Unofficial satirical poster designed by English graphic artist Sean Longmore, commissioned by Layered Butter magazine.[Source: Wikipedia]
Groups of moviegoers are seeing both the Barbie movie and Oppenheimer, calling the occasion “Barbenheimer.” My adult daughters saw Barbie last weekend, my adult son saw Oppenheimer. My wife and I saw both. Here are ten things my adult son and daughters can learn if they swap and see the other movie this weekend, and so can you.
My son can learn how patriarchy feels to women and begin to ask further questions. Patriarchy is the historic encoding of benefits for men over women in Unite States American and other cultures.
My daughters can learn about how how science has been used to harm as well as to heal.
My son can listen to the church’s explanation of patriarchy, whether hardened or softened, and wonder if a hierarchical patriarchy is consistent with what Jesus Christ taught and lived.
My daughters can learn about the immense destruction that comes when self-absorbed men and women ignore moral impulses and give over their intelligence to governmental powers that will use it for its own ends.
My son can contemplate his own patriarchy in teaching the next generation and raising a son.
My son and daughters can follow their parents example of investigating more deeply than the political and religious: activist and scholar bell hooks, for example, explained again and again that feminism is not about competing or being equal with men but being liberated from the systems of domination that both patriarchy and feminism may wrongly serve.
My family and I can wonder about how science and technology are currently being used to harm others or give some benefits that others unfairly do not have.
By watching both movies, my family can learn that it was systemic white male supremacy (patriarchy) that birthed both the dominating systems of genocide, slavery, and mass destruction and that same capitalistic white male supremacy that birthed Barbie and packaged femininity in a plastic box complete with “stereotypical” shapes.
The question for families in these cultural moments is not so much, “Should we go see these movies or not?” or “Should we give our money to these movies or not?” but more a question of, “How are we influenced by the culture we live in to treat one another with goodness, fairness, and love?
Finally, Ashley and Anna told me their brother and others should see Barbie because it shows how women are treated as less than or not as powerful, strong, or as smart as men. They said it’s interesting to see a world where women are in charge and men are sidekicks, which is the way many women feel. Ashley said, “it’s cool to see how even the most ‘perfect’ person (Barbie) doesn’t feel good enough but her friends and her creator encouraged her to become an imperfect human with flaws.”
Was there a crisis in your life that led you to write Prodigals? It’s this sense of lostness of our world that led me to write, and I’ll say more about this in a minute, but very personally, in 2020, when we were all experiencing a crisis in our world together, my father died. The last time I saw him alive, I was angry with him for ignoring something that was very important to me. Strangely, I do not hold regret for that last interaction. There was much more to our relationship, and I’m excited for readers to read about what happened between me and my dad in the book.
Most people talk about a prodigal as a wayward family member? What’s with the plural title? Prodigals is plural because of a belief that I expand fully in the book: we are all prodigals on a journey back home.
What are the roots of the idea of being a prodigal? Jesus told a story about a man who had two sons. Only one writer in the New Testament told the story and it’s the best of what we refer to as Jesus’s parables.
Without spoiling the plot, what’s the story about? It’s about every one of us who squander something. It’s about every one of us who fail a family member. It’s about every one of us facing financial crises. It’s about every one who has ever left home and wondered how to find their way back. I didn’t spoil the plot but I also didn’t tell much about the story.
Why not? The way the book unfolds tells the story in a way that I would love for readers to allow to happen like a good hike. There are things you will see, learn, and feel that you may not anticipate. So there will be a great payoff for readers who allow themselves to enter this story and put themselves in the shoes of each of the characters.
You are a man writing about a father and sons — is this a book that relates only to men and their daddy issues?! Another part of the title Prodigals is an intentional way of not narrowly calling it the traditional name of the parable of Jesus, “the Prodigal Son.” Prodigals allows every person regardless of identity, to identify with the story of a loving parent who gives freely, a child who rejects the family and comes to their senses, and another child who is resentful of the way the parent chooses to love.
Can the book be read in book clubs, small groups, university classes, and church Bible classes? Of course as an author I’m going to say all of the above places would be great spaces for reading and discussing Prodigals; even so, I really think Prodigals will open up groups to themes that will bring participants openness, confession, joy, and deep love for one another and the world.
Speaking of that, we live in a really messed up and divided world. Does Prodigals have anything to say about how to live in a polarized environment today? I am the first to admit I have wrestled with how American society in particular has been shaped and operating in the past few years. In the book I do address our world situation with the teaching of Jesus as a challenge for those who would live or die by their American politics. I actually think with the proper outlook — faith shaping our politics not politics shaping our faith, politics are an important tool for positive change that helps bring healing and love in our culture.
I’m not going to say my approach is not political because politics refers to what we do in public life. I believe Jesus died because he made Jewish and Roman politicians and their followers angry with his teachings that had political implications. Jesus didn’t die because he prayed in the synagogue and tried to stay out of public life.
No, Jesus died on a cross because he spoke out against against cruel and unjust rulers who saw his teachings as a threat to their power. If we follow both the teaching and example of Jesus, we too will be threatened by powerful people trying to keep their power. We also have to ask if we are powerful people trying to hold on to power and harming people in the process.
That was a long answer, my head is spinning a litle bit. How are you going to make such a powerful and positive story of Jesus controversial in the book, and why? The parables of Jesus were not sweet litle stories for sweet people. His parables made people angry! In fact, in the book you will see how I break down the setting of Jesus telling the parable and how it all started with religious leaders objecting to Jesus associating with unclean sinners! He calls himself a holy man and hangs out with addicts, prostitutes, and worst of all Roman-loving tax collectors! Jesus told the parable of the prodigal son, I believe, to show that those religious leaders are prodigals.
How are they prodigals if they are religious? There is a part of the prodigal story that often does not get told. The first half of the story is about a father’s gift given generously to a son who then squanders it in “wild living.” There is some really amazing things that happens when the son decides to come home, and I really want readers to see and feel how powerful that is. The second half of the story often does not get told simply because the first half is so powerful we almost forget this coda at the end. But it seems to be how Jesus was angling the story toward religious leaders who are like the older brother who resented the love of the father for his brother. And it’s in this second half of the story that I really come back around to a deeper crisis in writing the book.
