In North Tulsa, a New Redevelopment Normal Takes Shape
A century after the Tulsa Race Massacre, local residents are stepping up to ensure that new investments power their own prosperity and right historical wrongs.
By Jeremy Gantz
Early in the morning of June 1st, 1921, a violent white mob attacked Black residents, businesses and homes in Tulsa’s thriving Greenwood District. Twenty-four hours later, the prosperous area known as “Black Wall Street” in North Tulsa lay in smoldering ruins. One of the worst spasms of racial violence in U.S. history left as many as 300 (most Black) Tulsans dead, at least 8,000 homeless, and 35 city blocks utterly destroyed.
These tragic events, now remembered as the Tulsa Race Massacre, cast a long shadow still seen today. Racialized economic disparities span healthcare, employment and housing. Mistrust of city government among Black Tulsans runs deep. The fact that highways were built through and around Greenwood’s center later in the name of “urban renewal” didn’t help.
So when the City of Tulsa began thinking about redeveloping 56 acres of publicly-owned land just north of downtown, leaders knew that sustained, meaningful inclusion of Black Tulsans and trust had to be the foundation of whatever vision emerged. Decades ago, the land — located in the Kirkpatrick Heights-Greenwood district — was taken by government authorities to pursue inequitable urban renewal projects. The land was reacquired by the City in 2018 after plans for building a multi-university did not meet expectations. This moment presented a new opportunity for intentional and equitable development that centers the wellbeing of Black Tulsans. Sixteen months of community-led planning, including 40 meetings and events engaging 1,000 local residents, laid that foundation. In December 2022, the Tulsa City Council approved the 188-page Kirkpatrick Heights & Greenwood Master Plan.
But a plan — even one centering redevelopment that powers Black prosperity — is just a plan. Actual progress is something else. When money, control and power come into play, Black Tulsans are understandably skeptical that a vision of equitable change will become reality, says Lana Turner-Addison, a lifelong North Tulsan and co-chair of the Master Plan Leadership Committee. “Trust is earned, it’s not automatic,” she says. “We need to see the implementation.”
To ensure the Master Plan delivers on its historic promise, the City and partner organizations are now creating a community-owned governance model to oversee the redevelopment process. A central goal: make sure that Black Tulsans, including descendants of the massacre, benefit as the vision of new housing, retail, community spaces and infrastructure becomes reality.
Hard Work That’s Worth It
Pivoting away from business as usual is inherently challenging. It requires new ways of thinking and working, new ways of building consensus — and all that requires time and energy. “The Kirkpatrick Heights Greenwood Master Plan is one of the most important planning efforts in Tulsa’s history,” says Mayor G.T. Bynum. “A once-in-a-generation investment, it’s important to us that the community stays involved in every step of this process so that the end result is something they can truly say is theirs and happened because of their time and input.” To support the governance model design work, the City of Tulsa and the Tulsa Authority for Economic Opportunity (known as PartnerTulsa) sought assistance through the Opportunity Accelerator (OA), a collaborative initiative led by Results for America that helps government promote economic mobility and reduce racial disparities.
Early in 2023, a community governance workgroup began meeting regularly to envision a new governance model that honors the complexity of both Greenwood’s history and the current stakeholder landscape.
“The work in Tulsa is challenging, but innovative,” says Jennifer Park, executive director of OA. “For government to invest in the community’s well-being and its ability to thrive and succeed, it must learn how to shift power to and invite the community into the governing process.”
A core challenge was figuring out how to effectively partner government systems with disenfranchised communities of color — both the Black community and the indigenous community, says Angelique Kedem, senior advisor with the W. Haywood Burns Institute, which provides technical assistance for the governance project. (Prior to being part of modern Tulsa, the 56 acres were part of a Cherokee Nation land allotment.)
“What does it take to realize self-determination, for these communities to gain ownership over their economic destinies?” Kedem asks. “It’s an adaptive challenge we’ve grappled with. We demonstrated that impacted communities of color and governing bodies that have caused historic harms can bridge and co-design structures that support community well-being.”
