Thank you.

So we're just gonna re roll.

We're not gonna vote on the thing.

Okay, yeah.

Right now, this is an informal gathering of some people who happen to be on the Beyond Apology Commission.

Okay, um, so we can we can move the agenda around accordingly.

Yes, yes, so they're ready.

Yes, you're alive.

All right, so I was gonna say good morning, good afternoon, good afternoon, everyone.

Uh this is Beyond Apology Commission.

Um, and today is May 15th, 2026, um, and it is 1 05 p.m.

Um, let's see.

We do some roll call.

We know uh Commissioner Armstrong is here, Commissioner Evans, Vanessa Hall Harper, uh commit um Commissioner Mason.

Is she online?

I feel like she's a oh she's in our no, I'm not looking at Commissioner Monday, Crystal Reyes, Commissioner Greg Taylor, Commissioner Taylor West, President, and myself is present, Dr.

Corency Wilson, that's it, Commissioner Keith.

Commissioner Theresa Dooney.

And am I missing anybody?

No, don't you give me?

I guess what I'm saying.

Um Commissioner Monday is present.

I'm on the zone.

Oh, okay.

There you go.

Good afternoon.

All right, so we're gonna go ahead and call this meeting to order, and we can go ahead and start with uh just taking a couple minutes looking over the meeting minutes from March 20th.

That's the last time I met.

I guess we did, yeah, March 20th, 2026.

We can't vote on anyway.

Yeah, we can't vote on them.

We don't have a quorum.

Let's vote on the next one.

Yeah, so we'll vote both on, and we can still read it.

And I skipped over the ancestral acknowledgement.

Commissioner Dooney, you were supposed to come and hit my hand on that.

Would you like to go ahead and lead us into our start?

Meetings of the minds with a moment of silence or a moment of reflection.

So with hearts full of gratitude to our ancestors who come together.

This time to build a future for our descendants.

May our ancestors flame burn within us, illuminate our way, and teach us to see the light of God's wisdom that serves as a beacon of light to keep us grounded from both nearby and distant challenges.

We are exactly where we need to be right now.

The ancestors' legacy inspire us to faithfully in your life, give us awareness and open up the doors of communication, open up the doors of understanding, open up the doors of restoration.

That's a building inspiration for the next generation.

Maybe we'll be and I would just like to add that um we honor the legacy of some pillars that we've lost in our community.

We've lost uh our former state representative Don Ross.

Uh we lost Bobby Eaton as well, and I would just like to uplift Vanessa Vanessa's mother, who she lost on Mother's Day.

Uh so we want to lift her up also in our thoughts and prayers, and her father as well, who has stage four cancer.

We want to lift him up as well too.

So if you see Vanessa, just give a good hug.

She needs it I'd like to call her mom's name what was her name Ruby Ruby Ruby Hall.

We don't order, we are officially at quorum and then we are officially in forum now thank you, Miss Aaron.

So um, Madam President, I move that we have the minutes accept the minutes for the previous all right I accept okay all in favor to accept the meeting minutes for March 20th of twenty twenty six uh any of those scare me any any of those all right so we have a special guest just to note you guys also have meeting minutes for um the two days of the summit since you all were that was officially a meeting and you were in the forum so um there's an additional document in there front and back for the two days of the summit to approach that it's it's very simple bare bones but since that technically was a meeting as well in forum discussing commission related business um if you would we accept the uh Lancaster University meeting minutes of the Beyond Apology Commission that was held on April 25th 2026 I'm not readiness can we go back and fill out what we did so that we can keep the so that we know what we did at the conference.

Well you wouldn't put that in the minutes.

Maybe you can do an addendum or for record keeping purposes but you all could put out all we're doing is recording that we in lieu of a traditional meeting.

We use that as a meeting to record that we actually met as a committee okay that's awesome okay so we can do that but the meeting minutes were from uh for beyond apology April 24th 2026.

And I would recommend doing the 24th and the 25th.

Okay 24th 25th it's front April 24th and April 25th got you okay all right then I move the meeting second then I move the week so we do not special meeting minutes from April 24th and 25th for the Beyond Apology Commission at Langston University.

Alright in it all right all in favor thank you thank you so much.

So we have we have a special guest today um from Liberating Minds um Mr Francisco has been a community advocate um as long I mean gosh I don't know how long I've known him um but for a good time and I'm always just um amazed at his work um and he travels everywhere as well with his work um and so I'm gonna give him the floor to talk about liberating minds liberating minds was also one of our sponsors for the uh reparation summit and so uh thank you so much for that and the floor is yours all right thank you so much uh Christy and uh commissioners um really appreciate the opportunity to come and speak to them I'm sorry that I couldn't be there in person um I've been I traveled up there two weeks in a row to be on uh in depth with Dion's podcast uh and so my guest take was was asking for you know uh a little recruiting so appreciate the opportunity to just join virtually but uh we'll be up there soon uh the end of the month and hope to hope to see many of you um so yeah like like Christy said my name is Aurelius Francisco for those who don't know me I know several of you but I I'll just give a a brief introduction um I'm born and raised in Oklahoma City uh I went to college at the University of Oklahoma uh I was heavily involved on campus as a student activist uh you may or may not know oh you had no shortage of of anti-black racist incidents uh for years and into today and so because of that, students often spoke up, and uh I was a part of that lineage of of activists on campus who were trying to um address institutional racism and push our university to make some structural changes to better support black students uh and other marginalized students on campus.

