The Tulsa Association of Pioneers (TAP) Monument located in Owen Park is a physical reminder of Tulsa's sordid history, engraved with the names of of segregationists, war profiteers, land thieves, and at least two Klansmen.

This is not a history we want represented and memorialized in our public spaces. Approaching the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, Tulsans are choosing to look inward and educate themselves on their complicated past. A monument to white supremacy does not represent Tulsa and must be immediately removed.

The monument, dated just a few months after the Tulsa Race Massacre on September 21, 1921, celebrates a reunion BBQ that happened the same weekend the state wide Confederate Reunion was in town hosted by Tate Brady, a known Klansman whose name is found on the monument.

It was first erected on private property in 1935, and was then moved to its current location fifteen years later in 1950. The monument was placed in Owen Park, about 50 feet from a Native American Memorial that had been there for 15 years prior to the monument's relocation. It wasn't until after land was donated to the city to host the TAP monument, and a date reserved on the calendar as "old-timers day" for an annual picnic on the 21st of September, that the monument was relocated.

Meanwhile, the nearby Native American Memorial, recently rededicated by the Daughters of the American Revolution on Nov 1, 2020, celebrates the physical location where the three tribal boundaries of the Creek, Cherokee, and Osage nations converge. The massive irony of a monument honoring white supremacists encroaching on a memorial honoring the disenfranchised is not lost.

The Tulsa Association of Pioneers no longer exists today and has no active members. There are no records available from its inception until the mid nineteen thirties, a timeline that historically coincides with the rise and fall of the KKK in Tulsa. There is absolutely no reason this monument should remain erected.

The inscription about the great empire on this monument unmistakably carries all the hallmarks and Klan-trophy-calling-cards of the invisible empire. This monument needs to be removed from our public park, and "old-timers day" needs to be stricken from the calendar.

Sign and send the petition: We will not tolerate a monument to white supremacy to continue to stand in our public space. You must immediately remove it.