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Posts tagged as ““Tulsa””

“We Will Never Forget”: Omarion, Lalah Hathaway and Kierra Sheard’s Tulsa Tribute Anthem Proceeds to Aid Reparations Campaign for Massacre Survivors and Descendants (WATCH)

“We Will Never Forget”: Omarion, Lalah Hathaway and Kierra Sheard’s Tulsa Tribute Anthem Proceeds to Aid Reparations Campaign for Massacre Survivors and Descendants (WATCH)

By goodblacknews on June 2, 2021

It’s more than fitting that this year’s Black Music Month begins with the release of a tribute anthem honoring the legacy of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma on the 100th anniversary of its purposeful destruction, which was officially acknowledged by President Joe Biden in a speech yesterday.

“We Will Never Forget” is the featured track from LeBron James’ Springhill Company and CNN Documentary film, Dreamland: The Burning of Black Wall Street, that premiered on CNN on the centennial anniversary of the Black Wall Street Massacre May 31, 2021.

This soul stirring song recorded by Omarion, Lalah Hathaway and Kierra Sheard, written and produced by Greg Curtis and executive produced by Michelle Le Fleur, honors the families and descendants of the 1921 Greenwood District massacre in Tulsa. 

Proceeds from the single benefit social change grassroots organization Color of Change to aid the social justice movement to end systemic racism and racially motivated violence.

Color of Change currently has a campaign going to demand the Centennial Commission and City of Tulsa give 80% of the $30 million raised to the survivors and descendants of the Tulsa Race Massacre. Learn more about it here.

To learn more about Tulsa, read: Tulsa, 1921: Reporting a Massacre

or The Burning: Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921

(paid links)

Killer Mike’s Digital Banking Platform, Greenwood, Raises Nearly $40 million in Funding From Investors

Killer Mike’s Digital Banking Platform, Greenwood, Raises Nearly $40 million in Funding From Investors

By goodblacknews on March 29, 2021

[Photo: Killer Mike, Andrew Young, Ryan Glover via bankgreenwood.com]

Greenwood, the digital banking platform introduced last year by co-founders activist/rapper Michael “Killer Mike” Render and Bounce TV President Ryan Glover, has raised almost $40 million in Series A funding since its website launched in October 2020, according to a joint announcement last week.

The burgeoning financial startup — named for the Black business district in Tulsa, Oklahoma that existed in the early 20th century (before the 1921 Tulsa Massacre) and earned the nickname “Black Wall Street” — received investments from Truist Bank, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, PNC, Wells Fargo, Mastercard, Visa, and SoftBank, six of the seven biggest banks among others on a growing list of major financial institutions now invested in Greenwood.

https://youtu.be/xVbXaP-zHlE

“The net worth of a typical white family is nearly ten times greater than that of a Black family and eight times greater than that of a Latino family. This wealth gap is a curable injustice that requires collaboration,” said Greenwood Chairman Glover.

“I am elated that many of the world’s top fintech companies have invested in Greenwood and join us in this mission. The backing of six of the top seven banks and the two largest payment technology companies is a testament to the contemporary influence of the Black and Latino community. We now are even better positioned to deliver the world-class services our customers deserve.”

Greenwood delayed its planned January 2021 launch date because of overwhelming demand after more than 500,000 people signed up for an account before launch.

To learn more and join the Greenwood community and product waitlist, visit www.bankgreenwood.com. 

“John Lewis: Good Trouble” Documentary to Screen for Free on Juneteenth in Tulsa as Trump Rally Counter-Programming

“John Lewis: Good Trouble” Documentary to Screen for Free on Juneteenth in Tulsa as Trump Rally Counter-Programming

By goodblacknews on June 17, 2020

According to an exclusive Variety.com report, Magnolia Pictures will premiere “John Lewis: Good Trouble,” a new documentary about the Civil Rights icon and longtime congress member, in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Juneteenth.

The film, which Magnolia and Participant are distributing, will screen at Circle Cinema, a non-profit organization that operates from a theater that traces back to 1928.

The screenings will be free (theaters will be at 25% capacity) and are intended to serve as counter-programing to Donald Trump’s political rally on Saturday. That rally ignited a firestorm of backlash and condemnation because it was originally scheduled to take place on Juneteenth, a holiday stemming from Texas that commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S.

Tulsa was the site of a race massacre in 1921 that has been called “the single worst incident of racial violence in American history.” Trump later moved the date of the rally back by a day.

“Our city is searching for ideas and ways to do peaceful protest of Trump,” Chuck Foxen, film programmer at Circle Cinema, told Variety. “This feels like a powerful way to celebrate the spirit and meaning of Juneteenth.”

Read more: https://variety.com/2020/film/news/john-lewis-documentary-juneteenth-trump-rally-tulsa-1234637951/

Toni Braxton to Star as Darlene Love in OWN Biopic

By goodblacknews on April 4, 2014

Toni Braxton
According to Variety.com, Toni Braxton will star as singer Darlene Love in OWN’s biopic of the famed pop vocalist.  My Name is Love: The Darlene Love Story is slated for a December premiere, and the telefilm revolves around Love’s long career in the music industry, starting out as the key voice behind Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound hits from the 1960s. OWN’s first scripted movie was brought to the network by Morgan Neville, the documentarian who was behind last year’s Academy Award-winning feature, Twenty Feet from Stardom, about Love and other well-known backup singers.
OWN has also announced it’s set Octavia Spencer to star in a miniseries revolving around a journalist investigating the notorious mass murder and cover-up in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921. Tulsa comes from drama veteran (and Oklahoma native) Nancy Miller (TNT’s Saving Grace).
Additionally, OWN has ordered 20 more episodes of Tyler Perry’s hit primetime soap The Haves and the Have Nots, bringing it to 56 episodes to air through 2015. A new Perry drama series, Single Mom’s Club, is set for a fall debut with a 20-episode order.
Justin Timberlake is lined up as the first guest on the new season of Oprah Winfrey’s interview series Oprah’s Master Class, to premiere May 11.  Another programming tentpole planned for next year is the seven-part documentary series Belief, examining the origins of faith “through the eyes of believers.”