Hip Hop and Healing the Wounds of Tulsa with Attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons

This week Mysonne and Tamika first speak about the 50th Anniversary of Hip Hop this past weekend and the influence hip hop has in the culture. Next, they speak with Attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons about leveling the playing field for the community and our people

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
That's what's up.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Family. It's your girl d Mallory and it's your boy,
my son the General, and we are your.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
Host of street politicians, the place for the streets and politics.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Meet me, yes, Sairyes, ma'am.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
You know, when I was a kid, I never went
to any concerts, not really, It's not wasn't a thing.
And now I've concerted myself to death this summer.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
It's been a lot.

Speaker 4 (00:30):
It's been a lot, and it's been I mean, but
it's been good concerts, Like it's been like historical stuff
that we've been to. So, you know, shout out to
hip hop is fifty. Hip hop turned fifty this year.
A few days ago on August eleventh, hip hop was
born in the Bronx on Cedric in Cedar Avenue fifteen

(00:51):
twenty Cedric. To be exact, it was a house party
that my man DJ Coolhirk did for his sister at
that time who wanted to do party.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
And that's how hip hop was birthed.

Speaker 4 (01:03):
And this year it turned fifty and the celebrations that
I've went to have been phenomenal. Yankee Stadium was probably
it's easy to one of the top two or three,
you know, concerts I've ever been to. Man, the lineup
was dope. You know, seeing you when you go from

(01:26):
seeing Dougie Fresh do b box with them there twenty minutes,
k arrest One come out with Fat Joe. Then you
got Snoop Dogg and you know what I'm saying, there's
so many different elements common sense form. Cameron performed like
it was just it was what you call a plethora
of you know, of historical artists. Each one did did

(01:50):
extremely well.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, they were high energy, high energies.

Speaker 4 (01:54):
And Na's in Laurence Hill, like I think that was
like that one of my highlights.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
But then run DMC. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (02:01):
They came out and just know just yeah, you know
what I'm saying, like knowing that I watched dam What
was the movie with n DMC was in?

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Was it?

Speaker 4 (02:14):
I can't think of the name, but it was one
of the movie I used to watch all the time
and they used to go to the Fever and the
Fat Boys was in it, and it was like one
of those you know, the disco Fever.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Where was that in New York?

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yes, it was in the Bronx. It was.

Speaker 4 (02:30):
They actually had two of them it was a club.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
It was a club.

Speaker 4 (02:35):
It was one that the original disco Fever was on
one sixty seventh right off of L.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Bryant Highway. It was it was the fever.

Speaker 4 (02:45):
They used to go there, and then they moved, then
they moved it, then they moved it to East Streatmont Avenue.
But the original Fever is where they had this movie.
And I remember watching Run DMC perform. It's like that
and this and that was like the first time I
ever heard that song and the way they did it.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
I remember Run Run.

Speaker 4 (03:07):
His voice cracked when he said not DJ run my name,
because I remember that part so much.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
His voice cracked.

Speaker 5 (03:13):
We had a whole lot of superstars on this stage
here to night.

Speaker 6 (03:18):
But I want y'all to know one thing. This is
my mother fucking house. When I say whose house, I
want y'all to say, Run's house, Whose house?

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Hold up?

Speaker 7 (03:41):
Whose house?

Speaker 6 (03:45):
Not DJ n my name, John Master, j is hend
htm shit.

Speaker 4 (03:51):
It's like that's.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
The way it was. It was. It was one of
the best things.

Speaker 4 (03:56):
So just being a kid watching that movie and watching
Run DMC performed, and just watching all the greatness man,
and then you know, you weren't you weren't privy to
the next day.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
You don't care one.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Get to see that. But obviously you and Ben Crump
work and.

Speaker 4 (04:13):
Shout out being Trump, shout out everybody Avenue, and he
told him that hip hop is black coaching. You know
what I'm saying, They can't and if they can't kill
hip hop, you know what I'm saying, because black culture
is hip hop. He tore it that he gave He
gave a word out there. Man, I would know who
had him come go speak.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
I don't know. He just hip hop man like it
was so.

Speaker 4 (04:40):
He loves him. He loves hip hop. But the energy
care us. One public enemy performed, you know, Flavor Flavors
up there doing what Flavor Flavor do.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
At the Cedric Avenue thing.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Then he performed the night before again he said, because
I missed, like the beginning, I believe he did.

Speaker 4 (04:58):
He came out, he came up with that's when I'm
Snoop brought publican.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
Oh that's what I forget, you know, forgetting that these
artists were part of groups and then they became singular voices.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
So so yeah, it was it was.

Speaker 4 (05:15):
The energy was phenomenal, man, My boy, see im smooth
or form one of my favorite artists, you know, one
of my favorite hip hop artists. He did Reminiscence, which
one of my favorite songs. So I was and then
Joe came like I'm gonna keep this. Joe got the
Like when we were young, it used to be we

(05:36):
used to play basketball game and whenever you was on fire,
you had the red shoes.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
So whenever you when you had the red shoes, you
couldn't miss a shot. Like you know, where did you
get from?

Speaker 4 (05:46):
It was a video game and when you played the
video game. Inside the video game, when a person like
he's heating up and they said he's on fire, and
your shoes to turn red so you couldn't miss. And
why them shoes is red? You just shoot every shot
you shot, were just going. And it's like Fat Joe
got the red shoes right now because I was watching
Fat Joe from Yankee Stadium. He was in red form,

(06:09):
like he put on a shoe, got the red got
the red shoes.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
He was good.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yeah, And I don't want to rate like my best
because it's hard, right, like you know, plus Joe, you
know that's family, so of course, but Snoop set was good.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
It was snoop. Listen to me. That's what I'm trying
to tell you.

Speaker 4 (06:28):
It's one of the most well put together lineups. And
people took you know, they took time and they said,
this is hip hop. Fifty Joe came from the Project.
He drove from the Projects to Yankee Stadium and went
out there, got pet the guns out there.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
And the project. No I'm talking about.

Speaker 4 (06:47):
He drove from the Projects and then when he came
on the stage, he came up.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
I don't understand that. See, that's the essence of it.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
He was at the project.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
He decided to go to the Projects because it just
was so significin.

Speaker 4 (07:00):
Was so significant, knowing like then I was, I came
from Trinity Avenue and I went back to the hood,
was out there with the fellas, they dafted up, took pictures,
and he drove his rose roys all the way from
Trinity Avenue to Yankee Stadium.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
That would make me cry.

Speaker 4 (07:16):
Yeah, it was significant life when jay Z, When jay
Z did it. Then when jay Z got on the
train to go perform, and the white lady was like,
who are you? Are you somebody big? He said, I'm
kind of like, I don't remember that that's kind of cool. Yeah,
like it's it's it's a clip out there. But that
was the significance of Joe coming from the projects and

(07:36):
then his energy, like he really he came to perform.
Even know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
One out there he performed.

Speaker 3 (07:46):
I've seen him perform a million, million, million times, but
he was indifferent.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
But this was a good show. I mean, he was
really good. His set was great.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
The sound quality out there was great too, like you know,
for all the artists. But then I thought that and
of course we have mentioned because you know whatever, I
have much to say, but about the fact that we've
mentioned a lot of men, but there were also many
dope female.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
Artists who performed as well.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
Him to Scarlet to I like Scarlet, come on now,
she worked hard. Of course for me, Mom, Trina, Trina
came out, Lola Brook and probably others that I just
didn't get a chance to see them, but you know,
they gave a great show. But I would say that

(08:36):
if I had to give my ranking, if I had to,
which I don't want to, because I love Snoop Obviously
Snoops on our boys, you know, we love him, and
his show was really good. I mean, he had a
great time. He enjoyed the whole show himself, so you know.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
Think about him, he was great.

Speaker 3 (08:58):
I mean, it's just so many different, even a bookie
like I thought a bookie set was good, like people
know his songs. And then because you know, I don't
know who the younger artists are, so when I heard
the music, I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, you know so,
and it was I was with all old old people.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
You left all the old people over there, so we
was old.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
We was like, oh yeah, you know, I know that song.
I know that song.

Speaker 3 (09:20):
But I would say that Nas and Lauryn Hill definitely
for me. I mean, I guess because Lauren to me
is like a total like she's a straight up icon.
I have to give Nas icon status too. But you
could tell that everybody who touched that stage for the
most part, they really like.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
Felt it, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
And yeah, and Nas, his whole performance was great because
you know, I was standing in front of his face.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
You was kind of like behind his head, yeah, but.

Speaker 3 (09:52):
I was in front of his face, you know, so
I could see the expression the eyes closing the pain
of the love, the power and the thing that I
you know when he did one Mic, you knew he
felt that.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (10:08):
The thing about one Mic is the song in itself,
it just does something. It's a it's a level of
adrenaline for somebody who just wants something bad.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
You know what I'm saying. It's like it gives you
this feeling.

