The Black Panthers and a number of gun club members from across the US gathered in Tulsa, Oklahoma for a series of protest events. The city is currently marking the anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre.
The event, called the ‘Second Amendment March for Reparations’, took place on Saturday afternoon in the northern part of Tulsa. Hundreds of participants carrying weapons and dressed in paramilitary black and khaki clothes marched through the city chanting slogans including “Whose streets? Our streets” and “Black Power.” The activists also carried a large banner demanding “Reparations now.”
The protest remained peaceful, though at one point the police had to explain to the organizers that they could not take part in another commemoration event happening in Tulsa, because the other side had a no-weapons policy in place. The gun owners planned another rally for Sunday.
Dozens of armed Black activists from the New Black Panther Party and other groups march through Greenwood in formation. “It’s a new day, Black Tulsa! they yelled. Passersby honked, clapped, thanked them for being “our protection.” #Tulsapic.twitter.com/3KX1pXhUk0
The Tulsa race massacre, which the march was timed for, broke out on May 31, 1921 and lasted for two days, when white residents of the city took up arms against their black neighbors. The documented death toll of 36 is believed to significantly underestimate the scale of the violence, in which hundreds of black people and dozens of white people were likely killed.
🚧Streets are back open🚧
We appreciate everyone's patience while we blocked streets earlier today in north Tulsa and parts of downtown for this planned march.
Please remember that the Legacy Festival is still ongoing in the Greenwood District, and streets there remain blocked. pic.twitter.com/U5V468ru2t
Some photos from today’s march in Tulsa, which I’ve seen promoted under a number of names including the Tulsa Massacre Second Amendment March and the National Black Power Mass March. pic.twitter.com/S9DSklbaDE
The massacre also left thousands of black people homeless, and obliterated the wealth of the Greenwood District, the richest black neighborhood in the US at the time, which was known as the ‘Black Wall Street’.
The activists are calling for reparations to alleviate those and other historical injustices inflicted on black people in the US.
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