Uh I graduated in 2020, so I was the first of the COVID grads.

I graduated on YouTube and quickly got involved in Oklahoma City after the police murders of George Floyd and Brianna Taylor and others, and that sort of thrusted me into the movement in Oklahoma City, but also across the state in Oklahoma.

I then moved to Tulsa, I was a Tulsa Service year fellow, and then went to the University of Chicago for my master's program and then came back home in 2022 and have been working full-time with FLM since then.

Um, and my colleague who's also a co-founder of FLM, Tevin, he couldn't be here today, but um, you know, hopefully you all can connect soon.

Uh, but he and I uh were the first two full-time staff members with FLM in 2023, and now we have grown to where we have five full-time staffers and four part-time staffers.

So really excited, you know, for the growth.

We were a small organization, just friends who had a dream and a passion for social justice, and now to have like a full-on nonprofit organization is really exciting uh in a short amount of time.

Um, and so yeah, that's that's a little bit about me.

Um I'm here to talk about this FLM's work as an introduction or reintroduction for those of you who are already familiar with us, um, and then we'll have some time to just if there's any questions or conversation points, and I'll let y'all get on with your agenda.

Um, so FLM was created in 2017, based off of a dream that uh my dear friend Ahom Carter had.

Uh, he had a dream that he had created a school that looked very different than the schools that we grew up in in Oklahoma City.

Uh, and he had founded the school with some of his closest friends and mentors, um, and that was the birth of FLM, and so FLM's origins are rooted in dreaming radically, right?

Like dreaming about what a better future looks like, what a liberated future looks like, and then letting those dreams sort of drive the work that we do in the present.

Uh, and as we were thinking about like what a school could look like, what education justice really means, uh, we've really started to understand um the school-to-prison nexus, and the role that the prison industrial complex plays in limiting uh especially black and impoverished communities and young people's ability to flourish.

Uh, and so that got us into the work of community organizing specifically around the carceral system, policing prisons, courts, uh, and really trying to create community safety.

And so those origins are very much present uh in our work today.

And we work in three main pillars that I like to describe uh in different ways.

They're education, community organizing, and then programming.

And so our educational work is really the foundation of all of our work.

Um, like I said, it was the original dream, the original mission and still continues to be a goal of ours to create a school on the east side of Oklahoma City, which is the community where I'm from.

Uh, it's a predominantly black community here in Oklahoma City.

Um, and so that continues to be a goal of ours, but education it really is embedded in all of the work that we do.

Uh, like the name says, Foundation for liberating minds.

Uh, we believe that education is sort of the foundation to liberate a consciousness and to a liberated society, and so without that political education, that education of our history of our roots and where we came from, which I know like the work that so many of you do, and this commission is tasked with um, you know, we're not actually going to get to that place of freedom, and so uh education is is really really huge in everything that we do.

Um our next pillar is community organizing, which we like to think of as like tending the soil for our eventual vision and dream to actually manifest, and so we organize primarily around uh the carceral state.

Um, we have several campaigns that we work around, both like hyper-local to Oklahoma City uh as well as statewide campaigns.

Uh, but one that I do want to lift up is our one and two campaign, which is a narrative organizing project where we have shared the stories uh of seven formerly incarcerated Oklahomans, really to uh rehumanize uh their stories and their narratives to say that they are more than just uh whatever got them uh incarcerated and and to really understand uh the the harm and the violence that is embedded in our prison system in Oklahoma, and also to say that the people in communities, you know, who who get uh wrapped up in the system are more than just their case, they're more than just what got what got them locked up.

Um, and that narrative campaign is really trying to shift from cultural stories to to helpful narratives or what we call liberatory narratives, and so focused on accountability and empathy and repair and transformation, and that gets us into our last pillar, which is our programming, our visionary programming.

Um and Safe Commune uh is that the work, so you know, we like to think about like the narrative change being the stories, uh the storytelling work that's so fundamental to how people think and the ideas that we hold in our community and our state, um, but our programming is really putting those narratives into practice, and so one of the main narratives that we have is around reparation and transformation, and so our Safe Commune is our transformative justice program uh where we've actually trained two cohorts, and later this summer we'll be launching our third cohort to actually facilitate restorative justice processes within the community.

Uh, and one really exciting thing that we do with Safe Commune is community circles, and so when we were first talking with Lexi just about like different opportunities, and one thing that you know I wanted to share with you all is these circles create a really um unique opportunity to hold complex um historical realities to hold complex harm uh and violence in a way that centers uh equity of voice and centers the survivors of that harm of that violence.

Um, and so obviously, you know, this commission and this administration at the city of Tulsa, in my opinion, from an Oklahoma City, is doing a lot better than the previous administration.

Um but there's still more work to be done, right?

As you all know, and there's still more accountability to be had, and I think uh restorative justice and the circles, community circles that we facilitate can be an opportunity to uh create space for communities of survivors and descendants as well as uh communities of people who cause that harm, or um our descendants of people who cause that harm uh to sit and to speak and to you know try to create you know real accountability and reconciliation, and so that's the work of Safe Commune, and it's just like an offering uh to you all to consider um that I think uh could be you know uh a potentially exciting um process, um, and to think about you know, something you know, to really wrestle with the concept of of a harm and violence that happened over a century ago, but that is very much still reverberating in the community to this day, uh, which I know I'm preaching to the choir, so I won't I won't be the dead horse.