Typically after a redevelopment plan is formally adopted, the public process ends. Well-connected individuals appointed to a development authority board might make decisions about the scope of specific projects and which developers get which contractors. Community members feel that change is happening to them, with no feedback loop, says Turner-Addison, who now serves on the governance workgroup.
This master plan buildout process will be different. The working group has held a series of listening sessions, engaging community members to understand what they would like to see the master plan implementation process look like. “This entire project is groundbreaking work,” says Jonathan Butler, Senior Vice President of Community Development at PartnerTulsa. “Governments don’t traditionally work with community members to co-lead and co-design processes and shift policies. This project centers those most impacted in decision-making. It acknowledges and recognizes history and harm, and it directly ensures that people of color are leading the process. It is a case study of how government can advance equitable growth and development with intentionality and genuine inclusion.”
Beyond gathering feedback, working group members have visited four other cities to learn about how other jurisdictions have set up community-owned governance structures that center social and economic equity. For example, Turner-Addison traveled with a group in September to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to learn about how the Hill Community Development Corp. leads redevelopment efforts while guided by the Greater Hill District Master Plan.
The travel excursions have been valuable opportunities to speak directly with other people doing the hard work of making structural changes to how redevelopment projects occur, Turner-Addison says. It’s helping the team understand what “healthy balance” of technical expertise and community knowledge and experience should be represented in the community governance model that ultimately oversees the implementation of the Master Plan. “We have to find the sweet spot,” she says.
Keeping Hope Alive
Ashley Phillipsen, Executive Director of ImpactTulsa and co-chair of the Master Plan Leadership Committee, agrees that the community-owned governance structure that emerges should bring together redevelopment expertise and acumen with local residents and business owners. She adds one caveat: young people need to be involved as well.
It’s not hard to find someone in their late thirties or older at a City Council meeting, or a community engagement meeting, says Phillipsen, a member of the governance workgroup who is also CEO of ImpactTulsa and vice chair of the TDA’s board. “But we all deserve a seat at the table. What does Gen Z say about this process? Young people need to be represented because their needs are different.”
The working group researched options and engaged local residents in community listening sessions through fall of 2023. It recommended a community development corporation as the legal structure responsible for long-term development of the Master Plan, along with a redevelopment oversight board containing three seats for North Tulsan residents and advisory councils comprising community entities and residents. “I do believe this is reparative work,” says Butler. “Governments don’t traditionally share power with community members when creating and executing plans, and they don’t traditionally socially engineer direct benefits to flow to community members by helping to incubate and co-create a community-based organization to serve as the long-term steward of property.”
While laborious, the community-based outreach work has helped keep hope alive among North Tulsans, Turner-Addison says.
“As I talk to people, I encourage them to stay involved, be diligent, and fight for change.” adds Turner-Addison.
The community-based planning, governance and implementation process now underway is “truly participatory,” Phillipsen says. She hopes it can one day stand as a model for future redevelopment efforts in Tulsa and other cities in the country’s heartland. “This is an anti-displacement approach,” she says. “I hope other cities can look at this as a way to invest in current residents and businesses, and to attract residents — but most importantly, to sustainably address historical wrongs.”
In January 2023, the Tulsa Development Authority codified the working group’s recommendation to establish a Community Development Corporation (CDC) by the end of 2024. The Tulsa Development Authority is currently accepting applications to join a 7–9 member Advisory Committee that will oversee the creation of the CDC. Interested applicants can apply on the PartnerTulsa website.
PartnerTulsa is committed to keeping the community engaged and updated on this process. To continue receiving updates on the redevelopment of the Kirkpatrick Heights and Greenwood districts, sign up for project updates at www.partnertulsa.org/khgmp-updates.
The Opportunity Accelerator is a collaborative initiative — led by Results for America and in collaboration with the Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University, Code for America, the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab, and the W. Haywood Burns Institute — that supports government in promoting economic mobility, reducing racial disparities, and improving the wellbeing of their residents. The Opportunity Accelerator was funded by Blue Meridian Partners from July 2020 to December 2023.
