[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
CONTINUING INJUSTICE: THE CENTENNIAL
OF THE TULSA-GREENWOOD RACE MASSACRE
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION, CIVIL
RIGHTS, AND CIVIL LIBERTIES
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 2021
__________
Serial No. 117-22
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT][
Available via: http://judiciary.house.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
48-273 WASHINGTON : 2022
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COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
JERROLD NADLER, New York, Chair
MADELEINE DEAN, Pennsylvania, Vice-Chair
ZOE LOFGREN, California JIM JORDAN, Ohio, Ranking Member
SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas STEVE CHABOT, Ohio
STEVE COHEN, Tennessee LOUIE GOHMERT, Texas
HENRY C. ``HANK'' JOHNSON, Jr., DARRELL ISSA, California
Georgia KEN BUCK, Colorado
THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida MATT GAETZ, Florida
KAREN BASS, California MIKE JOHNSON, Louisiana
HAKEEM S. JEFFRIES, New York ANDY BIGGS, Arizona
DAVID N. CICILLINE, Rhode Island TOM McCLINTOCK, California
ERIC SWALWELL, California W. GREG STEUBE, Florida
TED LIEU, California TOM TIFFANY, Wisconsin
JAMIE RASKIN, Maryland THOMAS MASSIE, Kentucky
PRAMILA JAYAPAL, Washington CHIP ROY, Texas
VAL BUTLER DEMINGS, Florida DAN BISHOP, North Carolina
J. LUIS CORREA, California MICHELLE FISCHBACH, Minnesota
MARY GAY SCANLON, Pennsylvania VICTORIA SPARTZ, Indiana
SYLVIA R. GARCIA, Texas SCOTT FITZGERALD, Wisconsin
JOE NEGUSE, Colorado CLIFF BENTZ, Oregon
LUCY McBATH, Georgia BURGESS OWENS, Utah
GREG STANTON, Arizona
VERONICA ESCOBAR, Texas
MONDAIRE JONES, New York
DEBORAH ROSS, North Carolina
CORI BUSH, Missouri
PERRY APELBAUM, Majority Staff Director and Chief Counsel
CHRISTOPHER HIXON, Minority Staff Director
------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION, CIVIL RIGHTS,
AND CIVIL LIBERTIES
STEVE COHEN, Tennessee, Chair
DEBORAH ROSS, North Carolina, Vice-Chair
JAMIE RASKIN, Maryland MIKE JOHNSON, Louisiana, Ranking
HENRY C. ``HANK'' JOHNSON, Jr., Member
Georgia TOM McCLINTOCK, California
SYLVIA R. GARCIA, Texas CHIP ROY, Texas
CORI BUSH, Missouri MICHELLE FISCHBACH, Minnesota
SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas BURGESS OWENS, Utah
JAMES PARK, Chief Counsel
C O N T E N T S
----------
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
Page
OPENING STATEMENTS
The Honorable Steve Cohen, Chair of the Subcommittee on the
Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties from the State
of Tennessee................................................... 2
The Honorable Mike Johnson, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on
the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties from the
State of Louisiana............................................. 4
The Honorable Jerrold Nadler, Chair of the Committee on the
Judiciary from the State of New York........................... 5
The Honorable Jim Jordan, Ranking Member of the Committee on the
Judiciary from the State of Ohio............................... 7
WITNESSES
Panel I
Ms. Viola Fletcher, Oldest Living Survivor of the Tulsa Race
Massacre
Oral Testimony................................................. 8
Prepared Testimony............................................. 10
Mr. Hughes Van Ellis, Tulsa Race Massacre Survivor and World War
II Veteran
Oral Testimony................................................. 13
Prepared Testimony............................................. 15
Ms. Lessie Benningfield Randle, Tulsa Race Massacre Survivor
Oral Testimony................................................. 17
Prepared Testimony............................................. 19
Panel II
The Honorable Regina Goodwin, Oklahoma State Representative and
Descendant of the Massacre
Oral Testimony................................................. 22
Prepared Testimony............................................. 25
Mr. Damario Solomon-Simmons, Founder and Executive Director,
Justice for Greenwood
Oral Testimony................................................. 26
Prepared Testimony............................................. 29
Dr. Tiffany Crutcher, Founder and Executive Director, Terence
Crutcher Foundation
Oral Testimony................................................. 82
Prepared Testimony............................................. 85
Mr. T.W. Shannon, Chief Executive Officer, Chickasaw Community
Bank and Former Speaker of the Oklahoma House of
Representatives
Oral Testimony................................................. 87
Prepared Testimony............................................. 89
Mr. Clarence Henderson, National Spokesman, Frederick Douglass
Foundation
Oral Testimony................................................. 92
Prepared Testimony............................................. 94
Chief Egunwale Amusan, President of the Tulsa African Ancestral
Society and Descendant of the Massacre
Oral Testimony................................................. 97
Prepared Testimony............................................. 100
Ms. Dreisen Heath, Researcher/Advocate, US Program, Human Rights
Watch
Oral Testimony................................................. 104
Prepared Testimony............................................. 106
Mr. Eric Miller, Professor of Law and Leo J. O'Brien Fellow,
Loyola Law School, Loyola Marymount University
Oral Testimony................................................. 188
Prepared Testimony............................................. 190
CONTINUING INJUSTICE: THE CENTENNIAL.
OF THE TULSA-GREENWOOD RACE MASSACRE
----------
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
U.S. House of Representatives
Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights,
and Civil Liberties
Committee on the Judiciary
Washington, DC
The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 9:55 a.m., in Room
200, Capitol Visitor Center, Hon. Steve Cohen [Chair of the
Subcommittee] presiding.
Members present: Representatives Nadler, Cohen, Raskin,
Ross, Johnson of Georgia, Garcia, Bush, Jackson Lee, Jordan,
Johnson of Louisiana, and Fischbach.
Staff present: David Greengrass, Senior Counsel; John Doty,
Senior Advisor; Moh Sharma, Member Services and Outreach
Advisor; Priyanka Mara, Professional Staff Member; Jordan
Dashow, Professional Staff Member; Cierra Fontenot, Chief
Clerk; John Williams, Parliamentarian; Keenan Keller, Senior
Counsel; Merrick Nelson, Digital Director; Kayla Hamedi, Deputy
Press Secretary; James Park, Chief Counsel for Constitution;
Will Emmons, Professional Staff Member; Betsy Ferguson,
Minority Senior Counsel; Caroline Nabity, Minority Counsel;
James Lesinski, Minority Counsel; Andrea Woodard, Minority
Professional Staff Member; and Kiley Bidelman, Minority Clerk.
Mr. Cohen. [Presiding.] The Committee on the Judiciary,
Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil
Liberties will come to order.
Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a
recess of the Subcommittee at anytime.
I welcome everyone to today's hearing on ``Continuing
Injustice: The Centennial of the Tulsa-Greenwood Race
Massacre.''
Before we continue, I want to remind Members that we have
established an email address and distribution list dedicated to
circulating exhibits, motions, et cetera, to Members who might
want to offer them in today's hearing. If you would like to
submit such, [email protected], and they will be
distributed.
Finally, I would like to ask all Members and Witnesses,
both those in person and those appearing remotely, to mute your
microphones when you are not speaking. This will help prevent
feedback and other technical issues.
For those in the room, I would like to ask you to keep your
face masks on at all times, unless you are speaking or unless
you are over 100 years old. For those in the room, that will be
our protocol.
I now recognize myself for an opening statement.
Mr. Van Ellis and Ms. Fletcher, welcome and thank you for
coming. We appreciate it.
Our hearing today serves two primary purposes. First, it is
a commemoration of a milestone anniversary, the centennial of
the Tulsa-Greenwood Race Massacre of 1921, one of the most
painful episodes in our nation's long and tortured history of
race relations.
Sadly, many Americans today are not even aware that this
massacre took place, and I hope that this hearing can serve to
educate the public about what happened. I, myself, was not
aware, but Chair John Conyers had a hearing early in my term in
Congress, probably about 10-12 years ago, and edified me and
many in Congress. John Conyers needs to be recognized today for
his commitment to justice and to the memory of the race
massacre and for improvements in Tulsa.
The second purpose of this hearing is to highlight many
ways that the Black community of Tulsa continues to suffer from
the effects of the massacre. Indeed, as the hearing's title
suggests, the injuries inflicted on the Greenwood community
have continued to compound through the succeeding decades since
the massacre, often directly because of actions taken by
government officials.
Over the course of May 31 and June 1 of 1921, a White mob
burned to the ground the Greenwood community of Tulsa, one of
the most prominent and thriving Black communities in the
country at the time, often referred to as the ``Black Wall
Street.'' The White mob, consisting of thousands of people,
murdered Black residents, looted their property, and burned
more than 1,000 homes, churches, schools, and businesses. At
least one credible estimate put the number of those killed at
300 people. Recently, the Attorney General, Merrick Garland,
visited Tulsa, visited the memorial, and you could see the
emotion in him as he toured it.
Worse still, that mob, fueled by racial fear and hatred,
was aided and abetted by some of the very government officials
who were supposed to be protecting the innocent residents and
property owners of Greenwood. In other words, the massacre did
not simply represent a negligent failure by government
authorities to maintain order, but, rather, agents of the local
and State governments were active participants in the crime.
This happened too many places and too many times in our
history, but never as significantly as it did in Tulsa.
In the massacre's immediate aftermath, local authorities
placed thousands of Black residents into internment camps out
of fear of what the authorities characterized as a so-called,
quote, ``Negro uprising.'' Indeed, this narrative of the
massacre, a misrepresentation of what happened based on racial
fear, was ratified by a grand jury empaneled by Oklahoma's
Governor after the massacre. That grand jury issued a report
less than a month after the massacre that placed the blame for
the massacre entirely on the Black community. This grand jury
also indicted Black persons with massacre-
related offenses, while no White person was ever held
accountable for crimes committed during the massacre.
This was 1921 America; 1921 Oklahoma; 1921, when the Ku
Klux Klan was again reasserting itself and ``The Birth of a
Nation'' had just been shown a little bit prior to that in the
White House.
Meanwhile, the Tulsa massacre resulted in property damage
estimated to be anywhere between $25 and $100 million in
today's dollars, representing a tremendous loss of wealth for
Tulsa's Black community--a loss that was compounded with each
succeeding generation.
As the descendants of the White mob that looted Greenwood's
businesses and homes have had a chance to build on the wealth
of their ancestors, including stolen wealth, many Black
survivors and their descendants have not been able to recoup
the wealth that the White mob destroyed or stole during the
massacre.
In the massacre's immediate aftermath, the city passed a
restrictive local ordinance to block rebuilding efforts. While
this ordinance was ultimately struck down by the Oklahoma
Supreme Court, in the decades since, practices like redlining
and urban Rule policies have prevented Black Tulsans from
reestablishing a thriving community. Expressways funded by the
Federal government literally cut through Greenwood, further
displacing Black families and businesses--a grievance upon a
grievance. Looking to the courts for relief, Greenwood's
residents were denied justice in the 1920s because of rank and
racial prejudice, and in the 2000s because of a technical legal
hurdle.
Meanwhile, the survivors and descendants of the massacre
remain without compensation for the harms inflicted on them,
and neither the State of Oklahoma nor the city of Tulsa have
provided direct compensation to massacre survivors and their
descendants. The massacre has exacerbated government actions
that over the decades have disproportionately burdened Black
Tulsans, preventing many from rebuilding their community and
regaining stolen wealth.
Predictably, this has led to racial disparities and adverse
outcomes for the Black residents of Tulsa. This is clear from
the fact that north Tulsa, which has a higher concentration of
Black residents, is poorer, has fewer businesses and large-
scale employers, has the fewest jobs, has more than double the
unemployment rate, and has the lowest life expectancy when
compared to the rest of Tulsa.
In short, present-day racial and economic disparities in
Tulsa can be traced back to the massacre. In America, Tulsa is
a microcosm of what has happened to the African American
community in this country.
In light of the foregoing facts, Congress needs to step up.
Many of our Witnesses have called for some form of reparation
for the survivors and descendants of the massacre. One
potential remedy that I find of particular interest is the idea
of a victim compensation fund. This Subcommittee has
jurisdiction over such compensation funds. For example, last
Congress, we held a hearing to permanently reauthorize the 9/11
Victim Compensation Fund, which one of our Witnesses suggested
is a model for compensating potential Tulsa claimants. I would
be interested in hearing from our Witnesses more details as to
how such a fund would be structured and funded. As Chair of the
Subcommittee, I pledge to work with you on legislation on this
front.
When the Subcommittee last held a hearing on this topic
back in 2007, we heard from the late, distinguished historian,
John Hope Franklin, author of ``From Slavery to Freedom,'' a
book I had as a classroom text at Vanderbilt. John Hope
Franklin was here. He was also a survivor of the Tulsa
massacre. He testified about the culture of silence surrounding
the massacre among the White community of Tulsa in the years
following the massacre, a culture to sought to erase the
massacre from historical memory. He also emphasized the
importance of confronting and dealing honestly with historical
truth.