Um and then lastly, you know, I just wanted to share about like uh the trainings and workshops that we offer and uh one of the trainings that we have is a training on like Oklahoma history, and Christy, I know you've done like brilliant brilliant work on around uh, you know, the Black History Saturdays, but we do offer trainings uh to all different kinds of groups, young people, teachers, uh community groups, and so also just another offering for you all, both in your individual capacities and uh as commissioners that FLM offers trainings on all different topics uh around the social around social justice that that can also be an offering, and so um I just said a lot.

Um appreciate y'all for listening, uh, but happy to take any questions or thoughts uh if you have them.

Well, I I I appreciate you for doing this presentation, and I see so many ways that we can work together on the commission, and even with Black History Saturdays.

So I would definitely be in touch with you about both of those things.

Um, because I love what you're doing, and the work that you're doing is so needed.

Um, and that's what we need.

We need to do more partnerships as well.

Um, and so yes, yes, yes, yes.

Is there any questions?

Christy has your information.

So I've got an idea, but I'd like to share it with you personally.

I couldn't hear the first part of the question.

Yes, uh with with permission, I'm happy to share Aurelius' email with the commission so that you all can touch base with him individually for any more like personal inquiries.

And I saw a thumbs up over there, so I think I have that permission.

Great.

Um the only thing that that I would share um another program that Foundation for Liberty Liberating Minds puts on is um monthly Beyond Whiteness um learning.

I don't know if you would call it a workshop or a learning circle or how you would.

Yeah, the circles as well.

Great, okay.

Um, of course, those happen more frequently in person in OKC, but monthly they do offer that virtually as well.

So as one of maybe uh two white folks in the room potentially right now, but maybe more watching online.

I've signed up for those.

Um anybody who might be listening or watching this now or later on, definitely encourage you to look at those as well.

I think it's important for us to collect folks to to seek out opportunities to uh do the work as we say, so they offer that as well.

Yeah, for sure.

And it that the beyond whiteness group is open to anybody with European ancestry, so you don't necessarily have to identify as white but yeah, it's uh a group to think about uh the European ancestry and try to heal those roots and to be uh accountable to collective liberation.

Um and yeah, we do have a couple of other affinity, so we call those those groups that we offer beyond whiteness is one of them.

We call them affinity groups.

We also have um uh building authentic masculinity, which is for men to be accountable uh around masculinity and things currently that's only offered in person in OKC, but also considering a virtual option.

Um, but we can always do like trainings or uh circles and things, you know, in Tulsa or in other places.

Uh and then we also have uh our embodying solidarity circle, which is just offered seasonally currently, but it's for organizing advocates to just have a space to ground and decompress because this work is is treacherous in Oklahoma, it's tiring and so um circles of can you know we also offer like healing circles, just space to be and to talk about you know what we're going through and what's happening in the world and how we're dealing with it and showing up in solidarity, and soon we also have like uh to be named um women's group women's circle that we also hold.

So we we've been doing the masculine D one for a while uh because of my because I'm a man, honestly.

But uh we'll be launching uh uh a women's circle as well.

So yeah, there's some a few opportunities for different identity groups to to be in circle.

All right, any questions?

Sounds so exciting.

This is um this is Commissioner Monday, but thank you so much for your presentation and um and give us the opportunity to learn more about what you all are doing.

I'm excited about about a um collaborating with you for a partnership to be able to to um actually be able to participate in the healing circles and and be grounded in um but like like you said, this work is treacherous.

So I definitely think that that could benefit our the commission.

So thank you.

Yeah, thank you so much.

That sounds great.

Oh, yeah.

Does your group um participate in any uh like legislation or any type of uh letter writing or correspondence to address the issues that your clients are going through?

Yes, so um we're currently uh in coalition led by the Julius Jones Institute um to try to improve conditions in the department of correction.

So that is like in the works actively earlier this year.

We did a screening of uh the Alabama solution, which was all about the really terrible conditions in Alabama prisons to try to have a conversation about you know the similarities and differences here in Oklahoma DLC.

That got some press coverage.

Uh, and you know, the head of the DLC wasn't too happy about that, uh, and so uh offered up a meeting, and so that meeting will be happening soon with um Senator Nikki Nice and and Joe Sean Smith, who's in charge of uh I should say is uh one of the leaders with the Julius Jones Institute.

So that's one effort that we have ongoing.

Um, and then we were also in coalitional efforts around uh working to place a moratorium on the death penalty, which has stalled out the last two legislative sessions.

Uh and then a couple years ago, we worked on the survivor justice coalition to pass the Survivor Justice Act, which was all about resentencing for survivors of gender-based violence, uh, if they can prove that their crime that they were convicted of uh was directly related to uh the gender-based violence, the domestic violence, the sexual assault that they have survived.

Um, and so a couple of different legislative um processes that we're a part of, and then we're also just a part of like more locally in Oklahoma City, um, no new jail coalition.

So in Oklahoma County, they're currently working to build a bigger county jail to incarcerate more of our neighbors, and so we're trying to uh limit the number of beds in Oklahoma County, and also just continue to say that taxpayer dollars could be spent in better ways than you know an 800 million dollar jail.

