[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 91 (Tuesday, May 25, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3410-S3413]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   RECOGNIZING THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1921 TULSA RACE MASSACRE

  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 234, submitted earlier today.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The clerk will report the resolution by title.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 234) recognizing the 100th 
     Anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I know of no further debate on the 
resolution.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there further debate?
  Hearing none, the question is on adoption of the resolution.
  The resolution (S. Res. 234) was agreed to.
  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
preamble be agreed to and the motions to reconsider be considered made 
and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  (The resolution, with its preamble, is printed in today's Record 
under ``Submitted Resolutions.'')

[[Page S3411]]

  

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, next week is a summer anniversary, 100 
years since the Tulsa massacre. Before 1921, Greenwood District, also 
known as Black Wall Street, was a vibrant, thriving, prosperous Black 
community. But then, on the evening of May 31 into the early morning of 
June 1, 1921, there was a horrific massacre where hundreds of Black 
Tulsans were murdered and thousands were made homeless overnight. It 
was awful.
  But as terrible as it was, that is why it is important to come 
together to honor the victims and their families and share their 
stories today with future generations. I am honored to cosponsor 
Senator Lankford's resolution today to remember this anniversary.
  Together, we can all work to lift up the story of Black Wall Street 
and use this anniversary to remember, reflect, and work, as we do every 
day, toward reconciliation.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, Senator Inhofe and I and this body have 
just passed by voice vote a resolution recognizing the 100th 
anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. It is a significant 
resolution not only to be able to recall what happened in that terrible 
time in 1921 but to also recognize the 13 Black towns that still remain 
in Oklahoma.
  It is an interesting history that we have in Oklahoma, and I 
encourage folks to be able to find out more about us as a State. From 
the late 1800s to the early 1900s, Black individuals and families from 
all over the South were fleeing away from where they were being 
oppressed, and they were coming to Oklahoma, setting up vibrant 
communities. Over 50 all-Black towns rose up in Oklahoma.
  In fact, there was some dialogue in the early 1900s about possibly 
having Oklahoma be an all-Black State even. These Black communities 
were rising up around our State looking for opportunities, freedom, and 
a chance for a better life. Thirteen of those fifty towns still remain 
today as communities. Many of the individuals in these towns are 
friends and people whom I know and Senator Inhofe and I have the honor 
of being able to represent in this great body.
  I think about Dr. Donnie Nero, Sr. He is the President of the African 
American Educators Hall of Fame. He is the one who helped found and 
pull this all together. He has an attitude in wonderful Clearview, OK, 
and he says: ``One of the greatest motivational concepts accessible to 
mankind is `Recognition.''' He says recognition is about remembrance 
and acknowledgment.
  We are taking a moment as a Senate today to be able to acknowledge 
these 13 Black towns that still remain in Oklahoma and to be able to 
look at some of the history of what happened during that time period. 
So let me walk through this somewhat.
  Tullahassee was founded in 1883. It is regarded as one of the oldest 
surviving historically Black towns in Indian Territory.
  Langston, founded in 1890, and was named after John Mercer Langston, 
an African-American educator and U.S. Representative from Virginia. 
Seven years later, the Oklahoma Territorial Legislature established the 
Colored Agricultural and Normal University, which would later be called 
Langston University. This historically Black college and university has 
grown from 41 students in 1897 to over 3,000 students today. Prominent 
Oklahomans such as Melvin Tolson, Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher, Clara Luper, 
E. Melvin Porter, Frederick Moon, Marques Haynes, Zelia Breaux, Isaac 
W. Young, Inman Page, and Zella Black Patterson all resided in the town 
of Langston or called Langston University home.
  Tatums was founded in 1895. It was named after brothers Lee B. Tatum 
and Eldridge ``Doc'' Tatum. They found prosperity in 1929 when oil 
wells were drilled in Tatum. Norman Studios even filmed a silent movie 
called ``Black Gold,'' using the brothers in their film
  Taft was founded in 1902 on land allotted to Creek Freedman. They 
changed their name from Twine, which they were originally, to Taft to 
honor the then Secretary of War and later President William Howard 
Taft.
  Grayson was bustling with five general stores, two blacksmiths, two 
drug stores, a cotton gin and a physician shortly after it was founded 
in 1902. It was originally known as Wildcat. It was changed in 1909 to 
honor the Creek chief, George W. Grayson.
  Boley was a town established in 1903 and named after J.B. Boley, a 
railroad official of the Fort Smith and Western Railway, and grew to be 
the largest African-American town in Oklahoma. Only 5 years after being 
founded, Booker T. Washington visited the town and wrote about the 
prosperity that he had witnessed. Boasting the first Black-owned bank, 
the First National Bank of Boley was owned by D.J. Turner. It received 
a national charter and rose to be one of the largest and wealthiest 
exclusively Black communities. Today, Boley still hosts the Nation's 
oldest annual Black rodeo.
  Rentiesville, founded in 1903, was developed on 40 acres owned by 
William Rentie and Phoebe McIntosh. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas 
Railway developed a flag stop, putting Rentiesville on the map. John 
Hope Franklin, a scholar of African-American history who promoted 
dialogue that reshaped American views on race relations, was born in 
Rentiesville in 1915. The Franklins later moved to Tulsa, where John 
Hope Franklin graduated from Booker T. Washington. He survived the 1921 
Tulsa Race Massacre, and he went on to become one of the most decorated 
historians. He inspired the John Hope Franklin Center for 
Reconciliation, Reconciliation Park in Tulsa, and an elementary school 
in North Tulsa. Rentiesville continues to host the Dusk Til' Dawn Blues 
Festival that attracts blues artists and all the folks who come in.
  Clearview, a town I have already mentioned, was founded in 1903 along 
the tracks of the Fort Smith and Western Railroad, was widely known for 
its baseball team, but it is widely known now for the Hall of Fame for 
Black Educators. It is a place that I would encourage people to be able 
to stop in and to be able to see. And it is an annual tradition where 
individuals from around the State ride in to be able to recognize Black 
educators to be recognized that year in the Hall of Fame ceremony led 
by Dr. Nero, Sr.
  Brooksville, founded in 1903, originally named Sewell, was renamed in 
1912 in honor of the first African American in the area, A.R. Brooks.
  Red Bird, founded in 1907 along the Missouri, Kansas and Texas 
Railroad, was built on the land allotted by the Creek Nation. E.L. 
Barber was one of the town's original developers and the first justice 
of the peace and an early mayor. Before Red Bird officially became a 
town, Barber organized the First Baptist Church in 1889, which grew to 
be the largest church in Red Bird.
  Summit was founded in 1910 along the Missouri, Kansas and Texas 
Railway.
  Vernon was founded in 1911 on Tankard Ranch in the Creek Nation and 
was home to many trailblazers such as Ella Woods, who was the first 
Postmaster, and Louise Wesley, who established the first school and 
church.
  Lima, founded in 1913 along the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific 
Railroad. The Mount Zion Methodist Church was built in 1915 and still 
stands to this day.
  And, of course, the most famous and prosperous of all of the Black 
communities was Greenwood. Greenwood District became a thriving 
community where Black business owners, schools, and churches 
flourished. By the late 1910s, it was the wealthiest Black community in 
all of the United States. The community earned the name ``Black Wall 
Street'' from the famed African-American author and educator I already 
spoke of, Booker T. Washington.
  The history of these historically Black towns is interwoven into the 
history of Oklahoma and the history of the United States. The residents 
of these towns have achieved great success and faced tremendous 
challenges. The stories of these Black towns and communities in 
Oklahoma are also inextricably linked to the events of May 30 through 
June 1 of 1921, when the Greenwood District in North Tulsa burst into 
flames.
  An important part of history is learning from the past. It is not 
looking at an incident in isolation. It is what came before and after. 
This weekend, the Nation will pause and reflect on the 100th 
anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, the worst race

