[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 86 (Wednesday, May 22, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3024-S3026]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Tulsa Race Riot Anniversary

  Mr. President, I did want to tell a story, though. It is a little bit 
of a different story. It is about 9,000 people in Tulsa who were 
suddenly left homeless. It wasn't this week, and it wasn't a natural 
disaster. It was actually on June 1, 1921, when the worst race riot/
massacre happened in American history. That story is still one that 
this body needs to remember.
  I brought this up a few years ago, and I thought it may be time to 
bring it up again. The reason is that we are quickly approaching the 
100-year anniversary of a whole series of riots that happened around 
America in the summer of 1919.
  As the soldiers were coming back home from World War I, many of whom 
were African-American soldiers who had served with great dignity and 
honor there, they returned back home with skills that they had picked 
up overseas and with a tenacious patriotism and work ethic. They 
returned back to America to go back to work, but they were greeted by a 
lot of White business owners and a lot of White workers in the country 
who said: You may have served overseas and fought the war, but you are 
not welcome to work here. And White neighbors started setting homes and 
cities on fire.
  There were riots. There were protests. There was a national pushback 
that happened in the summer of 1919. Chicago and Washington, DC, were 
some of the worst. Oklahoma really survived it well.
  Interestingly enough, in Oklahoma, we have 30 towns that were 
considered Black towns, scattered all across the State. The first folks 
who actually came to Oklahoma who were African American actually came 
with the five Tribes when they were relocated. They were brought by the 
five Tribes who had held them as slaves. When they moved from the 
southeastern part of the country, and they moved to Eastern Oklahoma 
and were relocated there in that tragic walk, they brought their slaves 
with them.
  In the land rush after 1889 and then years later as we became a 
State, land started opening up and individuals and families who were 
African Americans moved from all over the country coming for new hope 
and opportunity. There were 30 different towns that sprung up all over 
Oklahoma that were predominantly African-American towns. One of those 
was Greenwood.
  At that time, it was affectionately known as ``Black Wall Street.'' 
It was one of the most prosperous African-American communities in the 
entire country. It was right on the north end of Tulsa.
  Although, when they left from Greenwood and came into Tulsa to work, 
to shop, or whatever it may be, they were limited. In Greenwood, there 
were shops, stores, movie theaters, lawyers, doctors, and all kinds of 
activities. Everything was there. But if they walked a few blocks from 
Greenwood into Tulsa, they found themselves not being welcomed.
  In fact, in downtown Tulsa, there was only one place where a Black 
man could actually go to the bathroom--one. It was in that building 
that a gentleman named Dick Rowland took the elevator up to go to the 
bathroom. On the elevator, there was a White girl there named Sarah 
Page.
  We have no idea what happened in that elevator, but when the elevator 
door opened, she screamed, and a crowd quickly grabbed Dick Rowland and 
pulled him off, accusing him of all kinds of things, and hauled him off 
to jail in downtown Tulsa, where, within a few hours, a lynch mob 
gathered around that jail.

[[Page S3025]]

  To their credit, law enforcement in Tulsa went out to the streets and 
said: You all go home. But they did not. The mob stayed there.
  Soldiers who had served faithfully in World War I, who were African 
Americans, who lived in Greenwood, picked up their rifles and gathered 
together to go in and support law enforcement who was at the jail in 
downtown Tulsa to protect Dick Rowland.
  As they marched down to go help, the law enforcement there apparently 
said: You all leave as well. We have got this handled.
  But as they left, there was a scuffle in the street, and a shot was 
fired. We have no idea how it happened or which happened first. The 
news never reported that. But we know that those groups of African-
American men left and ran back to Greenwood, and the mob followed them. 
They marched their way to Greenwood, and they burned it down, 
destroying Greenwood and wiping out that city.
  That night, all night long--May 31 into June 1--America experienced 
one of its darkest moments. There were 1,200 homes destroyed that night 
in Greenwood. There were 9,000 people who were left homeless. There 
were 6,000 African Americans who were rounded up by the police in Tulsa 
and jailed ``for their protection.'' They were the ones who were held, 
not the rioters who actually caused the massacre.
  The numbers are all over the place of how many people actually died 
that night. There are numbers as small as 35 and as large as 300. We 
will never know. But let's just say there were many--very likely, 
hundreds of people--who died that night. One-third of the people were 
gone, and we have no idea what direction they went. One-third of the 
people packed up and moved and left, and one-third of the folks stayed. 
But interestingly enough, that Sunday, after the fire, after the riots, 
after the destruction and after Greenwood was left leveled, folks from 
Greenwood gathered that Sunday for worship.
  Dr. Olivia Hooker passed away just this last November. She was one of 
the last survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre. In an interview shortly 
before she passed away, she told the story of hearing the men with axes 
destroy her sister's piano during the riot. With her three siblings, 
she hid under a table as her home was literally destroyed around her.
  You would think that devastation would be the end of her story. It 
was not. In World War II, she became the first African American to join 
the Coast Guard. She earned degrees from two universities and ended up 
being a professor at Fordham University. That is tenacious resilience.
  She reminds me of my modern-day friend Donna Jackson. In 2013, Donna 
Jackson determined that North Tulsa in Greenwood was known for its 
entrepreneurship. That is why it got the name ``Black Wall Street.'' In 
2013, she determined that she was going to challenge 100 new businesses 
to start in Greenwood, to bring life back to that area again with 
business and entrepreneurship. For its 100th anniversary, there would 
be 100 new businesses.
  Donna lives and breathes Greenwood. She was born in Morton Memorial. 
She goes to church in North Tulsa, she works in North Tulsa, and she 
believes in North Tulsa's future, as do I. She is going to make her 
goal of 100 new businesses there. She is doing the work to help 
introduce people to North Tulsa and to be engaged. There are companies 
that are from outside the area that are coming in, such as the new QT 
that just opened there. There are lots of individual businesses that 
continue to start and thrive again in North Tulsa.
  North Tulsa is a place where we should practice basic reconciliation, 
where America should stop and look again and say ``What can be done, 
and what have we done?'' and fix it.
  Josh Jacobs was born in North Tulsa in 1998 and graduated from high 
school in North Tulsa. He ended up making a very bad decision. He left 
North Tulsa to go play football for the University of Alabama--clearly 
a terrible decision. Josh ended up being drafted 24th overall by the 
Oakland Raiders last year. He is a tremendous, shining example of 
somebody who grew up in North Tulsa and is representing us well.
  His dad made an interesting statement. He said that as Josh was 
growing up, he was a great athlete. He could have traveled anywhere in 
the area to play football in high school. He chose to stay there on the 
north side. He said: ``This is the north side. Why not build up our 
side of town? Why take off and leave?''
  You would be pleased to know that Josh has on his own Twitter account 
``2 Peter 3:9.'' That is what is pinned at the top.