And what is that deeper crisis? The deeper crisis was a rupture in my faith when I realized as a preacher in a church that I am a prodigal. I learned through this story and particularly the second half that we are all prodigals, even those of us who have spent our lives serving the Lord or acting like we are or struggling with loving others or dealing with our anger or confusion about certain relationships at work, home, and church. I’m so excited about how readers can walk with me not only through my crises but through their own.
Is there a sense in which Prodigals is like an epic journey for the reader? I think it is, the book is short and focused and easy for readers to follow. I tried to tell a story in each chapter that is timeless, some very personal, confessional, and that would lead into each line of the parable I’m discussing.
So you weave the parable with your own stories? Yes, the original idea for the book came when I wondered what it would be like to start each chapter with a line of the prodigal parable of Jesus. So I wrote out the parable’s lines into about twenty-five chapter scripture quotes. I gave the chapters one word names and dug into my life and experiences for the stories that would fit each chapter theme.
So Jesus told the story in about 600 words and it took you 40,000? Basically, but I can’t hold a candle to Jesus! It’s his story and I hope I do him proud and that readers love it! I hope readers will pass this book along in Christmas gifts, to next generations and in a decade or two people will still be reading it!
And you opened an email address for readers to share their own prodigal stories? Yes! I’m glad you mentioned that. The address is in the book, letters@prodigals.me. Tell me your own prodigal stories. Who knows, maybe I’ll ask if I can relay your story in a new edition of the book someday!
Deborah Kay is the middle of five Taylor children. Right out of the middle, she was a trailblazer. She took photos with a Brownie camera when no one else was doing this (because they had moved on to little instamatic cameras). I remember Deb on her knees take a photo of one of us, looking at that little upside down image, focusing until someone stood still, then click. Somehow she seemed to know early on that she would be a journalist and I remember her carrying a notebook and taking notes a church. She was the editor of the College High School Fourth Estate Newspaper.
I want to connect the dots for even some family members who may not realize this. I followed in my sister’s footsteps in nearly every way. I was a late bloomer and did not get involved in the newspaper until nine years after she was editor, and I waited till my senior year in college, not high school, to manage a paper. I also enjoyed taking photos, though I only played with the Brownie, because by the time I came along the much snazzier “disc camera” came along with it’s tiny negatives and blurry photos, but like so many people who trusted Kodak with the next best thing, I bought it and used it until I too caught the shutterbug and acquired a 35 MM camera similar to what Deb had.
Deb and Terri were the first to travel far and they brought back stories and photos of Europe and I don’t know if I would have become interested in going to Harding University in Florence, Italy otherwise.
After Deb graduated college and was living in Bartlesville, I was completing high school, and I remember sweet times with Deb, like going to two different concerts together. For Michael Martin Murphy at the community center, my recollection is I got turned down when I asked a girl on a date or she had “other plans,” so my sweet sister went with me. For James Taylor, I was the ninth caller into a Tulsa radio station when “Mexico” played, and I won two tickets. At that moment, I was not getting turned down again after a couple of those, so I asked my sister to go. She didn’t turn me down for good music, and she bought dinner.
Continuing on the theme of music, Debbie introduced me to the music of Keith and Melody Green. The songs were about God’s love breaking through, about the mission of Jesus to take the gospel to the world. “Jesus commands us to go,” Keith sang. “It should be the exception if we stay.” Deb was actually the first to heed the call to go into all the world from our family. She planned to go and work with our Aunt Donna and Uncle Loy Mitchell in Zimbabwe. I think as the story goes, she was dating Jim, and she presented him with a choice to see her get on the plane alone or marry her and go along. Jim heard the call to share good news with Zimbabwean children as well in a mission school.
So Deb and Jim were trailblazers, the first of our siblings to go into mission, and Jill and I followed, then Terri came a few years later. Deb displayed such great courage then, and she continues to display courage today as she battles late stage metastatic breast cancer. She was diagnosed when she was 59, was given a very bleak prognosis, came very near to death before two grandchildren were born, but rallied and has seen both Eli and Naomi born and growing to be healthy babies with wonderful parents, my niece Hannah and her husband Brad, and my nephew Joel and his wife Julia.
Debbie, you used to sing a song that tickled us and we laughed until we cried, wet our pants, or just couldn’t wheeze anymore. The song goes, “Oh my name is Ticklish Ruben and I come from way down there, I’ve been tickled by almost everything. I’ve been tickled by a feather, I’ve been tickled by a wasp, I’ve been tickled by a little bumble beeeeee! Well ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, haha! Aha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ahahahaha! Ahaha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha . . . ha, oh, ha, phew.
Today Jim was gracious to let me drop in a few minutes to say happy birthday to my sis. They fed me some of my other sister’s “sheet cake” (goooood!) and I sang her Stevie Wonder’s version of Happy Birthday.
Stevie Wonder sings his own version of Happy Birthday To Ya!
Deborah Kay, you are brave and beautiful, and you are a beloved daughter of the Most High God, King, Parent, and Lover of us all.
I love you, and I wish you a joyful 61st Birthday.
A Theological Anthropology of White Supremacy, Black Suffering, Human Resilience After the 1921 Tulsa Massacre
GREG R. TAYLOR SHARES FIVE YEARS OF DOCTORAL RESEARCH THAT LED TO FOUNDING OF THE NON-PROFIT 1256 MOVEMENT
Black owned homes burned by White mobs
June 1, 1921
ABSTRACT
A theological anthropology that centers suffering and resilience of Black people in the aftermath of the 1921 Tulsa massacre. How did Black and white Christian communities in 1921 respond to the massacre? A research model of functional change measures how the author’s faith community today responds to narratives of the massacre. Exposes and seeks to change systemic and internalized white supremacy that leads to inequities and trauma of Black people. Since no public reparations for the massacre have been performed, the author joins efforts toward reparative justice for Black Tulsans.
If you wish to access the full research, Phillips Theological Library can help you download here:
In this article you will find ten ways your support of 1256 Movement is doing reparative justice in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2022. Please share with your friends using social media links and donate today!
