$105 million reparations package for Tulsa race massacre unveiled by mayor

The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, one of the most horrific episodes of racial violence in U.S. history, killed up to 300 Black residents and destroyed a neighborhood. More than a century later, the city’s mayor announced a $105 million reparations package Sunday, the first large-scale plan committing funds to address the impact of the atrocity.

Monroe Nichols, the first Black mayor of Tulsa, unveiled the project, named Road to Repair. It is intended to chip away at enduring disparities caused by the massacre and its aftermath in the Greenwood neighborhood and the wider North Tulsa area of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The centerpiece of the project is the creation of the Greenwood Trust, a private charitable trust, with the goal of securing $105 million in assets — including private contributions, property transfers and possible public funding — by next spring, the 105th anniversary of the attack.

The plan does not include direct cash payments to the two last known survivors of the massacre, who are 110 and 111 years old. But such payments could be considered by the trust’s board of trustees, according to Michelle Brooks, a city spokesperson.

Nichols said a plan to restore Greenwood — a neighborhood that was so prosperous before the attack that it inspired the name Black Wall Street — was long overdue.

“One hundred and four years is far too long for us to not address the harm of the massacre,” Nichols said in an interview before the announcement. He added that the effort was really about “what has been taken from a people, and how do we restore that as best we can in 2025, proving we’re much different than we were in 1921.”

Unlike some similar efforts by cities, states and universities across the country to establish reparations, the plan in Tulsa directly addresses the impact of a specific historical event.

The movement for reparations — addressing slavery and the country’s history of racism — gained traction in 2020, when the murder of George Floyd prompted a nationwide conversation about racial injustice. Many of the proposals are still being explored, though large segments of the U.S. population oppose reparations, as the Trump administration purges the federal government of diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

On the state level, Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland, the nation’s sole Black governor, recently vetoed legislation that would have created a commission to study reparations. The state of California apologized last year for the discriminatory treatment of Black Americans and approved some reparations initiatives, but stopped short of financial restitution.

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