Uh, and so those are some of the legislative fights that we're a part of.

As a 501c3, where we're just sort of educated people.

Let me say that as well.

This is a public meeting.

Thank you.

Oh wow.

Yeah.

Thank you so much, and I will be giving you a phone call.

I appreciate you.

That sounds good.

Thank y'all so much.

All right.

Have a good day.

All right, you too.

Bye bye.

All right, so um, before I jump into the chair report, I want to um, of course, we we acknowledge Don Ross, but I wanted to read an excerpt from Don Ross, um, because that was centered in the Beyond Apology report when we created Beyond Apology Beyond Apology.

Um, and this was before the commission, of course.

Um, but I want to read this, and he said reparation, reparations.

It happened.

There was murder, false imprisonment, forced labor, a cover-up, and local precedence for restitution.

While the official damage was estimated at 1.5 million dollars, the black community filed more than $4 million in claims, all were denied.

However, the city commission did approve two claims exceeding five thousand dollars for guns and ammunition taken during the racial disturbance of June 1st.

In his memoir, Stratford, J.B.

Stratford, recalled the guards acted like wild men, the militia had been ordered to take charge, but instead they joined the rioter.

What you doing here?

In a concerted effort to rid the National Guard of the Klu Klux Klan in 1922.

The preponderance of the information demands what was promised, whether it was Ku Klux Klan instigated, land speculators' conspiracy, inspired by yellow journalism or random acts, it happened.

Justice demands a closure as it did with Japanese Americans and Holocaust victims of Germany.

It is a moral obligation.

Tulsa was likely the first city to in uh in the to be bombed from the air.

There was a precedent of payments to at least two white victims of the riot.

The issue today is what government entity should provide financial repair to the survivors and the condemned community that suffered under vigilante violence.

The report tells the story.

Let justice point the finger and begin the reconciliation.

And finally, vigilantees underdeputized and under the color of law destroyed the Black Wall Street of America.

Some known victims were in unmarked graves in a city-owned cemetery.

We know what that is, and others were hauled off to unknown places in full view of the National Guard.

The mob torched the soul of the city.

An evil from which neither whites nor blacks has fully recovered.

Representative Don Ross.

And that came from the Oklahoma Commission to study the Tulsa race riot of 1921.

And that is on the first page of the Beyond Apology report.

And so I wanted to read that, center that's why we're doing the work, of course, that we are doing.

And I also want to acknowledge that when Greg Robinson, myself, and our city councilor, Vanessa Hall Harper started Beyond Apology.

We had help, right?

We had a lot of help.

Vanessa raised the $51,000, a little more than that to get us going, to get the help we needed to do this report.

But there is someone who's sitting here from the OSU Center for Public Life, which is my good friend Dr.

Tammy Moore.

And Dr.

Tammy Moore had students to come together, Cynthia Soto, Landon Wolf, and they so we did these four meetings across the city, and we asked everyone in these meetings, what does repair and reparations look like to you?

And we had that data and we gathered that data.

And it was Dr.

Tammy Moore and her students that gathered the get the data that we needed, and we built the Beyond Apology report.

Let's give her a hand.

And I want to thank you for always supporting us.

You always do behind the scenes, and you have since day one.

And so we love you, appreciate you so much.

You have anything you want to say.

And let me say this, she came a lot, she had a lot of scrutiny doing this work.

A lot.

I don't have anything to say for myself.

I wish I had known that you were gonna ask me this question.

Because I would have brought, I would have brought Cynthia Soto render with me.

Well, you can do a presentation at our next meeting.

You know what?

I would love to do that, and I would love to, I would love for Cynthia and Landon to get to visit with you all.

Um Landon Wolf no longer lives in Tulsa, he's moved to Salem Morgan, and he's doing incredible work.

Yes.

Um Cynthia is still here and doing amazing work.

She works at Oklahoma Birth Equity Institute.

Um, where we are about to launch the next.

Well, we gotta have to find this first, but we're doing work.

She is leading work that could transform the way that we use people's stories, to be the foundation for policy that changes systems related to black maternal health.

And I guess the thing that I will say that maybe to conclude this is kind of as a launch into what you'll hear next when we get together, is that the um the arts-based approach that Cynthia developed for the collection of data for this commission report is the is the method that she used to collect data from people about their negative experiences with um related to their reproductive health, which is the basis for change that will happen in the hospital systems we go.

Um it's the foundation for this Robert Wood Johnson, that we are applying more now.

So if you don't know her name now, I encourage you to I say all the time my job is just to lift her up because that woman is she's amazing.

Um so Christy, thank you, and Councilor Harbor, as always.

Thank you for the opportunity this morning.

It's very good to see you all.

I look forward to a rough couple of years theoretical issue, but I'm glad to be back in the community.

I appreciate the ancestral recognition.

We are where we're supposed to be.

I could be at home doing program assessment report, and I think you know what?

That's not where I intend to be today.

This is evidently where I'm meant to be.

That's amazing.

Thank you.

It's very good to be with you all.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr.

Moore.

Thank you.

And that's that's collaboration, right?

And that's what got us to where we are that collaboration.

So I want to go ahead and jump into the report, and we are still we got good time, and we don't have time.

