Tensions rise in Tulsa as Black Panthers and hundreds of black gun owners take part in 2nd Amendment march ahead of the 100th anniversary of city's race massacre
Hundreds of black gun owners marched through downtown Tulsa to honor of the lives lost during the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.
Members of the Black Panther party and over a dozen gun clubs marched down North Tulsa chanting 'Black Power' and 'Black Lives Matter' on Saturday afternoon.
The 2nd Amendment Armed March commemorated the 100th anniversary of the notorious massacre that saw whites in the Oklahoma City attacking the prosperous black Greenwood district and its residents.
Members of the Black Panther Party and other armed demonstrators gathered on Saturday ahead of the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre
The Elmer Geronimo Pratt Gun Club of Austin, Texas and The New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense organized the march on Saturday
A Tulsa police officer talks with members of the Black Panther Party and other armed demonstrators during commemorations of the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre on Saturday
A man raises his fist in support of the 2nd Amendment Armed March that commemorates the 1921 massacre that is said to have killed 300 black people
An official death toll lists 26 black and 10 white victims, although as many as 300 black people are feared to have been murdered.
Viola Fletcher, 107, her brother Hughes Van Ellis, 100 and Lessie Benningfield Randle, 106, are the only known survivors of the racist bloodbath.
The Elmer Geronimo Pratt Gun Club of Austin, Texas and The New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense organized the march, KJRH.com reported.
Toni Frank with the Elmer Geronimo Pratt Gun Club said the march brought together different groups.
'We have multiple gun clubs including multiple branches of Black Panthers who don't even like each other that are going to be here together, with each other, in a unified march to commemorate our ancestors,' he told KJRH.com
Armed demonstrators (pictured) marched down North Tulsa on Saturday during the 2nd Amendment Armed March
Members of the Black Panther party and over a dozen gun clubs marched down North Tulsa chanting 'Black Power' and 'Black Lives Matter' on Saturday
Two men talk it out during the Second Amendment Armed March commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre on Saturday
Two young boys (pictured) look on as the Black Panther Party holds the 2nd Amendment Armed March to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre
The second amendment march took place after it was announced the flagship commemoration event to mark the 100th anniversary of the massacre was scrapped after three survivors raised their fees to appear.
Monday's Remember & Rise event - which was also set to feature John Legend and Stacey Abrams - was called off on Friday after survivors Fletcher, Van Ellis and Benningfield upped their appearance fee from $100,000 each to $1 million each.
Lawyers representing the trio also demanded seed money for a reparations fund be boosted from the agreed $2 million to $10 million, with Oklahoma State Senator Kevin Matthews saying organizers were unable to meet their revised demands.
The trio will participate in other programs instead, although it is unclear if they will be remunerated for those.
Onlookers hold up their fists in solidarity with marchers at a Second Amendment march during centennial commemorations of the Tulsa Race Massacre on Saturday
A band marches through Tulsa to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre on Saturday
Women from the Huey P Newton Gun Club organization (pictured) embrace at the The 2nd Amendment Armed March in Tulsa on Saturday
Attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons told The Associated Press that he submitted a list of requests to the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission in order to have the survivors attend the 'Remember & Rise' event Monday at ONEOK Field in Tulsa.
Solomon-Simmons is representing the survivors and their descendants in a lawsuit against the city of Tulsa and other defendants seeking reparations for the destruction of the city's once thriving black district.
Reparations for black Americans whose ancestors were enslaved and for other racial discrimination has been debated in the U.S. since slavery ended in 1865.
Now they are being discussed by colleges and universities with ties to slavery and by local governments looking to make cash payments to black residents.
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