Speaker 4 (10:22):
It's like it's kind of like between one Mic and and.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
Eminems Lose Yourself.

Speaker 4 (10:29):
Those two songs have the same kind of energy, and
it's a build up because it's that build up. It's
like and it's a build up and then you feel
you feel the energy in that. So, yes, nos probably
was pretty much one of my favorite. But I'm just
saying I can't. I'm not gonna say take anything for everybody,
because everybody brought it, you know, But I'm a finished

(10:50):
what I was saying about Joe. Heaven read he went
because he went to the next day care rest. When
did the concert, and he kept He came out there
and he did a whole little different.

Speaker 6 (11:00):
It was.

Speaker 4 (11:01):
This was just hip hop and he probably did you know,
he did all the way up and and lean back,
but he puts them.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
He did I Gotta flow Joe.

Speaker 4 (11:09):
He did songs, he did him and pun you know,
the deep cup like he did songs that you had
to know hip hop, and the crowd was just like
they was with him, and he was just in. He's like,
I ain't coming like he was. He was just in
the real form.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
Man. I'm happy to see it gave me. It reinvigorated
a level of artistry.

Speaker 4 (11:30):
And me like, because you know, like as an artist
is somebody who loves lyricism and just loves music. Sometimes
you don't feel enthused, you know what I'm saying. So
I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna make me a
couple of songs, right, I'm right fire because you know
this this whole this weekend just this under from me.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
But let me ask you a question from a bulnerable perspective,
knowing that you at one time were in a very
significant position within hip hop and then this thing happens
to you where you are convicted of a crime you
didn't commit, and you go to prison for seven years

(12:13):
and come back and the whole world has changed, music
has changed.

Speaker 1 (12:16):
You don't even see the industry. To say, it feels to.

Speaker 3 (12:20):
Me, which I didn't know you at that time, that
it almost feels like after having come into your own
light and kind of understanding the world. You weren't even
trying to pursue it as much or in the same way.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
You wanted something different.

Speaker 3 (12:36):
How was this weekend like from an emotional perspective, did
it feel like, wow, like these are all your friends,
you know, all these people y'all grew up together, but
you're doing something totally different. And guess what music is? Therapeutic?
Music can be so many different things. But and oftentimes

(12:56):
we start out at one place in life and think
that is the path, and then God changes the path
to something completely different, and you have to be willing
to roll with that and see the blessing in even
the curse, like the blessing in the in disguise, if
you will.

Speaker 4 (13:17):
Yeah, you know, it's like, like I told you, it's
a bittersweet, right, It's sweet because I love hip hop
so much and I love the artistry and I know
what it takes right and seeing that stadium like that
and seeing artists just come out there and perform at
that high level, you know, it's it's a beautiful thing.

(13:38):
But just knowing that had things been a little different,
that more nine out of ten times you would have
been a part of that. You understand what I'm saying. Just
knowing that, And there was a time that I know
that I was on the verge of hip hop royalty,
Like I know, I know that I know the level
of artistry that I have, I know that education.

Speaker 1 (14:00):
Well they knew, I mean people people's mention it.

Speaker 3 (14:04):
Like I've had conversations with Puff, with with the Mona Scott,
with others, and they have said, like, you know, my
son was probably one of the best writers in terms
of content writing all your own songs and delivery and attitude. Yeah,

(14:25):
because you always have been from what I know, very
even killed and just cool. You know, you never was
like from what I could see, you never was like
one of those tough, stupid guys like you don't want
to create problems.

Speaker 4 (14:40):
I just want to do I just have very little
tolerances for ignorance and disrespect. But for the most part,
you know, I just I carried myself as a young
twenty two year old. You know, I was above my years,
I believe because I was around older and more wiser
individuals who have been through a lot. But just you know,
just on the music, not it's just for me, it's

(15:02):
just like knowing. You know, sometimes you feel like that
you've been jerked. You know what I'm saying. It feels
like you get jerked. You know, you're sitting out there,
You're watching, like I know what I would have been doing.
I know I'm supposed to be on the stages. I know,
you know, I know the impact of music that I
was making at that time would have had you know.

(15:22):
So sometimes you know, you go through that, but then
you just be like, you know, it's God's playing for
what you're doing now. You know, I wouldn't change my
life or anything, you know, And I just and I
still write when I went to stir.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
Music is therapeutic for me.

Speaker 4 (15:36):
So if I feel like I want to drop, especially
we in the Internet era, if I decide that I
want to go out and drop an album tomorrow, I
can drop an album tomorrow, you know what I'm saying.
But I still am lyrically able to do it and
I understand music. So if I feel like, you know,
I might just.

Speaker 3 (15:50):
Put together a low EP, I still be trying to
figure out what happened to my favorite albums that never
materialized because the album.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
Had a lot of Yeah, Remo was so pissed off.
It was very.

Speaker 3 (16:03):
Uh, it was very what I want to say, it
was like underground, not really underground.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
It was just different. I like that album.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
It was it was not X rated. That's sorry, not
x rated. It was.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
Damn, I can't. I gotta get a good word. It
just was not for everybody. It was it was. It
was wasn't your grandmother's It was quality music. It was.

Speaker 4 (16:33):
It was such a good album and it was just
at a different time space. So but it was still
dope and shout out to Remo. Remo talks about that
all the time, like we were supposed to put that out,
Like you know what I'm saying. We still in a
student and we created bangers like these bangings. So but
you know, hey, the music is still there. You never know,
we might just you're.

Speaker 3 (16:51):
The one who was like, I can't put this out
because it was so raw.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
It is very it's good, it's good, it's raw, is real, but.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
It's just contradicted the moment.

Speaker 3 (17:03):
Now, you could do it because people have you are
very clear about who you are, what you do, and
we've been clear about the fact that we're.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
Not one dimensional.

Speaker 3 (17:13):
So I'm wearing by Daniel Cameron, Brianna Taylor, and Daniel Cameron.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
He says Attorney General Daniel Cameron wants to be the governor.
He refused to prosecute Brianna Taylor's killers. He failed Brianna,
He failed Kentucky. Stop Cameron at until free with this
T shirt is the donation that you should be well
with the donation.

Speaker 4 (17:40):
Can get the T shirt to our campaign to pretty
much stop Dan Cameron, because there's no way that we
can allow someone like Daniel Cameron to be the governor
of Kentucky when we already know his politics is anti us, you.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
Know on your skin folk and your kinfolks, so you
know we.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
So Daniel Cameron is the and you know, most of
you who listen to us every week you know the story.
But sometimes you get a new person and they say
repetition is the best exercise of remembrance of having people
remember things.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
And I need it.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
I have to remind myself all the time. So Daniel
Cameron is.

Speaker 3 (18:20):
The current Attorney General in the state of Kentucky. He
became the special prosecutor in the Brionna Taylor Now the
death of Breonna Taylor and the harassment and everything else
that you could think of of Kenneth Walker, Breonna Taylor's boyfriend.
So the reason what special Prosecutor means is that the

(18:43):
local district attorney decided to recuse himself from the case.
He did not want to prosecute officers we worked very
closely with. Clearly, that's one of the issues with district
attorneys and police departments across the country is most of
them work in the same buildings or in the complex,

(19:03):
so they're very close.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
They see one another all the time.

Speaker 3 (19:06):
The offices are often there to help the district attorney
build their case. And even though they in some cases
have to bring charges against offices as well and or
report behavior, you know, behavior that is illegal or whatever,

(19:27):
they have to do that, they really don't do it
enough and they try their best to not have problems
with the police, right, so I guess in this situation
they felt it.

Speaker 1 (19:39):
Would be better.

Speaker 3 (19:40):
He felt it would be better, which we don't agree
with at all, but he felt it would be better
to recuse himself and allow the Attorney General, which is
an individual who doesn't work with the local Louisville police department,
you know, to have him prosecute the case. Well, the
Attorney General Daniel Cameron, he purposely did not prosecute those

(20:05):
officers or attempt to get an indictment.

Speaker 1 (20:08):
Why do we know purposely? So people said, well, how
do you know.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
It's well, because the jurors came forward at the end
of the grand jury proceedings when there were no charges
for the murder of Breonna Taylor, and said that they
had expectations that they would hear evidence and be presented
with a list of charges that they could choose from

(20:33):
to indict the officers for killing Breonna Taylor. These jurors,
it was I think three of them that came forward
of a panel of what is it twelve people, Three
of them came forward to say they had never ever
received any charges. So Daniel Cameron never even presented them
with anything that they could use.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
To indict those officers for Brianna's death.

Speaker 3 (20:57):
And then he lied because he came forward and said
that the jury did not find any charges for Breanna,
they did not find the officers liable for her death,
and that is not true because they didn't get an
opportunity to.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Even look at charges. So now he wants to be governor.

Speaker 3 (21:21):
Well, along the way, we found out we found out
what we believe to be why he.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
Didn't want to charge the offices.

