Black Wall Street Legacy Festival Announces Series of Events to Commemorate 101st Anniversary of Tulsa Race Massacre

Today, Black Wall Street Legacy Festival (Legacy Fest) announced the full schedule for its upcoming commemoration of the 101st anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre. This series of community-led events, which include discussion panels, performances and guest appearances from artists, advocates and political leaders, will take place in Tulsa’s historic Greenwood district; it will center the hundreds of local residents who lost their lives during the massacre, as well as the survivors and descendants who continue the fight for reparatory justice and accountability more than a century later.

Amid a historic lawsuit and recent acts of hate toward Black communities, the last known Tulsa Race Massacre survivors—107-year-old Lessie Benningfield “Mother” Randle, 108-year-old Viola “Mother” Fletcher, and 101-year-old Hughes Van Ellis will lead a national call for justice, accountability and reparations at a commemoration of one of the worst occurrences of violence against Black people in U.S. history.

Other special guests include Senator Cory Booker, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, Nikole Hannah-Jones, journalist Wes Lowery, nationally-recognized trial attorney Jeffrey Robinson, and rapper David Banner.

The full list of events can be found below.

“We are here in the face of hate and waning support for Black lives but we are still here—and we still bring hope,” said Dr. Tiffany Crutcher, a massacre descendant, Legacy Fest organizer and founder of the Terence Crutcher Foundation.

“This may be the living survivors’ last anniversary—we should honor their legacy now with reparations and the platform to remember this horrific chapter in America’s history.”

Programming throughout the weekend will explore urgent issues ranging from the needs of those still living with the everyday consequences of the massacre, to the erasure of essential U.S. history, to the state and future of Black Wall Street. Livestreams of each event will be available on the Black Wall Street Times Facebook page.

Earlier this month, an Oklahoma judge ruled that a historic lawsuit seeking reparations for the survivors can proceed, bringing new hope for some measure of justice. Currently a national coalition of civil and human rights and faith leaders are calling President Biden to issue an executive order to establish a taskforce to study reparations, similar to H.R. 40 which has advanced but stalled in Congress.

The event schedule is as follows:

Friday, May 27, 2022 | Festival Times: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. – Location: Greenwood Cultural Center, 322 N Greenwood Ave.

9 a.m. – 5 p.m.: Black Wall Street Legacy Summit | Greenwood Cultural Center

9 a.m. – 12 p.m.: Black Towns Roundtable

1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.: Generational Trauma and Community Healing

2:45 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.: From Black Wall Street to Black Tech Street

4 p.m. – 5 p.m.: Rebuilding Greenwood

Saturday, May 28, 2022 | Festival Times: 9:30 a.m. – 10 p.m.

9:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.: Justice for Greenwood #WeAreGreenwood | Greenwood Cultural Center

9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.: Justice for Greenwood #WeAreGreenwood Survivors and Descendants Homecoming Town Hall [Open to the public]

2 p.m. – 5 p.m.: Justice for Greenwood #WeAreGreenwood Survivors and Descendants Homecoming Social Hour [Open to the public]

10 a.m. – 10 p.m.: African Street Festival | Festival Grounds [Greenwood Ave, North of 1-244]

12 p.m. – 2 p.m.: Honoring Descendants and Survivors Luncheon with virtual remarks from Wes Lowry, Cory Booker, and Reverend William Barber | COX Business Center [Invite Only]

4 p.m. – 5 p.m.: Black Wall Street Memorial March | Starting Point: OSU-Tulsa West Parking Lot [Elgin Street]

3 p.m. – 10 p.m.: Legacy Fest Main Event | OSU-Tulsa Lawn

3 p.m. – 3:10 p.m.: Solid Foundation Kids

3:20 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.: D.A.R.E. Dance Company

3:40 p.m. – 3:50 p.m.: VickyB’s Dance Company

4 p.m. – 4:10 p.m.: Quentin Marcellus

5:40 p.m. – 6:20 p.m.: Amber Owens and Company

6:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.: Fire in Little Africa

7 p.m. – 7:45 p.m.: Block Party featuring Dr. View and DJ J. Soule

8 p.m. – 9 p.m.: David Banner

9 p.m. – 10 p.m.: NEXT

Post-Festival: Tuesday, May 31, 2021

7 p.m. – 9 p.m.: An Evening with Pulitzer Prize Winner Nikole Hannah-Jones | Booker T. Washington High School