1. $10,000 REPARATION TO MASSACRE DESCENDANTS LERON AND MARY WEST
When LeRon West asked me for a few moments of my time, I never imagined he would be taking me on a personal tour of Greenwood history. And when I saw how Leron and his wife, Mary, were doing laundry, I knew 1256 should conveny a $10,000 reparation to help build a new laundry and bathroom for descendants of the 1921 massacre. Read the full story here.
2. $10,000 REPARATION TO MASSACRE DESCENDANT MILDRED HOWELL
Pictured from Left are Kerri Hunter, Jacqueline Evans, and Mildred Howell.
Representing Armanino Foundation, Mrs. Hunter presented $5,000 of the $10,000 reparation that was used by Mrs. Evans and Mrs. Howell to remodel a bath to be an accessible walk in. See photo.
3. $10,000 REPARATION FOR HISTORIC HOME
1256 Movement works with experienced contractors in Tulsa to help Black property owners renovate their homes.
4. $10,000 REPARATION TO HELP SAM AND TK AKINSOLA TOTAL REMODEL OF NORTH TULSA HOME
Sam and his wife TK bought a true top to bottom “fixer upper” for their future family home. With skills, hard work, and their own money, Sam and TK worked for months on demo and re-construction of the subfloor, roof, wiring, plumbing, drywall, painting, doors and windows, and much more. We know $10,000 comes no where close to covering the tens of thousands of dollars for major renovations like this. Reparation payments are a way 1256 comes alongside Black homeowners in what they are already doing or want to do with their homes and properties.
5. $10,000 REPARATION FOR ROSIE REED ROOF REPLACEMENT
Sam Akinsola Tate owns Black Heart Roofing and is one of the trusted Black owned contractors who works with homeowners and 1256 Movement. Sam was expert in hosting volunteers from Armanino Foundation to work on Rosie Reed’s roof and help with demo work at another job.
6. $15,000 IN REPARATION PAYMENTS TO THREE FAMILIES
Floors were installed at the home of William Hawkins, security doors were installed at the home of Ricardio Howell, and a new sewer line was installed at the home of Jeannie Moore.
7. LOT VALUED AT $15,000 TO BE CONVEYED TO BLACK OWNED CONSTRUCTION COMPANY
A property on 49th St. North, near McLain High School, has been acquired by 1256 Movement in order to convey to a Black owned construction company for building a new home or duplex.
8. HOSTED TWO DAYS OF SERVICE SPONSORED BY BLACK WALL STREET LIQUID LOUNGE AND ARMANINO FOUNDATION
9. $10,000 REPARATION FOR GENERATIONAL HOME OF JEMIA MIDGET
Jemia is renovating a home her grandfather built and says, “we feel blessed thanks to the 1256 program.” The application, due diligence, and approval process is very personal. Each person who applies is contacted personally by email, phone, and face to face. Site visits to homes by 1256 board members and contractors ensures productive work is planned, contracted, and completed.
A new application for reparation payments for housing is available here. Since the online application process was launched Summer 2021, 165 individuals or families have applied.
10. $5,000 TO BLACK WALL STREET CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
President and Founder of 1256 Movement Greg Taylor spoke one day in a contractor education course, 1256 donated tools to Falcon Construction, and participated in the development of the Black Wall Street Business Incubator, 8th Floor Spirit Bank downtown Tulsa.
More funding is needed to continue with 2023 plans to convey 24 more reparation payments for the year. Donate online or by mailing a check. Details below and at Donate page.
Greg Taylor
Founder and President of 1256 Movement has a doctorate from Phillips Theological Seminary with an emphasis in racial trauma and healing in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Contact the 1256 Movement and Greg by clicking the email link below.
A “FREEWILL REPARATION” FOR DESCENDANTS OF 1921 TULSA MASSACRE
One of the 1256 applicants for a conveyance of reparations helped us with another angle on private reparations that we want to share with you now in the following story. Leron West helped us realize that one reason 1256 Movement reparations works is because they are conveyed by freewill, not by tax payers forced by decree or lawsuit to give reparations.
In 2021, six reparations payments of $10,000 were conveyed to Black families. 1256 Movement plans to convey reparation payments to twelve Black families in 2022. Each family wishing to build a new or remodeled home may apply at 1256 Movement here. In turn, we are visiting with each applying family in their homes to get to know them and see remodeling or new plans they have.
One of those families is Leron and Mary West. I visited with Leron and Mary by phone and personally in their home off of Denver Ave. north of Pine to see a bathroom and laundry remodel they wanted to do. An important part of some remodels is bringing homes up to code for aging people to bath and do laundry. The West’s washer and dryer is currently in the basement. They have to lift a floor door and go down and up stairs to do laundry. In their 80s, they need a safer place to do laundry and the plan LeRon has is to convert one of the three bedrooms into a laundry room.
When I had planned to visit and begin conveying payments, first for plumbing materials for this project, Leron asked me by phone if he could have 20-30 minutes of my time when I arrived. I said yes, and when I arrived I thought maybe he had something he needed unloaded from the truck related to the plumbing project. Leron, though he turns 90 this year, still works and is contracting and getting help for the plumbing project himself. No, he did not need help with the project. He wanted to show me something about his family history related to the 1921 Tulsa Massacre.
Leron is also a committed follower of Jesus and student of the Bible, and when I arrived I noticed his books and Bible on the table. He reviewed the remodel of the bathroom and moving of the laundry to the main floor, then he asked if we could take a drive.
During the drive Leron showed me where his family’s home was burned down. The site of the house is just south of the football field that now exists east of Carver Middle School. Leron went to Carver Middle School in the 1940s when it was an all-Black school. He remembers Pine and Greenwood both being full of businesses in the revival of Greenwood and Black Wall Street after the massacre. He reminisced about carrying lumber with his dad from the lumber yard on Pine, about how his dad opened the diner on Greenwood. Leron named the diner after his daughter. The family diner was second door down from the corner of Archer and Greenwood, on the West side of the street, that thrived until the 244 bypass divided Greenwood. Leron had to sell the diner.
