Tulsa Race Massacre Descendant, Family Unveil Greenwood Reflection Garden

A Tulsa Race Massacre descendant and his family unveiled the new Greenwood Reflection Garden on Saturday.

Organizers said they want the garden to be a quiet, safe space for Tulsans to reflect on the city's past.

The Greenwood Reflection Garden is located on the east side of the Gibbs Shopping Center.

LeRoy Gibbs II is a descendant of a survivor and said seeing the garden finished is still a surreal feeling because one of the people being honored was not just a survivor, but his grandmother Ernestine.

"To actually see this on the wall from where this inception was is absolutely incredible to me," Gibbs said.

The QR codes at the garden have interviews of survivors, aiming to give Tulsans a first-hand perspective.

The garden was funded by donors and a $20,000 grant from Tulsa's Young Professionals (TYPROS), which they said is the largest single amount in the organization's history.

David Tollette with TYPROS says the potential to make a community-changing project was a big reason why they decided to help.

"I think it's really important that this garden creates a space for the community to come together, have dialogue and think about the past, the present and where we should go in the future," Tollette said.

Gibbs says he hopes that others will learn the lessons his grandmother passed on to him, specifically about resilience.

He said resilience was what allowed his grandmother to pull herself up after hard times and hopes this garden can inspire someone to do the same.

"I'm sure my grandmother is up there smiling right now looking down," Gibbs said. "I think she's probably making sure that I didn't say anything wrong or grammatically incorrect."