All right, so I would like um to thank the commissioners, thank you, commissioners, the volunteers, partners, the sponsors, the speakers, and the community members who helped make the inaugural Tulsa Reparation Summit from Apology to Repair, a success.

We did that, y'all.

That was really good.

Um the course of the summit, we welcome community members, educators, nonprofit leaders, policymakers, faith leaders, business owners, descendants, organizers, and attendees from both Tulsa and outside of Oklahoma who came together to engage in meaningful conversations surrounding reparations, repair, healing policy, and the future of Greenwood and North Tulsa.

And the feedback we received uh shows the summit created a powerful impact.

And um I did send a feedback form out, and so I'm gonna share some of the feedback that we did receive.

Um participants repeatedly shared that they they did leave, feeling inspired, hopeful, empowered, more connected to others, uh seen and heard, emotionally impacted through healing and reflection, and many attendees stated that the summit significantly increased their understanding of reparation, um, the history and impact of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre and the importance of policy and community organizing and advancing repair efforts.

Um several sessions were consistently identified as impactful, including presentations by Dr.

Joy DeGroo, which everyone loved that.

Uh Cam Howard, Dr.

Carlos Hill, Sipaway Belika, who uh him and Dr.

Carls is running neck to neck on the graph, and I I'm gonna get that report out to everyone.

Um Tesla Figaro from the Breakfast Club who came, uh, Caresh, Ali Lasana, our uh our hometown folks, uh Amari Jemerson, Justin Hansford, Dr.

Michael Nawa Pastor, Dr.

Michael Neighbors, and Dr.

Alicia Odawale.

Attendees also expressed strong interest in continuing collaboration uh with Beyond Apology Initiative.

That was high on the list.

They want to know how can we work with Beyond Apology more?

And so that was that was huge on the feedback form.

The other one was Black History Saturdays, policy and advocacy work came in third.

Came in fourth.

Community organizing efforts, people wanted to know more about.

So as we plan to do the next one, these are things we need to think about.

The feedback further confirmed that community members overwhelmingly believe Tulsa should continue moving forward with reparations efforts and recurring priorities, which included housing.

Housing remained at number one there.

The second one was economic development.

The third one was land protections, fourth education, fifth cash compensation, six community healing and repair.

One of the strongest outcomes from the summit was the number of attendees who expressed a desire to stay engaged through volunteering, advocacy, partnerships, organizational collaboration was really high, and future policy discussions.

They want to know more about policy.

We also received constructive feedback that will help strengthen uh future summits and and convenience, which uh they recommended, I mean, had a recommendation of improved time management.

The time management was hard.

So I we got to do better time management.

Um earlier start times.

I thought 10 was they want to start early, so we're gonna have to start trying to start early.

Um more visible schedules and signage and like the schedules kept changing.

I have one to keep up from trying to print them out.

I did contact the WUVA, is it WUVA app?

Who it's a conference type app.

They gave me a like a $3,400 thing, and I was like, ooh, maybe I'm not this time.

There's a couple different ones.

Oh, there's another, okay.

Okay, thank you for that.

They're really really geared towards really large conferences.

Yeah, when you got thousands of people coming in.

I'm sure one day you keep doing it.

But yeah, it's it's really good to get thousands of people coming.

Yeah, so I'll just have to figure out a better way to do that.

Um the other one was they wanted uh additional youth engagement, and that's one thing we didn't have was a youth component.

So we need to try to engage more youth on that.

So I'm looking over there at Taylor.

Maybe the one with Dr.

Johnson and see if there would be some schools.

Yeah, especially the eighth grade since they were they have that eighth grade agreement or eighth grade students growth agreement rising, maybe there would be some eighth grade teachers that could say, for this day, these students can be released to go to something that's already in line with what they're doing.

Yes.

Yeah, so that's all the black Saturday history children are very interested in things.

That's true.

So I need to gather them up.

It's getting there during school day, that's the thing.

Yeah.

We'll work it out.

Yeah, we got to feel we'll figure this out.

We gotta do that.

And then the other one was more opportunities for audience participation and questions.

And so we'll have to figure that out too.

Because we were crunching for time, and a lot of people had more questions for uh the speakers.

And so I struggled with um, and a lot of our speakers had just came from the Geneva convention.

So I was trying to, they were tired too, you know, and they still came.

So, like, do you just put them in a room with folks and then go on to the next.

We'll have to figure that stuff out better um next time as well.

Um, and then the other one was continued emphasis on actionable next steps.

Um, and so I will say some of the next steps.

We're gonna have some virtual options.

So I had some other breakout sessions, like one for Nehemiah Frank, uh Cody Ransom, those are gonna be some virtual ones that we're gonna throw out here shortly for all the people who came.

Um so we'll send that out to them so they can have some.

We can still keep this going until the next one, right?

And having guest speakers to still do it, but just virtual.

And as as chair, I believe the summit demonstrated that Tulsa is ready for deeper conversations that move beyond symbolic acknowledgement towards measurable action.

The Beyond Apology Commission remains committed to community engagement, policy recommendations, historical truth telling, protecting descendants and vulnerable communities, and exploring pathways toward repair and accountability.

And I also want to acknowledge the emotional weight, many people carried into the space.

And I picked that date because Willie Barney had a standing date, which is that fourth, is it the fourth weekend?