Leron went back to school to become a certified electrician. He worked for decades as a licensed electrician and the first Black union certified member in Tulsa. He worked for Williams Electric for twelve years, then started his own electrical contracting business. As I mentioned earlier, Leron is still working, still loving his neighbors, still challenging 1256 Movement with what I’m about to tell you next.
After Leron showed me around Greenwood in his own personal connections to rebuilding after the 1921 Massacre, we sat down at Black Wall Street Liquid Lounge for a cup of coffee. The photo connected to this article is taken there. While we were there, Leron told me this story.
There was a famous king who was an ancestor of Jesus Christ. Jews and Christians know this man as King David. David sought to honor his predecessor King Saul by sending his men throughout Israel to see if any of Saul’s family had survived the awful battles and turmoil of the not-so-peaceful transfer of power. The king’s men found a relative of Saul, a disabled young man named Mephibosheth, and David invited him to eat at his table. This was an act of great honor for a king who tried to kill David. It was also an act of love.
Leron shifted to talking about how some believe reparations are important, but that if some legal battle forces government to pay Black families for the massacre and other racial trauma, the payments would not be out of love. Leron said he believes 1256 is giving reparations out of freewill. Then Leron said something stunning. He said, “I am like Mephibosheth and you are one of the king’s men who has found me and brought me to the table.”
He said he did not want to take the $10,000 reparation payment to repair his bathroom and laundry room without telling me about his family background and getting to know me and the organization by giving me a tour of his life in Greenwood.
He said what he is receiving from 1256 is a freewill offering of love, not forced, and because of this he believes he can accept it with a good conscience.
Over the course of the next few months, Leron kept a meticulous ledger of his expenses against the two draws conveyed to the Wests as a freewill reparation payment. Work on moving the laundry from the cellar where it was dangerous and inaccessible for elderly home owners, and a remodel of their bathroom to be more accessible for aging progressed as Leron and 1256 partnered with Crossover to supply contractors in plumbing and drywall. Leron and his son’s company wired for electric, and the bathroom is now beautifully remodeled and in working condition with new plumbing, vanity, and shower. The Wests can now do laundry just across the hallway from their bedroom instead of lifting a cellar door on their porch and going down slick, dark, muddy stairs to the cellar where the washing machine and dryer were formerly.
Special thanks to West Electrical Contractors, Crossover, Sherry Laskey, and Armanino Foundation. Armanino is an accounting firm out of California with regional offices nationwide. Supported by the company, employees of Armanino volunteer to travel to places like Tulsa to learn and serve. The 1256 Movement partnered with Black Wall Street Liquid Lounge, Guy Troupe, and Kode Ransom to give a life-changing tour of Greenwood to the group. We then visited the homes of Leron West, and five other Black families who are receiving funding for home improvement through 1256 Movement. What a wonderful connection was made between those serving with Armanino and North Tulsa residencies where we worked together for two half days.
1256 BELIEVES IN ALL FORMS OF REPARATIONS
THE 1256 MOVEMENT BELIEVES IN ALL FORMS OF REPARATIONS, INCLUDING NATIONAL, LOCAL, PUBLIC, AND PRIVATE BECAUSE RACIAL TRAUMA, HISTORIC AND ONGOING HARM AND DISCRIMINATION HAS BEEN DONE ON ALL THOSE LEVELS AND BY PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ENTITIES AND INDIVIDUALS.
THEREFORE, We use words carefully so that it is understood that 1256 Movement still believes in a national and local governmental reparations process, that those culpable and guilty should pay reparations. Those who are reparation purists most often forget that churches, businesses, and individuals were also active in the 1921 Tulsa Massacre. The city, county, state, nation have been and still are guilty of racial trauma, land stealing, and ongoing harm and discrimination in education, health care, jobs, and housing. Individuals, businesses, churches, and non-profits have been and still are guilty of racial trauma, massacres, land stealing, and ongoing harm and discrimination in the above named areas and anywhere else white supremacy has wielded power to gain advantage for white people and disadvantage people of color.
1256 Movement is an ongoing community effort to have conversations and action around reparations by individuals and a non-profit as named above, because individuals and organizations were guilty, so also individuals and organizations should be part of reparations. This does not diminish nor does it negatively impact the larger national and local conversation around reparations by government entities. Our organization has stayed in close contact with stakeholders in the Black community to be sure the way we are doing reparations is not interfering with the national and local efforts to hold government accountable for the 1921 Tulsa massacre and ongoing harm done to Black people.
10 WAYS YOUR SUPPORT IS DOING REPARATIONS BY BUILDING HOMES IN 2021
In this article you will find ten ways your support of 1256 Movement is doing reparative justice in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Please share with your friends using social media links and donate today!
1256 MOVEMENT in partnership with American Heritage Bank and Taylor Homes renovated a home in historic Kendall Wittier neighborhood.
2. PAID $1,000 FOR SURVIVOR REPARATIONS DURING CENTENNIAL
Made possible by generous donations of supporters, 1256 Movement has made a reparation payment of $1,000 for three living massacre survivors through a fund managed by Tulsa Ministry Alliance.
1256 Movement acknowledges and honors 1921 Tulsa massacre survivors Lessie Benningfield Randle, Viola Fletcher, and Hughes Van Elliss, Sr.
1256 Movement does not use images of survivors to protect their dignity and also not to use their likenesses as fundraising tactics.
3. WORKED WITH AN EXPERIENCED CONTRACTOR TO RENOVATE A GENERATIONAL FAMILY HOME
1256 Movement is working with experienced contractors in Tulsa to help Black property owners renovate their homes.
One of the contractors 1256 is working with is Wesley Gamble, who owns and operates Falcon Construction.
Wesley is remodeling a third generation family home.
4. PAID REPARATION OF MONEY AND MATERIALS TO A DIY PROJECT IN NORTH TULSA
1256 Movement is not buying or building entire houses for Black home owners. We are coming alongside Black home owners or future home owners with a $10,000 reparation of money, labor, or materials to help build new or renovated homes.
When a family purchased a home to renovate close to the corner of 46th and MLK, 1256 Movement paid $5,000 for materials and Taylor Homes donated additional in kind donations of building materials and delivery.
