Visiting Tulsa

The Cities for Financial Empowerment holds two convenings each year for member cities to share best practices to help low-income residents build assets, and this fall's was held in Tulsa, Oklahoma’s second-largest city (population 409,000). Most of the meetings were held at the BMX Hall of Fame and we stayed at a Hyatt, which had the most helpful staff of any hotel I’ve been at in years. In the evenings, we had a chance to see some interesting parts of the city.

Mid-Continent Tower

In the 1820s, the Lochapoka tribe of the Creek nation negotiated with the Cherokees to settle in what is now downtown Tulsa. A railroad was built in 1882, a school in 1844, and the city grew to 1,000 people by 1890. In 1900, the federal census reported 1,390 residents and at 1907 statehood Tulsa had a population of 7,298. By 1910, the number had more than doubled and stood at 18,182. Starting in 1901, petroleum processing became important to the economy and the oil boom lasted until the late 1920s. Tulsa is also known for its Art Deco architecture and I used the stunning Mid-Continent Tower above as a landmark to get back to our hotel nearby.

The Holy Family Cathedral (dedicated 1914) is the mother church of the Diocese of Tulsa. In the late 19th century, a Catholic priest visited Tulsa monthly but there was not enough demand for a church until one was built 1899 and by 1910 it had been outgrown. The current cathedral was begun in 1912. A Catholic school, initially intended just for Indian and African American children, was funded by Katharine Drexel (later canonized), an heiress to the Drexel banking family of Philadelphia in 1899. Unfortunately, the church was locked when I arrived because it was a holiday.

The Gathering Place

On Monday night, our hosts had arranged a tour of the Gathering Place, a 66.5-acre park along the Arkansas River. It is a nature-inspired retreat within a city environment that attracts millions of families annually, and it was full of visitors on a holiday. I missed the shuttle by an eyelash but caught an Uber and explored on my own before I caught up with the group.

Historic Route 66 went through Tulsa and was established in 1926, running from Chicago to Santa Monica, one of the original highways in the US. It was the route for those migrating west and features in The Grapes of Wrath as the Mother Road, a symbol of both hope and despair. The highway was decommissioned in the 1960s but a historic district exists where the Mother Road Market is located, Oklahoma’s first Food Hall. There were 20 or so food and shopping options, plus live music, and we received a $15 food voucher (it goes further in OK) and a drink ticket, so could choose what we wanted, then gathered at a big patio in the back to hear from the foundation that had funded the operation. I had a Brazilian meat pie called a pastel.

Music at the Mother Road Market

The most moving part of our trip was going to Greenwood Rising, a museum that tells the story of Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District and the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. White supremacists attacked and destroyed a nationally renowned Black entrepreneurial community in a massacre that lasted for two days and destroyed more than 35 square blocks of homes and businesses. Hundreds died and more than 10,000 were left homeless. One exhibit recreates the attack, overlaid by recordings of interviews with survivors who were children at the time it took place.  Of course, I never learned about the massacre in school, only in recent years as an adult.

In 2021, the last three known living survivors — Viola Fletcher, her brother, Hughes Van Ellis, and Lessie Randle — testified before Congress, recounting the horrors and their impact, and making the case for acknowledgment and reparation for the survivors and their descendants. Their lawsuit seeking reparation has been dismissed. Van Ellis died at 102 the day I reached Tulsa; reading about his death on the plane heading west was surreal.

Chocolate Cream Pie from Amelia's Brasserie

What do these convenings discuss, you ask? Topics included Expanding Banking Access for Youth, Using Financial Capability to Support Housing Stability, Student Financial Aid and Loan Advising, and Integrating Financial Coaching in Municipal Courts. If a member city is doing something another municipality would like to implement, there is generous sharing of resources and ideas about how to overcome obstacles. In addition to presentations from all the cities, the CFE Fund brings in experts to advise us. It is a great group of mutually supportive individuals who share the same goals and the convening sends everyone home inspired by other cities’ successes.  Our host city did a great job showing us a little bit of Tulsa.  I also managed to visit Magic City Books and bought a book on the massacre to read for Nonfiction November.