Rev. John R. Faison, Sr. kneels in prayer after preaching at a joint service for the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre at First Baptist Church of North Tulsa, Sunday, May 30, 2021, in Tulsa, Okla. TULSA, Okla. — When white attackers destroyed the prosperous Black neighborhood of Greenwood 100 years ago this week, they bypassed the original sanctuary of the First Baptist Church of North Tulsa.
Greenwood is “holy ground,” said the Rev. John Faison of Nashville, Tennessee, who preached at the service and is assistant to the bishop of social action for the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship. The commission that organized the centennial designated Sunday as Unity Faith Day and provided a suggested worship guide that each congregation could adapt, including scriptures, prayers and the singing of “Amazing Grace.”
“It’s not a tragedy that’s left in 1921. It’s a tragedy that continues to live each day that lacks justice,” said Turner, who protests weekly outside Tulsa City Hall, calling both for reparations and for a posthumous criminal investigation of the massacre’s perpetrators. The church has a prayer room with an exhibit on the massacre, accompanied by prayers against racism. It includes quotations from white pastors in 1921 who faulted the Black community rather than the white attackers for the devastation and declared racial inequality to be “divinely ordained.”
Pastor Eric Costanzo grew up in Tulsa but didn’t learn of the massacre until attending seminary out of state. When he later saw an exhibit on the massacre at the Greenwood Cultural Center, he recognized its enormity. He later got involved with centennial planning, arranging for presentations at the church about the massacre and visits by church members to Greenwood.
Source: Law Daily Report (lawdailyreport.net)
Wah-wah-wah. It was bad. But it was 100 years ago. Stop playing the victim and move on. Take responsibility for your own success.
REPARATIONS!!!!
“The main problem is that our nation is always trying to have reconciliation without doing justice,” Faison said.