The horror of Tulsa still reverberates. It shows why America needs to take reparations seriously.

As Coates wrote in 2014, the shining mark of America’s shameful legacy is the persistent wealth gap between White and Black Americans. The past is deeply present in that. We are stuck in the past, too, when officials in Oklahoma have so far refused to repay even the few living survivors of the Tulsa massacre. The past is present in shocking police violence against Black people, and in continued White dominance of important institutions — business, media, politics — across society. And we will for sure remain stuck in America’s factory settings when Republican legislators across the country seek to suppress the research and scholarship that would prevent students and teachers from even holding discussions on reparations.