Leaders Hold Town Hall On Rebuilding, Bringing Opportunities To North Tulsa

State and local leaders held a town hall meeting on Saturday to discuss rebuilding North Tulsa by providing better access to quality food, developing more economic opportunities, and increasing property values.

North Tulsa used to be a vibrant, economically successful place where businesses and people thrived, but all that changed after the 1921 Race Massacre and since then, that area has been working to get back to its former glory, but it's been a long, hard journey.

"In June of 1921, a series of intentional and violent events nearly destroyed the entire Greenwood community,” said Nicole-Austin Hillery with the foundation.

The Congressional Black Caucus says change comes with the type of conversations they hosted today and getting input and buy-in.

"We look forward to standing in solidarity with the community of Tulsa and we look forward to talking about its past but also helping to move it into its future," Sewell said.

Those who live in North Tulsa are working to rebuild to this day and want to regain economic prosperity.

The leaders said that despite a lot of effort, North Tulsa still has double the poverty rate of South Tulsa and people here have a shorter life expectancy. They hope to change that.

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Oklahoma House of Representatives, and local social action groups discussed the theme of building power in Black Tulsa, what it means, and how we get there.

"We're here to lift those voices up and to help spread opportunity so that people can see not only what is going on here in Tulsa, but how they can use it as an example for what can be done in other parts of the county," Hillery said.

The main goal of the conversation was to imagine a vision of generational justice and liberation.

"Those of us who come from these historic places are mere custodians of America's history and we must remember that it is America's history, and we must make sure no one forgets what happened here,” Sewell said.