The Black reverend asked for reparations for one of the worst acts of racial violence in U.S. history.
White people without masks heckled and attacked a Black reverend outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma’s City Hall.
Reverend Robert Turner was speaking about reparations for the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre that killed 300 Black people, when he was confronted by white people chanting “USA.”
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“A racist mob of white people descended on Greenwood and dropped a bomb on Greenwood and killed black people,” Turner said into the bullhorn, The Washington Post reported. “And not one of those angry, racist thugs was charged with a crime. God sits high and looks low.”
The white demonstrators interrupted his sermon and the group managed to grab the pastor’s bullhorn.
“My ancestors freed your people,” and, “You are a baldfaced liar,” were some of the comment aimed towards Turner.
Turner is a senior pastor of the historic Vernon AME Church in Greenwood. He has been coming to City Hall every Wednesday for the past two years in protest of the massacre. He demands reparations for those who survived and their descendants.
One white man, wearing a red hat, screamed directly into Turner’s right ear and two women are seen grabbing his arms, WAPO reported.
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Tulsa Police Communications Officer, Jeanne Pierce said that because the incident was not reported, there cannot be an investigation.
Turner said one of the white protesters threw liquid on him, and he hopes it was just water.
“I saw a small glimpse of what it must have felt like on the [slave] auction block. As a black man, people poking and prodding you,” Turner said.
Turner also said one of the counter protesters threw money at him.
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