Speaker 3 (21:29):
We found out that he's a major supporter of police.
He as a conservative, a black man who yes, is
a conservative. He is a Republican. He supports police. He
wants to see police have more power, not less. He
does not want there to be checks and balances, if

(21:52):
you will so. In his twelve point plan that he
released as part of his campaign for the governorship, he
says that he wants to get rid of the Civilian
Complaint Review Board, which is the only opportunity, the only
recourse that we as citizens have to try to get
justice when police officers.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
Engage in wrongdoing.

Speaker 3 (22:14):
Second, he wants to give drug offenders or drug dealers,
because people are having to ask me to correct that,
the death penalty. Now we don't see here. I'm not saying, oh, well,
drug dealers, you know, shouldn't be held accountable for their actions.
But I know that this country never holds itself accountable
for anything. And if you want to start giving people

(22:37):
the death penalty for selling drugs, why don't you start
with the pharmaceutical companies, because they've killed many more people
than little poop poop a little tea T. Now not
to say T T and poo pook ain't wrong, but
big pharma should be. And they're paying millions and millions

(22:57):
billions of dollars to settle lawsuits.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
Man, big me can't sell more dope, big frama And
so what.

Speaker 3 (23:04):
I'm saying so so so we're saying, cool, you want
to give death penalty. Let's start with the real actors, right,
They would not be a part of take that back,
but they they're smacking now. They don't sell it, okay,

(23:27):
educate people, CBS and you know they are. They are
responsible for doing what the doctor ordered. If the doctor
says that my son needs oxy codon, they don't get
to ask you about your medical stuff.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
They just have to provide it because that is their job.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
But they're still over the that they sell.

Speaker 3 (23:51):
It's not that's not. The people who have to be
held responsible are the pharmaceutical companies and and the doctors
who work with the pharmaceutical companies that get kickbacks for
getting people to use certain types of drugs. Those are
those are the ones. And of course even government officials

(24:12):
who have been involved in helping lobbyists to help these
pharmaceutical companies avoid responsibility. So with that being said, there's
a bunch of people if you want to have death penalty,
But what we know is that they're never, ever, ever,
never going to do that. They're never going to hold
Big Pharma accountable where these laws apply to them. No,

(24:36):
they are going to want to try to put forth
these policies for folks who are you know, in low
hanging fruit, which is our people, all the time, our people.
So that's why we can't support that because it will
never be distributed fairly across the board. Because if they
started doing it and they looked at the crime and

(24:58):
the punishment, they would have to kill their own and
that's not going to happen. So things like that, and
we could go on with other things that he said.
He wants to give police more surveillance opportunities. They can
get even more surveillance and wire taps and whatnot on
the individuals. I mean, he's one of he's a you know,
he wants to give police full rain and also has

(25:22):
not come full with a plan for how you deal
with accountability. In fact, he was asked about accountability in
terms of the civilian complaint with you Board and he
had no answer and tried to move on to another
question several times in a flum So that's why he
can't be governor. It's yes, Breonna Taylor would be that
would be a I'm using the word retaliation and I

(25:45):
don't know if that's appropriate.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
I don't think I think it would be.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
Reciprocity or I don't know.

Speaker 3 (25:54):
We have to be careful with the language we use,
but it would be basically, you, you screw Bringana, you
can't be governor.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
And that actually, to me is fine.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
Like if people get in this to say all I
care about is because of what he did to Brianna Taylor,
I'm going to do my part in making sure he
doesn't become governor, that is completely fine. But in this situation,
we can go on and take Brionna and put on
the side and just deal with the things that I
just mentioned about his policies. It's not good for Kentucky,

(26:26):
and it's more importantly not good for America because he
is black, a black Ron DeSantis, a black Ron DeSantis,
and these people have a plan for us that is
so devastating and so so and it's contagious. It's growing
across the nation and he will be a part of that.

Speaker 1 (26:45):
So that's that.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
We're selling this T shirt.

Speaker 3 (26:49):
Well, actually we're asking for a fifty dollars donation, and
with the fifty dollars donation, you get.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
This beautiful T shirt, this beautiful, beautiful.

Speaker 3 (26:57):
Photo of Breonna Taylor. Excuse me, and I hope that
you will support yes. So you go to until Freedom
dot Com. That's until Freedom dot Com click shop, and
you know, you purchase a T shirt, you get the
T shirt. Fifty dollars you spend with our organization, and
it will help us because we're headed back.

Speaker 1 (27:19):
To Kentucky the rest of this month.

Speaker 3 (27:22):
You know, you got black music festivals, you got all
the fiftieth hip hop stuff.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
You have the the just too much stuff, all kinds
of things.

Speaker 3 (27:32):
But it's time to go to work and after Labor
Day we'll be back in Kentucky on a regular basis
doing what we need to do to fight to make
sure that Daniel Cameron does not become governor of the
state of Kentucky. Speaking of pharmaceutical companies, one day, I

(27:54):
was laying down in the morning's really early, and one
of the morning shows is on. I think I don't
think it was Morning Over. It was the early morning show,
and I heard them saying that, oh, you know, yeah,
you can use this shot, and you can, and it's
for diabetes, so it basically helps you because you know,

(28:18):
with diabetes, one of the biggest things is your intake,
so you want to take they want to when they're
trying to help treat you. They're trying to reduce your
desire for food and you don't stop you from having
cravings and wanting to eat all the time, so that
you can get your body cleaned out and you know,

(28:39):
reduce your calorie count and all the other things that
add to diabetes or help I mean, or or things
that diabetes feed on. Right, So they said that people
had started using the shot for weight loss, and these
were the folks from the company saying that, you know what,
we have found that it actually does. They said something about,

(29:01):
you know, a few side effects possible, but it's pretty
much safe. Again, people with diabetes can use it, blah
blah blah. And I was laying there thinking to myself,
that's kind of cool, like that they do have this shot.
But I also realized that anytime something was for one
thing and you start using it for something else.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
It could Yeah, it's a strong, very strong possibility.

Speaker 3 (29:27):
It could go wrong, and in some cases it has.
Now I know people who have death who have used
it and you can visibly see that, you know, they are,
they look smaller. I mean, it actually works. It does
the thing. I have several friends. I have a pouch
in my stomach and two like love handles on the

(29:47):
side that I want to go away. And a friend
told me, oh, you should just take the shot. It's
going to be fine.

Speaker 6 (29:52):
But I don't want.

Speaker 3 (29:53):
I'm not you know, I don't want to do that
because I think it also it reduces a lot of things,
like you start losing weight all over and you know
what I mean, I can get to be a skeleton.
If I don't, you don't take care of myself properly.
So I don't need that. But there are a lot
of people out here who have weight control issues and
they're looking for something and they don't want to get
three surgeries, two surgeries, of even one surgery, and they

(30:15):
don't want to work out, So which is your thing
that you always say? They also don't probably want to
eat right. I don't know, maybe you do have to
eat right.

Speaker 2 (30:23):
On the shot.

Speaker 3 (30:23):
I've never heard them, and so but again I figure
something has got to be And so recently I learned of.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
Two people who have had severe side effects from that shot.

Speaker 3 (30:39):
One person has now developed some type of thyroid problem
or like when they say thyroid cancer could be one
of the side effects. But this person has some type
of thyroid some issue. So that's one thing. And then
another person who's actually very close to me, had pan

(31:01):
grha titus and an intestine shut down. It was paralyzed
and it had to be rushed to the hospital. Was
in the hospital for several days trying to get these
things straight.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
And it was all after taking this shot.

Speaker 3 (31:15):
So I just would like to say that I understand
wanting to be fine, honey, because you know, I work
at it to not not as much as I should,
but I work at it, and I get it.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
I get that.

Speaker 3 (31:26):
You know, weight loss is so hard, especially once you
get past a certain age, life and everything else.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
But people need to be really really.

Speaker 3 (31:34):
Careful about taking something that is not prescribed for the
thing for something else, because it has the potential to
really really screw you up. So, you know, I guess
some people, and you know I don't really talk about
weight because people look at me like, how dare you?

Speaker 2 (31:51):
But I have my own struggles. Oh yeah, you know
what I mean.

Speaker 4 (31:56):
Weight is a thing, especially like you said, you know,
it's hard. I'm trying to get this six pack back together. Man,
it's tough. It's tough. I ain't never I never seen
like fat on my stomach as a in my twenties
and thirties. I just never seen it. It just wasn't even
a thing. I never even really had to work for it.
It just had, you know, six packs that was had.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
No six packs twenties and no thirties.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
Child, Like I'm gonna say again, my six pack is legendary.
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (32:24):
I'll find the clip. I'm gonna find a clip. We're
gonna make sure we put that in here. So you so,
because we ain't gonna do this. We're not condition We
ain't had.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
No six packs from no twenties and no thirties. I
know you ain't trying to go to your phone like
to go find it.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
We're not. We're not gonna violate it. Man.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
Anyway, what was what was you saying?

