"There’s never been a moment like this in American history,” said Ron Daniels, convener of the National African American Reparations Commission. “I’ve worked on this issue my entire adult life, and it’s only recently that I’ve seen reparations move from the political fringes to the mainstream of discourse.Daniels said.
“There are initiatives that are sprouting up daily all across the country, and that’s a recognition of the growing demand, and of the generational damages and harms not only of enslavement but all of the legacies of enslavement, all the racially discriminatory policies, including redlining and policies like the GI Bill where Black people were excluded,”“Oklahoma’s Black communities are overdue,” said Mayor Currin, 38, a fourth-generation Tullahassee resident. “Tullahassee has always been in a fight, always fighting to exist and always fighting to thrive. You’re talking about decades of withheld funding and opportunities for these towns. So we are owed reparations, reparations to rebuild all of our Black communities.”Perhaps the reparations they desire should come from the Creek Nation?Tullahassee is thought to be the oldest of the more than 50 Black communities that sprouted up in Oklahoma between the Civil War and the Great Depression. It traces its roots back to 1850 when a school was built in the area by members of the Creek Nation. The tribe had been forced into present-day Oklahoma, which was then called Indian Territory, from Florida and Alabama during the infamous Trail of Tears. The tribal members brought with them the enslaved Black people they had purchased in the South.
In 1866, during the aftermath of the Civil War, the U.S. government signed a new treaty with the Creek Nation that forced the tribe to give up its enslaved people and grant them tribal citizenship. These formerly enslaved people became known as Creek Freedmen, and across Oklahoma, they formed prosperous agricultural communities that supported schools, businesses and churches.
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