Black Wall Street Should Be a National Monument

On Juneteenth this past weekend, we commemorated the day in 1865 on which, more than two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, the news of the proclamation finally reached enslaved African Americans. The 200,000 enslaved people in Texas were the very last to be informed.

Today, the legacy of deep trauma stemming from colonialism, genocide, land theft, enslavement, racial terror, racial capitalism, structural discrimination, and exclusion are still very real for Black people and communities in this country. At the Sierra Club, a 129-year-old organization that has been reckoning with its own history of racism, we are learning and growing by examining our history more deeply to better understand the systemic racism embedded in our culture today. We are committed to both owning up to the harms done by the Sierra Club, and transforming our current practices to be grounded in our values of equity, inclusion, and justice.

Last week, the Sierra Club came out in firm support of reparations for Black people— a system that provides forms of repair to specific individuals, groups of people, or nations for specific harms they have experienced in violation of their human rights, which are essential to collective liberation and well-being. We believe it is impossible to create a healthy, safe, and sustainable future for all without acknowledging and materially addressing the past and present economic, cultural, psychological, and spiritual impacts of racism.

While we work to support and stand with the movement for justice for Black lives, we will also continue examining our own traditional conservation work, which had roots in racism and exclusion. A movement that once sought to preserve nature for the few must continue to transform and focus on protecting nature for the benefit of all. 

Today, strong coalitions continue growing to address the intersections between environmental, social, and racial justice. One of the spaces where those intersections become glaringly apparent is in the Antiquities Act— the president’s power to designate historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest, as protected national monuments.

On one hand, national monuments safeguard large landscapes and critical habitat areas, and these protections are key to achieving our goal of saving 30 percent of lands and waters by 2030 to fight the overlapping climate and extinction crises. But national monuments protect more than that; they play a crucial role in telling the history of this country, and ensuring significant pieces of history and culture are preserved.

One hundred years ago, one of this country’s worst acts of racial terrorism was perpetrated on the Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In June of 1921, a white mob terrorized Tulsa’s Greenwood District, a thriving business hub and vibrant residential neighborhood. The mob killed an estimated 300 people, destroyed scores of businesses and residences, and left many of the Black residents homeless. Now known as the Greenwood Massacre, it is a stain on our history that all Americans should know about.

Parade held in the Greenwood District neighborhood. (Photo by: Greenwood Cultural Center / Getty Images)

This undertold story— and the history of thriving Black-owned business, success and greatness that lived in Tulsa— has been suppressed for far too long. To this day, the dark and unjust legacy of the riots remains present in the memories of the survivors, their families, and Black Oklahomans all across the state. The destruction of one of America’s most prosperous Black communities is a lesson that should remain not only in our history books and school curricula, but also in our hearts as we pursue a more just world. 

Today, we are joining the Black-led movement in Tulsa to urge the Biden administration to designate the Greenwood district a national monument. This would help preserve the site’s history, educate the public about racism in the United States, and celebrate Black success. A national monument designation would safeguard the historic place from further damage while formalizing its recognition in our history book so this kind of atrocity is never repeated.

Dr. Tiffany Crutcher’s grandmother survived the attack, and she is now leading the effort to protect the Greenwood District as a national monument. 

“Each of us should learn the hard lessons of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and the continued harm shouldered by the survivors, the descendants and the neighborhood of Greenwood,” Crutcher said. “We should learn that race, racism, and discrimination have very real, concrete effects on our history, our culture, our politics, and our current lives. The president must begin work to designate Black Wall Street a national monument so we can always remember the history of this place and educate generations to come. We must work together in pursuit of justice for the living survivors and the community that’s been left behind."

A photo of Dr. Tiffany Crutcher, her Father and President Biden. (Photo courtesy of: Dr. Crutcher)

We know conservation work must exist to dismantle exploitation and injustices, repair historical harms, and continue to focus on the fact that people and the planet are one interconnected, interdependent system. There is still much dismantling to be done within our organization, and we’re learning from the values of organizations and people who connected the dots long before and far better than we have. 

We believe in the power of together, and we will continue fighting for a stable climate built on a foundation of environmental, racial, economic, and gender justice— a future where all people benefit from a thriving planet and a direct connection to nature. We stand in solidarity with our partners in Tulsa and beyond in calling for reparations, advocating for justice, and working toward a healthy and sustainable future for all.