Speaker 4 (32:43):
What I was saying, you know, is that I know
how hard it is to lose weight, you know, And
that's what I'm gonna say.

Speaker 3 (32:52):
Okay, I see the picture, But does that mean that
what does that mean?

Speaker 2 (32:58):
Does it mean what?

Speaker 1 (33:00):
It's not gonna work. But that's not all twenties and thirties.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
These is thirties. That's a gem. This was in my thirties.
You know what I'm saying. We ain't gonna.

Speaker 4 (33:10):
Play like that Boy's special. Yea, I'm gonna send this
gens because we ain't gonna play. You know what I'm saying.
That was just in the thirties. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (33:20):
So you see, oh you see it. You see that
six don't furn on it. Don't furn that sixth ship now,
don't try to come on man.

Speaker 4 (33:33):
So anyway, I understand that the struggle of weight loss.
But people got to stop being lazy.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
Man.

Speaker 4 (33:39):
You gotta stop being lazy because all of the temporary
ship that shit comes right back. I've watched I've seen
women get all types of bbls and be fat in
six months.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
BBL is nothing to do with being fat.

Speaker 2 (33:52):
You don't be knowing what you be talking it. Don't
the BBL is on your butt. That's nothing. So they
don't do the full body shit. They just do the butt.

Speaker 3 (33:59):
Then people you said, BBL, you sposed whatever it is,
what's the other thing for the tommy.

Speaker 2 (34:09):
Whatever you call it. They make over all that ship.

Speaker 4 (34:12):
They need to make it over again because after about
a year they think, don't know next, you know, the
edges that they don't carved out and is gone, and they.

Speaker 3 (34:23):
The weight doesn't come back exactly in the same place
all the time exactly.

Speaker 4 (34:27):
Sometimes it just starts coming up different pockets and muffins
here mucause we've got to work out. You can't cheat
the grind. I'm trying to tell you you cannot cheat
the grind. Go and get your work out. It's because
I know it's tough, but it's worth it.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
Man. It's everybody that works out can't lose weight. That's
not true.

Speaker 1 (34:46):
That is true. That is true that there's nobody.

Speaker 4 (34:51):
There's no person I know that is consistently worked out,
that's on a regiment that doesn't lose tue. That's not true.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
I have my thought of the day to day, my thoughts.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
It is. You don't know what you're talking about.

Speaker 3 (35:10):
Okay, there are women and men that work out every
day and cannot shape the weight. They start getting more
toned in certain places, but the weight especially that, yes,
it is. What are you talking about? Family members that

(35:35):
work out all the time and they still got big.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
Stomach playing around. There's nobody that is now.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
They might not be eating what they should.

Speaker 4 (35:44):
Not eat it, and they not working out properly. Because
even if you work out every day, if there's a
level of exercise that your body is doing every day,
you're burning calories. You're constantly burning calories. If you're working
up properly and you're doing it every day, there's no
way that you're not losing.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
That is not a thing. I've never in my life
seen it.

Speaker 4 (36:03):
I've worked out, I've been a personal trainer, and I've
seen some people lose weight, you know, take them longer
because they're not consistent at the workout and they don't
work their body out as hard. They go to the gym,
andy come a little bit, and then they work a
little bit, and then they cry and all that. But
you tell me somebody consistently works out, I'm just tell
no man, Yes, no man. We're moving on.

Speaker 3 (36:25):
We're about to bring on our guests. Who's going to
come on and talk to us. You know what, history
is such a thing.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
You have to.

Speaker 3 (36:36):
You know what, history is such a thing, And our
guess is going to talk about some history that's really important.

Speaker 2 (36:43):
You know.

Speaker 3 (36:43):
It just feels like when I think about how much
we fight every single day, there are so many issues,
even things that haven't been resolved from a long time ago,
that people are still fighting. When folks say, ain't no
leaders and ain't nobody doing nothing and nobody does this,
and that is such bullshit.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
There are people who are out here.

Speaker 3 (37:05):
Really going hard on many fronts, fighting for education, fighting
for reparations, fighting for equal housing, fighting for so many
different issues, fighting for justice, fighting to get the court straight,
fighting for black dollars, the black spend. I think about
Roland Martin and how he's constantly talking about advertising dollars

(37:29):
and how it's not going back into the communities that
are using products and services, and it's just it's a
lot of people out here that's using their voices and
we just need to honor them.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
And their platforms and their skill sets and everything. It's true.

Speaker 3 (37:45):
So right now, we're gonna bring your guests on. Who's
doing something big all right, So, as I said, you know,
there's so many people fighting. There's so many people fighting,
and you know, it really does bother me. I realize
that it's probably one of, like my one of the

(38:06):
things that triggers me the most when I hear people
being like, oh, folks, and nobody's doing anything.

Speaker 2 (38:11):
I hate to hear people.

Speaker 3 (38:13):
Say that, because so many people are doing really incredible
work to try to level the playing field, if you will,
for us, our communities, for our people, and this particular
gentleman that we have as a guest today, it's sort
of like a new friend, you know, our friends that
we invite onto street politicians. His name is Attorney de

(38:36):
Mario Solomon Simmons. He has an organization called Justice for Greenwood,
and we're gonna learn more about what that is. But
I think what was very interesting and enticing to me,
and then of course I shared it with you about
his story. So many of our young men share the

(38:57):
same story. Dropped out of high school or not dropped
out of high school, but the bottom of his class
in high school, which I don't even know what that means.
So we are asked, what is I don't know anyway, the
bottom of his class in high school, then dropped out
of college, then somehow made it back to college and
ended up going to University of Oklahoma playing football, and

(39:22):
then receiving one of the college's most prestigious awards as
the first African American without an outstanding graduation outstanding performance
in school. And I mean you with so many of
our young people go from bottom of the class dropping
out to people just never believing in them ever ever again.

(39:44):
And to now be an attorney who is celebrated, who's
well known inituation.

Speaker 1 (39:50):
Is very inspirational. And for him to be working on.

Speaker 3 (39:57):
Dealing with reparations for the Tulsa massacre survived race War,
the Tulsa Race War massacres survivors.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
That is huge.

Speaker 3 (40:10):
And so thank you so much, Attorney Simmons for joining
us today on Street Politicians. And we're so interested in
hearing all about you and what you're doing. And I
think I still want to know what the bottom of
your class means.

Speaker 2 (40:23):
So let's start at your.

Speaker 3 (40:25):
Humble beginnings and kind of work out way to Tulsa
from there.

Speaker 6 (40:29):
Sure certainly can do that. Man, I'm really excited to
be here. Big you know, big fans of you guys's
work and all you've been doing. Like you said, we've
met has a chance to talk a few times. The
last time we were together down in Atlanta for the
Warnock m h runoffs. So just happy to be here. Yeah,
you know, you know, humble beginnings.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
You know.

Speaker 6 (40:47):
I'm a kid from North Tulsa, Oklahoma. Grew up my mother.
I had cerebral palsy, sego mom, me and my brother
in the household, and my mom still worked even though
you know, we just called it cripple back to you know,
you got to change your words nowadays certain things you
get in trouble. But growing up, we just called my
mom and she was crippled, you know. And so I

(41:07):
fought a lot growing up because you know, you talk
about my mama, you know, he kept saying you can't
you can't fight everybody and laughing the way I walk
or whatever. You be fighting your whole life. I'll be
like this my whole life. And you know, I was
a pretty good student in middle school and elementary school,
but then I just fell into the whole. Look, I'm
forty seven, so right when I got to middle school,

(41:28):
this is when nwa eaze too short. This is when
all this stuff starts hitting and it just like blew
my mind open, like, oh my god, this music is amazing.
I love it, and I just started living that lifestyle.
You know, this is around the same time in Oklahoma
where you know, snowfalls like like crackhead, right on the
same time I'm becoming in the middle school. So I'm

(41:48):
just falling into that lifestyle. That's not how I was raised.
It's not what I was instilled to do. But I
fell into that lifestyle by the time I got to
high school. Man, my whole dream was to be playing
NFL football. No good football player. I was better I was.
I thought I was better I was, But I was
a good football player, and that's all I concentrated on.
So when you said when I graduated bottom of my class,

(42:09):
I was two thirty four out of two fifty two
and I didn't know I was going to even graduate.
Into the night we were walking across the stage. I
was in freshman algebra as a senior with my freshman
little brother.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
Wow, I had fluncked.

Speaker 6 (42:25):
I could tell you. I don't know if you may tell
the full.

Speaker 2 (42:27):
Story, but okay, we want to hear it.

Speaker 6 (42:30):
I flunked freshman algebra. I flunked the second half of
freshman algebra. I should have been kicked out of school.
My school was a magnet school. But I was a
good athlete, so I got to stay. And then I
basically just tied my way through geometry or tenth grade year.
My junior year, I had my coach. One of the
coaches was the algebra two teacher. We didn't take a

(42:51):
test like a four year Algibra two, didn't even ever
take a quiz, just got to see. Got passed through.