What John Hope Franklin, a historian of eminent success and
acclamation, said then is true today: We must deal with
historical truth. We must heed Professor Franklin's
admonitions; keep the memory of the massacre alive; deal
honestly with the truth and ensure reparations for the century
of suffering that the survivors and descendants of the massacre
have endured.
I look forward to hearing our Witnesses' testimony today,
and I thank them for being with us today.
I now yield time to the Ranking Member, Mr. Johnson of
Louisiana, for his opening statement.
Mr. Johnson of Louisiana. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you all for being here.
First, I want to especially thank our Witnesses. I know it
took some effort for you to be here, and we deeply appreciate
it, particularly this panel, our first panel of two, because
you are survivors of the Greenwood massacre.
I am going to briefly repeat the history of that again
because, as you say, Mr. Chair, not enough Americans remember
this sad chapter. In 1921, Greenwood was a thriving commercial
and residential district in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was home to the
city's African American residents, as was said, and Greenwood
hosted restaurants and churches, and grocery stores, and
entertainment venues, clothing and jewelry stores, the offices
of professionals, like doctors and lawyers. It led some to
refer to it as the ``Black Wall Street.''
Unfortunately, the story of Greenwood is not just one of
success, but the other side of that coin is it is a terrible,
tragic story of violence and destruction. Between May 31 and
June 1 of 1921, as many as 100-300 people were estimated to
have been killed in the Tulsa-Greenwood Race Massacre.
Approximately 35 blocks of Greenwood, amounting to more than
1,200 homes and dozens of businesses, were burned, and as many
as an additional 400 homes were looted, but left standing.
This violence was perpetrated by a mob of the city's White
residents, and it took place during an era when racial violence
was all too common. It is one of our nation's darkest chapters,
indeed.
As I have said many times before, in America we recognize
that each of us is made in God's image and that every single
person has inestimable dignity and value. Our value is not
related in any way to the color of our skin, where we are from,
what we do for a living, what zipcode we live in. All of us are
created equally before God. Racism and racial violence violate
the most fundamental principles of our great Nation and the
will of our Creator.
While our country has its faults, we have, obviously, come
a long way since the Tulsa-Greenwood Race Massacre, and we
believe our best days are still ahead of us. While it is
important, obviously, that we recognize these terrible events
that occurred 100 years ago, we also, at the same time, need to
acknowledge that, thankfully, this event is not indicative of
the broader reality that is present in our country today. Thank
God for that.
We must continue to move our country forward; to remain
cognizant of the past, because we learn from our history; work
to create a unified America that honors the value of every
single citizen, regardless of their race, and provides a path
of opportunity for those who work hard and seek it. America is
a great country, and we are still on our way, as the
Constitution's Preamble says, to forming a more perfect union.
In 1862, President Lincoln famously said, ``In giving
freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free--honorable
alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly
save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.''
More than a century later, in his ``Time for Choosing''
speech, Ronald Reagan echoed that sentiment, and he said it
this way, quote: ``You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We
have a responsibility to preserve for our children this, the
last best hope of man on earth.'' unquote.
That remains our great challenge still today. We are
working through that. The testimony that you provide helps us
because it gives us context and history, and things we have to
consider, as we try to preserve this last best hope of man on
the earth. I pray, and all of us do, that we remain faithful in
that challenge.
I, again, thank our Witnesses for being with us this
morning. We really do look forward to your testimony. I will
tell you, we don't have many centenarians testify before our
Committees. So, I would suggest that we may be making history
here today. We are really grateful you are here.
I yield back, Mr. Chair. Thank you so much.
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Mr. Johnson.
I appreciate Mr. Johnson's comments.
I now recognize the Chair of the Full Committee, who is, of
course, responsible for the actions of this Subcommittee as
well, Mr. Nadler of New York.
Chair Nadler. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Today's hearing is an important opportunity to commemorate
the Tulsa-Greenwood Race Massacre of 1921 and to consider what
legal and policy measures might be enacted to compensate the
survivors, their descendants, and Tulsa's greater Black
community.
Nearly 100 years ago, in what the late historian John Hope
Franklin described as ``a firestorm of hatred and violence that
is perhaps unequaled in the peacetime history of the United
States,'' a White mob looted and destroyed nearly 40 square
blocks of Tulsa's Greenwood district, a segregated, yet
vibrant, Black enclave whose prosperous businesses made it
known across the country as the ``Black Wall Street.'' The
reportedly 5,000-10,000-strong mob destroyed many of those
businesses, along with the district's hospitals, churches, and
private homes, leaving almost 9,000 Greenwood residents
homeless.
According to a 2001 report by an Oklahoma State commission
to study the massacre, one credible contemporary source
estimated the death toll at 300 people, far higher than the
official record made at the time. The 2001 commission also
found credible contemporary reports of mass burials. In 2018,
the city of Tulsa began the process of locating these mass
graves. It is only within the past year that State
archeologists pinpointed the location of one potential mass
gravesite. Authorities are now taking steps to exhume the
bodies for identification and reburial.
I have said so before, and I will say it again: The Tulsa-
Greenwood Massacre can be described as an Act of ethnic
cleansing, which was subsequently wiped from the history books
for many decades, despite having made national news at the
time.
We are honored to have with us today some of the last
remaining survivors of the massacre, and I welcome them. I
appreciate the fact that this Subcommittee can play a role in
ensuring that this history is never lost again by hearing
directly from those who experienced the tragic injustice that
unfolded in Tulsa during the overnight hours of May 31 and June
1, 1921.
In addition to commemorating the massacre's victims, this
hearing is also another opportunity to consider the massacre's
long-lasting repercussions for the survivors, their
descendants, and Tulsa's greater Black community, and what role
Congress can play in remedying this historic injustice.
The 2001 commission report found significant evidence
demonstrating not only that local and State authorities failed
their responsibility to maintain civic order, but also that
government agents actually aided the mob in carrying out the
massacre. Thousands of Black residents were interned for days
and weeks after the massacre, under the justification that it
was for their so-called protection.
A majority of the 2001 commission Members declared at that
time that, quote, ``reparations to the historic Greenwood
community in real and tangible form would be good public policy
and do much to repair the emotional and physical scars of this
terrible incident in our shared past.'' It is now 20 years
later, and neither the State nor the city of Tulsa has directly
compensated survivors or their descendants.
Survivors and their descendants have tried to seek legal
redress from the city of Tulsa and the State of Oklahoma for
massacre-related harms. Unfortunately, these claims have never
been decided on the merits. In 2004, a divided 10th Circuit
upheld the lower court's decision dismissing Greenwood
survivors' claims, holding that the plaintiffs' claims were
barred by the applicable statute of limitations, and that no
equitable tolling to the statute of limitations period applied.
In 2007, when I was Chair of this Subcommittee, we held a
hearing on legislation authored by the late former Chair of the
Full Committee, John Conyers, that would have created a new
Federal cause of action for Tulsa-Greenwood Massacre claimants
that would permit their case to be decided on the merits.
Similar legislation that helps address relevant statutes of
limitation issues that have bedeviled these claims in the past
certainly remains one potential avenue for survivors and their
descendants to obtain compensation. The Subcommittee should
also examine other proposals for reparations with particular
consideration given to the massacre's contribution to the
racial and economic disparities that exist in Tulsa today.
I want to commend Chair Cohen for holding today's hearing.
I also thank Congressman Hank Johnson for his leadership on the
commemoration efforts, spearheaded by the Congressional Black
Caucus, and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee for her efforts to
secure a House vote on a resolution recognizing the centenary
of the massacre.
I look forward to hearing from all of today's Witnesses,
and with that, I yield back.
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Mr. Nadler. I, too, appreciate the
work of Congresspeople Johnson and Sheila Jackson Lee for their
work on this effort as well.
I now recognize the Ranking Member of the Full Committee,
the gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Jordan, for his opening statement.
Mr. Jordan. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Today's hearing, as the previous speakers have indicated,
commemorates the 100th anniversary of the massacre that
occurred in Tulsa, Oklahoma's Greenwood district in 1921. We
are honored to have survivors with us here today; in
particular, Mr. Van Ellis and Ms. Fletcher. Thank you all for
sharing your experiences with us.
What happened in Tulsa in 1921 was as wrong as wrong can
be. Today's hearing is important. It allows us to acknowledge
the atrocity that took place in Tulsa in 1921 and learn from
that tragedy.
This hearing also allows us to reflect on our progress as a
Nation since the Tulsa massacre. America, while not perfect, is
an exceptional country. America is the best country in the
history of the world. We are always growing, always learning,
and always striving toward a more perfect Union.
In this hearing, where we can take stock of what happened
in our past and learn from it, shows just how exceptional
America really is. In recent years, we have seen the lowest
unemployment rate for African Americans in history, historic
criminal justice reform, and expanded educational
opportunities. As we reflect on the past, we must discuss how
we can empower the community affected by this tragic event with
improved employment and educational opportunities.
I look forward to all the testimony today, but particularly
from the survivors of this tragedy from 100 years ago. Thank
you again for all being here today.
Mr. Chair, I yield back.
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Mr. Jordan.
We welcome our Witnesses and thank them for participating
in today's hearing.
I will now remove my mask and I will introduce each of the
Witnesses. After each introduction, we will recognize the
Witnesses for his or her oral testimony.
Each of your written statements will be entered into the
record. We ask you to testify within 5 minutes, but we will
understand. To help you stay within that time, there are lights
on your table that switch to green, to yellow, to indicate you
have a minute remaining. When it turns to red, it means your
time, 5 minutes, has expired, but we will be liberal in the
first panel.
For our Witnesses testifying remotely, there is a timer in
the Zoom view that should be visible at the bottom of your
screen.
I would like to remind all our Witnesses appearing on both
panels that you have a legal obligation to provide truthful
testimony, and that if you should not, you are subject to
prosecution under the United States Code.
Today, we have two Witness panels. On the first panel will
be a very special group of Witnesses: The three known remaining
survivors of the Tulsa-Greenwood Race Massacre. We are deeply
honored that they have agreed to testify before us and eagerly
anticipate hearing their firsthand accounts of those horrific
days.
We also note, for those Witnesses who traveled to
Washington, about your difficulties with your flight and
delayed luggage. So, we are even more grateful to have you here
with us today.
There has been agreement the Subcommittee will forego
questions of the first panel, and we will simply, unlike most
Congress-people, just listen and learn.
Our first Witness is Ms. Viola Fletcher, also known, if I
can, as ``Mother Fletcher.'' Thank you. I don't have a mother,
so thank you.
Mother Fletcher is the oldest living survivor of the Tulsa
Race Massacre. She was 7 years old when she lived through the
massacre.
Mother Fletcher, you are now recognized to testify.
STATEMENT OF VIOLA FLETCHER
Ms. Fletcher. My name is Viola Ford Fletcher. I am the
daughter of Lucinda Ellis and John Wesley Ford of Tulsa,
Oklahoma. I am the sister of Hughes Van Ellis, who is also here
today. I am a survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre.
Two weeks ago, I celebrated my 107th birthday.
[Applause.]
Today, I am visiting Washington, DC, for the first time in
my life. I am here seeking justice and I am asking my country
to acknowledge what happened in Tulsa in 1921.
On May 31st in 1921, I went to bed at my family's home in
Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa. The neighborhood I fell asleep
in that night was rich--not just in terms of wealth, but in
culture, community, heritage, and my family had a beautiful
home. We had great neighbors and I had friends to play with. I
felt safe. I had everything a child could need. I had a bright
future ahead of me. Still, Greenwood should have given me the
chance to truly make it in this country.
Within a few hours, all that was gone. The night of the
massacre, I was awakened by my family. My parents and five
siblings were there. I was told we had to leave, and that was
it.
I will never forget the violence of the White mob when we
left our home. I still see Black men being shot and Black
bodies lying in the street. I still smell smoke and see fire. I
still see Black businesses being burned. I still hear airplanes
flying overhead. I hear the screams. I have lived through the
massacre every day.
Our country may forget this history, but I cannot. I will
not. Other survivors do not. Our descendants do not.
When my family was forced to leave Tulsa, I lost my chance
at an education. I never finished school past the fourth grade.
I have never made much money. My country, State, and city took
a lot from me. Despite this, I spent time supporting the war
effort in the shipyards of California. Most of my life, I was a
domestic worker serving White families. I never made much
money. To this day, I can barely afford my everyday needs. All
the while, the city of Tulsa has unjustly used the names and
stories of victims like me to enrich itself and its White
allies through the $30 million raised by the Tulsa Centennial
Commission, while I continue to live in poverty.
I am 107 years old and have never seen justice. I pray that
one day I will. I have been blessed with a long life and have
seen the best and the worst of this country. I think about the
terror/horrors inflicted upon Black people in this country
every day.
This Subcommittee has the power to lead us down a better
path. I am asking that my country acknowledge what has happened
to me--the trauma and the pain, the loss. I ask that survivors
and descendants to be given a chance to seek justice; open the
courtroom doors.
