In their impactful article, “Empowering Black Wealth in the Shadow of the Tulsa Race Massacre,” the authors examine the negative impact of societal wealth destruction on future Black generations. Though the article initially focuses on the Tulsa Race Massacre,1 it also emphasizes other governmental and societal events and laws that prevented “the transfer of Black Wealth to subsequent generations.”
The authors cite events after the Tulsa massacre in 1921, as well as laws such as “redlining,” vagrancy and usurpation of inventions as further examples of the destruction of Black wealth.
Referencing events 100 years ago in Tulsa in 1921 as one of the worst racial massacres in America’s history, the authors hypothesize that residents of Tulsa’s Greenwood have lost over $1.586 billion in 2020 equivalents. Moreover, the “massacres or race riots” in other urban areas have been in the authors’ views an effective means to prevent effective property transfer to Black descendants. And the authors return to a central theme, citing John Rogers, Jr., that “the effects of us not having multi-generational wealth …continues in our society today.”
There’s a discussion of reparations, though not a main theme of the article. The authors provide a convincing argument for reparations, including a comparison of the victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre with those of the Oklahoma City bombing.
The authors spend the final part of the article explaining the importance of proper estate planning to preserve wealth from generation to generation. I liked the phrase used in the article of “wise stewardship,” a theme for all of our clients. The implication is that with proper estate planning and focus on planning strategies, “wealth transfer can work to protect Black family wealth advancement toward economic equality and growth.”
And the article does address the importance of wills, trusts, creditor protection techniques, avoiding estate taxes through marital and credit shelter trusts, as well as proper titling techniques.
The article also emphasizes the importance of education, investment in human capital and the role of the Church in providing venues to implement these estate-planning techniques.
Estate planners will enjoy reading this article, and interestingly, should give further thought to what successful wealth transfers from generation to generation truly means. After almost 40 years of practicing estate planning, I think the answer is more ambiguous than it appears on the surface.
Is generational wealth critical for the well-being of our descendants? While most individuals would conclude that wealth distribution to successive generations is positive for those generations, estate planners often have more complicated conclusions. Excessive wealth often leads to lack of productivity and purposefulness or motivational destruction.
On the other hand, wealth succession provides access to better education and medical services and increased opportunities, including residential choices, and presents easier opportunities for self development among future generations. Hence the paradox: How can we structure estate plans to provide all of the positives that access to wealth can create, while minimizing or avoiding the negatives of what I’ll call “wealth lethargy?” That answer we’ll leave for a future discussion.
Endnote
1. This is the phrase used by the authors. Other than reading this article, my knowledge of what happened in Tulsa, Okla. in 1921 is somewhere between ignorant and non-existent. In this review, I continue to use this phrase as it appears in the article as well as using other terms used in the article.