[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 36 (Thursday, February 25, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S881-S882]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Remembering Maxine Horner

  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, in 1932, 11 years after the Tulsa Race 
Massacre, Maxine Horner was born in Tulsa, OK. She was Maxine Cissel at 
the time. She grew up in segregated Greenwood, a district recovering 
from the devastating effects of the massacre, just a little over a 
decade before.
  Her parents were exceptionally protective and instructed Maxine and 
her siblings not to go into certain stores in

[[Page S882]]

downtown Tulsa, knowing their children wouldn't be welcome. They didn't 
want their children to experience the pain and humiliation of being 
told to leave a store or to not sit at that end of the counter.
  Her mother once told her, though:

       Never let the color of your skin get in the way of 
     achieving your goals. If you put your mind to it, you can do 
     anything and be anyone.

  Maxine was part of the first class to graduate from Booker T. 
Washington High School, which, at the time, was an all-Black school. 
She was proud of the education she received at Booker T. and spent 2 
years studying at Wiley College before returning back to Tulsa.
  She got a job working for Congressman James Jones, an opportunity 
that sparked some political ambitions in her. In her fifties, she 
returned back to school and received a bachelor's degree from Langston 
University in 1985. Despite being decades older than her fellow 
classmates and occasionally being mistaken to be the professor in her 
class rather than one of the other students, she finished her 
education.
  In 1986, she ran for the Oklahoma State Senate and became one of two 
women to be elected for the first time into the Oklahoma State Senate 
as an African American.
  Maxine was a true trailblazer. She worked hard for her constituents, 
and she championed education and the arts.
  Her life was full of some poetic justice, quite frankly. She grew up 
in the Greenwood District in the wake of the Tulsa Race Massacre, but 
in the late 1990s, she sponsored the State legislation that created the 
Tulsa Race Riot Commission. She also cofounded the Greenwood Cultural 
Center. After she left office, she continued to fight for the victims 
of the massacre and chaired the committee overseeing the search for the 
burial sites--work that is still going on today.
  As a young teen, she recalls going into the Tulsa Union Depot and 
seeing drinking fountains labeled ``Colored'' and ``White.'' But as a 
State senator, she sponsored the legislation that created the Oklahoma 
Jazz Hall of Fame, which now occupies the old Tulsa Union Depot 
building, where they don't have drinking fountains labeled ``Black'' or 
``Colored'' and ``White.''
  As a student, she attended segregated schools. As a Senator, she 
championed the Oklahoma Higher Learning Access Program or what we now 
call Oklahoma's Promise--a scholarship program for low and middle-
income students in Oklahoma. Oklahoma's Promise helped over 75,000 
young Oklahomans pursue higher education. She left quite a legacy.
  Two weeks ago, on February 8, Oklahoma lost this transformational 
giant. Maxine Horner passed away at the age of 88, and she will be 
certainly missed by her families, and she will be missed by Oklahoma