All of you know how easy it is to deny that a violent mob
hurt your lives and took your property. For 70 years, the city
of Tulsa and its Chamber of Commerce told us that the massacre
didn't happen, like we didn't see it with our own eyes. You
have me here right now. You see Mother Randall; you see my
brother, Hughes Van Ellis. We live this history, and we can't
ignore it. It lives with us.
We lost everything that day--our homes, churches,
newspapers, theaters, and lives. Greenwood represented all the
best of what was possible for Black people in America and for
all the people. No one cared about us for almost 100 years. We
and our history have been forgotten and washed away. This
Congress must recognize us, and our history--for Black
Americans, for the White Americans, and for all Americans. That
is some justice.
Thank you.
[The statement of Ms. Fletcher follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Cohen. Thank you very much. We appreciate very much
your testimony.
[Applause.]
Mother Fletcher, if we don't learn from history, we are
doomed to repeat it. So, thank you for putting us on the right
course to learn and to understand, and to do better.
Ms. Fletcher. Thank you.
Mr. Cohen. Are you the older of the two siblings?
Ms. Fletcher. The older?
Mr. Cohen. Are you older than your brother here?
Ms. Fletcher. Yes.
Mr. Cohen. You are?
Ms. Fletcher. Yes.
Mr. Cohen. Well, he is used to having a tough Act to
follow.
[Laughter.]
Our next Witness is Mr. Hughes Van Ellis, known as ``Uncle
Red.''
Ms. Fletcher. Yes.
Mr. Cohen. He is a World War II veteran, having served in
the United States Army in the China-Burma-India Theater of
Operations as a member of an all-Black unit. He is also a
survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre.
Uncle Red, you are on.
STATEMENT OF HUGHES VAN ELLIS
Mr. Van Ellis. Chair Cohen, Ranking Member Johnson, and
Members of the Subcommittee, my names is Hughes Van Ellis, and
I am 100 years old. I am a survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre.
Because of the massacre, my family was driven out of our
home. We were left with nothing. We were made refugees in our
own country.
My childhood was hard, and we didn't have much. We worried
what little we had would be stolen from us, just like it was
stolen in Tulsa. You may have been taught that when something
is stolen from you, you can go to the courts to be made whole;
you can go to the courts to get justice. This wasn't the case
for us. The courts in Oklahoma wouldn't hear us. The Federal
courts said we were too late.
We were made to feel that our struggles were unworthy of
justice; that we were less valued than Whites; that we weren't
fully Americans. We were shown that in the United States not
all men were equal under the law. We were shown that, when
Black voices called out for justice, no one cared.
We still had faith things would get better. We still
believed in the promise of America and in the cause of freedom.
I did my duty in World War II. I served in combat in the
Far East with the 234th AAA Gun Battalion. We were an all-Black
battalion. I fought for freedom abroad, even though it was
ripped away from me at home, even after my home and my
community were destroyed. It is because I believed, in the end,
America would get it right.
When I returned home from the war, I didn't find any of
this freedom I was fighting for overseas. Unlike White
servicemen, I wasn't entitled to GI bill benefits because of
the color of my skin. I came home to segregation, a separate
and unequal America. Still, I believed in America.
This is why we are still speaking up today, even at this
age of 100. The Tulsa Race Massacre isn't a footnote in the
history book for us. We live with it every day, and the thought
of what Greenwood was and what it could have been. We aren't
just Black and White pictures on a screen; we are flesh and
blood. I was there when it happened; I am still here.
Mr. Cohen. That is right, you are here. That is right.
Mr. Van Ellis. My sister was there when it happened; she is
still here.
We are not asking for a handout. All we are asking for is
for a chance to be treated like a first-class citizen who truly
is a beneficiary of the promise that this is a land where there
is a ``liberty and justice for all.''
We are asking for justice for a lifetime of ongoing harm
that was caused by the massacre. You can give us the chance to
be heard and give us a chance to be made whole after all these
years and after all our struggle.
I still believe in America. I still believe in the ideals
that I fought overseas to defend. I believe, if given this
chance, you will do the right thing and justice will be served.
Please do not let me leave this earth without justice, like all
the other massacre survivors.
Thank you so much.
[The statement of Mr. Van Ellis follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, sir.
[Applause.]
Mr. Van Ellis. I want to say I appreciate being here, and I
hope we all will work together. We are one. We are one.
[Applause.]
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Mr. Van Ellis, aka ``Uncle Red.''
The last Witness on our panel is coming to us through Zoom,
or a reasonable facsimile of such, Ms. Lessie Benningfield
Randle.
Mother Randle was 6 years old when she lived through the
Tulsa Race Massacre. Mother Randle will be joining us
virtually.
Mother Randle, you are recognized now.
STATEMENT OF LESSIE BENNINGFIELD RANDLE
Ms. Randle. Good morning, Chair Cohen, Ranking Member
Johnson, and Members of the Subcommittee.
Mr. Cohen. Good morning.
Ms. Randle. I am blessed and honored to be here speaking
with you today. It means a lot to me to finally be able to look
at you all in the eye and ask you to do the right thing. I have
waited so long for justice.
My name is Leslie Evelyn Benningfield Randle. People call
me ``Mother Randle.'' Today, I am 106 years old. A hundred
years ago, in 1921, I was a 6-year-old child. I was blessed to
live with my grandmother in a beautiful Black community in
Tulsa, Oklahoma, called Greenwood. I was lucky. I had a home
and I had toys. I didn't have any fears as a young child, and I
felt very safe. My community was beautiful. It was filled with
happy and successful Black people.
Then, everything changed. It was like a war. White men with
guns came and destroyed my community. We couldn't understand
why. What did we do them? We didn't understand. We were just
living, but they came, and they destroyed everything.
They burned houses and businesses. They just took what they
wanted out of the buildings. Then, they burned the buildings.
They murdered people. We were told they just dumped the dead
bodies into the river. I remember running outside of our house.
I ran past dead bodies. It wasn't a pretty sight. I still see
it today in my mind--100 years later.
I was so scared--I didn't think we could make it out alive.
I remember people were running everywhere. We waited for the
soldiers to come, and when they finally came, they took us to
the fairgrounds, where we would be safe. It felt like so long
before they came.
I survived the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. I have survived
100 years of painful memories and losses. By the grace of God,
I am still here. I have survived. I have survived to tell this
story. I believe that I am still here to share it with you.
Hopefully, now you all will listen to us while we are still
here.
The White people who did this to us were filled with so
much hate. It is disgusting that they hate us for no reason
except that we are Black people.
We know most of the people who committed these acts are
dead now. The three of us here today are the only ones left--
that we know of. Just because these men are probably dead, the
city and county of Tulsa, the State of Oklahoma, and the Tulsa
Chamber are still responsible for making it right, because it
was they who caused the massacre. The Chamber helped ensure
that we could not rebuild after the massacre, including holding
us in internment camps.
They owe us something. They owe me something. I have lived
much of my life poor. My opportunities were taken from me. My
community, north Tulsa--Black Tulsa--is still messed up today.
They didn't rebuild it. They sure didn't. It is empty. It is a
ghetto.
They have raised more than $30 million and have refused to
share any with me or with the other two survivors. They have
used by name to further their fundraising goals without my
permission, my message, and never obtained my support of their
upcoming events focused on making Tulsa look good, and not
justice,
You can help us get some justice. America is still full of
examples where people in positions of power, many just like
you, have told us to wait. Others have told us it is too late.
It seems like justice in America is always so slow or not
possible for Black people. We are made to feel crazy just for
asking for things to be made right. There are always so many
excuses for why justice is so slow or never happens at all.
I am here today, 106 years old, looking at you all in the
eye. We have waited 100 years, no, we have waited too long, and
I am tired. We are tired. Lastly, I am asking you today to give
us some peace. Please give me, my family, and my community some
justice.
Thank you.
[The statement of Ms. Randle follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
[Applause.]
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Mother Randle. Thank you, Mother
Fletcher and Uncle Red. Your efforts to be here are
appreciated. Your testimony is greatly appreciated.
As I was affected in 2007 by the testimony of John Hope
Franklin, I know my colleagues on the panel and those who are
watching will be affected by your testimony.
Thank you so much and thank you for your strength and
perseverance in telling these stories for the record and for
future generations.
We will now take a brief recess for you to be able to leave
the Committee room with our thanks and our appreciation. Then,
we will go to our second panel.
Thank you so much.
[Applause.]
[Recess.]
Mr. Cohen. I think we are ready.
Mr. Johnson had to take some personal business. He will be
back shortly.
Our first Witness on the second panel is the Honorable
Regina Goodwin.
Where is Ms. Goodwin? Oh, she is virtual. Okay, that is it.
She is a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives
and a descendant of the Tulsa-Greenwood Massacre.
Representative Goodwin is a Tulsa native and currently serves
as Chair of the Oklahoma Legislative Black Caucus and is
assistant minority floor leader. Representative Goodwin
received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of
Kansas and completed Master's coursework at Columbia College in
Chicago, Illinois.
I understand that the Oklahoma House is in session today
and that Representative Goodwin might have to briefly stop,
step out during points in this hearing to cast votes on the
house floor.
Thank you for being here, and you are recognized.
STATEMENTS OF HON. REGINA GOODWIN
Ms. Goodwin. Thank you so much.
First, I would just like to say it is a privilege to be
able to hear from Ms. Lessie Benningfield Randle at 106; Ms.
Viola Fletcher at 107; Mr. Hughes Van Ellis at 100 years old. I
have the pleasure of knowing these folks and knowing that they,
indeed, are deserving of justice.
I will say, before I start my statement, that I think
really for right-hearted, like-minded folks, we have heard
enough. It is beyond question that a massacre occurred in 1921.
It is beyond question that death happened, and murder happened,
and bombs from airplanes fell on Tulsa. What holds us up for a
century are those that would want us to just say, ``God bless
America''; those that would want us to say that America is the
greatest country that we could ever think of. What we fail to
understand is that, as we are all American, we are not all
treated as the best Americans should be. I think that we have
had a marvelous example of those that have given their lives,
that have served this country, and even today, they say,
``Perhaps God allowed them to live this long just so they could
see this day''--to make it for the first time to Washington,
DC.
We hope that the welcome is real, and beyond just
understanding what happened, we get it. We have been saying it
for a long time. Beyond saying it and beyond hearing it, where
are the doers of God's work? So, we are just saying that beyond
the ``Yeah, we feel sorry for you. You're nice senior citizens.
Thank you for stopping by''--they stopped by for justice. I am
just hoping that right hearts and minds will prevail. So, that
the John Hope Franklin that has passed on, who we had the
privilege of knowing--he died seeking justice.
My great-great-grandfather, James Henry Goodwin, he was in
Tulsa. My great-grandmother, Carla Marie Goodwin, she was in
Tulsa. My grandfather, Edward Goodwin, and my aunt, Anna
Goodwin, all Tulsans, all survivors of the 1921 Race Massacre.
They went to the courthouse, the District courthouse, in 1921.
They were not too late. The statute of limitations had not
expired. They went saying that we had property, some 14
properties. We had a building at 123 North Greenwood.
My great-grandmother talked of her silverware and her
linen, and she talked about her feather mattresses, and she
talked about the piano, destroyed. She talked about the books
in the library gone. She had the courage, when murderers were
still walking the streets of Greenwood, when arsonists who
thought that they should light curtains on fire and destroy 35
square blocks--she had the courage in the midst of all that
chaos and all that mayhem, to say, ``You took from me what was
mine. We worked hard for what we had.''
We had a tight-knit Black community because segregation
would not allow us to interact with our other human beings who
just happened to be another color, and we made a great
community.
When she went to the courthouse, she was rejected outright.
So, you can't say the statute of limitations ran out. What you
can say had run out, and what we did not have in supply, was
justice.
Then, I also think about my grandfather, who was in high
school at the time, and he was a senior, just like anybody else
who is privileged to get that far in school and to graduate. He
was decorating a hotel at the time and preparing for graduation
exercises. All they heard was that trouble is coming.
How would they have known that trouble is coming to commit
the worst racist, terrorist attack on American soil in history?
How would they have known that the theaters that they would
attend, all Black-owned, and the hotel that they were
decorating, right, which would rival any White hotel in terms
of its quality, in terms of its grandeur, how would they have
known that trouble is coming; that the community was going to
be consumed, first, by hatred, and then, with fire, and that
airplanes would fly overhead and drop bombs?
It is a history that we, as descendants, have known all our
lives. I was blessed to grow up in that Greenwood community. It
is somewhat disturbing to know that the incident set off that
1921 Race Massacre was, basically, a lie. It was a lie that
took lives. It was that same old story about the scary, savage
Black man who somewhat was harming the White damsel in
distress. We know that was not even the case.
Mr. Cohen. Representative Goodwin, you are going to have to
wrap up. Can you wrap up? You are a minute over.
Ms. Goodwin. Yes, I will wrap it up.
I will say this: Reparations are due. The harm is ongoing.
Tulsa now, when you still have the same ownership as it was in
1921, when the unemployment rate is 2\1/2\ times that of our
White counterparts, when criminal justice reform is not
happening in Tulsa--those same police, that same State, that
same city that was complicit, it exists today. Reparations are
due. Restoration is due. Restitution is due.
