[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 647 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 647

Recognizing the forthcoming centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              July 2, 2020

 Ms. Warren (for herself, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Booker, Mr. 
Brown, Mr. Casey, Mr. Coons, Ms. Duckworth, Mr. Durbin, Mrs. Feinstein, 
Mrs. Gillibrand, Ms. Harris, Mr. Kaine, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Markey, Mr. 
  Menendez, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Sanders, Ms. Smith, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. 
 Warner, and Mr. Whitehouse) submitted the following resolution; which 
             was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Recognizing the forthcoming centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

Whereas, in the early 20th century, de jure segregation confined Tulsa's Black 
        residents into the ``Greenwood District'', 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 community 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 descended 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 contributing to the violence through overt and often illegal 
        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 otherwise destroyed 
        approximately 40 square blocks of the Greenwood district, including an 
        estimated 1,256 homes of Black residents, as well as virtually every 
        other structure, including churches, schools, businesses, a hospital, 
        and a library, leaving nearly 9,000 Black Tulsans homeless 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 Governor of Oklahoma 
        declared martial law, and units of the Oklahoma National Guard 
        participated in the mass arrests of all or nearly all of Greenwood's 
        surviving residents, 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 collective 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 report that detailed, for 
        the first time, the extent of the Massacre and decades-long efforts to 
        suppress its recollection;
Whereas none of the law enforcement officials nor any of the hundreds of other 
        White mob members who participated in the violence were ever prosecuted 
        or held accountable for the hundreds of lives lost and tens of millions 
        of dollars of Black wealth destroyed, despite the Tulsa Race Massacre 
        Commission confirming their roles in the Massacre, 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 the Senate--
            (1) recognizes the forthcoming centennial of the Tulsa Race 
        Massacre;
            (2) acknowledges the historical significance of this event 
        as one of the largest single instances of State-sanctioned 
        violence against Black people in American history;
            (3) honors the lives and legacies of the estimated 300 
        Black individuals who were killed during the Massacre and the 
        nearly 9,000 Black individuals who were left homeless and 
        penniless;
            (4) condemns the participants of the Tulsa Race Massacre, 
        including White municipal officials and law enforcement who 
        directly participated in or who aided and abetted the unlawful 
        violence;
            (5) condemns past and present efforts to cover up the truth 
        and shield the White community, and especially State and local 
        officials, from accountability for the Tulsa Race Massacre and 
        other instances of violence at the hands of law enforcement;
            (6) condemns the continued legacy of racism, including 
        systemic racism, and White supremacy against Black people in 
        the United States, particularly in the form of police 
        brutality;
            (7) encourages education about the Tulsa Race Massacre, 
        including the horrors of the massacre itself, the history of 
        White supremacy that fueled the massacre, and subsequent 
        attempts to deny or cover up the Massacre, in all elementary 
        and secondary education settings and in institutions of higher 
        education in the United States; and
            (8) recognizes the commitment of Congress to acknowledge 
        and learn from the history of racism and racial violence in the 
        United States, including the Tulsa Race Massacre, to reverse 
        the legacy of White supremacy and fight for racial justice.
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