TULSA — New Jersey Senator and presidential candidate Cory Booker said Thursday he first learned of the Tulsa race massacre as a child in school, but “my knowledge of it was just very shallow.”
“I thought I knew a lot about it, but a lot of Americans think it's about one street and not an entire community. I was one of those Americans who thought this was just a business district, and not the kind of widespread devastation that I learned about today,” Booker told KRMG.
He took a walking tour of the area along North Greenwood Avenue which was once known as “Black Wall Street,” and heard stories of the race massacre and its aftermath from community leaders and the families of survivors.
He spoke of the need for common sense gun laws, and he addressed continuing racial disparities in the country, specifically in terms of education, incarceration, and economic opportunity.
He then spoke at length to a packed house at the historic Vernon AME Church, where he sounded themes familiar to those who've followed his career, and more recently his campaign for president.
KRMG asked Sen. Booker if he would return to Tulsa in 2021 during the centennial commemorations of the massacre.
“This was a very emotional visit for me,” he responded. “It really just broke up the soil of my soul. If I am president of the United States I will elevate this history, I will do things to make sure that more Americans know about what happened here. But more importantly than all of that, you know folks here want restorative justice - and I will be fighting for that whether I'm a United States senator now, or fighting for that God willing as the next president of the United States.”