Tulsa's Racial Circus Collapses in Money-Grubbing Shakedown Mess

It's hard to imagine a bigger and more politically inconvenient mess than this one. But that's what happens when you license racial shakedowns.

The shakedowns just get bigger and bigger until no one can afford to pay them. The only thing missing is Al Sharpton.

The flagship commemoration event to mark the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre was scrapped after three survivors demanded $1 million each to appear.

Monday's Remember & Rise event - which was also set to feature John Legend and Stacey Abrams - was called off on Friday after survivors Viola Fletcher, 107, her brother Hughes Van Ellis, 100 and Lessie Benningfield Randle, 106, upped their appearance fee from $100,000 each to $1 million each.

John Legend could pay that out of his pocket change, but he's not on the hook for it. A city that's not all that prosperous is being asked.

And it's unclear whether the centenarians or a lawyer is actually making those demands.

Attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons told The Associated Press that he submitted a list of requests to the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission in order to have the survivors attend the 'Remember & Rise' event Monday at ONEOK Field in Tulsa. 

This is what happens when you kill the golden goose.

State Sen. Kevin Matthews, the chairman of the commission, said after meeting with Solomon-Simmons and other representatives of the survivors, the commission agreed to provide $100,000 to each of the three survivors, along with $2 million in seed money for a reparations fund.

'We raised the money and we were excited the survivors were going to accept these gifts,' Matthews said Friday. 'Unfortunately, on Sunday they reached out and increased the amount of the $100,000-per-survivor gifts to $1 million, and instead of $2 million, they asked for $50 million - $50 million - in seed money. We could not respond to those demands.'

'To be clear, I absolutely want the survivors, the descendants and others that were affected to be financially and emotionally supported. However, this is not the way.'

Senator Kevin L. Matthews is the Chair of the Oklahoma Legislative Black Caucus. He created and chaired the commission focusing on "Black Wall Street".

This move shot the one guy in the foot who had been pushing this all along.

 

President Joe Biden is scheduled to be in Tulsa on Tuesday to commemorate the anniversary.

Awkward.

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