Thank you so much for allowing me to go a bit over time.
We have got three great examples staring us in the face,
crying out for justice. All we have to do is answer.
Thank you.
[The statement of Ms. Goodwin follows:]
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Representative Goodwin.
If you see my friend Angela Monson, we served together on
the National Conference of State Legislatures many years ago
and I know she was a colleague of yours at one point--give her
my best.
Ms. Goodwin. Absolutely. I was just with her last week.
Thank you. I will absolutely convey the message.
Mr. Cohen. Thank you.
Ms. Goodwin. Thank you for the privilege.
Mr. Cohen. Our next Witness is Damario Solomon-Simmons. He
is the founder and Executive Director of Justice for Greenwood.
He is an attorney with a nationwide practice that includes
advocating for reparations for the survivors of the 1921 Tulsa-
Greenwood Massacre and citizenship rights of Black Creek
Indians.
He is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of
Oklahoma, teaching courses on African and African American
history, culture, and other issues. He received his J.D. from
the University of Oklahoma College of Law, holds a Master of
Education degree and a B.A. from the University of Oklahoma.
We welcome you, and you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF DAMARIO SOLOMON-SIMMONS
Mr. Solomon-Simmons. Thank you, Chair.
``In Tulsa, the racial and economic disparities that we see
today is a direct result of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.''
Those are not my words. Those are the words of the current
mayor of Tulsa, G.T. Bynum.
These disparities that we all know exist, some of these
disparities that you have already heard, is that we live 11-14
years less than our White counterparts in South Tulsa because
we have no health care; we have no hospital in North Tulsa,
Black Tulsa, is where I live, where I grew up. I am a son of
Greenwood, a proud product of North Tulsa. We have no hospital.
We are shot and beaten by the police 3-4 times more than our
White counterparts in Tulsa. We have 35 percent of our people,
Black people in Tulsa, living in poverty. We own our homes 2\1/
2\ less in Tulsa, Blacks, than White Tulsa.
We have evidence after statistic after statistic. Yet, our
mayor, our city, our county, our chamber, they oppose justice;
they oppose reparations; they oppose Mother Randle, Mother
Fletcher and Mr. Ellis, who you heard from today.
I am here today because the city of Tulsa has failed us.
They bombed us. They burnt us. They killed us. They looted from
us. They destroyed not just our property, not just our
livelihood and our lives, but our legacy, our generational
wealth, the idea of Greenwood, a freedom mind state,
landownership, and wealth concentration. They took that from
us, and then, they put in a system of policy violence that
continues to this very day. So much so that, right now, as I
speak, the same perpetrators of the massacre--the city, county,
chamber, and State--are utilizing the massacre to pad their own
pockets.
Are you allowing the branding of the massacre--the murders,
the names, and the likenesses of people who suffered, who died,
who was treated as refugees, who lived in internment camps for
18 months, who had to be signed out by a White person with an
ID card--these people who have raised more than $30 million in
the name of the massacre for what they call ``culture
tourism.'' Not one penny has been given to any of the
survivors. Not one dime has been paid for the claims that are
still outstanding, the claims that these sophisticated,
wealthy, Black people had the wherewithal, the savviness to
have insurance policies. Over 1,400 claims remain to date, over
$50 million. We know who is owed this money. We know who made
the claims. We know where they live. We know what was taken.
We also even know some of the insurance companies that are
still active today. I want to give you their names: C&A, AIG
companies, the Insurance Company of Pennsylvania, Westchester
Fire Insurance Company, the Hartford Great American Insurance
Company, Insurance Company of North America, North River
Insurance Company, California Insurance Company, and Phoenix
Assurance Company.
We have reached out to these folks asking them to engage in
a conversation or how they can directly benefit those who they
failed 100 years ago. Just like the city has refused, just like
the State has refused, just like the chamber has refused, we
have not got any of the insurance companies to engage in a
meaningful discussion with us at this time.
The banks failed us. Thousands of the survivors of
Greenwood lost their life savings in the banks because the bank
books burnt up and they couldn't get their money out. We have
researched and found at least 17 of those banks we believe are
still operating through Chase and Bank of Oklahoma. We want a
conversation with them also.
The courts failed us. There have been over 100 lawsuits
filed on this issue, and not one has been heard on its merits.
You heard from my clients. I have the great honor to serve
as lead counsel for these three wonderful, amazing people you
heard from today.
We went through hell to get here. Mother Fletcher traveled
yesterday from 6:00 a.m. in the morning, and we didn't get into
our hotels until after midnight. This woman didn't complain.
This woman didn't have anything to eat. She said, ``I've got to
be here. I want to see justice.''
Representative Cohen, Representative Nadler, and
Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, I was here in 2007. I
appreciate your still being with us, but, as you know, we have
lost so many since that hearing--Otis Clark, Dr. Olivia Hooker,
and John Hope Franklin. Even we have lost my great mentor,
Charles Ogletree. He is not gone, but he is not with us.
People who have fallen--I am literally standing on the
shoulders of so many people who have suffered so long. We are
coming to you, I am coming to you in the name of my community,
my people, my clients, asking that you do for us what this
Congress has done for the Japanese internment victims, what
this Congress has done for the 9/11 terrorist victims.
We are asking to be treated as full human beings. We are
asking to be treated--it is the belief in America that Dred
Scott is not the law of the land, but the Black man does have
rights that America must respect.
I know my time is getting low, but let me just finish with
this: Hal Singer, to show you how powerful this issue is, Hal
Singer was a world-renowned musician. He was a Greenwood
survivor. He was dying over the last summer, 2020, in France.
He moved from America because of racism. He had a stroke, he
was blind, and he was in hospice dying. I felt bad that I was
communicating with his family. I said, ``You know what? Maybe I
should stop calling you guys because of this time period.'' His
wife admonished me, said, ``Are you crazy? Until he dies, Hal
Singer is going to fight for justice for what happened to his
parents and his community.''
She sent me a letter that he wrote in 2007, and this is
what he said: ``I've never had a lot of faith in the legal
system of the Black man. That's why I moved to France. And I
know we will lose a lot of battles, but we must continue to
fight for our rights and our dignity.''
I am fighting for the rights and the dignity of Mother
Fletcher, Mr. Ellis, Mother Randle, and my community. I am
asking you to help us fight. Grant us legislation that pays
restitution, that gives us the ability to restore what was
lost, so we can rebuild for the next 100 years.
Thank you.
[The statement of Mr. Solomon-Simmons follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
[Applause.]
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Mr. Solomon-Simmons, and I appreciate
your being here in a continuum from 2007 and remembering
``Tree.''
Our next Witness is Dr. Tiffany Crutcher. She is the
founder and Executive Director of the Terence Crutcher
Foundation and a descendant of the Tulsa Race Massacre. The
foundation focuses on criminal justice and police reform,
providing scholarships to African American students, community
youth development, and policy advocacy.
Dr. Crutcher's twin brother, Terence, was shot by a police
officer in 2016 in Tulsa while holding his hands in the air.
She has since dedicated herself to transforming a justice
system that has long perpetuated injustice, dating back to the
1921 massacre.
Dr. Crutcher received a B.A. from Langston University and a
clerical doctorate from Alabama State University.
You are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF TIFFANY CRUTCHER
Dr. Crutcher. Thank you so much, Chair Cohen, and to this
esteemed Subcommittee, thank you so much for having us.
My name is Dr. Tiffany Crutcher, and I am the daughter of
Reverend Joey and the late Leanna Crutcher, who recently passed
away of COVID-19 in January. I am the great-granddaughter of
Rebecca Brown Crutcher, a survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race
Massacre. As I sit here today in front of this body in the very
seat of our democracy, I know in my bones that she is here with
me in this fight for justice. Reparations is simply making
amends for a wrong, and that is what we are asking for today.
One hundred years ago, my great-grandmother was simply
enjoying her life as a successful entrepreneur in Tulsa's
Greenwood neighborhood, and she wasn't alone. You see,
Greenwood, you couldn't go a block without passing a thriving
Black-owned home or business. Ten thousand people called this
place home. This was ``Black Wall Street,'' where people like
my great-grandmother Rebecca had found safety and a rare refuge
in the grim days of Jim Crow.
This paradise, this vibrant place my great-grandmother
helped to build, would soon be wiped away in a flood of racial
terror, White supremacy, and anti-Black racism. On May 31st and
June 1st of 1921, an angry White mob began their murderous
rampage across Greenwood, turning the once thriving Black
community into an apocalyptic pile of rubble, bones, and
bodies. Homes were set ablaze with families trapped inside. Men
fired guns indiscriminately into the street. For the first time
in history, bombs were dropped on American soil.
Rebecca Brown Crutcher hopped on the back of a wagon and
fled for her life. She was one of the thousands of Black
Tulsans forced to flee Greenwood and leave everything behind.
Within hours, Black Tulsans--Black resilient Tulsans--and their
Black neighbors began to rebuild Greenwood from the ashes, even
as insurance companies, State laws, redlining practices, and
urban removal would time and again seek to destroy this sacred
place.
What happened in Tulsa was perpetrated by our city's own
government. Former Tulsa Judge William Kellogg said it plainly
this week. ``There was no doubt that White Tulsa officials were
largely to blame for the massacre.'' They not only failed to
prevent the bloodshed, but had also deputized White civilians
and Klan members who took part in the burning and in the
killing.
Tulsa's government failed its people. Tulsa's government
failed these survivors. Tulsa's government failed Rebecca Brown
Crutcher. Now, we are here asking our nation's government to
see that justice is done in the form of reparations.
The vestiges of the massacre are still found in Tulsa's
criminal legal system, which has torn my family apart. In 2016,
Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby shot and killed my twin
brother. Terence Crutcher is his name. Terence Crutcher is his
name. Police looking for weapons instead found gospel CDs in
his car. My 40-year-old brother didn't get a fair chance to
live. His children didn't get a fair chance to see another day
with their father.
For five years, I have fought for policing reforms like the
very ones that each of you have debated and voted on. Just
weeks ago, I was in this very building with the families of
George Floyd, Eric Garner, and Botham Jean, asking our
legislators to end qualified immunity--policing reform that
could have saved my brother's life, and according to the Human
Rights Watch and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, could save the
lives of so many others.
Black people aren't looking for a handout. We are looking
for good legislation that recognizes our humanity. We are
looking for justice. Because for centuries, injustice has cost
our families an unspeakable price.
Racial disparities are systemic, and they extend far beyond
issues of policing. Compared to White Tulsans, Black people in
Tulsa are far more likely to be relegated to poverty and
neighborhoods that don't have access to fresh fruit or produce.
As we speak, people in north Tulsa, a predominantly Black
part of town, are celebrating our first full grocery store in
over a decade. The grand opening the ribbon-cutting was just
yesterday. I am having trouble celebrating finding crumbs in
the food desert.
We shouldn't have to live like this, and we shouldn't have
to die like this. If you care about racial justice and racial
healing, I am asking you to do two simple things: Support
reparations for the survivors and descendants of the Tulsa Race
Massacre and bring reparations bill H.R. 40 to an immediate
vote, and support ending qualified immunity as a part of any
police reform legislation that leaves this House.
The nation's government cannot sit on the sidelines as
Mother Randle, Mother Fletcher, Uncle Red spend their twilight
years fighting for justice 100 years after the massacre. Their
health is dwindling, as they demand reparations, fighting time,
and again, to convince elected leaders to treat us like we
matter.
I hope you see your loved ones in them. I hope you look
past the division of politics and see our humanity. I hope you
see why they are calling for reparations for the generational
wealth, loved ones, memories, and opportunities that have been
stolen from them, from us.
I know most of you believe in justice. All we are asking
for in Tulsa, and Black communities across the United States,
is for repair, respect, and restitution. If Rebecca Brown
Crutcher, Mother Randle, Mother Fletcher, or Uncle Red were a
part of your family, would you want the same thing for them? I
implore you to embody our nation's sacred promise of justice
for all.
As I close, I close with a quote of the late Ella Baker.
``Those who believe in freedom cannot rest''--and we will not
rest--``until justice comes.''
Thank you.
[The statement of Ms. Crutcher follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Dr. Crutcher.
[Applause.]
I am going to have to ask the next Witnesses to try to keep
your testimony to 5 minutes. We have been most liberal, but we
do have time constraints.
Our next Witness is Mr. T.W. Shannon. He is the Chief
Executive Officer of the Chickasaw Community Bank. He
previously served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives,
where at the age of 34 he became the youngest speaker of the
Oklahoma House of Representatives. He was both the first
African American and the first Chickasaw speaker.
Mr. Shannon holds a J.D. from Oklahoma City University and
a B.A. from Cameron University, a Harvard University Fellow, an
Aspen Institute Fellow.
Mr. Shannon, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF T.W. SHANNON
Mr. Shannon. Thank you, Chair Cohen, Ranking Member
Johnson, and Members of the Subcommittee. I appreciate this
opportunity to share this testimony regarding the adoption of
House Resolution 398, recognizing the forthcoming centennial of
the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
While I am certainly thankful for the attention the
resolution will bring to this reprehensible atrocity, much of
the language leads me to suspect that there may be other
motives for offering it. In my testimony today, I will express
my disappointment that this sober occasion is being diluted by
those who seek to further inflame racial divisions and foment
animosity toward law enforcement.