Speaker 2 (42:58):
Right.

Speaker 6 (42:59):
My senior year, they come they like, Solomon, if you
want to graduate, you're gonna have to take this freshman
algebra and say, okay, I'll just take the second hand.
They're like, no, you gotta take the full year. So
I was in freshman algebra with my freshman brother, but
I skipped that class one hundred and three times. Wow.
So they would My brother was come home and he
would say, man, would you please show up because they

(43:19):
keep asking me where you are and what you're doing.
Because I was at this time, I was just interested
in hanging out, getting hid, chilling, and then going to
school for football practice. That was that was That's the
way I lived.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
Big little brother was on you.

Speaker 6 (43:33):
My big little brother was on me. He's like, man,
you guys they all on me. They sweat me because
you're not in class. This is a true story. My
teacher came to me and said, tomorrow, if you don't
pass this last test with at least a bed, you're
not gonna graduate. You gotta study. Did I take that
to heart? Hell? Now, man, I got the I didn't

(43:55):
look at anything. I literally cheated off a little white
girl next to me in ninth grade. I'm a senior.
I literally was cheating off ninth graders so I could
pass this test. I didn't find out I was actually
gonna walk we get my degree. So I was in
line on a night to walk across the stage. My
family's there. I got my cap and gown on, and
the teacher said, you will actually graduate.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
Dang m hm, that is very different.

Speaker 6 (44:23):
And along the way I told my acl my senior year.
Second game of the second game of the playoffs, I
got arrested. I was addicted to weed, and so my
college opportunities for my Division I schools they just evaporated.
You know, I was a good player. I played I
played with three pros on my NFL team on my

(44:44):
senior year. I was in high school with seven guys
that mentioned in the NFL and NBA. I know y'all
know Eton Thomas. We all went went to Booker t
in Tulsa. So I was a good player. But as
I had all these things popping up, tearing my knee up,
my grades, being terrible, getting arrested, smoking weed, just being

(45:06):
a basic trouble maker, all of my D one stuff
kept getting going away and going away. So I end
up having a little bitty D two school not too
far from here, and I just couldn't I couldn't relate.
It was a white school in a white town, little
little stadium, not bigger than my high school stadium. All
my homeboys at major schools ou Tennessee, k State, University

(45:27):
of Miami, and I'm at this little bill old school
and I just got depressed. And that's when I dropped.
I just like, you know, if I can't play at
the highest level, I just don't want to do it.
And I just ended up just quitting the football team.
They took my scholarship. I had to finish out the semester,
get get loans, moved home with live with my mama.
I was gonna go to another school. I told my

(45:47):
I told my shoulder, and I just got so discrunbed.
I just dropped out moved to Dallas.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
Wow, So what was the process? What was that process?
Like that? You know, in between you dropping out moving
to Dallas and didn't say to yourself, you know, I
need to go back to school, I need to you know,
get myself together. What was that? What was that transition?

Speaker 6 (46:06):
Yeah? So when I when I dropped out of school,
I talked to my now wife then girlfriend to dropping
out two moving to Dallas with me.

Speaker 2 (46:15):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (46:16):
We were moving to Dallas to work with a relative
of mine who was like a brother. We grew up
in the same household, to work at his company, and
we're trying to make all this money get rich. Well
he turned out to be a con artist and even
conned me his brother. So we get down there, I'm
working for him, he's not paying me. We wreck our
we wreck our car. We we have to move into

(46:38):
this these apartments like roaching fested like this is. You know,
we we were low income, but we didn't live like that,
you know what I'm saying. And our whole deal was
we don't want to come back home because our parents
were like, no, don't do this, this is a bad deal.
We wanted to prove them wrong. But it was in
that moment I was literally selling air fresh and this
is an absolute this is what happened. I was literally

(46:59):
so air Freshmans in South Dallas. If you know anything
about South Dallas, that's where the Cotton Bowl is located. Well,
OU and Texas player that's one of the biggest games
in college football. The game was going on. I was
selling air freshmers in this barbershop called Grand Barbershop. They
had the TV on watching the OU Texas game, and
one of my high school classmates, teammates, Demon Parker, was

(47:20):
having a career game for OU, rushing for like two
hundred yards, and I'm sitting there watching him on TV
selling air Freshness, and it was like, oh, no, hell,
this is what the hell is wrong with this picture.
I realized there that being a load, not having a degree,
not taking advantage of all your opportunities, and just kind
of going through life making ten twenty dollars an hour.

(47:42):
I saw what that life was going to be like
and like, Nah, that ain't gonna be us. We moved
back home. I finished the community college, got into President's list.
I read every book you can imagine, Black history, destruction
of Black civilization, miseducation, anything I could get my hands on.
And then I say, you know what, I'm gonna fulfill
my dream. I'm gonna go to OU. I'm a major

(48:04):
in history. I'm gonna walk onto the football team. I
got to OU they had African American Studies program. I
majored in that, walked onto the football team, earned a scholarship,
and just been on that road ever since. That was
in nineteen ninety seven. I became a vegetarian, and a
vegetarian since ninety six, i'm a vegan now. So it
just started a whole transformation in my mind. But it

(48:25):
started first from a mental ship and a spiritual shift,
you know. And I just really give a lot of
credit to my grandmother, you know. Frand grandmother never never
gave up my mama. Like you said to me a
lot of times. This story that I'm telling you, it
ends in a different way because people give up on you.
My family and friends and my older relatives. Even though

(48:45):
my father was not my life, I still had a
lot of men that was positive that spoke life into
me even when I was trying to go to trying
to kill myself. So that's how that transition happened. I
mean once I once, once my mental shifted and I
realized that I had to get educated and I really
got to understand, like as a black man in America,

(49:09):
what I'm up against and what are my obligations and
what people have sacrificed for me to get to where
I am. Like I didn't. I knew this growing up,
but it didn't impact me like it did once I
got my mind together. Like my mother, my grandparents on
my mother's side, they were the first black family to
buy a home in this area of town. They went

(49:31):
through absolute hell. You know, my mother's cripple, like I
tell you, or handicapped. The white folks in the neighborhood.
This is nineteen fifty seven, nineteen fifty eight, nineteen fifty nine,
they called my mother a cripple nigga baby so often
she thought that that was their name.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
You know.

Speaker 6 (49:46):
My grandfather was a trash man. He having to work
making half of what the white boys are working. Then
he had to go and work as a jenerital at
a bank and then at night he had to come
and basically stay on the porch because they were throwing
rocks and bricks and the tars on the car and
all that stuff. My aunties are at integrating schools here,
going to our Central High School, having a fight every day.

(50:08):
These are things that I didn't have an appreciation for
growing up, but once I got my mentality right and understood,
like I mean, is I can't. I can't. I can't
throw away this sacrifice that these people have done, my
own family doing this ridiculous stuff. It's also hurting me
and hurting the community.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
That's so powerful.

Speaker 3 (50:29):
That's powerful to say, you know, I can't throw away
the history and the legacy of my people.

Speaker 2 (50:38):
You know, I need to be in tune.

Speaker 3 (50:40):
You got to be in touch, right, And that's why
history is so important. It's so important to read and learn. However,
some people reading is not their thing. But learn about
where we've come from because you see yourself and I
always say, well, we always say that. Going to Africa
expanded that understanding as well. It's almost like if every

(51:05):
black child had to take the trip, very similar to
what the Jews do with Israel, where they take most
of them try to take their children there to learn
the stories and to see, you know, and to be
a part of the community that real cultural experience. It

(51:27):
is very similar with us that if we were able
to take our children back and show them where our
people's beginnings were or are, I think you would have
less of us willing to kill backstaff and harm one another,
because it just you know, when you open up your
eyes in the world, you can't unsee it, you know.

(51:51):
So it's really wonderful to hear you talk about that.
And I'm assuming not just because you live in Oklahoma,
but also because you've done research, because you are African
American studies major. You know so much about Tulsa because
that's such a big part of our story. So what
led you to Did you get led to Justice for

(52:12):
Greenwood first, or did you first start working on the
Tulsa reparations piece and then build the organization?

Speaker 6 (52:22):
Yeah, I started working on the Tulsa reparations piece, you know,
twenty five years ago, nineteen ninety, and then built out
Justice for Greenwood. Here's a deal. And I've been to
Africa too, so we can talk about that. I've been
to West African and South Africa. I didn't know anything
about Greenwood until I got to University of Oklahoma. I'm
sitting in fall of nineteen ninety seven. I'm sitting in

(52:45):
sitting in intro the African American Studies class. My professor
was doctor Keeper new Rock cam rest Is Soul became
a great mentor of mine. He's a big guy, about
six foot five, three point thirty had his had a
mohawk with long dreads. That's probably not that big of
a deal now, but this is nineteen ninety seven, Like
you didn't see people walking around that way. Big hughes,

(53:06):
booming voice. So he's a very intimidating guy. When I'm
trying to tell you I'm in class, I'm interested because
I'm in my right mind state. And he starts talking
about also in this place with all these black entrepreneurs
and doctors and lawyers and the richest place ever for
black people, and Howard was bonded. Sitting like, man, this
dude don't not know what he's talking about. I'm from Tausa.

