story is not the story of the Race Riot, the story is the story of the human spirit that was predominant in the Greenwood community."

The Flag project is all privately funded.

The deadline for design submissions is February 15th.

When the final design is decided by a vote through texting the flag will be presented to city councilors who will decide whether to approve it.

Tulsa Flag Facebook page