First, let me focus on the event House Resolution 398
purports to commemorate. What is known today as the Tulsa Race
Massacre occurred 100 years ago, and America should know of the
brutality and atrocity of that day. History, however
uncomfortable, should not be censored, nor in today's terms
cancelled. History should be taught without political bias and
without the intent to make any one group, gender, or ethnicity
feel responsible for the sins of their ancestors.
I don't speak of American history as someone who is
unfamiliar with our country's many struggles. Both of my
parents were history teachers, and they grew up in a segregated
America, a segregated Oklahoma. My father is a veteran and a
retired history teacher. They both had their share of racial
discrimination but rose above it and both became college
graduates.
I learned not just from textbooks in schools, but from my
parents their desire to educate me on a subject that they
deeply love, Black history. In fact, it was my mother who first
taught me about the Tulsa Race Riot, which is what it was
called then.
The event, as described by my mother, didn't sound like
much of a riot to me, at least not on the part of the Black
community living in the Greenwood district. It sounded more
like an invasion. Yes, she told me about the atrocities that
this Subcommittee knows well--the looting and burning, the
lynching and killing, the utter destruction of an entire
community that left hundreds dead and thousands homeless.
She also taught me about the unparalleled prosperity of the
Greenwood district. I can't describe to you how inspired I was
by her stories of countless Black-owned businesses, all
thriving in their segregated economic bubble, as a result and a
symbol of modern capitalism.
My mother, who grew up an hour away from Greenwood in
Muskogee, another town with a thriving Black middle class
during that time, also celebrated the entrepreneurship that was
a byproduct of the strong families of Greenwood. She took great
pride in teaching me how the fruits of capitalism took root and
blossomed so enormously that the community was terms ``Black
Wall Street.''
The fact that the Black community in Greenwood was so
successful really made the destruction all the more painful for
me to imagine. All that prosperity, not even a full generation
removed from slavery, completely wiped out. Hundreds of
families mourning the death of someone they loved, thousands
grieving a lost home or destroyed storefront. Many suffered all
those things all at once.
This is the tragedy that should be our focus. Instead, I am
concerned the resolution that was adopted by the majority
promises to stoke racial tensions by equating White supremacy
with police brutality. It accuses law enforcement of a pattern
of violence against Black people in the United States and
State-sanctioned violence.
This language, frankly, lands like a slap in the face to
our honorable law enforcement officers and all who support
them. As an American who appreciates the sacrifice and service
of police officers across this country, I reject the false and
divisive rhetoric found in parts of this resolution.
Mr. Chair and Members, House Resolution 398 may mark the
100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, but it does not
honor the victims of that tragic day by seeking to further
inflame racial divisions. The memory of those who suffered is
not honored by generating animosity toward police officers. The
families who grieve loved ones, who lost livelihoods, those
families are not honored by divisive rhetoric calculated to
appease the opponents of law and order.
Instead, we honor those who suffered and died and families
they left behind by simply telling the truth about what
happened. We honor them by educating America about the tragic
day. Above all, we can honor them by giving their descendants a
land of freedom and opportunity. I can think of no greater way
to honor the legacy of Black Wall Street than to foster a new
generation of Black entrepreneurs and business owners,
generating wealth and jobs that lift whole communities out of
poverty. If the legacy of Greenwood teaches us anything, it is
that, if we want strong communities and a strong nation, it
first begins with strong families.
Mr. Chair, Ranking Member Johnson, and distinguished
Members, I thank you once again for the opportunity to be here
today and offer my testimony on this important topic.
[The statement of Mr. Shannon follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Mr. Shannon. As the former speaker,
you recognize that time is important. Thank you for your
testimony.
Mr. Clarence Henderson, who I believe is going to be
virtual, is our next Witness. He is the national spokesman for
the Frederick Douglass Foundation. He was a participant in the
sit-in protest at the Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro,
North Carolina, in 1960. He also served on the Advisory Board
for Black Voices for Trump.
Mr. Henderson, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF CLARENCE HENDERSON
Mr. Henderson. Thank you. It is, indeed, an honor to be a
Witness before this Subcommittee.
The previous testimony brought tears to my eyes from Mother
Randle, Uncle Red, and Mother Fletcher. The 1921 Tulsa Race
Riot was a dark and horrific time in America's history and
should be recognized as such. It was a massacre that is
virtually unmatched in the recording of history in America and
should be acknowledged and recognized by Congress, so that
history does not repeat itself.
This is one of the great lessons of history that shows us
of the past divide of America. It is an American past and not
an American present. If we study American history in
chronological order, we will see that our progress has not been
a straight line. There have been detours. Nevertheless, we see
the progress that has been made.
We see the ratification of the 13th-15th, and also, the
19th Amendment. If we look further, we see the various civil
rights acts that have been implemented to recognize that we
should judge people by their character and not the color of
their skin. We see laws in place dedicated to the self-evident
truth that is God-ordained, that we all are created equal.
In every instance where Blacks have prospered and succeeded
to the heights of business, academia, politics, and more, it
has been accomplished not because the government threw money at
perceived problems, but because our will to succeed was given
the freedom to break down boundaries and remove obstacles.
Given the atrocity of the Tulsa Race Massacre with lives,
homes, businesses, and millions of dollars of Black wealth
destroyed, as well as mass incarceration, the Trump
Administration enacted policies that focused on building up the
Black communities. The conservative policies instituted during
the Trump Administration--namely, the First Step Act, funding
for HBCUs, Opportunity Zones, and a $5 billion Platinum Plan--
is diametrically opposed with what occurred in 1921. Such
policies led to a free market, options in education, lower
taxes, entrepreneurialism, and the freedom to choose one's own
path--a true attempt to level the playing field for Black
America and restore some wealth that had been destroyed.
Unfortunately, like what occurred in Tulsa, some would like
to effectively erase from collective memory the strides made to
improve the Black community under the previous Administration.
As Frederick Douglass stated, ``The life of a Nation is secure
only while the Nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.''
When I look at our country today, I see a Nation that has
chosen to be governed by the Rule of law and not the Rule of
man. The United States is great not because it is perfect. I
don't see systemic racism. I see systemic corruption. Yes, our
past involved racial injustices. Yes, racism does exist. Yes,
socioeconomic issues plague many of our communities. It is
great, however, because of the freedom that all Americans have,
bestowed onto us by our Constitution, which gives us the
ability to improve on our imperfections, to evolve from our
past mistakes, and to get as close to true equality in
comparison to anywhere else in the world.
I hope this resolution is used to recognize a horrific past
injustice, so that it is not repeated, and not used as a
political tool to promote systemic racism. I hope this
resolution is not used as a political tool to cause legal
enforcement law to cease and desist. I hope this resolution
will not be used to politicize every facet of the nation's
racial diversity for political gain, to further exploit and
emotionally cripple the Black community.
As a participant in the 1960 Woolworth's sit-in movement, I
recognize freedom is not free. There is a price to be paid and
it is continuous.
Thank you.
[The statement of Mr. Henderson follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Mr. Henderson.
Our next Witness is Chief Egunwale Amusan. He is the
President of the African Ancestral Society, a nonprofit
organization based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is a descendant of
the Tulsa-Greenwood Massacre. He is the leading activist on
behalf of massacre descendants.
Chief, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF CHIEF EGUNWALE AMUSAN
Mr. Amusan. Thank you, Mr. Chair and esteemed body.
My name is Chief Egunwale Amusan. I am the grandson of
Raymond Beard, Sr., and the grandnephew of Matthew and Mary
Beard, all whom were survivors of the 1921 Tulsa holocaust,
massacre, or any other matching descriptor.
I was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Today, I speak on
behalf of those whose remains were dumped carelessly into the
Arkansas River by the truckloads; those remains that cracked
the concrete from beneath the highway built over them; those
remains dumped in mass graves, like the one I stood in October
of 2020 during the mass grave investigation at Oaklawn Cemetery
in Tulsa.
As a Member of the Mass Graves Oversight Committee, I stood
in that trench with 12 coffins we uncovered. I couldn't help
but to be drawn to a smaller box, which appeared to be the size
of woman's hat box. It triggered the memory of something I had
read in the Race Riot Commission report in 2001.
I rushed home to look at that document again, and it stated
that the remains in the trench were not embalmed, and the death
certificates were not even signed by a medical examiner, a
process undignified in every manner. The document stated that
Tulsa County paid Stanley McCune Funeral Home to bury 16 bodies
in the city cemetery. The report states that 4 of the 16 bodies
placed in the mass grave were badly burned and one was that of
a stillborn baby.
When I returned, I looked again at the box in the trench. I
walked away and wept for the soul of this child and the mother
who would never know the whereabouts of her child, lost both in
the womb and in the earth.
Our family's journey to Greenwood actually started 139
years ago when my children's fourth great-grandfather named
King Blue co-wrote a letter submitted to Congress and the House
of Representatives, just as I am doing today. King Blue was the
former slave of the Chickasaw tribal leader Benjamin Colbert.
He and other tribal representatives presented a document in
1882 called the Memorial of the Chickasaw Freedmen.
The intent of this appeal was to encourage the enforcement
of the 1866 treaty that obliges the tribe to carry out the
stipulations of the third clause which states, ``The monies
given by the Federal government to the tribe requires the tribe
to grant freed persons of African descent all the rights,
privileges, and immunities, including the right of suffrage.''
The Chickasaw Nation refused to honor the treaty. So, my
relatives were nationless for 40 years, until 1902, when,
through an Act of Congress, thousands of forgotten enslaved
Africans were made citizens of the United States of America.
Around that time, my freedmen ancestors and those of my
spouse migrated to Tulsa's Greenwood district. Greenwood
brought a new sense of self-determination, restored dignity,
one that would be short-lived, and the dreamland of Tulsa will
become a nightmare. In just a few decades, my ancestors would
experience enslavement, false freedom, Jim Crow, and a
holocaust that would be hidden from the pages of history for
100 years.
Fast forward, it wasn't until 1997 that I became deeply
aware of the Tulsa holocaust and its implications. However, I
remained unaware of my family's involvement until my
grandfather became a plaintiff in the reparation suit of 2003.
I felt a full range of emotions and unanswered questions.
Today, I regret that I asked so many questions because I was
unaware of the trauma that I was invoking.
The long-term implications of the Tulsa holocaust in urban
renewal can physically be seen today. This is not a matter of
past trauma; it is concurrent. It is concurrent trauma. The
long-term implications, again, of this holocaust can be seen
physically today.
The plot to destroy the Black township of Greenwood was not
a spontaneous Act caused by a rumor in an elevator. It was
premeditated as well as racially and politically motivated.
Many who discover the story of Greenwood cannot believe such a
place was built, nor can they believe that this type of
terrorism happened on American soil, on domestic soil.
The violation of the 14th amendment was not the result of a
crazed mob. This was a city-sanctioned violation. The event
resulted in the deprivation of life, liberty, property without
due process of law, as well as the failure to provide equal
protection of the law.
Greenwood was a cultural, social, and economic incubator,
an environment that provided apprenticeship and other high
standards. It is economic, political, and social stability.
Most importantly, it provided a safe place to finally heal and
detox individually and collectively from the effects of post-
trauma slave syndrome.
According to the 2019 story in The Harvard Gazette, the
property damage in today's numbers were estimated to be as high
as $200 million. The highest form of devastation was the mental
suffering that resulted in high rates of PTSD and other forms
of psychological morbidity, such as depression, anxiety, and
homelessness.
Many of those who speak of Greenwood often reference the
resilience of Greenwood's inhabitants because they rebuilt much
of the district by 1925.
I am winding down.
As remarkable as it is, only an estimated 40 percent of
those original inhabitants actually returned to Greenwood. My
grandfather's eldest siblings were his caretakers. Both
disappeared after the massacre, never to return. Their home and
laundry business were burned to ashes. We later discovered that
my Great Uncle Matthew Beard fled to Los Angeles, where he and
his wife changed their first names to conceal their identity.
One cannot imagine the trauma of not knowing if a family
member is dead or alive. Now, I understand why my grandfather
always said, ``No news is good news.''
My grandfather would return to Greenwood in the 1940s to
see it destroyed again in urban renewal.
This is my last paragraph.
In 2003, my grandfather passed away a few months after
becoming a plaintiff in the reparations' lawsuit filed by
Johnnie Cochran and Charles Ogletree. According to the Supreme
Court, this case would not be heard because the statute of
limitations had run out.
Today, the same city responsible for the crimes of 1921 are
leveraging the suffering of three living survivors and their
descendants in the name of tourism. When I look my oldest son
in the eyes, I wonder if the charred baton of justice will burn
in the palms of his hands, or will it be cleansed and cooled in
the river of restitution?
[The statement of Mr. Amusan follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, sir. We appreciate your testimony and
your work.
[Applause.]