5. GUTTED FIRE DAMAGE TO RE-BIRTH A FAMILY HOME
Working with FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), City of Tulsa Working in Neighborhoods, Taylor Homes, 1256 Movement worked alongside fourth generation home owner Kamaria Clardy to gut and dry in her home that had been burned seven years before.
When a rotted wall was removed, we discovered with the homeowner that a garage was originally part of this home and will be in the future.
The home had been sitting vacant and was in danger of being demolished. The large 2,500 square foot home has much value in a solid frame, most of which did not get burned. The whole house was smoke damaged, and all sheetrock was pulled. A new roof was installed, new windows. Kitchen and bathrooms were gutted to be totally renovated.
6. WORKING WITH 37 APPLICANTS FOR REPARATION BUILDS
A new application is now available here. Since the online application process was launched Summer 2021, 37 individuals or families have applied.
The application, due diligence, and approval process is very personal. Each person who applies is contacted personally by email, phone, and face to face. Site visits to homes by 1256 board members and contractors ensures productive work is planned, contracted, and completed.
7. PURCHASED PROPERTY TO BUILD TWO NEW HOMES
A property on 49th St. North, near McLain High School, has been acquired by 1256 Movement to split and build 2 homes.
Two new home plans are being developed and proposed to the City of Tulsa for permitting.
8. WORKED WITH 8 BLACK CONTRACTORS ON HOME BUILDS
One of the ways 1256 Movement works reparative justice is by supporting, relying on, and paying Black contractors for work done on homes of Black families remodeling or building new homes.
In the past year, 1256 Movement and Taylor Homes have worked with eight Black owned businesses, contractors for electrical, plumbing, HVAC, concrete, landscaping, trim carpentry, real estate, and painting. 1256 Movement works closely with aspiring and established Black contractors in order to develop more and improved quality, affordable housing ownership for Black families in Tulsa.
1256 Movement builds coalitions with home owners, potential home owners, contractors, funders, realtors by paying $10,000 for each new residential construction or remodel. We do this in part through these new and established Black contractors who work with Black families to build or improve their homes.
9. PARTNERED WITH INVESTOR AND CONTRACTOR TO BUILD NEW HOME
THE 1256 MOVEMENT partnered with investors in North Tulsa, Kingdom Vision, and contractor Taylor Homes to build a new home that will be sold at market rate.
10. SPONSORED AND PARTICIPATED IN CENTENNIAL EVENTS
President and Founder of 1256 Movement Greg Taylor participated in 1921 Tulsa Massacre Centennial observances and Juneteenth celebrations, including Black Health Counts, Fire in Little Africa Concert, and the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation Symposium featuring Cornel West.
Greg Taylor
Founder and President of 1256 Movement, Greg is also completing his doctorate with an emphasis in racial issues in Tulsa. Contact the 1256 Movement and Greg by clicking the email link below.
Many people like you have visions and good ideas for a business. While imagining a business can be super exciting, really launching it can be a challenge. Where do I begin? Who can I tell about this idea without fears of someone ripping off my idea? How much capital do I need to launch? There are many questions you may be uncertain about, but one thing is certain about launching a business. You will experience ups and downs and challenges. Are you ready for those hurdles? Let’s go.
YOU CAN BECOME A GENERAL OR TRADE CONTRACTOR IN TULSA, OKLAHOMA!
Do you want to become a contractor and be involved in building or improving 1,256 homes in Tulsa for Black families in the next ten years? Our door is wide open to the many contractors, funders, and families who will work together toward this vision of 1256 Movement.
Depending on the type of business, you will need certain licensing or no licensing. The good news about becoming a general contractor in Oklahoma is that you do not need to have a specific license if you live and work in the state. If, however, you want to become an inspector, architect, plumber, HVAC, roofer, or electrician, you’ll need specific training and licensing.
In this post, we cover starting a business as a general contractor for residential new and remodel construction in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
If you are going to do ethical, successful, and trusted business in Tulsa, you need to register with the city as a contractor. This will allow you to “pull permits,” which is construction lingo for applying for new construction, remodel, and other building permits in the city.
There are many resources for learning how to succeed in business in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
1256 Movement recommends you seek advice of experts such as licensed accountants or certified public accountants (CPAs), lawyers, and others who are qualified to help small business owners. In addition to the information provided, you may also need to obtain more information, make key decisions, file paperwork in a different order from what is stated, or simultaneously.
Legal Aid provides free legal services. Whether you qualify or not, Legal Aid can help direct you to legal services that fit your needs.
The information provided by 1256 Movement is not legal or mandatory advice. This disclaimer has been modeled from a similar disclaimer on the Oklahoma Commerce web site.
According to the Secretary of State for Oklahoma, you first need a name for your business. From the Secretary of State (SOS) web site, “Perform a name availability search to see if your business name is available. This may be done electronically. If your business name is available and you are still not ready to register the business, you may reserve your business name for up to 60 days by filing a name reservation. For additional information, please contact us at (405) 521-3912.”
You can also do a web search for the name you are considering by typing the name in quote marks (“). For example, if you want to title your company, “Building Neighborhoods” then type this into a web browser search: “Building Neighborhoods” Tulsa, Oklahoma.
If there is a business already by that name in the state or city, consider another name for your business. If there is no other business by the name you are choosing, you may register the name with the Secretary of State of Oklahoma and begin the process of starting a business by that name in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The name you choose is important because it becomes the face of the company, briefly describes what you do, and to some extent is the first step toward success or failure of your company.
The Secretary of State of Oklahoma site has a guide to organizational structures. The Oklahoma Tax Commission has important information related to possible organizational structures within the state.
You may operate your business or organization under any one of several organizational structures. Each type of structure has certain advantages and disadvantages that should be considered.
The Secretary of State of Oklahoma web site describes each type of business structure, including Sole Proprietorship, General Partnership, Limited Partnership, Limited Liability Partnership, A Corporation, and Limited Liability Company.
While some of us may find these legal structures confusing, how you structure your business is important. Be sure to discuss what is best for your type of company with a financial or legal expert. There are also online sources for legal help, and there are organizations in Tulsa that provide legal assistance for start up companies.