       The Lord is not slow in doing what he promised, the way 
     some people understand slowness. But God is being patient 
     with you. He does not want anyone to be lost, but he wants 
     all people to change their hearts and their lives.

  That is a pretty good message, Josh.
  I believe we are still a nation of reconciliation. The first step in 
reconciliation is not forgetting who we were and who we have been as a 
nation and to make sure we take the steps necessary to resolve broken 
relationships.
  There is not a law we can pass in this body that will solve the race 
issue. There are ways we can protect and make sure every person has 
every opportunity, whether it be in housing, employment, or whatever it 
may be. Race is not a political issue; race is a heart issue. The 
primary issue with race begins in your own heart and in your own 
family.
  Several years ago, I started asking a very simple question of folks 
in Oklahoma. I asked that same question of people here. ``Has your 
family ever invited a family of another race to your home for dinner?'' 
Interestingly enough, the response I get back from most people when I 
ask that is, they will smile at me and say ``I have friends of another 
race,'' to which I will smile at them and say ``That is not what I 
asked. I asked, has your family ever invited a family of another race 
to your home for dinner?''
  Being able to have real dialogue so that your kids can sit with kids 
of another race and can watch you interact as a parent with people from 
another race and see that it is normal conversation--our kids believe 
only what they see, and if they never see someone from another race in 
our home, they just assume we don't have friends of another race.
  I like to say we will never get all the issues about race on the 
table until we get our feet under the same table and start talking this 
out as friends. Reconciliation is not something we can legislate; 
reconciliation is something we do, it is who we are, and it comes about 
by action.
  Next week, folks will gather in Tulsa, OK, again to recognize that 98 
years ago, the city was on fire, and most of the White community looked 
away while Greenwood burned to the ground. Two years from now, the 
entire country will probably pause for 24 hours and will look at Tulsa 
and will ask a simple question: What has changed in 100 years? It is a 
fair question. I think Tulsa will stand up and say: We will not just 
show you the structures that it changed, but we will show you the 
hearts that it changed.
  Tulsa is a very different community now. We still have a ways to go, 
as does the rest of the State, but we are making tremendous progress. 
While much of the world ignores race and chooses never to deal with 
race, we as Americans embrace each other and say: What do we have to do 
to restore what is broken and to make sure we see each other as friends 
and neighbors again? We are doing it differently, and that is a great 
benefit to us.
  Mount Zion Baptist Church was founded in 1909 by Rev. Sandy Lyons. It 
was originally just a one-room schoolhouse. In 1916, the church began a 
$92,000 endeavor, which I can assure you was a lot of money in 1916. 
They took out a $50,000 loan to build a new church. Construction was 
completed in early 1921. On April 4, 1921, they held their first 
service, and on June 1 of that same year, a riot burned it to the 
ground. Worse yet, the White insurance company refused to pay their 
insurance, saying it was their fault that the riot happened.
  That congregation could have been bitter; instead, they stayed put, 
and they rebuilt that church. They first paid off the mortgage for what 
had been burned to the ground, and then they rebuilt the church in that 
same location.
  Vernon AME Church still stands in the same spot. The only thing left 
of that building was the basement, but

[[Page S3026]]

they rebuilt, by 1928, right on that same spot.
  Dr. Turner there is a friend and is a pastor there. He made this 
statement:

       I'm humbled every day to walk through a place that has seen 
     so much terror but has also been a vessel of hope for so many 
     people. After the massacre, people who lost their homes and 
     their belongings still went to church on Sunday morning.

  Believing in a God of reconciliation, whom I still believe in today, 
let's continue to get better, but let's not forget where we came from 
so it never ever happens again.
  As we think about the summer of 1919, when the Nation was on fire 
from so many riots around the country, let's continue to finish what 
has begun in our hearts until that is complete.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.