'You Have To Know Where You Come From:' Tulsa Organization Helps Residents Find Connection To Tulsa Race Massacre

A Tulsa social justice foundation is working to help Oklahomans discover if they are connected to victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre.

"Justice for Greenwood" is working with genealogy experts to find more descendants of people from the Tulsa Race Massacre. 

It's called the "We Are Greenwood" Genealogy Project and leaders of the Justice for Greenwood Foundation say it’s a part of their effort to rebuild Greenwood one family at a time.

Jacqueline Weary was born and raised in Tulsa, but her family rarely talked about their history.

“I knew that my grandfather and my aunt survived,” Weary said. 

She knew she had family members who survived the Tulsa Race Massacre, but many of the details remained a mystery.

“It was almost like it was a hushed thing for a long time and they didn’t discuss it. I had to hear it from other places,” Weary said. 

It wasn’t until the “We Are Greenwood” Genealogy Project her glimpse into her family history began to come into focus,

"We’ve come up with so much information by genealogy for Justice for Greenwood,” Weary said. 

Justice for Greenwood founder, Damario Solomon-Simmons, says that’s a major part of this program. He says while some people believed they were descendants, many had little to no information about their family history.

"It's amazing to see how we get to give the gift of genealogy back to our descendants,” Simmons said. 

A gift organizers say will help people discover if they are connected to or missing out on benefits and opportunities as descendants of the Tulsa Race Massacre.

Simmons says it’s about knowing what families were a part of Greenwood's past to move into the future of building this current Greenwood community one family at a time.

“You have to know where you come from before you actually go forward. I think you have to know who you are. You know a lot is passed down through the genes,” Weary said. 

Justice For Greenwood gives $500 to each chronicled descendant who completes their oral history and has provided more than $30,000 to Tulsa Massacre descendants participants.