4. FILE YOUR BUSINESS WITH OKLAHOMA SECRETARY OF STATE
After naming your business and determining the type of business structure you want, you must register your business with the Secretary of State of Oklahoma. This is a longer process than simply reserving the name. You will need to submit documents and fees in this process. The Secretary of State web site is the source of electronic or paper forms you can print and fill out.
This process is not always simple and quick. Sometimes you may come to a line when filing electronically or when filling out a paper form that you do not know how to answer. You may ask for help with the forms by contacting the office of the Secretary of State–that’s what they are there for.
Be sure to insist that they help you because they are government officials put in this position in order to promote business in the state. Here is the page of help numbers, FAQ, email addresses, and other resources: https://www.sos.ok.gov/feedback/contact.aspx.
According to the Oklahoma Commerce Department, “The sale of tangible products or material items to customers in Oklahoma involves the collection of sales taxes.” Contact Oklahoma Tax Commission (OTC), http://www.tax.ok.gov, 405-521-3160, to learn if you will need to set up a tax withholding account for your business.
5. GET AN EMPLOYER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (EIN) FROM THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT
Determine if you want or need a Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN) by visiting the Internal Revenue Service EIN page.
If your business is going to have employees, there are additional registrations and filings that will be required. They are the following:
You will need to set up a withholding account for income taxes through the Oklahoma Tax Commission (OTC). The OTC can be reached at (405) 521-3160 or utilize the OTC Online Registration Service.
You will need to set up an account for employees’ unemployment taxes through the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission (OESC). The OESC can be reached at (405) 557-7100 or www.oesc.ok.gov.
If you do not have a private workers compensation insurance policy, contact CompSource Oklahoma at 405/232-7663 or 800/347-3863 or www.compsourceok.com.
A bank is not simply a place to deposit and withdraw money. A financial institution can be one of your business partners in helping you with funding for your business.
The big step in opening an account is to go to the bank and talk to a commercial account specialist who will advise you about the accounts that best work for you. A best practice is to learn what 2-3 banks offer and open your account after comparing the features of each bank that work best for you. Do you trust the person or bank? Do you have a good feeling when you enter the bank? Does the bank want to work with you on business funding? Is the account costly or are there ways to avoid high monthly fees?
Here are financial institutions that 1256 Movement has contacted or knows about that serve North Tulsa (from Archer St. going North), listed in reverse Alphabetical order. Not all of these banks or financial institutions come up in bank, mortgage, or credit union searches and therefore may not appear on the map image. Source: Google Maps. Banks in or serving Greenwood and North Tulsa include but may not be limited to the following: Vast Bank, TTCU, Spirit Bank, Prosperity Bank, Gateway Mortgage, Bank of Oklahoma, Bank of America, American Heritage Bank, Arvest.
1256 Movement promotes banks in this post that have located in and serve the North Tulsa community. If there are financial institutions we have left out, we encourage you to inform us and we will add them to this post. You can contact us at info@1256movement.org.
Here’s a screenshot search of “banks Tulsa.” This search map of “banks Tulsa” reveals bank upon bank in central and south Tulsa and fewer banks East and West and fewest in North Tulsa. (Note: this is an image but do the search and zoom in closer and more banks appear). Source: Google Maps.
Whether you are raising money from personal savings, a family member, friend, bank, venture capitalist, or business partner, be sure of one thing: the person or entity you raise money from will not charge you exorbitant interest or harm you if you cannot pay the money back on time! At the same time, if you are going to borrow money, have a plan for paying back and understand the terms.
According to the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, “Financial factors and projections in starting a small business are very important. Assistance from other private business professionals may be required.
Respected financial institutions require reporting of capital needed, estimates and actual of costs, and revenues. To learn more about how to prepare these documents, contact Oklahoma Small Business Development Center (OKSBDC), www.oksbdc.org; Women’s Business Center (WBC), www.reiwbc.org and Service Corp of Retired Executives (SCORE) chapter in Tulsa, www.tulsa.score.org. For formerly justice involved persons, check out D’Marria Monday’s https://www.facebook.com/blockbuilerz.org/.
For more on financials and taxes in business, this document from the Department of Commerce is very helpful.
You will need to show proof of liability insurance and possibly workman’s compensation insurance when registering with the City of Tulsa as a contractor.
According to the Small Business Administration (SBA) web site, “The protections you get from choosing a business structure like a limited liability company (LLC) or a corporation typically only protect your personal property from lawsuits, and even that protection is limited.
Business insurance can fill in the gaps to make sure both your personal assets and your business assets are fully protected from unexpected catastrophes.
In some instances, you might be legally required to purchase certain types of business insurance.
The federal government requires every business with employees to have workers’ compensation, unemployment, and disability insurance.
Some states also require additional insurance. Laws requiring insurance vary by state, so visit your state’s websiteto find out the requirements for your business.” The following chart is from this web page of the SBA.
Fill out a Contractor Registration form. This is not technically a license but a step toward being in the City of Tulsa permitting system in order to pull permits for new construction or remodels.
In accordance with city ordinances and/or state laws in Oklahoma, you may need specific licenses and permits to operate various types of businesses. The Oklahoma Department of Commerce has provided a Business Licensing and Operating Requirements page which will help guide you through the requirements.
Another option is to visit the City of Tulsa Planning & Development Department, 175 East 2nd St, Suite 455. Tulsa, OK 74103. Call ahead and ask what documents or fees you need to file, 918-596-1579.
10. REQUEST PERMITS AND INSPECTIONS
At the time of this posting, the City of Tulsa has been attacked by ransomware. The result of this for contractors is that permits previously applied for online at the City of Tulsa Permit Center, have been for a time only available by applying in person at City Hall.
The Permit Center is located on the 4th Floor of City Hall, 175 East 2nd St. Public hours 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.
The City of Tulsa has a process whereby some trade contractors may bid for city contracts and do certified work such as water taps for plumbers. This is called an IDP Permit and you can apply for it here.
The City of Tulsa also has a program in which contractors can do work to improve neighborhoods through remodeling homes. The program is called Working in Neighborhoods (WIN). The WIN Application is here.
Permits and inspections by the City of Tulsa are required for certain kinds of contracting work. To request inspections by the City of Tulsa, refer to this page.
