Empowering Black Wealth in the Shadow of the Tulsa Race Massacre

 

This week the Tulsa University School of Law will hold a Symposium marking 100 years since the Tulsa Race Massacre, a violent, destructive, tragic event that devastated lives in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, OK in 1921.  We were both honored to present our scholarship there and excited to help create change.  

Our work entitled “Empowering Black Wealth in the Shadow of the Tulsa Race Massacre” which will be published by the Tulsa Law Review suggests that the massacre and the wealth destruction that followed present a quintessential example of Black families being prevented from wealth protection and transfer because of the very fact that they possessed wealth. Racial inequality in the early 20^th century seemed to manifest its very existence in those events in Tulsa in 1921, as Black wealth was taken and destroyed in hideous acts of violence. 

 

We present a fresh approach and a fresh question: Might Wealth Transfer planning for Black families be a solution (albeit a small slice of a solution) to wealth protection and maintenance in achieving racial fairness? 

 

We examine how the laws of wealth transfer can work to break cycles of inequality, averting government reliance, to the benefit of strengthening Black families and Black family wealth toward economic command when wise financial and estate planning is supported by the rule of law and made advantageous by and to Black families. 

 

Joined by two key students, Katrina Sumner, Regent Law 2021, who is studying for the NC bar exam and joining us virtually, and Peyton Farley, a rising Regent Law 3L who is interning this summer at the law firm of Vandeventer Black in Virginia Beach, we present our work by applying our thesis to the massacre.  I am very proud of these students!

 

Together we proffer that laws of wealth transfer can work to benefit Black family wealth advancement away from racial victimization toward economic equality, growth, and command arguing that planned Black wealth succession is an opening to an essential doorway of breaking cycles of violence, unfairness, and animosity.  Family restoration happens when all families are able to transfer their wealth to the next generation. The entire Symposium can be viewed at https://youtu.be/nauP0rD7dLM (where our work begins at 5 hrs, 24 mins). 

Student Authors:

 

Katrina Sumner is a recent graduate of Regent University Law School where she served as a Senior Editor of the Law Review and as a law clerk for the School of Law’s Center for Global Justice. In 2021, she received a top three award in the Law Review’s annual competition for legal scholarship. Prior to law school, Katrina worked for a faith-based, non-profit organization dedicated to serving at-risk children living in difficult environments around the world.

 

Peyton Farley is a rising third year law student at Regent University. While in law school, Peyton has developed a love for mentoring which is evident through her service as a Graduate Assistant for the Academic Success Program and a Law Student Mentor in The Bridge Builders Esq. National Mentorship Program for Aspiring Black Lawyers. Peyton graduated manga cum laude from Hampton University in 2017 with a B.S in Business Management. Prior to law school, she worked in the Office of Procurement at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA.