BIXBY, Okla. (WKRC) -
The pastor of a megachurch has issued $200,000 reparation payments each to the three living survivors of the Tulsa Massacre.
In 1921, a white mob attacked Black Tulsa residents and destroyed their homes in what was then the nation’s
most prosperous Black-owned business district and residential neighborhood. It is estimated
between 100 and 300 people were killed and roughly 10,000 were displaced.
A century later, Michael Todd, a Black pastor at Transformation Church, has decided to devote a portion of his earnings from his popular megachurch to help survivors of the tragedy with reparations.
“Reparation is not a political word. Reparation is not a word that your left-wing friends or your right-wing friends have coined,”
Todd told The Christian Post. “Let me give you the definition of reparations: ‘The action of repairing something that was devastated.’ Reparations mean that somebody is going to take up the mantle and actually put into action the process of repairing something that was destroyed.”
The three living survivors of the Tulsa Massacre are Viola Fletcher, 107, Hughes Van Ellis, 100, and Lessie Randle, 106.
“I told the team. I said, ‘Find me every living survivor that survived this massacre.’ And they began to search," said Todd. "The most devastating thing that was stolen from people were their homes. And I said, ‘How in the world do you rebuild when you go to sleep on a Thursday, and on the Friday, all your memories, all your life savings, everything that you build your life for is in rubble in front of you, and you got to go to the fairgrounds and stay on cots and try to rebuild your life from ashes?’ I read in the Bible where it says God is the only one that gives beauty from ashes.”
Todd explained that he made the decision out of gratitude, saying that it wouldn't have been possible for him to claim a white church in Tulsa without their contributions. He added that the current median price of a house in Tulsa is $200,000, which is why he chose that amount to give to each person.
“I’m a young Black man who took over a church from a white man who built it in North Tulsa. That couldn’t have happened if you all didn’t survive. Today, we can’t restore everything that has been stolen from you. But today, we can put a seed in the ground,” he told the survivors.
“It’s reparations season, and change starts in the Church,” said Todd.
Transformation Church is also donating $50,000 to the Terence Crutcher Foundation, $50,000 to Build in Tulsa, $100,000 to OneRace Movement, and $100,000 to Greenwood Cultural Center.
