Garry Clark, Jr: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Message

Tulsa. America. A Baptist Pastor. A Greek Mathematician. An Egyptian Pyramid.

This morning, I woke up thinking of the Egyptian Pryamid’s in Africa. I wondered how on earth did these extremely magnificent African folks create something we cannot replicate with the same precision today. I thought of the roots of math and its core and fundamental connection to equality. To equity. To Martin Luther King, Jr. and his life’s work and vision. To America. And, more importantly for PartnerTulsa, today, it’s very real connection to the City of Tulsa.

Today we will flow into a very important National holiday to remember the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr. However, this date reminds many of us of the long road ahead to help fully reach his true vision and DREAM. So why am I mentioning math, geometry (Pyramids) even? Because of one very real historical truth, math is one of the first things in all of human history to speak of equality and equity.

At its root, Math is defined as the study of numbers, shapes, and their relationships. The key word for me in this definition is relationship. The relationship between all humans who are alive or who have ever lived. The relationship between our past, our present and our future in Tulsa and America. For PartnerTulsa it is our relationship with each of you; citizens of Tulsa, leaders, and stakeholders, business-owners, our community. How do we continue to improve on those relationships?

Historically, we find that Math highlights how we can add to things, subtract from things, or even make things whole. It illuminates the ability to define what is true and in a very real way, what is called EQUAL.

Long before the father of modern Geometry, Euclid came up with his five Common Notions, we had the Mesopotamians and the Egyptians creating amazing structures and civilians that still boggle our advanced technological minds today. Yet, Euclid a man of Greek origin called in his first common notion as such, “Things equal to the same thing are equal to each other.” And with this first notion, Euclid whether intended or not, sent ripples through history, through time; to our first leaders of our constitution which quotes his first common notion; to Abraham Lincoln who used Euclid’s first notion to socialize the push for the ratification of the 13th amendment and the use of Africans in the Civil War. The United States Declaration of Independence states it this way, “We hold these truths self-evident, that all men are created equal”.

And, with this connection, the ripples connected all the way from the building of Egyptian Pyramid’s to Euclid around 300 B.C., to a young American, Atlanta-born, Baptist minister, activist, philosopher, and father, who led the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968.

What is clear is that equality has been a mathematical truth since the beginning of time, yet even in all this significance, it requires a specific variable to have its value reserve it’s equality. That variable is called equity. Plainly, equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunity needed to reach an equal outcome. Out of the abundance of our historical battles with those who would try their best to ignore this mathematical truth, America, Tulsa more specifically, found itself, out of balance, its proverbial formula for equality completely altered and changed, but imperialism from long ago to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, to Jim Crow, to the Tulsa Race Massacre, and, 100 years later, to today. We must come to grips with a very real evaluation of our math. As a superstar actress, born in Washington, D.C. once quipped, The Math Ain’t Mathin’. Better explained, our equation is currently incorrect.

And this is why, in my humble opinion, PartnerTulsa exists, to make the Math, Math again. To support all of our Civic, and Private community efforts to take equality of the past and make equity congruent, in essence. So how do we achieve this goal? We continue to hold true to the focus on our Equity Indicators:

• Economic opportunity: Business ownership, unemployment, median household income, and more
• Education: Educational attainment and other factors
• Housing: Access to housing and other factors
• Justice: Transparency in city government and other factors
• Public health: Health outcomes and other factors
• Services: Access to services and other factors

We maintain our focus on removing the historic traumas and pain of North Tulsa and Historic Greenwood by continuing to support the efforts of the Greenwood Legacy Corporation as it works in partnership with PartnerTulsa, the City, and interested developers, to achieve the community’s desired goals link to the Kirkpatrick Heights-Greenwood Master Plan. We explore using this model in other areas of the city.

We maintain our focus on the reality that true investment in North Tulsa means, equity in housing, in business attraction, in job creation, and in land ownership, and this needs to be ongoing. A one-time program will not achieve the corrective equitable goal needed.

We maintain the understanding that long term goals of equality and equity for our East Tulsans and our amazingly talented, Latino and Hispanic population, who will continue to make up the majority of our local workforce; need our support and investment, and visual leadership, similar to African Americans in North Tulsa.

We find ways to collaborate with all quadrants of the City of Tulsa to make sure that our individual and unique cultural conclaves continue to collaborate.

I am deeply excited about the opportunity we have as the PartnerTulsa team to help lead in reaching the vision and dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. and so many others who have come before us. Let’s make sure that we continue to make ripples with sound math, that proves this age-old equation as correct. As the Greek Father of Geometry once coined, “Things equal to the same thing are equal to each other.”

– Garry Clark 
PartnerTulsa President and CEO