(53:29):
I went to middle school on Greenwood Avenue.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
I ain't never heard of styself.

Speaker 6 (53:34):
I raised my hand. I was like, man, I'm from Tausa.
That's not true, and man, you know, he gave me
the verbal beat down, gave me all the smoke, and
I was just so embarrassed right that I didn't know
my own history.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
And from that case, it was that day.

Speaker 6 (53:49):
In Fall in ninety seven and I decided I was
going to educate myself as much as I possible could
about Greenwood and the massacre and then who I was
gonna advocate to get justice and reparations from my community.
I found out from that day how many people I
grew up with not knowing that they were survival, not

(54:10):
knowing that they had been living at that time for
seventy five eighty years with the secret inside of them.
How that impacted our entire.

Speaker 1 (54:18):
Community because if you didn't know, they didn't know either.

Speaker 3 (54:22):
Even though they may have been directly associated affiliated, they
didn't know either.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
And we think we know.

Speaker 3 (54:29):
Everything when we're that age, because I can see you saying, no, no, no,
excuse me.

Speaker 6 (54:36):
I have missed the North Tulsa. You know what I'm saying. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (54:40):
So, so you learn this and you decide, Okay, I'm
gonna jump in. I'm gonna get in the fight, and
then you start going out to talk to other families
and other people tell us more about that, and they
don't know.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
How did they not know? Well, where is the miscommunication?

Speaker 6 (54:58):
Well, two things when I first got involve and I
started learning about actual older people that I grew up
knowing my whole life, that I didn't know that they
were masking survivors because nobody talked about it, because there
was a conspiracy of silence for eighty years. I mean,
people were afraid to even discuss it because of the ramifications.
I remember a lot of times, you know, we talk

(55:20):
in abstracts when we talk about eye my ancestors and
all that type of foolish is. I hate their talk.
These are people that had to live with the same
people that had burnt down their community, right they saw
they saw them shoot and kill their neighbors, They saw
them lynch instab their their their father or mother. They
saw them burn down forty city blocks, forty city blocks,

(55:41):
fifteen hundred and fifty homes and businesses burnt to the ground,
and then they had to live with those people. So
this is conspiracy of silence for eighty years that people
just didn't talk about it. As far as young people,
I mean, it just you know, when we don't talk
with our elders, and there's not in history books. It
kind of gets lost to history. So I started to

(56:02):
educate myself. I started to do a lot of speeches
even in the undergrad go to a lot of conferences,
Black studies conferences, talk about it. I would write a
lot of my papers throughout my entire undergrad about green
with different aspects of it. When I got in graduate school,
cause I have a master's in higher education, that was
the same thing. I would just do a lot of
presentations on it. So then when I got into law school,

(56:25):
same deal. But then I became on the National Black
Laws and Association's board and that's where if me and
Angela Rod became really good friends, went on the board together,
and I was a national reparations director. And then during
that time periods when the RCC, the Reparations Coordinating Committee,
which was co chaired by my mentor who just passed
Professor Charles Ogertree, they came in and they filled the

(56:50):
lawsuit in two thousand and three, and so I got
the clerk for doctor Ogatrey and that team. That team
had Johnny Cochrane, Professor Ogutree, Michelle Roberts. That's a you know,
you should try get her on your show. She's just
retired as the National Basketball Associations, Zach. She's an amazing
trial lawyer, Willie Gary, a bunch of other big lawyers.

(57:10):
So as a law student, I'm clerking. I'm learning that
to feed these giant doctor John Hooan Franklin. I don't
know if you guys well, his father B. C. Franklin
was a massacre survivor and filed the first lawsuits just
days after the massacre is a very famous pitcher. BC
Franklin and his law partner IW Spears practicing in a

(57:33):
tent just a few days after the massacre. Think think
about that. You're talking about, ain't your ancestors. You're talking
about block lawyers filling lawsuits against the very people that
just burnt everything down. I mean the four to two
to do that. So I got to work with them
from two thousand and three. Then I graduated law school.
Oh four, I joined as a baby lawyer. Our case

(57:55):
got dismissed. That that case got dismissed at the district
court level, and four we appealed that to the tenth Circuit.
They overruled us. Then we appealed it to the US
Supreme Court, and in two thousand and five the US
Supreme Court they declined to hear the case. Then we
started working on a legislative fix. So we organized for

(58:17):
about two and a half years. I did that, my
wife and I Mia. We organized a national town hall
in two thousand and five which featured Professor Overtrie and
the congress Woman Maxime Waters, when about a thousand people
show up. And from that momentum we were able to
work with represented John Conyers Rest in Peace, who crafted

(58:37):
some legislation to try to remove the statute of limitations,
because that's what we got kicked out of it. It has
been too long. We got we got that bill introduced
in two thousand and seven. We had actually had a
Congressional hearing in two thousand and seven that I attended
with a couple of our survivors at that time. What
was interested about that hearing? You know how life is.

(58:58):
There was a very very not very well known Indiana
Republican that was on that Judiciary committee by the name
of Mike Pince.

Speaker 3 (59:06):
Look looking look at the world, look at the world, who.

Speaker 6 (59:10):
Said, you know, this is a bad deal. But it's
just too long ago. It's not we can do about it,
you know. So we went through that, we never got
a hearing. We fought for that for several years. We
never got a hearing. Then we filed a lawsuit in
the International Court of the Americas, which is located in Washington,
d C. We went to that deal. We won that,

(59:31):
but it was no victory because what can they tell
America to do? Right? So, this is like around twenty eleven,
twenty twelve. I mean, a lot of the survivors are dying,
people are getting the older lawyers are passing on, they're
doing other things. It was kind of looking kind of
hopeless at this point. And then at this point I

(59:53):
was representing a lot of professional athletes doing other things
in the law, but I kept writing about the massacre,
kept writing and speaking about it. Then around two thousand
and seventeen eighteen, I started really feeling like the urgency
of the Centennial Company and feeling like, okay, man, what
can we do? You know, I know the world is

(01:00:14):
going to be watching, and it couldn't really figure out
a pathway for it because of the statute of limitations issue.
And then in twenty nineteen, the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce
was one of the purposes of the massacre. They came
out and did this press conference where they said, hey,
we want to come clean and we want to donate
the minutes from our meetings right after the massacre, which

(01:00:35):
shows how we were, you know, trying to take advantage
and what we wanted to do, and that just really wow.
Yeah you want to react to that.

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
No, I'm just saying that's big.

Speaker 6 (01:00:47):
So they came out, but it was it was a
big It was a big pr deal because at this
point people were starting to talk about November in ninety seven,
nobody's talking about the mask right, it's still called the
Tulsa Race ride, nobody really knows about it. By this
time in twenty nineteen, May, the Watchman is out.

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
Yeah you know, yeah, I.

Speaker 6 (01:01:07):
Mean, and it's getting bigger, you know, the centennials coming up,
and like, it's a lot of attention coming to Tulsa.
So now it's like, well, how do we sanitize this,
how do we how do we how do we whitewash?
So we're going to come out and we're going to
say we're you know, we should have done better, and
we're going to make up for this was really pissed
me off, make up for what we did, because we're
going to have more diversity on our board, more minority diversity,

(01:01:31):
and more women.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
They always thought that.

Speaker 6 (01:01:34):
So that pissed me off, and I was like, man,
now I gotta figure out something. So two weeks later,
on June teenth, twenty nineteen, they had a house hearing
on HR forty. They had about fifteen seven people. One
person says anything says something about Tulsa, and that was
my friend, professor Eric Miller, who was on their original

(01:01:57):
RCC team. But I hadn't talked to Eric about eight
or nine years, and I saw you in my texted
DM them on Twitter, say, man, I saw you. I've
been thinking about doing something you you know, I just
think it's right on time that I saw you. Would
you be interested? He said, yeah. So I put together.

Speaker 7 (01:02:15):
We had this little small rad tag team of me,
him and a couple of other professors, you know, no resources,
no big law firm behind us, and we were like,
we just gonna file something.

Speaker 6 (01:02:28):
We don't know, it probably won't work, we may even
get sanctioned because then in the law it's different than
like we could just say whatever on social.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
Media, but you got to file something viable.

