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As Tulsa approaches a pivotal election on Tuesday, August 27, 2024, the choice for our next mayor will determine whether the city remains stagnant or embarks on a path of momentous growth and groundbreaking innovation. While Tulsa has been expanding in recent years, with a rejuvenation of downtown life and mega projects around the city that raise our quality of life, it still faces pressing challenges, from addressing homelessness to ensuring affordable housing and improving K through 12 education. Moreover, there is a need to protect our students, teachers, and staff from the harmful mismanagement and divisive rhetoric of the Oklahoma State Department of Education leadership while striving to improve the city’s equality indicators. We believe Oklahoma State Representative Monroe Nichols is the most qualified candidate to tackle these challenges, and we proudly endorse him as Tulsa’s next mayor.

Since being elected to the state legislature in 2016, Nichols has a proven track record of crafting and passing policies that improved the lives of Oklahoma families and boosted our economic growth. Moreover, Nichols gained valuable experience working under former Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor. No other candidate in the race matches his policy experience.

Monroe Nichols’ Accessibility vs. Karen Keith’s Closed Door

Before and during the 2024 Tulsa Mayoral race, Nichols remained personable and accessible, while candidate Karen Keith, age 70, refused to meet with The Black Wall Street Times’ journalists, senior editors, or publisher. We found her behavior undemocratic, unwelcoming, and nontransparent. We do not want a mayor who does not invite us to the table when thousands of Tulsans and Oklahomans depend on our news site for trusted information and intellectual opinions. Meanwhile, Nichols consistently welcomes all media and everyday citizens to his table with unwavering commitment.

In July 2023, Nichols told The Black Wall Street Times, “People most impacted by the challenges we face have to be at the table when we’re making solutions. Folks in the community, in classrooms, building businesses, or raising families need a partner in the mayor’s office. I will be that partner.”

A Leader for All: Nichols’ Dedication to Co-Governance and Equality

We appreciate the cooperative spirit that Nichols will bring to the office. He has shown reverence and respect to Oklahoma tribes, vowing to “co-govern” with them. This speaks to his moral integrity and inclusive leadership, seeing that Tulsa sits on the Muscogee Creek and Cherokee Nations and the Osage Reservation.

Although Monroe Nichols isn’t from the Greenwood community, he has stood as a fierce advocate for it and the survivors and descendants of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. In 2021, his commitment to ensuring that our community’s tragedy and legacy would not be erased from the pages of history compelled him to call out Governor Kevin Stitt’s signage of HB 1775.

Unafraid to speak to the powers that be, Rep. Monroe Nichols fiercely wrote, “With the signing of HB1775, our fellow commissioner, Governor Kevin Stitt, has cast an ugly shadow on the phenomenal work done during the last five years. Governor Stitt has chosen to align himself with folks who want to re-write or prohibit the full intellectual exploration of our history, which is in direct conflict with the spirit of the commission I
joined several years ago.”

Nichols believes in an inclusive society. While serving in the Oklahoma House, he worked alongside LGBTQIA+ advocacy organizations, such as Freedom Oklahoma, to support their efforts in advancing LGBTQIA+ rights. He has participated in events and discussions to promote equality and has used his platform to amplify the voices of LGBTQIA+ advocates.

VanNorman’s Exclusionary Views Versus Nichols’ Vision for a United and Inclusive Tulsa

Another mayoral candidate, Brent VanNorman, a 67-year-old Republican, champions a Christian nationalist approach to governance, which directly contradicts Tulsa’s identity as a Welcoming City. In a city that embraces diversity, including those who practice Judaism and Islam, his comments that only Christians should hold government positions and his rebuke of families led by LGBTQIA+ individuals and single-parent households undermine the inclusive principles that define our city and are wholly unrealistic. Tulsa needs a leader with the vision and unique ability to unite our city and not divide us with dangerously divisive rhetoric.

Rep. Monroe Nichols publicly announced his run to become Tulsa’s next mayor before any other candidate. Notably, Karen Keith, a Democrat, knew that Nichols had already announced his candidacy, causing division in the local Democratic Party. Furthermore, she suggested that Nichols, who could become our city’s first Black Mayor, which would speak to the tremendous social progress the city has made since the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre – should he be elected, to suspend his campaign and to work for her. This behavior is shameful, seeing that Black Tulsans have historically been forced to take a back seat to White Tulsans through Jim Crow laws and in standard and subconscious social practice after the fall of such an unjust law. Meanwhile, Brent VanNorman has never held public office in the state of Oklahoma and has only lived in the city for three years. 

Making History Together

We believe that all Tulsans, regardless of their race, age, religion, sex orientation, blended family makeup, income level, educational background, or transplant status, are ready for Mayor Monroe Nichols. 

It is time to correct the wrongs of our past and bridge the racial divide that has plagued us for over a century; it is time for us to be courageous and pass the torch to the next generation; it is time for us to make history by electing Monroe Nichols as Tulsa’s 41st mayor.  

Early Voting for Tulsa elections, including the Tulsa Mayoral Race, beginning Thursday, August 22, 2024, at the Tulsa County Election Board located at 555 N Denver Avenue Tulsa, Oklahoma 74103. 

  • Thursday, August 22nd, from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM
  • Friday, August 23rd, from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM
  • Saturday, August 24th, from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM