Did Obama Low-Key Take the First Steps Towards Reparations, Which is Finally Paying Off?

On May 31, 1921, white attackers destroyed Greenwood, a thriving Black business district in Tulsa, Oklahoma, killing hundreds of residents (most of whom were Black) and burning more than 1,250 homes. Suggested Reading Small Town Horror Story: The Lynching of James Byrd Off English Suggested Reading For decades, the families of those whose lives and livelihoods in an area once known as “Black Wall Street” were destroyed have been trying to seek justice for what they lost, only to have their cases dismissed in court. Advertisement Now, more than 100 years after the devastating Tulsa Race Massacre, the Justice Department is getting involved for the first time. They are moving forward to seek justice for the families, empowered by the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, which authorizes the Department, along with the FBI, to look into “violations of criminal civil rights statutes… result[ing] in death,” that occurred on or before December 31, 1979. Advertisement The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act was introduced on February 8, 2007 by the late Representative John Lewis (D-GA) and former Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT). The bill had multiple bi-partisan co-sponsors, including then­-Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) and was eventually signed into law...