Recognizing the forthcoming centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

H. Res. 398 In the House of Representatives, U. S., May 18, 2021. Whereas, in the early 20th century, de jure segregation con- fined Tulsa’s Black residents into the ‘‘Greenwood Dis- trict’’, which they built into a thriving community with a nationally renowned entrepreneurial center known as the ‘‘Black Wall Street’’; Whereas, at the time, White supremacy and racist violence were common throughout the United States and went largely unchecked by the justice system; Whereas reports of an alleged and disputed incident on the morning of May 30, 1921, between two teenagers, a Black man and a White woman, caused the White com- munity of Tulsa, including the Tulsa Tribune, to call for a lynching amidst a climate of White racial hostility and White resentment over Black economic success; Whereas, on May 31, 1921, a mob of armed White men de- scended upon Tulsa’s Greenwood District and launched what is now known as the ‘‘Tulsa Race Massacre’’; Whereas Tulsa municipal and county authorities failed to take actions to calm or contain the violence, and civil and law enforcement officials deputized many White men who were participants in the violence as their agents, directly 2 •HRES 398 EH contributing to the violence through overt and often ille- gal acts; Whereas, over a period of 24 hours, the White mob’s violence led to the death of an estimated 300 Black residents, as well as over 800 reports of injuries; Whereas the White mob looted, damaged, burned, or other- wise destroyed approximately 40 square blocks of the Greenwood district, including an estimated 1,256 homes of Black residents, as well as virtually every other struc- ture, including churches, schools, businesses, a hospital, and a library, leaving nearly 9,000 Black Tulsans home- less and effectively wiping out tens of millions of dollars in Black prosperity and wealth in Tulsa; Whereas, in the wake of the Tulsa Race Massacre, the Gov- ernor of Oklahoma declared martial law, and units of the Oklahoma National Guard participated in the mass ar- rests of all or nearly all of Greenwood’s surviving resi- dents, removing them from Greenwood to other parts of Tulsa and unlawfully detaining them in holding centers; Whereas Oklahoma local and State governments dismissed claims arising from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre for decades, and the event was effectively erased from collec- tive memory and history until, in 1997, the Oklahoma State Legislature finally created a commission to study the event; Whereas, on February 28, 2001, the commission issued a re- port that detailed, for the first time, the extent of the Massacre and decades-long efforts to suppress its recol- lection; Whereas none of the law enforcement officials nor any of the hundreds of other White mob members who participated 3 •HRES 398 EH in the violence were ever prosecuted or held accountable for the hundreds of lives lost and tens of millions of dol- lars of Black wealth destroyed, despite the Tulsa Race Massacre Commission confirming their roles in the Mas- sacre, nor was any compensation ever provided to the Massacre’s victims or their descendants; Whereas government and city officials not only abdicated their responsibility to rebuild and repair the Greenwood community in the wake of the violence, but actively blocked efforts to do so, contributing to continued racial disparities in Tulsa akin to those that Black people face across the United States; Whereas the pattern of violence against Black people in the United States, often at the hands of law enforcement, shows that the fight to end State-sanctioned violence against Black people continues; and Whereas the year 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Represent- atives that the United States can achieve a more perfect union— (1) by condemning the violence and destruction per- petrated against the African-American community of Greenwood, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the scene of the then- largest single instance of domestic terror against Amer- ican citizens; (2) through the rejection and active opposition to the false ideology of White supremacy and condemnation of all groups and organizations that ascribe to this false 4 •HRES 398 EH system of belief and seek to perpetuate their views through violence and unlawful conduct; (3) by promoting tolerance and unity and taking ac- tions to ensure that governmental policies and actions do not foster division, disharmony, or intolerance; (4) by calling upon all Americans to celebrate the ethnic, racial, and religious diversity that has made the United States the leader of the community of nations and the beacon of hope and inspiration to oppressed per- sons everywhere; (5) encouraging all persons in the United States to reflect upon the history of the United States as an im- perfect but committed journey to establish a more per- fect union and to cherish and exercise the rights, privi- leges, and responsibilities guaranteed by the Constitu- tion; and (6) recognizes the commitment of Congress to ac- knowledge and learn from the history of racism and ra- cial violence in the United States, including the Tulsa Race Massacre, to reverse the legacy of White suprem- acy and fight for racial justice. Attest: Clerk.