Our next Witness is Dreisen Health. She is a research
advocate at the U.S. Program of Human Rights Watch. She is an
expert on reparations and reparatory justice and has authored
reports and publications highlighting victims' rights to seek
full and effective reparations that are proportional to the
gravity of the human rights violations at issue, including acts
of racial discrimination, as dictated by international human
rights law. Previously testified before us on H.R. 40 in
February. She had received a bachelor's degree from Wesleyan
University.
Ms. Heath, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF DREISEN HEATH
Ms. Heath. On behalf of Human Rights Watch, it is an honor
to be here today. Thank you to Chair Cohen, Ranking Member
Johnson, and the Subcommittee, for this opportunity to testify
at such a critical time in our nation's history, nearly 100
years since the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
I am a Tulsa native, born in Tulsa just miles down from the
historic Greenwood district, where my young parents settled for
several years among the loving and nurturing Black community
that was still reeling from the White supremacist domestic
terrorism that defined their lives forever.
Growing up, I would hear stories from my parents describing
the stark differences between neighborhoods in north Tulsa
versus south Tulsa, the disappearance of Black Wall Street, and
the constant fear that came with walking the same streets as
the KKK. Black community members shared oral histories with
them about the aftermath of the massacre. Many said that they
never knew where their neighbors went and never heard from them
ever again.
I later learned that, after the massacre, Tulsa city
officials promised full restitution and reparations to Black
Tulsans, but, instead, turned their backs on them and worked to
block financial contributions, including medical help,
preventing rebuilding efforts, and even ordering Black Tulsans
into poor conditions in concentration camps. No one was ever
charged with a crime the violence or compensated for the loss
of life and economic devastation.
I never imagined that what would eventually bring me back
to Tulsa would be the continuation of the massacre and the
degradation of Black life. The research of Human Rights Watch
brought me back home, and not because Tulsa's Greenwood
district was restored to the prosperous Black economic hub it
once was, but because abusive and unchecked police violence, a
legacy of slavery, and the massacre stole the lives of Terence
Crutcher, Joshua Harvey, Joshua Barre, and many others.
According to our research, police violence in Tulsa occurs
in the broader context of poverty, racial inequality, and the
deprivation of key human rights. Because of the impacts of
destructive anti-Black policies, like redlining, urban renewal,
and highway construction, Tulsa today remains deeply
segregated, and Black neighborhoods are underdeveloped and
under-resourced, especially in north Tulsa. Black Tulsans live
less than their White counterparts, have higher rates of infant
mortality, and lower medians of wealth. Today's historic
Greenwood district is just a couple of square blocks showing
growing signs of gentrification and displacement.
So, you see, time has not healed all wounds in Tulsa. Over
the past 100 years, thousands of survivors and their
descendants have died awaiting justice. The legacy of the
massacre remains a bloody stain that will continue to define
this country until reparations are paid.
Under international human rights law, the city of Tulsa and
the State of Oklahoma have a responsibility to provide full and
effective reparations that is proportional to the gravity of
crimes committed, as recommended in our May 2020 report.
Reparations must be paid immediately to the three known living
survivors of the massacre--Mother Randle, Mother Fletcher, and
Mr. Van Ellis--to the descendants of massacre victims, and to
the broader Black community that has not seen intergenerational
wealth and economic opportunity. If we can't fully account for
one of the worst incidents of racial violence in the United
States, then who are we as a people and what does this country
actually stand for?
The plight of Black Tulsans is not their own will to
survive, but the government's unwillingness to fully support
their survival. There is a clear call for what is right and
what is just, and that call is for comprehensive reparations,
determined by impact to community members at all levels for
which harm has occurred.
Tulsa's Black community is not celebrating the centennial
of the massacre. They are mourning the loss of their community
and the loss of opportunity. By passing H.R. 40, the Commission
to Study and Develop Reparation Proposal for African Americans
Act, and by ministering full remedy at the Federal, State, and
local level for the Tulsa Race Massacre and its continuing
impacts, this country can finally recognize the full humanity
of Black Tulsans and avoid perpetuating human suffering
indefinitely.
Thank you.
[The statement of Ms. Heath follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Cohen. Thank you very much.
[Applause.]
Our final Witness is Mr. Eric Miller. Mr. Miller is a
Professor of Law and Leo J. O'Brien Fellow of Loyola Law School
of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where he teaches
courses on evidence, criminal procedure, and jurisprudence. He
has written extensively on policing, drug courts, and
reparations. He received a Masters of legal letters from
Harvard Law School and a Bachelor of Laws from the University
of Edinburgh. He was a law clerk for the Honorable Stephen
Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit and
the Honorable Myron Thompson of the U.S. District Court for the
Middle District of Alabama.
Professor Miller, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF ERIC MILLER
Mr. Miller. Mr. Chair, Members of the Committee, we have
heard that today's hearing on justice for the Tulsa massacre is
racially divisive. We heard that in 1921. We heard that in
2003, when Professor Ogletree and Johnnie Cochran filed a
Federal lawsuit for the survivors. We heard it in 2020 when
Mayor Bynum, the mayor of the city of Tulsa, said he would not
support payments to the survivors of the massacre, including
Ms. Fletcher, Ms. Randle, and Mr. Van Ellis, who you heard
testify today.
The victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre and their
descendants have still not received a penny from the State of
Oklahoma or the city of Tulsa. Even some direct payment is not
enough. They need transformational justice to remedy the
systemic, ongoing wrongdoing still suffered by the victims,
their descendants, and the current residents of the Greenwood
and north Tulsa districts of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
To provide an appropriate remedy, we must understand the
nature and scope of the wrongdoing and its impact on the
residents. The massacre not only destroyed the Greenwood
community, its infrastructure, and human and social capital; it
created a diaspora of people driven from their homes or
families and their support networks.
Here is what the State of Oklahoma said about their role in
the massacre in a statute it passed in 2001. Quote: ``Local
municipal and county officials became participants in the mob
that killed, looted, and burned down Greenwood'' Quote: ``Local
officials attempted to block the rebuilding of the Greenwood
community.'' Local officials enforced, quote, ``a conspiracy of
silence'' that ``served the dominant interests of the state,''
which termed the riot a ``public relations nightmare'' for a
community attempting to attract new business. The State, quote,
``ignored'' its, quote, ``responsibilities, rather than
confront the realities of race relations that allowed one race
to put down another race.''
Again, these are all quotes from the State of Oklahoma, the
tale of an Oklahoma that was, and still is, putting profit over
racial justice. They stopped short of accounting for the
continuing acts of racial discrimination in the years and
decades following the massacre. They failed to account for the
people who fled and could not return--some because they were
targeted for violence, some because they could not rebuild, or
some simply because of the unbearable psychological trauma of
the massacre. This great diaspora of the massacre is owed
justice, too,
Typical reparations remedies include trust funds, a
commission to identify the victims and their descendants, some
permanent historical record, some form of direct payment to the
victims, and college scholarships for the descendants. That is
roughly what Congress provided for the victims of Japanese
internment.
However, the remedies for Tulsa must also address the
current acts of the city and the Chamber of Commerce who
destroyed social, economic, and cultural institutions, and who
continue to profit off the victims and survivors by
misappropriating the histories and likenesses of the victims
and their descendants.
Repair requires rebuilding infrastructure in Greenwood and
north Tulsa--buying back property, building hospitals and
health centers, redirecting the highways that split these
communities and families and friends apart, and remediating the
environmental harms within these communities in Tulsa. These
are the engines of its economic, but also its social and human
capital. Repair also requires addressing the trauma and hurt
experienced by the diaspora of descendants that exist around
the country and around the world.
The lead plaintiff in the 2003 Federal case, which I was
proud to be part of, John Melvin Alexander, a World War II and
Korean War veteran, said that, quote, ``The White person can't
realize what they've done to the Black people here.'' end
quote.
The enduring trauma of the massacre mocked the survivors
and their descendants and still does, as you heard from so many
people, to this day. We need a remedy fit for this massive Act
of horror. We have come here to Congress to ask you to fix it.
Thank you.
[The statement of Mr. Miller follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Professor Miller.
We will now proceed under the 5-minute Rule with questions,
and I will begin by recognizing myself for 5 minutes.
Mr. Solomon, are you available for questions? Is he here?
[No response.]
Well, let me start with Mr. Miller then. I would like to
have Mr. Solomon for a question. Professor Miller, some argue
that the harms are in the past, that most of the victims and
perpetrators are dead, which is all true, and there is no party
responsible for the harm, nor any party entitled to receive
compensation for the attack. What is your response?
Mr. Miller. Well, my response is that we can still see the
ongoing harms of the Tulsa Race Massacre to this day. Remember,
all the families lost all their property in the massacre. They
couldn't get their money returned by going to the courts. They
couldn't get their money for their property by going to
insurance companies. So, it was a devastating financial loss
for over 10,000 people in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
People fled the city. Families were split apart. So,
infrastructure was destroyed. That sort of destruction has
continued over time, as the city tried to rezone Greenwood,
tried to prevent building back. When people did build back, the
city continued to target Greenwood for racial divisive urban
development, driving a freeway through the middle of the
community, splitting the community apart, dividing it from the
rest of Tulsa. So, the acts of the city, of the Chamber of
Commerce, of the State, and the county have continued from
1921-2021, to target this community--
Mr. Cohen. Well, it has been a continuing problem and there
have been no efforts at any remediation, is that correct?
Mr. Miller. That is correct. Worse, they have made it
worse.
Mr. Cohen. Let me ask you this: One of the Witnesses--I
believe it was Mr. Simmons--said that the insurance companies
had not honored claims. How did they go about--these were
property casualty insurance, homeowners' insurance, whatever--
how did they not get compensation? How did the insurance
companies get out of it?
Mr. Miller. They said there was a riot clause in the
insurance and refused to pay out. So, the insurance companies
denied hundreds of people their claims, people who are victims
of the race massacre, by claiming that they didn't have to pay
because of a riot.
Mr. Cohen. Mr. Solomon-Simmons, Professor Miller has
explained that some of the insurance companies, because of a
riot clause, were allowed not to have to compensate the
victims. Did the riot clause suggest that they were responsible
for the damage? How did that riot clause get interpreted that
way and not give them compensation?
Mr. Solomon-Simmons. First, it was the city and the county
and the chamber who falsely called it a riot, for the express
purpose of making it more difficult for the Black citizens to
rebuild. We have to understand this was not just some isolated
event. They wanted their land. They wanted the land of the
African Americans because it was very valuable land.
I believe, and our understanding of our research, that
these insurance companies, they didn't do their due diligence.
They didn't come down and do an actual investigation. They just
took the false narrative that the city and the county and the
chamber provided and said, ``That's good. Good for us. We don't
have to pay anything.''
We have these particular claims. I am happy to give this to
your office, Representative Cohen, a listing of each claim
made, the specificity, and who they made it to.
Mr. Cohen. Thank you.
We had a similar situation in Memphis. After the Civil War,
they called it a riot for the longest time, and, of course, it
was a massacre. The city was involved as well and the police in
perpetrating it.
In the Oklahoma, as I understand it, the police, the law
enforcement, participated in the massacre, is that correct?
Mr. Solomon-Simmons. That is absolutely correct. It is the
same spirit that runs from 1921-2021.
This is my client right here. I represent the Crutcher
family who has suffered from police violence. Her brother was
shot with his hands up in the air. So, I take great exception
to what Mr. Shannon had to say about being divisive. We suffer
in Tulsa. I don't know--he is not from Tulsa. I am from Tulsa.
Tiffany is from Tulsa. She's from Tulsa. Dreisen is from Tulsa.
We suffer at the hands of the Tulsa police.
You also heard the name of Joshua Harvey. It is another
client of mine, a young man that was tased 27 times to death by
the Tulsa police department, and none of the officers were
disciplined. Betty Shelby was not disciplined for shooting her
brother. None of the officers who had Witnesses leave the
scene--on video, violated multiple policies--not one of those
officers is disciplined.
You know what? After the massacre, in our papers they said
for this to never happen again--and ``this'' being the rise of,
quote, ``Nigger Town''--``we need to aggressively police these
niggers to make sure that they don't rise again,'' unquote.
That is what we deal with here in Tulsa. That is the over-
policing in my neighborhood, north Tulsa, 36th Street North.
Mr. Cohen. My time has expired but thank you. We will try
to get back.
Now, we will recognize Mr. Johnson for 5 minutes.
Mr. Johnson of Louisiana. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Speaker Shannon, you obviously had a historic rise and very
successful career in the State, and we acknowledge that.
I was struck by your testimony. You testified, in part,
that you were inspired by the pre-massacre success of
Greenwood, the stories that your parents told you, the history
teachers that were in your house, because it represented an
American success story, where, despite facing horrific racism
and other aspects of their lives, Tulsa's African American
residents could flourish economically and socially and
culturally. You noted that story can still inspire young people
today.
So, the question is, what are some ways that we can
emphasize great stories like that to build up and strengthen
individuals and communities?
Mr. Shannon. Thank you, Ranking Member Johnson, for the
question.
As a former resident of Tulsa, I think when we think about
the narrative that we tell ourselves, I am always concerned
with this narrative of telling people that look like me that
they can't succeed in this country because it is just not true.