The fourth weekend in April.

Yeah, the fourth Saturday in April would be the state of Black Tulsa.

And so we had the same date when we had the summit is that so people were over there, and then people were, you know, in Langston Tulsa.

So I said we will work better on that because we had a lot of people who was like, why are y'all doing this on the same day?

So that third Saturday will be this of April, which is which is April 16th.

Do they plan for that?

I don't think they plan for that to be an annual repeat, do they?

Yeah.

On the same weekend?

The fourth Saturday.

They are planning, they've already said they're gonna do it again.

It's not necessarily the state of Black Topic, it's the uh the monthly meetings.

Gotcha.

So organization.

Go to that's you know, that day changes better.

Monthly meeting.

Understood.

Networking meetings.

My apologies about that.

Um, and plan the planning efforts I think we definitely need to start maybe November.

So I won't be pushing myself crazy like last time.

Um, so we will definitely um do that.

Um, and I wanted to also um Mr.

Dooney, Commissioner Dooney has um video footage from her from her grandfather, and I don't want to wait till next year to do that, which I do want to do that this time, plan it in, but I do think we need to have a session um where that is played where we can and have dialogue around that.

So I do want to talk about that because I want that to be something we do um hopefully in.

I want to try to think June.

So just the activity to do that.

So I think that'll be an event that we definitely can do.

Um, yeah, around Juneteenth.

Well, I think we should do that.

And what's um what's her name?

Princess uh new.

She has images, so maybe that could be even another aspect of it.

Someone like um, you do work with Chrisetta Newman.

I catalog her inventory, uh, Cody's list.

Coby R E.

Yes.

He's somebody really good, like you know, with film and images.

Yeah, also somebody that we it's not only you all, but bring in some of those community members who are doing that, their thing of work would also help.

That's good, kind of thank you.

Yeah, we we definitely need to do that.

Um, but we look forward to continuing to grow this space for education, policy, organizing, healing, and collective action.

And again, thank you for everyone who made this possible.

Uh, Commissioner Monday, thank you for creating the wellness room.

People were able to get massages, and the crazy part about it, she said, a lot of y'all didn't even come get massages.

They was in there for uh we they were there for both days.

I didn't even get a massage because I forgot I was so busy, too much.

Yeah, yeah, but it was so much.

Yeah, yeah.

So we just have to to space that out.

I did see Brentham getting them.

So we definitely we're gonna have to, you know, do some things, yeah, some timing things differently.

Um, but we'll get there, we'll get there.

Well, it truly was a wakanda week we can.

It was that's the way I felt anyway.

Yes, yes, it was, it was.

And so we have a lot of also national support um to help us to make this even more successful next time.

So um we will do that.

The other thing I think is something to think about is um I think the people go back and say, Oh, it was great.

More just like with Black Blackwater Rally, people leave and they say, Oh, you gotta go back with me next year.

Yeah, I imagine that you'll probably see double the size, which means location, and I'll just put it out there.

I think it would be awesome to have this at the newly remodeled Greenwood Cultural Center because it'll be up to date.

They'll have all the latest AV because you know there's still AD issues and that likes to, you know, holding a little mic and a little box.

But we'll have a new facility, have a new, you know, and it'll be a way to welcome Greenwood Cultural being reopened, but having it there, I think it would be just something to think about.

I don't want to ever discount lengths at all.

But I think you're gonna need a larger space.

Can we also add an event of local storytelling because there are so many family stories that's tied to the massacre?

I've interviewed some of my classmates, and they talk about their relatives that hid in the tracks under the tracks and how somebody wrecks.

I mean, people need to hear those stories.

Absolutely, absolutely.

Um we can definitely do that, and we got time now to start planning out.

I would start I would start before nothing.

Yeah, I'm just not before we respect the July.

I would definitely stop.

July.

Definitely starting.

Exactly.

I think the the funder issue, definitely, they're over yeah.

Getting getting a notice to them, eight to ten months out is really key to get that.

Yeah, that's key.

Okay.

Okay.

Well, see, well, we can start in July.

We can start in July.

So um we can keep get that going.

I also um want to say I will be out of the country May 31st through uh June 13th.

I'll be in Berlin.

So if you need me, if you need me, just uh, yes, man.

So working though, working.

But if you need me, you can still text me or email me, but just know I'm like seven hours ahead.

Yeah, so just um, but I do want to do some events for around Juneteenth.

So I'll still be, we'll still be working on that, even though I may not like me here, but we're still working on that.

Um, so I I want to um put that out there, and I feel like I'm oh I want to also just give a quick um update on the Vernon Witness.

I have some things coming up that I would love for you all to be a part of uh construction is actually getting ready to start mid-June.

Um, so I want you all to be there, I guess when we be there to knock down some walls or something like that.

We have um we have some amazing um artifacts that um I can't wait to share with you all and some things that you will actually be able uh to see that's going to be um absolutely um amazing, and so I want an apology to be um a part of that process.

Um, so yes, and I wish I could share more, but it's exciting, but I will be able to share more with you guys here in the next couple weeks.

Um, so a lot of stuff that's happening.

Will we will the commission be doing anything uh with at the Legacy Fest this year or or being a part of any of the legacy fest?

I know you mentioned Juneteenth.

I just want to make sure we run past week.

I just haven't heard um anything.

