Before marching almost a mile through downtown Tulsa with about 400 people Tuesday afternoon, the Rev. Al Sharpton and other civic leaders urged the crowd to remain peaceful as they seek justice for the police shooting that killed unarmed Terence Crutcher.
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Sharpton, religious leaders, members of the Crutcher family and several attorneys spoke at a “National Prayer Call for Justice March” before leading the crowd from the Greenwood Cultural Center, 322 N. Greenwood Ave., to City Hall, 175 E. Second St.
The crowd spanned about a block as people lined up to march behind a banner that featured a photo of 40-year-old Terence Crutcher and read “#Justice4Crutch” and “hands up, don’t shoot.”
Sharpton spoke just before the march began, saying that when he was asked why he was in Tulsa, his response was: “I heard y’all looking for bad dudes.”
An officer in a police helicopter was heard saying on video recorded just before Crutcher was shot Sept. 16 that Crutcher “looks like a bad dude.”
Plans for Sharpton to attend the rally in Tulsa were publicly announced last week, when the Crutcher family met with him in New York before a charge was filed in connection with the shooting.
Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler filed a first-degree manslaughter charge on Thursday against Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby, who shot Crutcher after she says she felt threatened by him outside his vehicle on a north Tulsa street.
Sharpton commended Tulsa police for releasing the footage of the Crutcher shooting and remarked that Tulsa should be a model for the other cities where black men have been killed by law enforcement officers but refuse to share video.
Benjamin Crump, an attorney representing the Crutcher family, told the crowd at the rally that police have shown transparency by releasing the video, but he said that’s only the first step toward justice.
The next step, he said, is holding someone accountable “for the senseless killing, yet again, of an unarmed person of color.”
Crump said the Crutcher family wanted the rally to be an opportunity for “everyone to come together for truth and justice.”
Tiffany Crutcher, Terence Crutcher’s twin sister, said the rally was important not just for her brother’s case but for the country.
“I believe we’ve set the tone of peace, unity, healing,” she said.
She said this isn’t a war against the police — that those at the rally honor the service of law enforcement members.
“This is a fight against why they called my brother a ‘bad dude.’ This is a war against bad cops,” Tiffany Crutcher said.
“We have to get mad and say that the chain breaks here, right here where Black Wall Street started — something that we’re known for. But today we’re not going to be known for that. We’re going to be known for the city that caused healing across this country.”
The marchers continuously chanted “Hands up, don’t shoot” as they walked along the streets cleared by Tulsa police, heading south on Greenwood Avenue and west on Archer Street before crossing the Cincinnati Avenue bridge over railroad tracks to arrive outside City Hall.
There, Sharpton addressed people in the crowd again and invited them to attend another event Tuesday evening at the Jazz Hall of Fame, 5 S. Boston Ave.
A small group of counter protesters stood outside City Hall but remained peaceful as they engaged marchers in discussion about gun rights while openly carrying handguns on their belts.
The crowd that participated in the march was diverse, with people of varying races, ethnicities and ages. A teacher at Langston Hughes Academy for Arts and Technology, a charter school in Tulsa, brought 15 ninth- and 10th-graders, who wore school uniforms and carried signs as they marched.
Before the march began, 18-year-old Tulsa Community College student Tykee McClain said she was glad that Sharpton came to Tulsa to bring together people “of all nationalities and all race.”
“That’s what really matters, is we’re coming together, shaking hands, meeting new people, saying this is a tragedy, but we’re going to turn it into something else,” McClain said. “We’re going to turn it into a peaceful protest, and not something ignorant.
“It could’ve been worse: We could be fighting. But we really want to come together and love each other.”
The rally began as scheduled but was put on hold shortly after it started as two counter protesters holding signs across the street began using a megaphone to communicate their message, saying “police lives matter” and that supporters of “Black Lives Matter” are racists.
The group at the rally began singing “We Shall Overcome” in response, and about five Tulsa police officers monitored the situation as the counterprotesters continued to speak over the megaphone until the march began.
McClain stood across the street, facing the counterprotesters while holding up a sign with the initials “BLM” because she said she wanted them “to see that we matter, and I’m a person just like you.”
Nuredin Giayash, who identified himself as a Muslim-American originally from Libya, said he came to the event to support equality for all people.
“We have to be just, and we have to be fair with all, whether blacks or Muslims or Christians or whatever, and there is sanctity about every single human life,” Giayash said.
Koryn Wight, one of two people carrying a large American flag, said they brought it to the rally because it is an “American event, not a black-and-white event.”
“The fact that we can come out here and peacefully assemble like this, even though we have opposing views — that’s how we need to move forward, I feel, as a country,” Wight said.
A few hours after the march ended, hundreds of people crowded into a standing-room-only area inside the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame and finished the day with a rally filled with music and preaching.
“This rally is not just to talk about the injustices of this world,” said Candy White, Crutcher’s cousin. “This is also to uplift the lives that he left behind.”
Several artists took turns between speakers to provide gospel music.
“Terence wanted to be a gospel singer,” White said. “How many ‘bad dudes’ want to be a gospel singer? How man ‘bad dudes’ want to give God the glory?”
But the room went silent as Crutcher’s four children took the stage. “I remember when my dad, he would come in whether we was in the kitchen, in the room, and he would tickle you so hard that your side would start hurting,” said Crutcher’s oldest daughter, 15. “Well, he’s not able to do that anymore.”
But she finds solace in the love of her family.
“The pain that I feel now could never compare to (how) I felt because my dad loved me,” she said. “I’m so happy that I have a family that stands behind me and keeps me lifted up every day.”
Crutcher’s second-oldest daughter, also 15, reflected on memories of her father.
“If he was here, he would be singing with us today,” she said.
“It was very hard for me to hear my cousin call me and tell me that my dad had died,” she said. “I didn’t really believe it at that moment — but it’s real. He really is not coming back.”
The community’s support has been uplifting for the family, she said.
“We ask that you continue to pray for us and just lift us up.”
Crutcher’s 4-year-old son, Terence Jr., had a simple message.
“Love you, daddy.”
Arianna Pickard
918-581-8413
arianna.pickard@tulsaworld.com
Twitter: @ari_pickard
Paris Burris
918-581-8386
Twitter: @ParisBurris
