Can lost trust be restored? Tulsa’s mayor makes a case.

2021 was always going to be a fraught year for Tulsa, Oklahoma. On May 31 and June 1, the city marks the centennial of a racist massacre that, over a 24-hour period, destroyed the Black neighborhood of Greenwood. The event left at least dozens dead and displaced thousands.

Over the past year, city officials and civic leaders have planned events to commemorate the victims and survivors. Yet the city is also facing a reparations lawsuit from those same individuals, and the commission in charge of commemoration plans has been accused of whitewashing the city’s history and marketing a narrative of unity that doesn’t yet exist. 

In a conversation with our reporters just ahead of the centennial, Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum reflects on the challenges of wrestling with partisanship and racism, both past and present.

“It is ... a very personal process and can become very raw at times because these are discussions that should have been held 100 years ago. And we’re trying to have them a century after the fact,” he said. “But we are trying.”

This episode is an update to Part 2 of our podcast “Tulsa Rising,” which commemorates the centennial of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. To learn more about the podcast and find other episodes, please visit our page. 

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