GETTING TO WORK DEVELOPING CONTRACTORS
The work you do as a contractor will be difficult but rewarding. There will be challenges along the way. 1256 Movement can help you get laser focused on becoming a successful General Contractor or Trade Contractor. 1256 Movement works closely with aspiring and established Black contractors in order to develop more and improved quality, affordable housing ownership for Black families in Tulsa.
1256 Movement builds coalitions with home owners, potential home owners, contractors, funders, realtors by paying $10,000 for each new residential construction or remodel. We do this in part through these new and established Black contractors who work with Black families to build or improve their homes.
This is the big WHY behind 1256 Movement doing contractor development and the reason for this post that details how to become a contractor in Tulsa.
Greg Taylor
These resources and contractor start up process is developed by Greg Taylor, general contractor with Taylor Homes in Bartlesville/Tulsa and President of 1256 Movement. Sources also include City of Tulsa and state officials. Secretary of State of Oklahoma web site, Oklahoma Department of Commerce
Gathering on hallowed ground of Greenwood exactly one hundred years to the day from the events the album narrates, “Fire in Little Africa” premiered live for Tulsans at the Black Wall Street Legacy Festival Saturday night.
When the spirited performance ended and the collective of more than sixty Oklahoma rappers and musicians gathered on stage, Steph Simon spoke for the group, urging thousands of mostly Black and hundreds of White, Indigenous, Asian, and Hispanic to “look around you” at a new fiery spirit in North Tulsa. He said in this crowd are new business owners and future business owners.
“We celebrate a grocery store,” Simon said, “but we’re going to celebrate every f***** grocery store when there are forty grocery stores. We’re sorry if some of you don’t like the cussing. We’re really from here, really born here, really building here, we really lovin’ here, we’re really livin’ here, and we did it here.”
“Fire in Little Africa” (FILA) opens in an Elevator and a dream, as Hakeem Eli’Juwon and Steph Simon establish Dick Rowland as a narrator’s voice that spans one hundred years, identifying with the young man whose fabricated offense was used as a pretext for a pogrom of Greenwood by Tulsa city and county deputized and heavily armed white mobs in 1921.
In the second track, still with “Diamond Dick” in and out of the Drexel Building, now waking from a bad dream, just to live in a nightmare of reality, coming to grips with Sarah Page turning on her lover. It is believed and documented that Page and Rowland had a relationship and left Tulsa.
Shining features Steph Simon, Dialtone, Ayilla, and Jerica and is already a big hit with the most plays from the album on Spotify. The Youtube video is embedded, and a review has been published by Rolling Stone.
Imagining a life in a 1920s club, with horns and rolling bass vibe, 300 deaths, I guess that’s how the story goes, Jane Doe, Jane Doe, killing us softly, Greenwood, red man’s land made successful by Black men and women, build it back Black, “got audacity to walk out these ashes and shine.” As the song fades we hear a young Black boy shouting to Greenwood elders, “Eh, they got Dicky Rowland.”
The cover of the album reminds me of the cover of Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly, a flip of white supremacy places of power. Pictured in front of the mansion once owned by former klan member Tate Brady, who in the aftermath of the massacre continued to press for segregation and stealing Greenwood land. Brady’s name was removed from the Convention Center where Black detainees were held as a concentration camp in the days after the massacre.
The mansion, now called “Skyline Mansion” and owned by NFL first-round draft pick and Tulsan Felix Jones, was transformed in another way, to be recording studio for the album. Greenwood Cultural Center was another studio for five days of recording for the album in March 2020.
Sterling Matthews, Am’re Ford, Parris Chariz, and M.C. ministered healing in the live performance of “Drowning,” Matthews asking the throng of thousands gathered behind AME Church, the only structure on Greenwood Avenue standing today that existed during massacre, “Have you ever felt like you were drowning in pain?” Piano and violin. “So much pain inside of me, I just want you to be proud of me.”
The words five members of FILA wrote and and poet Sterling Matthews voices are at once profoundly sad and inspirational: “When at last the fight was over, might not right had won the day. Blocks of homes and business places, now in ruins and ashes lay. Through the streets we all were driven, at the points of swords and guns, to detention camps or were massacred by guns. Marched at gunpoint down Archer, past my own smoldering home. My life–my girl and boy, sobbing, Mama’s hips wet, and stifling June hot, heavy as redneck hate, marched at gunpoint down Archer, past my own smoldering home. My wife’s [white] Misses gonna come claim us “like stray mutts at the pound.”
Matthews and Ford lifted up the pain inside and invited souls living and listening tonight and those souls lost in the massacre, to walk with them, “my spirit from Greenwood to Pine and back, like the grit of Black love, then and now.”
Evidence from white-owned newspapers and white church sermons from 1921 without a doubt point to use of the designation “Little Africa” as racist insult. Upending the insult and starting a different kind of fire this time, the much anticipated hip hop collaboration album by Oklahoma rappers, poets, musicians, visual artists, singers, and producers commemorates the centennial the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
Turning the tables on white supremacist literal fire, bullets, and bombs, FILA soars above Greenwood, in and out of dreams, lifting and drowning, turning pride and pain inside out and outside in, rising high above the elevator, higher than those WWI planes flying over Greenwood, more explosive than dynamite that blew down brick and mortar but could never destroy the Spirit of Black Wall Street.
The Motown Records/Black Forum album is presented in partnership with The Woody Guthrie Center and Bob Dylan Center and includes an album, podcast, and documentary in collaboration with the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission.
FILA artists are all pursuing their art in their own ways. I met “Fire in Little Africa” (FILA) member Damion Shade through work with ACTION Tulsa and Damion’s work at OK Policy Institute in our mutual desire to see criminal justice reform in Oklahoma. Shade is one of the best musicians and producers in Tulsa.
I met Jacobi Ryan at Black Wall Street Liquid Lounge the day after the show. Ryan is kind, approachable, and helpful in input for this review.