Speaker 6 (01:02:42):
That's right, you get hit what it's called the Rually
eleven sanctions, and they sanctioned you, monetarily, discipline you, whatever.
And I just made a determination that I don't care.
I don't care whatever it takes. It's just if it's
nothing but a protest, I'm filing something. So we started
working on that was in twenty nineteen. This is like
July twenty nineteen, working on it around October. It's like, man,

(01:03:08):
what we thought we were gonna do was like, man, this
is not gonna work. And I was talking to my
homeboy guy went to high school with and we do
a lot of cases together, and we started talking about
like different theories, and we were just every day we
would talk. We would talk. And then we saw this
news story in Oklahoma about how the state of Oklahoma
had got this huge verdict against the opior companies. It

(01:03:30):
got like a four hundred and sixty five million dollar
verdict against these OPI your companies utilizing what's called a
public nuisance theory. And so I was like, I said, well,
they went back like thirty forty years to get that
verdict and My boy was like, well, man, why are
we looking that. I was like, yeah, let's look at it.
So we started, we started researching it, and we found
that the public nuisance statue in Oklahoma, which has been

(01:03:51):
around since nineteen ten, does not have a statue of limitations.
Oh I'm getting excited just talking about it. Let me
tell you what when we when we when we when
we read that, I mean, it was it was. It
was just like such a beautiful development, revelation was it was.
It was a viable way for it. Let me just

(01:04:13):
tell you how God worked it was.

Speaker 2 (01:04:14):
It was.

Speaker 6 (01:04:14):
It was not a protest, It was not just something
to say. It was a viable way forward. And we
looked at it, and we were looking at the elements.
The elements, I'm just a paraphrase. As long as there
was an ongoing nuisance, it must be abated. A bay
it means to be fixed. So think about this, Think

(01:04:35):
about it this way, y'all. Remember about four or thirteen
years ago when the VP oil explosion happened in the
Gulf of Mexico. Yes, I remember that video of that
oil just spread out to the gulf for like forty
to fifty days, just millions of gallons of oil, right,
so that that's the nuisance. So that's like the massacre,
that's like the dropping of the bombs. That's like the burning,

(01:04:57):
the shooting, the killing of the people. Then they plugged
that whole, But what about the oil. The oil was
still polluting the air, was polluting the water, it was
killing the wildlife, it was hurting people's you know that
shrimping business or whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:05:10):
And people already died.

Speaker 6 (01:05:12):
People had already until that oil is all the way abated.
If it takes one year or one hundred years, that
nuisance is ongoing, and you have no statute of limitations.

Speaker 2 (01:05:23):
So you all filed that.

Speaker 3 (01:05:25):
That's what you use, and you all filed something under
that particular what would it be called law public nuss law.
And then that was the first time that they didn't
throw They couldn't throw it out.

Speaker 6 (01:05:40):
They couldn't throw it out. So so we realized that
at the end of twenty nineteen, and that was like, okay,
now we need a client. The church burning and me
of all the fifteen hundred and fifty structures that was
in Green where we have one structure that still surviving,
the mask in it's a basement where they head doing
the bombing, We said them up and then only living

(01:06:03):
survivor in Tulisa at the time that we knew about.
She was one hundred and five at the time. Mother
random got her signed up. And then then the crazy
thing happened. The craziest thing happened. Well, first of all,
COVID happened, right, COVID shuts everything down, So what what's
the what's the what's the next biggest event that happens?

Speaker 5 (01:06:24):
Right after COVID, the biggest event in the world, George
Floyd happens. So the whole world is looking and thinking
about Black Lives Matter. So people are already in this
pissed off scenario like no, we're tired of this.

Speaker 6 (01:06:41):
And then what happens two weeks later after George Floyd,
Donald J. Trump decides he's going to do his first
rally where in Tulsa, Oklahoma, oh June ten. People are pissed.
People are like, hell, no, we ain't taking this. And
so the entire world was looking at Tulsa from starting.

(01:07:06):
It started at the Trump Deal. It was hundreds hundreds
of media outlets in Tulsa during the Trump visit, and
so that was just giving us this momentum, and I
almost filed right then and there. And my mentor, uh,
he's really my coach, Brian.

Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
Stevenson e j I, oh, wonderful.

Speaker 6 (01:07:26):
Yeah, I mean that's my man. I love Brian, that
is my guy. And I couldn't be here where I
am right today if it was not for him. And
I remember I was gonna file, and I was just
so angry that Trump would do that. He said, look,
I ain't gonna tell you what to do, but you know,
if you filed, it's going to all be about Trump,
you know, and we're not ready yet, you know, so,
but that gave us a lot of fuel, a lot
of momentum, and that meant everybody had their eyes on Tulsa.

(01:07:50):
And then when we filed in September first of twenty twenty,
it just blew the minds of everybody because for the
last two or three years, up until that point, everybody,
all the perpetrators, was talking about how bad it was
and how they were sorry and this shouldn't happened, and
the massacre is the reason for all the disparities. But

(01:08:11):
once we filed, now all that stuff that you were
saying because you didn't think it was no repercussions. Now
you gotta deal with it. So I'll pause there because
I can say so much more from September one, twenty
twenty to where we are now. But I'll pause there
because I can talk. I can talk forever.

Speaker 4 (01:08:29):
No, I mean just listening to it and understanding the
journey and it for me, it's just like while watching,
you know, seeing and then and knowing that you know,
God provides to Tom it ain't your time, it's it's
God's timing. So after you when you when did you
actually you actually.

Speaker 6 (01:08:48):
Foiled September one.

Speaker 2 (01:08:52):
For September one, twenty twenty, and what is the status
of it?

Speaker 6 (01:08:55):
So right now, so our case just got we got
dismissed on July seventh, But I guess before I talk
about that dismissal. When we filed on September one, twenty twenty,
they filed a motion to the smith. They've been the perpetrator.
That's the city, the county, and the Chamber, the state
of Oklahoma and some other entities. We liter gave that

(01:09:17):
for a year, which is unusual for that to take
that long in state court. Then we had a hearing
on May second, twenty twenty two. Hundreds of people were there,
lots of dignitaries, people like my friend represents Sheila Jackson,
Lead Barbara Arline, And at that hearing, our judge, for
the first time in the history of any of these
type of massacres, said we could move forward. She denied

(01:09:41):
the motion to dismiss by her defendants, but then she
waited three months to do her written order. And her
written order she kind of went back on what she
said and made. She did that in August, but then
we had to go back through the process all over again,
and we've been waiting since August of last year, and
then this July seventh, she dismissed just with our prejudice,
I mean with prejudice, meaning we could not refile the

(01:10:03):
case in her court. So we had thirty days to
follow our appeal with the Oklahoma Supreme Court. We got
our appeal filed on August fourth. We announced the filer
with a press conference on August seven. We have three
major things that need to happen for us to win
this appeal. The first major thing we had to have
happened is that the Oklahoma Supreme Court accepts the case.

(01:10:25):
Ninety nine percent of the cases that are fouled at
the Oklahoma Supreme Court, they don't accept it. They kick it
down to what's called the Court the Civil Appeals. They
have accepted the case. That is huge development, phenomenal, the
phenomenal development. It happened very very quickly. We are in
bold and we feel very good about it. The next

(01:10:47):
step is to have or hearing, and obviously the last
step is for them to decide that they will give
us the opportunity and be very clear, all we're asking
for at this point is the opportunity to have our
day in court.

Speaker 2 (01:11:00):
Mm hmmm.

Speaker 6 (01:11:01):
So we're gonna fighting for almost three years just for opportunity,
just for opportunity.

Speaker 2 (01:11:07):
Wow, Well, that's what That's amazing man.

Speaker 4 (01:11:09):
You know, I think I think everything is aligned, you know,
as it should be. You know, I think, you know,
we we we never know what these courts are gonna do. So,
you know, but I think I think you've done the work.
You know, I think that you've done the research, and
I think that you and I have enough faith in
you that I know that you what you present to

(01:11:30):
get that day in court, it's gonna be something that's
so powerful that it's gonna regardless of what they do,
is gonna it's gonna start ripples.

Speaker 2 (01:11:38):
It's gonna start.

Speaker 4 (01:11:39):
Ripples because when when you actually see because even when
you said with Mike Pincid, you know like, yeah, this
is messed up, but you know it's now we've passed that.
You know, you can't say that the statute of limitation
is going now you actually got to heal what we
have to present.

Speaker 2 (01:11:55):
And I think there's nobody can really deny what the.

Speaker 4 (01:11:58):
Tulsa you know, a mass did and and how how
it completely shifted the coach, our culture, you know, just
shift just our our lineage and you know throughout throughout history.
So I think reparations is definitely you know, required for that.
So I'm rooting for you man.

Speaker 3 (01:12:19):
Yeah, I think your energy like we hear it, you know,
we can see the passion and the drive. And you know,
just as I was doing my research before you joined us, today,
I see how long you've been.

Speaker 2 (01:12:32):
In this, you know, and this a long battle.

Speaker 3 (01:12:34):
And you educated yourself, educated others, bought a team along.
Didn't think that you could do it by yourself, which
is one of the challenges that sometimes our people face,
uh is trying to go at it a loan so
that they in the end you could be the one
to claim the victory.

