ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
For the first time, descendants of survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre have been promised a form of reparations. The city plans to set up a private trust to help those still affected by one of the largest acts of racial violence in U.S. history. Max Bryan with Public Radio Tulsa has more.
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MAX BRYAN, BYLINE: On Sunday afternoon, scores of Tulsans gathered at the Greenwood Cultural Center. The community hub is in the neighborhood where as many as 300 people were killed 104 years ago. The group first watched a video.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: The race riot started around 2 o'clock in the morning, and around 12 o'clock that evening, the Oklahoma National Guard's troops came in and taken over.
BRYAN: The video was of survivors of the attack that destroyed more than 1,000 homes in the once prosperous Black neighborhood. Today, the Greenwood neighborhood in north Tulsa is much smaller, with pockets of blighted properties. It has a high poverty rate. Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols says the massacre, which was prompted by unconfirmed reports that a young Black man assaulted a white woman, affected not just this neighborhood but the whole city.
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MONROE NICHOLS: There is not one Tulsan, no matter their skin color, who wouldn't be better off today had the massacre not happened...
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NICHOLS: ...Or if generations before us would have done the hard work to restore what was lost.
BRYAN: At the end of his speech, Nichols announced his plan.
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NICHOLS: My office has been working alongside our legal department on the establishment of the Greenwood Trust, a private, charitable trust that will raise and facilitate the investment of $105 million in private funds along our road to repair, restoration and righteousness.
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BRYAN: Nichols' announcement marks the first time a public body has agreed to help survivors of the massacre or those related to them. The private trust would not give out cash payments but help descendants buy homes or land. It would give out scholarships and use money to develop the neighborhood and reduce blight. It's not clear how many people would benefit, but dozens of massacre survivors' descendants were there for the mayor's announcement, including Egunwale Amusan. His grandfather was a child during the massacre.
EGUNWALE AMUSAN: Me as a representative of these people who have survived this event, who died knowing what happened in this event, knowing that they told us their stories so that we could represent them in the future for a day like this, is beyond remarkable.
BRYAN: Amusan is part of the activist group Justice for Greenwood, which most notably supported an unsuccessful lawsuit from the two remaining massacre survivors for damages. The city did not commit to cash payments for the 110- and 111-year-old women. But Amusan was still happy with the mayor's plan. So was survivor descendant Kristi Williams.
KRISTI WILLIAMS: I'm just so thankful right now. I can't - I don't even have the words, but I think it's a great idea to do the trust, and I think that's going to help us in the long run.
BRYAN: The mayor says the city will spend the next 12 months fundraising for the private trust.
For NPR News, I'm Max Bryan in Tulsa.
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