Lankford champions north Tulsa community efforts

WASHINGTON — As U.S. Sen. James Lankford has befriended people in north Tulsa, he has praised and promoted their efforts to improve the black neighborhoods.

In a speech on the Senate floor in May, he mentioned Donna Jackson, who leads a group trying to bring in 100 new businesses by 2021, the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race riot.

At a Capitol Hill news conference last week, he talked about A Pocket Full of Hope, a nonprofit devoted to mentoring youths and teaching them about the arts.

And he has advised Tracy Gibbs, who has helped renovate a shopping center once owned by her husband’s grandparents.

Lankford, R-Oklahoma City, clearly admires the people he has met in north Tulsa since becoming a senator in early 2015, and the feeling appears to be mutual.

“He’s genuine,” said Lester Shaw, the founder and director of A Pocket Full of Hope.

“He keeps his word. He follows through.

“He gets it — the pain of the historical racism and discrimination. Some would call it systemic. The complaints that for years have fallen on deaf ears. He’s trying to accomplish a pathway so that north Tulsa can sort of exhale. I think he’s trying to bridge an understanding of people.”

Gibbs, who is vice president of the North Tulsa 100 project, said she has talked to Lankford about the problems she and her husband have had attracting tenants to their shopping center, one that would “probably be filled up” if it were in south Tulsa.

Lankford told her that he wasn’t just there to listen.

“He said, ‘Tracy, I want to help.’ That really stuck with me,” Gibbs said. “I just really felt like he heard our hearts.”

Early last week, as the community reeled from the killing of Terence Crutcher, an unarmed black man, by a white Tulsa police officer, Gibbs had coffee with Lankford aide Maressa Treat.

Gibbs wants the emotion unleashed by the killing to be channeled into the effort to revitalize the community.

“I hope we use the energy for something that’s positive and will move us in the right direction,” Gibbs said.