I do know um the Greenwood Trust is uh uh having the um a symposium or something like that.

I read, but I had and they and I know they have some um panel discussions and things like that.

A couple friends of mine are on some of those, we'll be on some of those panels, but um they have I no one has reached out to beyond apology to be a part of that, so I don't know, that's maybe yet, but we just keep moving doing the work that we do.

Um, yeah.

Um, I don't know why I'm thinking this is the end, this is not the end.

Committee reports.

Um I don't have any.

I know people were so super busy this month.

Um, so I know the meetings are scheduled, so we'll have that.

Um I do know that uh Vanessa and I we met with Ronald Stewart, state representative, and we're talking about um creating a bill um from Beyond Apology.

One of the things that Illinois has done, their governor their uh governor has approved some funding um to pay for any um black resident of Illinois to get their ancestry uh kits for free.

True, and they're paying for that, and that's one of the things that um it was African ancestry thing, yeah, African ancestry.

Oh, that's an expensive one.

That's the one that you actually get information.

Yeah, of course.

African ancestry.

And so we're we're um gonna be working uh on that, so we'll be able to share more about that process.

So we're gonna see.

I mean, you know what?

We are in Oklahoma, so we're gonna still try to see what we're gonna tell us.

So, yeah, uh, how we can something that we can do similar to that.

Keenan Keller, uh, who was here, um, and I wished a lot of you had got a chance to spend a little bit more time with Keenan.

Keenan worked on the hill for 30 years, he uh retired, he worked um with the Obama administration, um, policy legislative, just extraordinary.

Um, and so he has offered a lot of his time and resources to us um uh for writing policy and things like that.

And so I'm super um grateful to you know those people outside who who are lending themselves um to us and want us to be successful.

Mm-hmm.

And policy as well.

Yeah, no, y'all remember Sipaway?

The gentleman that was from uh Ballant, um Getty Basal.

Yes, excited me.

So he's the one that actually wrote the legislation for Illinois.

Okay, and he worked with us uh uh state representative there that passed the legislature, and then she said the governor signed into law, so they are actually set aside state tax dollars to uh to pay for anyone interested in in learning their African ancestry.

He talks about citizenship too.

That was exciting.

Yeah, yeah, he's talking about all kinds of stuff.

But yeah, specifically for that legislation, the Christian start.

I think that's definitely that's just that's what she just touched on.

I was gonna say that's definitely key.

It's we can get the policy written, but it's getting someone that will champion, you know, who will, and then in this state, getting somebody that can uh and it is what it is.

Reach across the aisle and find someone that will be brave enough to say, I'll stand with you on this one.

Absolutely, and then timing is everything.

Ain't nobody gonna do nothing during the during this, you know, the mid year election cycle.

And I'm gonna stay in a corner, and then once we get past it, then okay, pull people out to say, will you champion this with me?

That's the that's the key.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

So we'll figure that out and and do that amongst other things as well, uh, still working on getting that that ordinance created uh for a process done for when uh not only when um how we funeralize our ancestors who are coming out of these mass graves.

What do we do when our when developers find artifacts in Greenwood?

So those are things that we'll be put um, we've we've been working on, and we'll be pushing towards city council, um, and getting that done.

So we couldn't get ready to be on the hotline stores, so we're gonna be talking about legislation.

Right.

We had talked at one time about perpetuity for the commission and the work that we're doing for the future.

Is that legislative that goes into the legislative?

That's a good question for uh counselor, like I said, I'm sorry.

Um we had talked briefly, I guess at one time about the work that the Beyond Apology Commission is doing, be in perpetuity so the future anybody that comes and sits can continue the work.

We had talked about that.

Is that a legislative path that we mean to create okay?

As far as the existence of yes, that would be the work that we do that we're doing now.

Well, the existence of the commission.

Is that what you're referring to?

Yeah, so yes, that would be a legislative, yeah.

We would it would we would have to vote.

Okay on that, and then the mayor would have to assign it and to create to make it a part of the commissions of the city of Tulsa.

Okay, so this is not it is by executive order.

So the next the next mayor, yes, he or she could.

But the important yeah, an important thing too is what I've I've also said is that even if if the mayor does dissolve this or doesn't want it, we still gonna do this work.

We still don't grassroot.

You know, I'm grassing.

Yeah, right, right.

Still gonna do this work.

Um, so that that doesn't stop the work, it doesn't.

And so that's gonna continue.

Yes, ma'am.

Yes.

Um just one note.

Commissioner Monday has her hand up.

Oh, I'm sorry, are also a little bit over time.

Okay.

Commissioner Monday, I'm sorry.

It's okay, thank you.

Um, thank you.

Thank you next for putting pointing that out.

Um, I just wanted to go back real quick and to give an update on our on our on our subcommittee.

Um we have we have actually been meeting and we've been expanding.

So on the the land community, the land community and economic development community and subcommittee, we have now expanded to where we have there are there are eight total of us.

Oh, and with that we also identify our officers, I I am humble to serve as the chair of the subcommittee, and then we also have we have um Greg Taylor is the secretary, and the co-chair is um it was his deal, and so um we you know, so we've been working, we've been we we actually plan on meeting in person next week to be able to actually um start building together and the the wellness, the health and wellness committee.

We've actually been establishing we um we've been inviting more people in, so that's growing also.

