Tulsa African American Affairs Commission Meeting – September 8, 2026
Tulsa African American Affairs Commission Meeting – September 8, 2026
During this meeting, the Commission heard a presentation from Willie Barney (Empowerment Network) on the Tulsa Empowerment Network's collective action plan, reviewed committee reports, approved previous minutes, and received public comments on early voting access and community events. The meeting lasted approximately 1.5 hours and included 18 commissioners present.
Consent Calendar
- Minutes from the August 11, 2026 meeting were approved unanimously.
Public Comments & Testimony
- A member of the public expressed concern about the lack of an early voting polling place in North Tulsa during the recent election, calling it a civil rights issue. Commissioner Tracy Love Chandler noted that Commissioner Margaret Love has been working with elected officials and the election board, and that early voting had moved from the county election board to a location in East Tulsa, which is not accessible for many seniors.
- Jariek Wortham (Jag Tulsa Arts Group) promoted the fifth annual Citywide Creative Festival (September 24–27, 2026), which includes a cinema social, art crawl, workshops, fashion show, and gala—most events free. She also mentioned a volunteer sign-up opportunity.
- Additional announcements were made about the Non-1-8 Day festival (September 18), St. Monica Church’s centennial, a health fair, Toast of Tech Week, and the Black Wall Street Nation Festival (September 25–27).
Discussion Items
- Guest Presentation: Willie Barney (Omaha Empowerment Network) presented on the Tulsa Empowerment Network’s progress. Since launching in Tulsa in January 2024, the network has hosted 18 events with over 1,500 registered participants and 700 unique attendees. Key slides highlighted that $2.15 billion flows into Black households in Tulsa annually, and there are nearly 400 Black-owned businesses with employees. A collective action plan has been developed around eight core areas (e.g., economic development, housing, education). Monthly meetings are held on the third Saturday at 36th Street North Event Center, with the theme shifting monthly. The next meeting on September 19 will focus on updating the action plan and engaging runoff candidates for District 1.
- Executive Committee Report (Chair Wilson): The committee is working to consolidate a survey/census for African American residents to identify conditions for success and barriers. They are seeking a data-collection partner for validation. The commission has grown to 18 members (out of 23 seats) and is recruiting additional organizational representatives.
- Policy Committee Report (Commissioner Ray): The committee reviewed the August 25 election results (District 2, 3, 5, 7 incumbents re-elected; District 9 new; District 1 runoff) and is creating a graphic to explain the election timeline and voter turnout to the community.
- Community Engagement & Cultural Promotion Committee: Noted upcoming events and the monthly newsletter.
- Education & Skill Building Committee (Commissioner Love Chandler): Announced the third annual Dr. Wimberley’s Excellence in Education Awards. Applications are open for six categories (Difference Maker, Outstanding New Educator, Trailblazer, Guiding Light, Excellence in Academic Instruction, and Leader in Educational Excellence). The event is October 27 at the Center for individuals not in traditional school settings. Catering has been donated (Black-owned business), and monetary awards are planned. Commissioners are asked to share applications and solicit donations.
- Human Rights Commission (via Deputy): An ordinance change has removed the requirement that complaints be initially filed through the city clerk. The commission is now working with IT, City Council, and other departments to enable electronic filing, improving accessibility. Currently, complaints can be initiated via 311 with a short intake.
Key Outcomes
- Approved: Minutes from August 11, 2026.
- Directives:
- Policy committee will develop a voter timeline graphic.
- Education committee will continue soliciting award applications and donations.
- Human Rights Commission will proceed with electronic filing implementation.
- Commission members were encouraged to attend the September 19 Tulsa Empowerment Network meeting to help update the collective action plan.
- Next Steps: The executive committee will finalize the survey/census and seek data validation partners; the chair will follow up on poll location concerns with the policy committee and Commissioner Love.
- Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned by unanimous consent.
Meeting Transcript
Thank you. All right. Are we all right? We are officially on Tika. Great. Greens, everyone, thank you guys for being here. Um, we are missing where one short of Corn. We're gonna we're gonna go ahead and do our call to order and roll call, I guess. Oh, you want to wait on that till we can do it. Go ahead. Patricia Carter Breakner, present, Michelle Burdex, Marquise Dennis, Dwayne Dickens. Present, Simone Gittens, Brian Humphrey. Present, Margaret Love, Tracy Love Chandler. Present. Fifi Martin, Larissa McNeil, John Paul Ray. Present. Jimmy Lastucci, Mike Hellbaugh, Maybell Wallace, Judy Williams, Christy Williams, Tony Williams, Ray Kell Wilson. Okay, thank you all for being here. Again, we are one short of Corn right now. Um, so we are going to skip the minutes there. There's a minutes are there, but from our last meeting, which was in August. Um, but we are going to skip past that right now. We do have a guest speaker, uh, who's gonna do a presentation virtually for us, uh, Mr. Willie Barney with Tulsa Empowerment Network and really uh coming out of Omaha, which is the Empowerment Network, is uh is actually from and originates from there. Uh thank you, Willie, for joining us virtually there. Um, we are going to go ahead and allow you to tell us a little bit about the empowerment network. Um, and we've been having some business at Tulsa, and we have like actually I believe some uh local people, local, I guess, I guess uh individuals who are representing also helping our feet on the ground, uh, boots on the ground, like I should say. But I'll let you go ahead and talk more about that. Thank you so much again for being here. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much. Uh evening everyone, uh, after six or thank you. Really appreciate the invitation to be able to spend some time with you. You can hear me okay. Yes. Okay, perfect. And I'll uh put some things on the screen here in a few minutes. But uh greatly appreciate the amazing uh partnership that we have formed with Tulsa over the last three years, and uh have had the awesome opportunity to work with um we were just talking uh last week. We were just talking last week. Over 1,500 people that have registered for various events that we have co-hosted there. We have an outstanding partnership that's developed over time with World One Development with Charles and Demali, Council of Vanessa Hall Harper, Brenton Todd, and others that have helped to facilitate this process. We are as of this month, 20 years since the launch of the Omaha Empowerment Network. And since that time, we have now started to work with 10 cities across the country, and one of the first out of the gate is Tulsa, Oklahoma. So we're really honored to partner with you. I know there may be some in the room that have uh shared or heard about work and on the work in Omaha, but I thought I'd share a little bit about that and then move right into where we are as of right now in Tulsa. So if you don't mind, I can click that on the screen and get us started. You can see that okay? Yes. All right, so let me get it zoomed in here. Um again, uh we started in September 2006 with African Americans coming together around small tables around strategy, around housing, employment, education.
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