[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 55 (Wednesday, April 1, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E847-E848]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  INTRODUCTION OF THE ``JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN TULSA-GREENWOOD RACE RIOT 
                  CLAIMS ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2009''

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, April 1, 2009

  Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to introduce the ``John Hope 
Franklin Tulsa-Greenwood Race Riot Claims Accountability Act of 2009,'' 
along with Representative Nadler. This legislation will extend the 
statute of limitations to allow the survivors of the Tulsa-Greenwood 
Riot of 1921 to seek a determination on the merits of their civil 
rights and other claims against the perpetrators of the Riot in a court 
of law.
  This legislation is named in honor of the late Dr. John Hope 
Franklin, the noted historian, who was a first-hand witness to the 
destructive impact that the riot had on the African-American community 
of Tulsa. Dr. Franklin made numerous scholarly contributions to the 
understanding of the long term effects of the riot on the city and 
worked to keep the issue alive in history and on the minds of 
policymakers. On April 24, 2007, he served as a witness, testifying in 
favor of the legislation, and its passage would be a fitting tribute to 
his memory and to a community which has never received its fair day in 
court.
  The Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was one of the 
nation's most prosperous African-American communities entering the 
decade of the Nineteen Twenties. Serving over 8,000 residents, the 
community boasted two newspapers, over a dozen churches, and hundreds 
of African-American-owned businesses, with the commercial district 
known nationally as the ``Negro Wall Street.'' In May 1921, all that 
came to an end as 42 square blocks of the community were burned to the 
ground and up to 300 of its residents were killed by a racist mob. In 
the wake of the violence, the State and local governments quashed 
claims for redress and effectively erased the incident from official 
memory.
  The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot was one of the most destructive and costly 
attacks upon an American community in our nation's history. However, no 
convictions were obtained for the incidents of murder, arson or larceny 
connected with the riot, and none of the more than 100 
contemporaneously filed lawsuits by residents and property owners was 
successful in recovering damages from insurance companies to assist in 
the reconstruction of the community.
  The case of the Tulsa-Greenwood Riot victims is worthy of 
congressional attention because substantial evidence suggests that 
governmental officials deputized and armed the mob and that the 
National Guard joined in the destruction. The report commissioned by 
the Oklahoma State Legislature in 1997, and published in 2001, 
uncovered new information and detailed, for the first time, the extent 
of the involvement by the State and city government in prosecuting and 
erasing evidence of the riot. This new evidence was crucial for the 
formulation of a substantial case, but its timeliness raised issues at 
law, and resulted in a dismissal on statute of limitation grounds. In 
dismissing the survivor's claims, however, the Court found that 
extraordinary circumstances

[[Page E848]]

might support extending the statute of limitations, but that Congress 
did not establish rules applicable to the case at bar. With this 
legislation, we have the opportunity to provide closure for a group of 
claimants--all over 90 years old--and the ability close the book on a 
tragic chapter in history.
  Racism, and its violent manifestations, are part of nation's past 
that we cannot avoid. With the prosecution of historical civil rights 
claims, both civil and criminal, we encourage a process of truth and 
reconciliation which can heal historic wounds. In this case, the Court 
took ``no great comfort'' in finding that there was no legal avenue 
through which the plaintiffs could bring their claims. The ``Tulsa-
Greenwood Riot Accountability Act'' would simply give Tulsans and all 
Oklahomans, white and black, victims and non-victims, their day in 
court. Without that opportunity, we will all continue to be victims of 
our past.

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