Tell-It Report: Tulsa’s First Black Mayor Proposes $105 Million Reparations Plan for Race Massacre Descendants

The plan, called "Road to Repair," doesn’t include direct cash payments but does offer scholarships, housing assistance and economic development.

(Photo by Envato/ContrabandCamp)

In Gullah Geechee communities, a "tell-it" was a designated lookout, community warning system and the most trusted source for news and information. The Tell-It Report is ContrabandCamp’s weekly roundup of the Black stories that deserve more attention — from politics to entertainment.

Tulsa’s first Black mayor has proposed a $105 million charitable trust for the descendants of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre to receive reparations in the form of scholarships, homeownership avenues and more.

Dillard University in New Orleans laid the skulls of 19 Black Americans to rest 150 years after they were sent to Germany for racist pseudoscience experiments.

And a straight white woman from Ohio who called the highest manager in the land, the Supreme Court, won the chance to sue her former employer for discrimination. In a unanimous decision, the court made it easier for “reverse discrimination” cases to be heard.

Read the full stories below:

Tulsa mayor proposes a $105 million reparations plan for Tulsa massacre descendants

After decades of fighting for reparations on the local and federal level, descendants of the 1921 Tulsa massacre that killed hundreds may be finally getting a real chance at receiving reparations.

Monroe Nichols, the city’s first Black mayor, proposed a $105 million private charitable trust to address current racial disparities and atone for the deadliest racist attack in U.S. history, Tulsa Public Radio reports. The plan doesn’t include direct cash payments to descendants, but does offer scholarships, housing assistance, economic development and land acquisition, calling it a “Road to Repair.”

“This is, I think, a very significant first step,” Nichols said at a press conference on June 1, which the city designated as Race Massacre Observance Day. He made the announcement at the Greenwood Cultural Center, which is located in today’s Black Wall Street, the Associated Press reports. “And it’s something we can all unite around. I think we can unite around housing specifically for affected populations. I think we can unite around investing in the Greenwood district and making sure that we’re able to revitalize it to be an economic power again.”

According to the local outlet, the trust dedicates $24 million towards home ownership and housing for descendants, $60 million for cultural preservation meant to improve buildings in North Tulsa and $21 million for a legacy fund dedicated to scholarships and economic development.

Nichols added that the plan doesn’t need the city council’s approval, yet they would have to authorize any property transferred from the city to the trust, according to the AP. Nichols’ goal is to have the funds secured or committed by June 1, 2026. Nichols is also considering a plan to modify or remove part of I-244 that runs through Greenwood, according to Tulsa Public Radio.

Seth Bryant, a descendant of Tulsa Star founder A.J. Smitherman, told News On 6 that this trust is an opportunity to “turn the page.”

“It's really exciting that in his first year, he’s pushed forward something that’s been so long overdue and so important to Tulsa’s image around the country frankly and the world,” he said of the mayor’s proposal. “I think history at leas

t will recognize that 104 years later, some level of justice can be weeded out, so that’s important.”

Justice for Greenwood, who filed a 2020 lawsuit on behalf of survivors Lessie Benningfield Randle, 110 and Viola Fletcher, 111, has been fighting for reparations for years. Founder and executive director Damario Solomon-Simmons praised Nichols’ proposal and expressed his hope for more to come.

“Many of the commitments outlined today echo the very proposals our team and community have spent years fighting to bring to light,” he told the Chicago Crusader. “This is a significant and hopeful moment. But it's also just the beginning. We look forward to working hand-in-hand with the mayor’s team and the broader community to build something enduring – rooted in justice, guided by the survivors and descendants, and grounded in the truth.”

Skulls of 19 Black Americans returned to New Orleans after 150 years in Germany

The skulls of 19 Black Americans have been laid to rest in a special jazz burial ceremony in New Orleans after they were subject to racist experiments in Germany 150 years ago, the New York Times reports.

The skulls belonged to 19 patients who died in Charity Hospital between December 1871 and January 1872. They consisted of 13 men, four women and two unidentified individuals whose ages ranged from 15 to 70, according to The Guardian. After their deaths, Dr. Henry D. Schmidt removed their heads and sent them to Leipzig, Germany, to be studied with pseudoscience that correlates skull size and shape to intellect and morality, according to NPR. The theories were used to denigrate Black people and label them as inferior to whites.

The burial service on May 31, held by Dillard University and local organizations, took place at Lawless Memorial Chapel on Dillard’s campus, WWLTV reports. The service included performances from Black Men of Labor, Kumbuka African Dance and Drum Collective. The deceased’s remains were placed at the Hurricane Katrina Memorial.

Monique Guillory, the HBCU’s president, addressed journalists at a press conference ahead of the burial on Thursday.

"They were people with names," Guillory said, according to ABC News. "They were people with stories and histories. Some of them had families — mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, human beings — not specimens, not numbers."

According to USA Today, Dillard lists those identified names as Adam Grant, Isaak Bell, Hiram Smith, William Pierson, Henry Williams, John Brown, Hiram Malone, William Roberts, Alice Brown, Prescilla Hatchet, Marie Louise, Mahala, Samuel Prince, John Tolman, Henry Allen, Moses Willis and Henry Anderson.

During the press conference, Eva Baham, Chair of the Repatriation Committee, said that the University of Leipzig reached out and offered to repatriate the remains in 2023. The committee formed the following year to identify who the remains belonged to. They have yet to locate any descendants.

“It is a profound honor for a coalition of community partners to work alongside the University of Leipzig to ensure that these individuals are returned home with the dignity and reverence they were long denied,” said Baham according to WWLTV. “This collaboration is not only an act of justice – it is an act of healing, rooted in a shared commitment to truth and historical accountability.”

Supreme Court makes it easier to claim “reverse discrimination”

The Supreme Court unanimously decided to make it easier to bring forth “reverse discrimination” lawsuits after siding with a white woman who claimed that she didn’t get a job because she’s straight.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote the court’s opinion, in which she said civil rights laws carry an equal weight for all groups.

“By establishing the same protections for every ‘individual’ — without regard to that individual’s membership in a minority or majority group — Congress left no room for courts to impose special requirements on majority-group plaintiffs alone,” she wrote.

In the appeal, Marlean Ames claimed discrimination after her gay boss hired a lesbian for the promotion she sought at the Ohio Department of Youth Services. Ames was then demoted from her role as a program manager, and a gay man later filled the position.

In a separate opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas said some of the “largest and most prestigious employers have overtly discriminated against those they deem members of so-called majority groups,” according to the Associated Press.

Dominic Binkley, a spokesperson for Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, told CNN, “We look forward to fully pressing those arguments as the case moves forward because the Ohio Department of Youth Services did not engage in unlawful discrimination.”

The decision comes at a time when many disenfranchised groups are fighting back against sweeping anti-DEI efforts fueled by the Trump administration. In an essay for ContrabandCamp, Elie Mystal predicted the unanimous outcome, saying that there’s “something more sinister lurking just underneath” this case, which is most likely why even the liberal justices sided with Ames.

He noted that America First Legal, founded by Trump aide Stephen Miller, asserts that all DEI programs are inherently discriminatory against white people.

“For [white supremacists], racism is fine, so long as it protects white folks. Their goal is to make it legally dangerous for any employer to hire any Black person for any position, and they are very close to achieving that whites-only future,” he wrote. “If we continue to allow these people to have unchallenged control over the White House, the Congress, and the Supreme Court, they will achieve total victory soon.”

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