Ryan raps with K.O. on Top Down. K.O. is a rapper with her own music videos. As she raps in Top Down, “I gave this plan I had to God, He supersede it. I told him I’m the Illest b**** alive and I believe it. I’m out here ownin’ like I own it dedicating my whole life to everything I ever wanted. It ain’t too much to come with them degrees and them diplomas. S***, I ain’t have a way, I had to make a way. Now all I do is work and pray for better days. I never fade because I put my heart in the art of it. Being as real as I am just like the start of it, holy matrimony I’ll vow to never depart from it. I really do, I’m busy working my moves, I move from telling you lies so I can bless you with truth, I know.”
I was happy to meet K.O. after the show. No, I didn’t have a backstage pass. She was passing out her K.O. (sheisko) business cards in the parking lot. When she approached my car, I thanked her and the group for a phenomenal and inspirational performance. I told her I truly believe FILA has a shot at a Grammy. She did not disagree.
Dr. Cornel West inspires, confronts and loves Tulsans at 2021 Reconciliation in America National Symposium
Image of Dr. Cornel West is not from the symposium but Robert P. George and Cornel West speaking with attendees at the Student Pavilion at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.
Dr. Cornel West visited Tulsa virtually but still inspired, confronted, and loved his former hometown in profound ways at the 2021 Reconciliation in America National Symposium Thursday night
Dr. Cornel West said he applauds the coming of President Joe Biden coming to Tulsa June 1, 2021 but says he must come with a message of truth, with policy that helps Black people out of the “bowels of poverty,” and with a plan for reparations.
Urging both President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris not to fall prey to the language of “America is not racist” when it is racist. It may be less racist than it was in 1921 but this is still a city that has not accepted its role in the massacre, paid insurance claims, paid reparations, or convicted one person in the slaughter of Black Tulsans and leveling of what would have become $600 million in wealth today had the massacre never happened. That’s college educations, hundreds more businesses, schools, salons, restaurants, hospitals, churches, and homes (Source: Dr. Scott Ellsworth, quoting the new 2021 National Geographic article on Greenwood).
Screenshot from Dr. John W. Franklin’s dialogue with Dr. Cornel West at the 2021 Reconciliation in America National Symposium sponsored by the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
What was it like to hear Dr. Cornel West speak?
Listening to Dr. West speak is like standing on the shores of the beach and feeling the power of the waves and also having the trash from the ocean wash against your feet. Stay with me here. In this metaphor, you are convicted that there is a power and presence more powerful than the trash but you are still confronted by the trash of America’s White supremacy, aggressive and destructive imperialistic expansion, and land grabbing.
In other words, Dr. West is as inspiring to hear as the presence of the ocean waves, but he is going to speak the truth of what is happening today without de-odorizing it, without conforming it to the normalizing power of the “white gaze,” to speak the authentic narratives of history, and to love our enemies. His calling is to leave a taste of the kingdom, “even in the midst of the hounds of hell.” He said to never be thoroughly surprised by evil, by “strange fruit,” by Black bodies hanging from trees, but we must always respond in love while also calling out and resisting evil. “I’m not a pacifist,” he said, “I would have fought against Hitler, would have joined Mandela against apartheid, would have resisted with WWI veterans to defend Dick Rowland.” He stands against the forces of White supremacy and evil today who brutalize Black, Brown, indigenous, Asian, LGBTQ+ bodies.
To bring together two big ideas from the symposium, Isabel Wilkerson the night before said the story of Dick Rowland and Sarah Page may have been the spark, but the fuel for the Tulsa Massacre was a White dominant caste system that was offended by Black people exceeding White people in wealth and happiness. Because Black people had “offended” and broken the rules of the caste system, White people retaliated against Black people with brutality and vengeance. The massacre was a “pogrom,” a word Dr. John W. Franklin will explain in the symposium that the Yiddish press used to report the Tulsa Massacre in early June 1921.
Dr. West and Isabel Wilkerson bringing profound and important ideas at symposium
Even in naming and confronting systemic White supremacy in 1921 and 2021, Dr. West is also quick to say that every group and individual, including himself, is capable of what he calls “gansta behavior.” What he learned in Shiloh Baptist Church was to “hate the sin” of Western crimes, White supremacy, imperialistic expansion, power and land grabbing, brutalities against indigenous, Black, Brown, and LGBTQ people.
Dr. West interacts with participants lovingly and inspirationally
Even by virtual live video, Dr. West is inspiring, deeply moving to watch and hear. The way he interacts with those asking questions, with the moderators, how he quotes thinkers and influencers widely, including Blues, Jazz, and Hip Hop musicians. Black people, he said, have disproportionate influenced the world in arts, love in the face of hate, gansta behavior, white supremacy, imperialistic capitalism.
Dr. West said his “fundamentalism” is to love my neighbor as myself that flies in the face of White selective justice and love evangelicalism. We all have crooked hearts. How do we learn to love our neighbors with our crooked hearts and love their crooked hearts? Gangsta driven by narcissism, can’t act courageously because they can’t serve above their careers to find their calling.
A spiritual noble person a person who loves through lens of truth, beauty, goodness, and admits but resists the gansta nature we all have inside of us. He said we must remember those who were crushed, lied on, criminalized, crucified, not looking on ourselves through white normative gaze, something deeper, moral greatness, not the dominant caste or gansta kind but but the spirit of love as Jesus showed us.
To White people — he called “vanilla” — he asks, is there something bigger than yourself? Are you being called so it’s not just a matter of your career or your group interest but in a universal vision that embraces all of God’s humanity? It is not about being woke, but being fortified (he quoted Ephesians 6, putting on the armor of God), then he joked, that if you’re woke all the time you’re going to get insomnia, gotta take a nap.
As John Hope Franklin said, the cover up of the massacre has led to 100 years of Tulsa being deceptive, living a lie, and according to Dr. West, locking Black people into the bowels of poverty in America because of greed, contempt, hatred, and hypocrisy.
Finally and again, these evils must be met with the most powerful love of all, the love of Jesus Christ, the love that transcends hate, racism, White supremacy, pogroms, bombs, even transcends skin color, gender, and sexual orientation.
Beautifully said, Greg! Thanks for reminding me of all those connections! Loving words to soothe our hearts 💕
Thanks for sharing Greg. I knew some of this about Deb, but, I had not really connected the dots to your life and mission. Debbie has impacted so many people for good, starting with those she shared a home with for 18 years. We are blessed as brothers to have two incredible sisters!