So we have um, I don't I don't remember exactly how many people are on there, but we're cross-leading or we're still expanding such one to share that update that we have elected our our chairs and post-hair and the one committee, and then we'll we'll do that on the help and go this.

So I just want to share that with you all.

That is amazing.

Uh Commissioner Monday.

And for those who don't know, Deuce Tisdale is the son of William Tisdale.

Um so that that's amazing.

Thank you for that update.

Um also there, and so I'm gonna just uh go down.

There's uh is there any old business?

We're having new business, the new business um announcements.

Um, I still have to leave uh the next uh genealogy workshop will be next month during um Juneteenth.

We are having a gradient only because lack of space and capacity of various places, which they're closed on Juneteenth, and they should really be open on Juneteenth, but um, because they're on borrowed land, but um this will be in person.

There'll be uh one-to-one uh genealogists, like so you can set appointments.

Um a few people have attended, and we'll be uh having a co-presenter, and so again, this work is to also uh lead in the Graves investigation.

So as you exhibit bodies create profiles, DNA is what proves who these individuals are.

So the more people that attend, the more they understand.

Um we can have more information, and hopefully, uh the anthropology commission will uh someone will be able to attend, but also as you all think of the work that happens.

My hope would be that you all would maybe advise on in the Graves investigation.

What's next?

So we can also keep this because this work will live at Greenwood Culture Center, and as the city steps back on the genealogy side, Greenwood Culture Center, uh, Deep Greenwood, Justice for Greenwood are all continuing this work, but that we can continue to uh return people back to history.

All right.

And I'd like to say Kyra joined the education committee committee.

That's what I am not shocked at that either.

I think after the commission, all right.

Any other you said something about borrowed land?

Oh, something about OSU.

That's something like OSU, you know, all these organizations, they're closed on Juneteenth, but I'm like, you should be giving this land back.

I go on record land back.

Oh, so let's say, what's you know, it's a federal holiday now, quiet over there.

It's a federal holiday, but why would you not open up your doors on Juneteenth weekend?

Because you gotta pay people double time and a half if they work on the federal holiday.

We needed a security guard, and we can get that from the city, and somebody unlock the door.

Why are you thinking how often are they planning to do these?

Because we needed a because it's the space like shop members.

The grant ends this year, they don't need this.

Oh, this this will be the the last one that this the city and green would host in collaboration.

We did we've had four of them.

Three uh this will be our third in-person, one virtual, and then from here on out, um Greenwood will kind of pick it up, and we're working on building some partnerships with them.

Um, like Jasmine Henry's here for Justice for Greenwood, because they've also been doing the same work with genealogists and our genealogists also work together on national boards, so we're working uh like there'll be a nice handoff and let the community hold this work versus the city.

Sorry, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

And we talk about that when we in our early stages about DNA, we did because uh, Dr.

Angela Raji.

She presented when um when you all first started, and she works with Justice for Greenwood as well, I believe.

Yeah, so yeah, and this work the the grant sunsets uh the end of September.

So that'll be it for me.

And that's the uh you all just uh okay.

The we shifted some funds around to give more back into the work itself versus staffing, and so we'll finish September 30th and we'll have a very lengthy report, but actual things to show what we've done.

We stretched that million dollars every which way you could.

They're not going to make work off the teacher.

So they're not gonna restrict the dollar.

I just finished so they're not gonna renew the grant.

Under this current administration federally, they are um, it's a DR.

Yeah.

It's because of that work.

Um it is a law enforcement grant.

So, but because of probably the name, they're not realize it was law enforcement.

I thought it was from the NFT.

There's a community aspect, but on the law enforcement side, there's the forensic investigative genetic genealogy.

So you're looking to solve coal cases, yeah.

Like, how are you doing this work?

And Tulsa has really led the charge on what this looks like because we've advanced the science, and our our lab is the lab that we work with is our lab.

It's currently working on a white paper about how you know using these hundred plus your remains has pushed the industry into being more in-depth and what that looks like.

So, officially they're unsolved criminal cases.

So they fall under the jurisdiction of federal law.

Yep.

When they want it when they won't it.

Yeah, when it's right, which overrides the timeout, right?

Yeah, so it's good when we got a federal registration, there's plenty of money, but when you don't have a fair registration, too much gonna know they pick this up up on that money.

Yeah, and if you all have not seen Jim.

No, please go see Jim.

I think a person like who's getting, yeah, okay, okay.

So yeah, so yeah, so G G E M.

Um, the coffee shop is beautiful.

Oh, it is open?

Um, they will open June.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

The building is open, but yes, he's waiting for the shop opens.

But it's beautiful in there.

Um, so you can go in there and work, um, even the drive-through, go get your coffee.

Tyrants' space.

Oh, north.

Um, we're not so the blackwasher chamber has a little satellite office there, historic Greenwood Main Street, um, T E D C.

Why am I missing one?

That is it for now, and then um, nice meeting space in their era.

Oh, they're on the display.

And they're having their questions.

I don't gotta go.

So let me um end the meeting, then we can keep talking.

Okay, um, is there a motion to adjourn the meeting?

Uh that we adjourn the meeting.

Second the motion.

All in favor.

Uh okay.

I'll keep talking.

Uh, uh responding to an emergency incident, intervening and taking care of that situation, but moving forward.