[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 87 (Wednesday, May 19, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E553]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





              THE TRAGEDY OF THE TULSA GREENWOOD MASSACRE

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                       HON. BONNIE WATSON COLEMAN

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, May 17, 2021

  Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 
100th Commemoration of the Tulsa-Greenwood Race Massacre, where on May 
31-June 1, 1921, a white mob of thousands of people shot and murdered 
Black residents of America's ``Black Wall Street'' in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 
looted their homes and businesses, and burned more than a thousand 
homes, churches, schools, and businesses. The horrific events of this 
deadly attack were the result of a series of failures of leadership 
that ultimately fostered race-based violence, discrimination, and 
oppression.
  This was a failure of law enforcement to protect Tulsa's Black 
residents and maintain civil order. A failure of the judicial system, 
as many of the residents who fled the Massacre were detained in 
internment camps immediately following the Massacre and a grand jury 
placed the blame entirely on the Black community and indicted 85 
people--mostly African Americans--with Massacre-related offenses. A 
failure of our American promises of the unalienable rights of life, 
liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Justice was not served. No White 
person was ever held individually accountable for crimes committed 
during the Massacre, and the vast majority of survivors and their 
descendants were never directly compensated for these harms.
  The attack on the thriving Black community continued on throughout 
the years and is evident even in today's society; as the community 
sustained millions of dollars of property damage and many Black 
survivors of the Tulsa massacre and their descendants have not been 
able to recoup the wealth that had been stolen or destroyed during the 
Massacre. And still today, despite calls for justice and 
accountability, our government leaders continue to fail the victims of 
the Tulsa-Greenwood Massacre and their descendants by refusing action 
to right the wrongs that were perpetrated on innocent community members 
100 years ago. Over the decades, local ordinances to prevent 
rebuilding, redlining, and so-called ``urban renewal'' policies have 
prevented Black Tulsans from rebuilding a thriving community. 
Expressways, funded by the federal government, literally cut through 
areas of Greenwood, displacing Black families and businesses.
  Madam Speaker, though we are 100 years past the heinous Tulsa-
Greenwood Massacre, Black Americans are unfortunately not far removed 
from the continued injustice of systemic racism and oppressive tactics 
that block upward mobility out of poverty and suppress opportunities to 
create and maintain generational wealth. As we take time to recall the 
injustice of this Massacre and continue the call for justice for the 
descendants, let us also reflect on the continued efforts of injustice 
that plague minority communities today. We need accountability, we need 
economic justice, and we need criminal justice reform. We cannot 
continue to delay justice and equality. The time for change is now.

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