This country is a land of systemic opportunity. It is not a
land of systemic racism. This country has afforded many people
from many different backgrounds great opportunities.
Now, that doesn't negate that we have had our challenges,
and many of them have been at the hands of people that look
like me, and many of them have been victims, people that look
like me have been victims at the hands of these crimes, much
like the Tulsa Race Massacre. It is a shame. So, we have
certainly had our challenges.
When we think about what Greenwood means to the nation, and
how it inspires people, it is that the idea of capitalism still
works. The idea that, if we really want to move people out of
generational poverty, which is what we are talking about, there
are steps to do:
(1) It starts with getting an education, finishing school.
Whatever school you are in, do the best you can to finish it.
(2) Getting married and staying married. We know that those
things work. That moves people out of generational poverty.
(3) To get a job and keep a job. That is the third thing.
(4) To invests and save.
(5) To give back to your local community.
That is how you move people out of generational poverty,
and that is exactly what the brave men and women of Greenwood
did in many instances with their entrepreneurship, and they
continue to inspire people from generations.
I was moved by the testimony of Uncle Red and the other
survivors and his sister. I think we all can learn a great deal
about their courage.
Mr. Johnson of Louisiana. Very good. I wish I could unpack
so much of that, but we have limited time.
Let me go to Mr. Henderson, if I can, if he is still on
video. Mr. Henderson, are you still with us?
Mr. Henderson. Yes.
Mr. Johnson of Louisiana. Great. Just a real quick question
for you. In recent years, it has become popular for a lot of
people to argue that America is a county of systemic racism
rather than systemic opportunities, as Mr. Shannon just said.
You testified, also, that this is not what you see. Could you
expound on that a bit further? How would you describe our
present situation?
Mr. Henderson. Well, when you look at America, you have to
compare it with other countries. America is a country that has
fought to free slaves. America is a country that seeks to live
out the second sentence in the Declaration of Independence:
``We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal.''
The governance that is instituted among men is derived from
just powers from the consent of the governed. So, it is we, the
private citizens, that determine how this country will move
forward. We need to recognize that elections matter.
Understanding the system that we live under, we keep going to
another race of people asking permission. When you look at the
free-market capitalism system, you don't have to ask
permission; you can actually fail your way to success. When you
look at Thomas Edison, when you look at Booker T. Washington,
they failed so many times, but would not give up. So, America
is a great country if we look at it from the right direction.
All in all, this is a great opportunity to take advantage of.
Mr. Johnson of Louisiana. How do you think that we can
better educate this current generation of Americans about those
principles? I mean, does it come down to public school
curricula? Does it come down to community education? I mean,
does everybody have a role in that? How do you explain that to
others?
Mr. Henderson. Everyone has a role in that. We need to go
back to critical--I am sorry--classical education, where we
teach people how to think as opposed to what to think. Our
education system has moved from education into actually
indoctrination. We need to understand the total history of this
country--the good, the bad, and the ugly--and understand that
America is not where it was before; that we all play a part in
it. We need to know the true history of America.
If you are a citizen of America and you don't know the
history of America, you are a citizen in name only. For those
of us that have cut our teeth on the true courage required for
freedom's sake, we need to reach back and share with those that
this is your country; you should defend this country when it is
right and stand up against the wrongs that occur.
Mr. Johnson of Louisiana. Thank you.
I am out of time. I yield back.
Thanks to all the Witnesses for being here today.
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, sir.
We are going to go out of order because Ms. Sheila Jackson
Lee is going to be Speaker Pro Temp. She has time, has to get
to the Floor.
Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, you are recognized for 5
minutes.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Mr. Chair, let me thank you and the
Ranking Member for the courage to hold this hearing and to
present a forum in the United States House of Representatives
for these humble souls.
Let me quote William Faulkner because he does not look like
me and, Mr. Counselor, he doesn't look like you. He said, ``The
past is never dead. It's not even the past.''
So, to my friends that are here who have given an
alternative history, that past never ends. That past is
redlining that did not allow investment in Black communities.
That past is, as the outstanding members of this holy and
iconic group--Mr. Hugh Van Ellis; Ms. Viola Fletcher, Mother
Fletcher, Ms. Randle--have said, they lived the past. They were
not able to get the GI bill. Ms. Randle remained a domestic.
She didn't finish beyond the fourth grade. That is the existing
and continuing disparities.
Let me, for those who may never have seen the vibrance of
Greenwood and Tulsa, and these young women with their cowboy
hats on, living the dream, if you will, way back in 1921, that
was Tulsa. That was the economy of this Nation embedded in
that.
I would just simply say to my good friend who did not read
the resolution that we are so proud to have passed honoring the
100 years, it says, ``By calling upon all Americans to
celebrate the ethnic, racial, and religious diversity that has
made the United States the leader of a community of nations and
the beacon of hope and inspiration to oppressed people
everywhere.'' That is in H. Res. 398. That is Tulsa.
Let me tell you what else is Tulsa. If you can't make it
out, this is a Negro's body with smoke coming out of it, as
occurred in 1921, when 300 were thrown in a mass grave, unnamed
to this day, and, as well, held in detention.
I am so glad that our friends in the Japanese American
community are, in fact, supporting H.R. 40.
Let me show you that they actually had thriving businesses.
That is Greenwood going up in smoke because of an incident in
an elevator that has never been able to be defended or
accurate.
So, let me give these questions quickly in the short time
that I have for you to be reminded of this.
Let me get to counselor and Ms. Crutcher. Counselor, my
time is brief, emphasize again, which most Americans would
understand, the banks had my money, had their money. I remember
those little books. We grew up on those little books. You go to
the bank, you put the money in, and they mark in your little
book that you had money.
Tell me two things. You have not been able to get the money
out of the bank, and the insurance, which all of us are told to
get flood insurance, to get home insurance, that you were not
able to get? That is your questions. My time is 1:54.
Ms. Crutcher, I have never heard you condemn law
enforcement. I have heard you say, in the name of your deceased
mom and your family and the children of your brother, that he
was killed in cold blood with his hands up. I want you to
respond to that, as to what we need to do legislatively to be
able to address this injustice.
Mr. Counselor?
Mr. Solomon-Simmons. First, Representative Lee, thank you
for your leadership on H.R. 40.
In our community, yes, Dr. Olivia Hooker, who was the first
African American female in the Coast Guard, from Tulsa, she
talks about this, talked about this before she passed, and many
other survivors--they couldn't get their money out of the banks
because the banks said, ``Well, hey, where's your bank book?''
They said, ``It burnt.'' They said, ``Too bad.''
So, we are trying to have a discussion with these banks to
say let's do a forensic audit and let's go in there and find
out what money may still be available to these descendants.
Secondly, yes, again, the insurance companies--these Black
people in Tulsa were very sophisticated. They were business
minded. They were savvy. They had policies, insurance policies.
To this day, no policy actually paid anything that was a fair
market value and is still owed, as we speak.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Thank you.
Ms. Crutcher, if you would.
Dr. Crutcher. Yes, ma'am. I back police officers. My uncle
is a police officer. My father served this country. He was a
Vietnam veteran. So, I have never bashed the police, but there
is an oath that our law enforcement in this country that they
swear to, and I believe in that oath because it simply says--
and you all should read it--``We are here to protect and
serve.''
My issue is that there are police officers in this country
that Act antithetical to that oath that they swear to. So, what
we are trying to do, and what we need for Congress to do, is
Act and pass not on dumbed-down or a watered-down or a half-
baked bill, but we need to end the doctrine of qualified
immunity. That doctrine has hurt my family. There has been a
civil lawsuit sitting on a judge's desk since 2017. We have no
closure. My mom went to her grave not seeing justice for her
son. So, there are policies in place that allow police officers
to get away with legal murder, and we need to make sure that we
pass that.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Thank you. Thank you.
My time has run out. I just want to put into the record
this statement from the Tulsa Race Massacre that indicated in
2001 damages were up to a hundred million. Today, in 2021, it
may be $200 million.
My commitment to you is to find justice and relief, and to
demand that the mayor of the city of Tulsa give you the
resources to those descendants, not for him to pocket, not for
the city of Tulsa, but to be able to get those raised monies--
Mr. Mayor, hear me now--in the rightful hands of those
descendants that are here today and those descendants of those
who have died. It is now; the time is now.
I yield back, Mr. Chair. Thank you for your courtesy.
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Representative Lee. Thank you.
Ms. Ross, you are recognized.
Ms. Ross. Thank you, Chair Cohen and Ranking Member
Johnson, for holding this extraordinary and important hearing.
Hopefully, it will not be the last of these hearings, though,
hopefully, we won't have these kinds of atrocities going
forward.
I also want to thank all the Witnesses for joining us
today.
While plenty can change in 100 years, the powerful
testimony we have heard today reminds us that history also is
alive. The Tulsa Race Massacre lives on through Mr. Van Ellis,
Mother Fletcher, Mother Randle, and their descendants.
Thank you, Dr. Crutcher, for being here.
It also lives on through the families that lost their
homes, their wealth, their loved ones, and the futures that
they thought they would have.
For those who do not believe that racism exists in the
United States, I hope the testimony of our Witnesses helped
them understand that racism and brutality 100 years ago, 400
years ago, continues to stand in the way of the success of the
people here today.
Tulsa is not the only city where violent White supremacy
has set our Nation back. In my State of North Carolina, White
supremacists carried out a massacre and a coup d,tat in 1898,
toppling the multiracial government in the majority Black city
of Wilmington. Like Tulsa, Wilmington was once the home to a
thriving Black community. White supremacists were able to
demolish Black homes and businesses, kill Black civilians, and
overthrow a democratically elected government because the
system of power in our Nation and our State did not intervene.
My first question is for Mr. Solomon-Simmons about the
aftermath of the massacre. It is a dramatic example of how
racism, both in the form of violence, but also discrimination
in government policy, has contributed to the wealth gap between
White and Black households in present-day America. How did the
massacre and its aftermath impact survivors and their
descendants' ability to build and pass on generational wealth?
Mr. Solomon-Simmons. Thank you, Representative Ross, for
that question.
In many ways, it was impacted. First, up to the '40s and
the '50s, for those individuals in Greenwood who survived the
massacre and were not run out as refugees, they were severely
neglected by the city of Tulsa. They didn't receive any type of
city services. They didn't have paved streets. They didn't even
have proper plumbing, so they could have running water in their
homes.
Then, they brought in urban renewal, which we call in Tulsa
``Negro removal.'' They used that policy to steal the rest of
the land that they hadn't stolen during the massacre. The final
nail was when they put Highway 244 directly, squarely in the
Black community through Greenwood, to purposely destroy any
opportunity for Greenwood to thrive again.
So, this has been the remnants. Right now, if you come to
Tulsa, you will see a thriving, beautiful, modern, metropolitan
city south of I-244. That is White Tulsa. North of that
highway, which is north Tulsa and Black, there are no
businesses, hardly any businesses. There are no buildings going
up. There are no high-rises, nothing like that. It is as stark
as night and day.
Ms. Ross. Thank you very much.
My next question is for Ms. Heath. So, I brought up the
massacre in Wilmington. What happened in Tulsa is particularly
unique at this 100-year mark because it was an entirely Black
community. Wilmington was an example where Blacks and Whites
lived together and some people just didn't like that.
Could you tell us about other instances in our history
where we have seen White supremacists intervene in people's
thriving, multiracial economies?
Ms. Heath. Thank you.
Yes, the United States has a history of White supremacists
invading Black neighborhoods or coalescing among Black
neighborhoods and, quite frankly, all of a sudden, getting sick
of some type of economic progress or social progress that
creates equitable conditions for Black people in those
neighborhoods.
The ``Red Summer of 1919'' is a prime example of dozens of
race massacres, also coined as race riots in history, which is
a false narrative that does not account for the deliberate and
designed destruction of Black neighborhoods and their success.
So, post-Reconstruction, pre-Reconstruction, all the way up
to the spirit of what had Members of Congress laying on the
floor during January 6th, is a product of White supremacy in
this country.
Ms. Ross. Thank you very much.
Mr. Chair, I yield back.
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Ms. Ross.
Next in order is Mr. Hank Johnson, who has been a leader on
this issue in the Congressional Black Caucus and a leader on
this issue and others throughout his time in Congress, since
2007.
Mr. Johnson of Georgia. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for holding
this very important hearing.
I also want to thank the survivors of the massacre who
spoke on the first panel and shared their stories with us
today.
As the 100th year anniversary of the Tulsa-Greenwood
Massacre approaches, we must examine this part of our history,
lest we be bound to repeat it. The massacre of Black lives may
have been the deadliest, but it certainly was not an isolated
event. Black people in this country continue to fight against
racist violence even today and the legacy of racist violence.
We cannot let our future be defined by hate any longer and by
racism any longer.
Later today, I will introduce the Tulsa-Greenwood Massacre
Accountability Claims Act, which will create a Federal cause of
action for massacre-related claims. The victims of this
atrocity have been denied justice for far too long. Similar
legislation was previously introduced by my friend, the former
Congressman and former Chair of the Judiciary Committee, John
Conyers. I am honored to continue his legacy in this way.