Speaker 1 (01:12:53):
But that's not this. It's impossible.

Speaker 3 (01:12:55):
It's going to take so many hearts and minds and
so many different leaders to come to and I think
that a win for Tulsa is a win on this
journey towards reparations for our people in general. So when
you said that Congresswoman Sheila Jackson, Lee and Barbara Online
we're there to support you, it makes sense because they

(01:13:16):
also understand collaboration is key and that it is a lineage,
it is a process, it is a journey, and once
we are able to see justice for Tulsa, then we
can start to use it as a contagiate, a contagious
sort of drive for other places to do the same.

Speaker 2 (01:13:35):
So I love it. I'm I'm proud of what you're doing.

Speaker 3 (01:13:39):
But I'm also inspired, very inspired to hear your story
to see how just how passionate I guess you know
you are about making sure that this happens. So I
just want to thank you so much for joining us
today and giving us like a colorful understanding of what

(01:14:00):
is happening.

Speaker 1 (01:14:01):
So how can people help you and you know, what
can they do?

Speaker 3 (01:14:04):
Can they donate to Justice for Greenwood and what are
ways that they can stay involved and learn more about
what you have you know what you're doing.

Speaker 6 (01:14:12):
Yeah, thank you so much for that. I'm inspired to
I'm inspired to be here with you all in being
in community. And so you're right, we have to work
together as a team. And it is not just me,
no question at all, but how people can help. They
can help in three ways. Number one, go to Justice
for Greenwood dot org we are a follow and one
C three organization and make a donation. This work is taxing.

(01:14:35):
It's taxing, and you two know this as much as
anybody needs taxing physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally, but also financially,
you know. And we've been very blessed a Justice for
Greenwood to have support so we can do the work
that we do. In addition to our litigation that we've
talked all about, we also have what we call it
we are a Greenwood project. Where our people were dispersed

(01:14:58):
throughout the nation because indeed throughout the world because of
the massacre, and part of our charge is to recreate Greenwood.
Greenwood was just as much a place as it wasn't mentality.
Greenwood was a mentality of landownership, cooperative economics and business
and economic innovation, and a freedom mind state. So we

(01:15:19):
do all histories, we do genealogy. We have over almost
a thousand people in our descendant network. And all this
stuff costs money. So if people make a donation, if
you can make a donation of five dollars, make that.
If you can make five dollars and make that, I'll
tell you. I look at the donation reports at the
end of the month and I see so many people

(01:15:40):
giving twelve dollars.

Speaker 2 (01:15:41):
Or eight dollars.

Speaker 6 (01:15:43):
It really is you know, obviously we all want to
get the big check. But it inspires me when I
know somebody, somebody giving you eleven dollars or something. This
is what they have, you know, because this is how
I grew up. This is my people. I grew up
in those churches, the small churches, passed around the little
collection plate, and you know, you put your two dollars

(01:16:04):
and seventy five cents because that's what you have. And
so make a donation. If you can make a five dollars,
make it five. You can make it fit five thousand,
make it five thousand. That's the first word. Number two,
sign up for our newsletter. You know, we have about
ten thousand people on our newsletter and we always having activations.
We always have trying to move people to action. But
that's the way they're stay in touch with us. We

(01:16:24):
send out an email but mostly once a week, but
definitely through two three times a month. And then thirdly,
sign up go to Justice for Greenwood on our ig
like share our posts. So this work is still get
out because you'd be surprised to me if people still
don't really know about the massacre and not just the

(01:16:44):
thing reason I call it Justice for Greenwood because yeah,
we're trying to get justice for the massacre, but we
also want to educate people about Greenwood, right green what was,
how Greenwood was created, how Greenwood was sustained itself, So
we can get back to that mentality. Absolutely a lot
of people, I know we're wrapping up, but a lot
of people want to use Greenwel because they want to
talk about black Wall Street and they want to wrap

(01:17:05):
it around as capitalistic, you know, business, business, business. But
black Wall Street was just a part of the community
of Greenwood, and black Wall Street was not about a
capitalist society. It was a cooperative economic society.

Speaker 2 (01:17:18):
That's right.

Speaker 6 (01:17:18):
That work with built yea working together, that's what built
Black Wall Street. And then you got to go back
and think about the land ownership. And that's why we
have another conversation. I'm a Black Creek Indian. My family
been in Oklahoma since the eighteen thirties, walked on the
trail of tears. My ancestor was the chief blah blah blah.
But you wouldn't have Greenwood if you woul't have all
the Black Indians who are already in Oklahoma for almost

(01:17:39):
eighty years, who had land and had a freedom of
mind state, so all those things. People can help us
get that education out by donating, by a sign up
to our newsletter and following us on Instagram, and of
course you can follow me at Attorney Tomorrio.

Speaker 1 (01:17:55):
Awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:17:58):
Listen man, keep up the good world.

Speaker 4 (01:18:00):
It's motivation, you know, for us, because we we we
we all here on these front lines doing all the
same work. So seeing people like we said, it's not no,
it's no one person that can do this.

Speaker 2 (01:18:12):
There's no one leader. It's gonna take so many of us.

Speaker 4 (01:18:14):
You know our people have been fractured in so many
different pieces that it's gonna take so many different pieces
to put us back together.

Speaker 2 (01:18:21):
So we definitely appreciate the world you do. Keep up the.

Speaker 3 (01:18:24):
Fight, Keep up the fight, Attorney de Mario Solomon Simmons
of Justice for Greenwood, fighting for the survivors of the
Tulsa Race War massacre. And also I would say a
new part of your title is the fight for reparations
for them, is the fight for reparations for all of

(01:18:44):
our people. So we appreciate you, brother, keep going and
anything that we can do to be supportive, to give
you a platform to anything, whatever you need us to do,
carry the water, do a protest, say things you can't say,
whatever you need us to do with there.

Speaker 1 (01:19:02):
Please be in touch. Thank you so much.

Speaker 6 (01:19:05):
Thank you. I bring you out a toss so soon.

Speaker 2 (01:19:07):
Appreciate you.

Speaker 4 (01:19:09):
Thank you. Shout out to Attorney Simmons man. The work
he's doing is phenomenal, and it's he's so passionate. He's
passionate man, and he's been doing it for twenty five years.

Speaker 2 (01:19:22):
Like literally, and that just goes to show man.

Speaker 4 (01:19:26):
And when you know, I was taught that persistence breaks
down resistance. Man, It's like the water that rolls on
the rock and it just slowly breaks it down, you know.
And people don't realize that they want immediate you know,
gratification and on.

Speaker 2 (01:19:42):
Things that immediately just happened. Man.

Speaker 4 (01:19:43):
But he shows how when you steadfast and you consistently
do something, you know, you eventually get results. So shout
out to him for that work.

Speaker 2 (01:19:52):
Man.

Speaker 4 (01:19:53):
Mine don't get it is it's kind of simple, right.
We've been celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of hip hop. Fifty
if you of hip hop, And the only thing I
don't get is there are certain people that I'm not
going to name names, but there are certain individuals that

(01:20:15):
I just haven't seen. You know, there's a whole legacy
of hip hop.

Speaker 2 (01:20:19):
People say they've been totally cut out, and.

Speaker 4 (01:20:21):
You know, and I just think I think that you
can't you can't celebrate everybody. But there are certainly some
people who I think are pretty much pioneered hip hop
that haven't been involved in the big ceremonies as I
think they should have, you know. And so that's probably

(01:20:43):
the only thing I would say I don't get. I think,
you know, we have to do a lot better at
understanding the history of hip hop and not just celebrating
quote unquote what's popular popular, you know, and really give
those artists and those people who really paved the way
for a lot of things that you know happened in
hip hop.

Speaker 2 (01:21:03):
They'll just do and they're just platforms, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:21:07):
So that's pretty much my only thing I don't get
this week. But everything else is just dope.

Speaker 2 (01:21:11):
Man.

Speaker 4 (01:21:13):
Thanks to Attorney Simmons for joining us. Thanks to our
fans for always supporting us, making us the number one show,
Street Politicians, number one show. Hit us up a Street
Politicians pot. If you have any ideas, if you want
to tell us anything, tell us you love us, hate us,
ideas for shows, who you want us to interview, any topics,
just let us know. Man, we appreciate y'all for always

(01:21:34):
supporting us. We're going to continue to be who we are.
We're going to continue to come straight from the heart
and give you raw, raw content.

Speaker 2 (01:21:45):
I'm not gonna.

Speaker 4 (01:21:45):
Always be right, Tamika, the marriages not gonna always be wrong.
We will both always and I mean always be authentic.

Speaker 6 (01:21:55):
Tlue.

Speaker 3 (01:21:57):
Listen to Street Politicians on the Black Effect Network on iHeartRadio.

Speaker 4 (01:22:02):
And catch us every single Wednesday for the video version
of Street Politicians on iwomen dot tv.

Speaker 2 (01:22:07):
That's how we