June 29, 2021bcnn1wp

Oklahoma Pastor Michael Todd Gives $1M to Tulsa Massacre Survivors, Black Nonprofits

Facebook/Michael Todd

Pastor Michael Todd of Transformation Church gave away a total of $1 million to the survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre and Black-owned nonprofits Sunday, June 20, 2021.

“Reparation is not a political word. Reparation is not a word that your left-wing friends or your right-wing friends have coined,” Todd explained to his Bixby, Oklahoma, congregation. “Let me give you the definition of reparations. ‘The action of repairing something that was devastated.’ Reparations mean that somebody is going to take up the mantle and actually put into action the process of repairing something that was destroyed.”

He called for his church to be a pillar in the community and the first to acknowledge and act upon the reparations needed to restore relationships with those who suffered through the massacre. To that end, he presented checks for $200,000 in reparations to the three remaining survivors of the Tulsa Massacre.

The massacre, which occurred from May 31 to June 1, 1921, and happened 100 years ago this month, is called one of the worst incidents of racial violence in U.S. history, leaving hundreds dead and thousands homeless after a mob attacked a Black Tulsa neighborhood.

Todd instructed his leadership team to find “every living survivor” of the massacre and invite them to Sunday service. They located Viola Fletcher, 107; Hughes Van Ellis, 100; and Lessie Randle, 106. He then used the sermon time to honor their tragedy, saying, “Thank you for living a life that survived the devastation.”

In addition to the funds donated to the survivors—the average cost of a house in Tulsa—Transformation Church donated $50,000 to the Terrance Crutcher Foundation, $50,000 to Build in Tulsa, $100,000 to One Race Movement and $100,000 to Greenwood Cultural Center.

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SOURCE: Charisma News