But today, we can put a seed in the ground.” Pastor Mike Todd. “Today, we can’t restore everything that has been stolen from you. That couldn’t have happened if you all didn’t survive,” Todd went on to say. “I’m a young Black man who took over a church from a White man who built it in North Tulsa. “Because of you, this is able to happen,” he told them while pointing to the Transformation Church congregation. Thank you for being here today,” he said. “Thank you for living a life that survived the devastation.

Kneeling before the three remaining survivors of the massacre-Viola Fletcher, 107 years old Hughes Van Ellis, 100 years old and Lessie Randle, 106 years old-Todd expressed his gratitude. “We’re gonna start reparations right here,” he added. Referencing the biblical story of Nehemiah, who rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem, he said God told him: “The hand that usually tears it down is rarely the hand that builds it back up.” This was not their job, it’s our job,” Todd said. “We have been looking for someone to restore what they do not have the anointing to restore. The Oasis Fresh Foundation, which opened a grocery store in what The Black Wall Street Times calls a “food desert,” was also gifted $100,000. The Greenwood Cultural Center, which serves the town that was destroyed during the massacre, was given $100,000. The megachurch pastor called up each local organization one at a time and presented their representatives with a check.īuild in Tulsa, an entrepreneurship venture dedicated to rebuilding Black Wall Street, was awarded $50,000. “If God is the God of reparations and restoration…and I’m one of God’s people…then I am responsible for being a part of restoring what has been torn down.” “Reparations means that somebody is going to take up the mantle and actually put into action the process of repairing something that was destroyed,” Todd said. He added that God told him that the Church should be at the forefront of repairing and restoring what has been broken in the world.

Mike todd pastor