Ms. Heath, why is congressional action so important to
create accountability, and why accountability so important
after atrocities such as Greenwood?
Ms. Heath. Thank you.
As you heard from Mr. Miller and Mr. Solomon-Simmons, the
courts have failed to deliver justice necessary and hear the
merits of these atrocities. Therefore, legislative remedy is
incredibly important post-any serious or gross human rights
violations, such as the Tulsa Race Massacre or including acts
of racial discrimination, which include housing, education,
employment, racial discrimination in the United States today
impacting Black people.
It is incredibly important that repair mechanisms are
proportional to the harms that were committed and not just
symbolic. In the case of Greenwood, material damage was done,
including moral damage which should be compensated for. Under
international law, there are various forms of reparation, in
addition to financial compensation, legal and institutional
reforms also that need to be administered in the case of
Greenwood. All forms of repair, given the damage that was done
in Greenwood, need to be on the table to provide full
restitution to the gravity of the harms and crimes committed.
Mr. Johnson of Georgia. Thank you.
Attorney Solomon-Simmons, would you care to respond to that
question?
Mr. Solomon-Simmons. Well, again, because this body, this
Congress has shown the ability throughout our history with the
Japanese internment camp survivors, the 9/11 Commission, that
it is important for the Congress, the United States of America,
to say, what happened to these people was wrong. We have the
power to remedy it and we should remedy it. We must have
accountability for what happened in Greenwood.
Because if we don't have accountability for what happened
in Greenwood, it will only happen again. It is not enough just
to know something happened, so you won't repeat it. You have to
know there are consequences that it happened. So far, there
haven't been any consequences from anyone at this point, and we
hope and pray that we can get some consequences from Congress.
Mr. Johnson of Georgia. Thank you.
Ms. Heath, are you aware, and Professor Miller, are you all
aware of any instances in this country where Black people have
received reparation for harm done to them?
Ms. Heath. Yes. In 1923, the Rosewood Race Massacre
occurred two years after the Tulsa Race Massacre. Victims in
the 1990s were compensated, including their descendants, with
scholarships. In addition, North Carolina compensated victims
of forced sterilization for a discriminatory eugenics law. So,
reparations have been paid, but not to descendants of enslaved
Africans at the grander level and, also, in this case of Tulsa
and many other incidents of racial violence.
Mr. Miller. If we think broadly about reparations, the
Federal government has actually already made it possible for
African Americans--for example, Black farmers--to sue to gain
some compensation. So, Congress has taken a lead on this before
and--
Mr. Cohen. You might need to turn your microphone on,
Professor. Was it already on?
Mr. Miller. Sorry, I thought it was on. Did you not hear
me?
All right. So, Congress has taken the lead on this before;
for example, with the Black farmers legislation, and I am glad
that Congress is taking a lead on it again.
Mr. Johnson of Georgia. Thank you.
So, H.R. 40 or the Tulsa-Greenwood Massacre Accountability
Claims Act would not be new. It would not be unique. It would
not be a trailblazer. It would just be a continuation of
justice that has been afforded to certain victims of racism in
this country throughout our history. Is that correct?
Mr. Miller. That is correct. It is worth recognizing that
States--California has been a leader in affording this sort of
relief to, for example, victims of Armenian genocide, braceros,
Holocaust survivors. So, it is long overdue for African
Americans as well.
Mr. Johnson of Georgia. Thank you, and I yield back.
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Mr. Johnson.
Ms. Garcia from Texas is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. Garcia. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you so much for
bringing this hearing forward. I think it is historic and just.
The courage and the tenacity and just the wherewithal of
the survivors to be here with us this morning, and to share
their stories, was very, very, very moving and compelling. I
hope that more Americans get to see it. I hope that children
get to see it. I hope that anyone who studies history sees it.
So, thank you for doing this. I am so glad that, also, you
are livestreaming this to make sure that people make note.
It is shame; 100 years since the Tulsa-Greenwood Race
Massacre, and we still find ourselves striving for equal
justice under the law for all Americans. Uncle Red said it
best: We all need to work together because we are one. We all
need to work together because we are one.
So, it is important that we commemorate this centennial
anniversary of this massacre to educate new generations of our
country's history, to learn from it and heal from it, to
restore justice for the Greenwood district community, as well
as many other long-suffering communities alike. That is why I
am a cosponsor of H.Res. 398, the resolution.
Like President Biden has said, ``to heal, we must
understand.'' To heal, we must understand. That is why I also
support H.R. 40 and I am a proud sponsor together with many
others here in Congress.
Today, I have learned of yet another bill that would help
restore justice for all, and that is the Accountability Act
that Mr. Johnson just mentioned. I will certainly sign up to be
a sponsor in that bill.
I agree with our nation's top law enforcement official,
Attorney General Merrick Garland, that we are obligated to
protect each other. That is why highlighting this event 100
years later, when racial hatred drove individuals to carry out
unspeakable acts of violence against our own fellow Americans
teaches us about the evils that are perpetuated by White
supremacists. Let's be clear. We will not rest until there is
justice for all.
If you listen to the words of Mother Fletcher, she said
that she has lived this massacre every single day--every day.
We owe it to her and all the others to make sure that we make
change, and we do it now, not later. Hate because of the color
of one's skin shall never win. We cannot let it win. America
prevails when we come together in peace. As Uncle Red said, we
are one.
So, I want to begin with you, Attorney Simmons. I noticed
in--it may have been your written testimony--that groups even
like Sinclair Oil loaned them the planes--loaned them the
planes. We hear, and the Chair asked questions, about the
insurance companies. So, businesses were involved with this.
Have we been able to get a handle on how we can go to the
successor businesses? Sinclair Oil I believe still exists.
Those companies, obviously, were bought by someone. Have we
been able to try to get any damages from them?
Mr. Solomon-Simmons. Thank you for your question.
We are in the process of that. We have reached out to
several companies, including Sinclair Oil. They are still
around. Then, many, many insurance companies, banks, other
publications, and we are trying to hold everyone accountable.
So far, not many people want to talk to us and have a
conversation. That is why we reached out and said, ``Let's have
a conversation, because these people in Tulsa, my people in
Tulsa, they need healing, and you were a part of this 100 years
ago, and here's the proof of it.''
Ms. Garcia. Right. I know that, also, I read that there was
a commission set up in Oklahoma, and that they did say that
reparations should go to the historic Greenwood community in
some way; and that it would do much to repair the emotional and
physical scars of this terrible incident. Have they done
anything? Is there anything that we can do to nudge them, push
them?
Mr. Solomon-Simmons. Well, first, they have not done
anything. In fact, those same perpetrators of the massacre are
now utilizing the massacre to line their own pockets. So, in
fact, they haven't done anything; they have done worse. They
have actually compounded the trauma, and they have soaked up
all the resources that good people from around the Nation that
want to support the Black people of Tulsa--they don't
understand that they are actually supporting the city of Tulsa
and the White business owners in Tulsa. That is what is
actually happening right now.
I think just this hearing, people understanding the
difference, understanding that groups on the ground like the
Crutcher Foundation, Justice for Greenwood, the Black Wall
Street Legacy Festival are actually working directly with
survivors and descendants, and not the city of Tulsa and the
Chamber of Commerce and the State of Oklahoma; they are working
for themselves. They are trying to do exactly what they did in
1921 when Tulsa created this slogan called ``Tulsa Will.''
Now, they have a slogan that says, ``Tulsa Triumphed'' to
try to say, oh, Tulsa has triumphed over this bad history. The
fact is Tulsa, the city, triumphed over Greenwood. It was
Greenwood that was destroyed. It was Greenwood that was looted.
It is Greenwood that needs repair, not Tulsa.
Ms. Garcia. Thank you.
Mr. Chairn, I see my time has expired. I yield back.
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Ms. Garcia, for your statement and
your questions.
Ms. Bush, a freshman, but experienced and a very important
Member of this Committee from Missouri, is recognized.
Ms. Bush. St. Louis.
I thank you, Chair Cohen, for convening this hearing.
It is both an honor and a profoundly sobering privilege to
be sharing space with you, and to Mr. Van Ellis, to Mother
Fletcher, and Mother Randle, with them as well, I hope to be
able to actually meet them.
When I go home today--and this is to them--when I go home
today, I will call my 7-year-old nephew and tell him about my
day. I will tell him that I got to see and hear American heroes
today. I will tell him that I spoke to them in awe that they
lived, all those things that they talked about and how they
lived in a neighborhood much like his in St. Louis; that he
lives in a neighborhood with local schools just like they did
and favorite parks where he spends his holidays the same way
they do, and where he celebrates some of his life's most
precious moments, the same way that they did. Unlike in his
neighborhood in St. Louis, this vibrant, beautiful community in
Tulsa was burned down. Yet, Mother Fletcher, Mother Randle, and
Mr. Van Ellis are still here with us today, sharing their
storage of courage.
To my colleagues on this Committee, there is only one
reason why descendants of the Tulsa Massacre have not been
compensated. That reason is racism. It's anti-Black racism, to
be clear, and it has been stated a couple of times, and I want
to State it again. It's anti-Black racism. Racism is not just
slavery and Jim Crow. It is the daily violence that is enacted
on our communities each and every day we live in this White
supremacist society.
Racism is when a group of our elders come to our halls to
testify about the massacre they survived without any clear
commitment from our leaders as to the reparations they are
owed. That is outright racism, full stop.
What happened in Tulsa on the evening of May 31st and that
continued into the day of June 1st, 1921, was a failure of the
highest proportions. For 24 hours the community was under
attack, traumatized, brutalized, terrorized, and killed--for no
other reason than for being Black. It was the failure of our
government that helped enable the violent massacre. It was the
failure of our leaders--our leaders--for being complicit in
White supremacist violence. It was the failure of our country
for failing to protect its own citizens.
It is a failure only made possible because racism is alive
and well in this country. It was alive when a White mob burned
Tulsa to a crisp. It is alive now, as we debate the merits of
repairing harm. Underlying the generational trauma and
exploitation is a government that refused to even acknowledge
the humanity of our ancestors enslaved and terrorized under
White supremacy, a government that to this day refuses to
acknowledge or atone for its ongoing racism--ongoing and
ongoing racism.
So, let me ask, Ms. Goodwin, how has your family, if you
could just tell us briefly, how has your family's history been
affected by the Tulsa Massacre? Then, I have a question for Mr.
Crutcher. Ms. Goodwin, how has your family's history been
affected by the massacre? If you could name like three things
that like really stick out?
Ms. Goodwin. Well, one that sticks out is the generational
wealth that could have been, basically, accrued by now. There
was some $76,244 back in 1921. In today's dollars, that is some
$900,000, and perhaps $1.2 million.
Ms. Bush. My goodness.
Ms. Goodwin. So, if we just talk about the material loss,
that is what you would deal with. If you want to talk about the
scars and, as it has been said over and over again, the ongoing
trauma, we feel this every day because we live in this
community. As it has been said, we see a community that is
being gentrified. We see a community right now where this
massacre is being monetized by Greenwood Rising and all this
hoopla. The three folks that we could do right by, right now
they are still living.
Ms. Bush. Yes.
Ms. Goodwin. So, I say to you that we feel that. Okay?
Ms. Bush. Yes.
Ms. Goodwin. When you say three things, I could name 30
things.
Ms. Bush. Okay. I am running out of time but thank you.
Ms. Goodwin. Okay.
I am going to move to Ms. Crutcher. I only have a few
seconds left. Could you tell us, what does justice look like to
you in your community? Thank you for sharing what you shared
with us today. If you could say what justice is for Tulsa right
now, what is that?
Dr. Crutcher. Justice is simply restitution, repair, and
respect.
Ms. Bush. Thank you.
Dr. Crutcher. Those three words, that is what justice looks
like.
Ms. Bush. Thank you.
I want to end my remarks by talking directly to all the
Black people, the young people, who are listening to this
discussion today. Know that this country's legacy of racism is
still alive today. Our lives, our very existence, is a
testimony--it is a testament to our will and our strength. It
is a testament to our power as a people and how much has stood
in our way, in the way of our survival. Yet, we are still here.
We saw three people; they are still here. We are fighting for a
world that honors our dignity and our humanity, and know that
we will always do this work of liberation and justice for each
and every person until it is won.
Thank you. Thank you.
[Applause.]
Mr. Cohen. That concludes today's hearing, and I am going
to conclude it in a most unusual manner, in that I am going to
advertise a television show.
On May the 30th, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, a program
called ``Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre'' will be shown
on the History Channel. This is an important program for those
of you who have watched and those who haven't had the
opportunity to watch, to view.
Coincidentally, and just as a Wizards fan, it is produced
by Russell Westbrook. It will be history.
I have learned much today, and I have learned much over the
years, about the Tulsa Race Massacre, and we need to take
action and show that our country understands what Faulkner
said: ``The past is not the past. The past is never dead. We
are living now. The past is still with us.''
I want to thank all our Witnesses for appearing today.
Without objection, all Members will have five legislative
days to submit additional written questions for the Witnesses
or additional materials for the record.
With that, the hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:26 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
[all]