[[Page S3412]]

massacre in the history of the United States.
  But we can't look at Greenwood as if it was a single weekend. It was 
a prosperous, thriving Black community. And it still has a history to 
be able to share in our future.
  Maybe you have heard me share the story on the floor of the Senate 
before. In the past several years, I talked about the race massacre, 
here in committee meetings and in conversations around this body. There 
is a significance of the 100th anniversary, not just for Tulsa and my 
State, but for the rest of the Nation as well. So let me recount this 
again
  On May 30, 1921, a young Black man named Dick Rowland was in downtown 
Tulsa. He entered the Drexel Building to use the only bathroom in the 
area that was available for Black people to be able to use in downtown 
Tulsa.
  An incident occurred in the elevator between Dick Rowland and Sarah 
Paige, and Sarah Paige screamed. We really don't know what happened 
there, but as the doors opened, she screamed. The police did an 
investigation and the next day they went to Dick Rowland and they 
detained him at the Tulsa Police Department for questioning before 
removing him to the Tulsa Courthouse to be able to be confined.
  On May 31, 1921, the Tulsa Tribune released a sensationalist story 
claiming that a young Black man had attacked a White girl in an 
elevator in the Drexel Building. That story and long, simmering 
tensions in the city led to a large group of White individuals 
surrounding the courthouse to demand that Dick Rowland be released so 
he could be lynched.
  A group of Black men traveled to the courthouse to help defend Dick 
Rowland from the angry mob, many of them veterans from World War I who 
had served honorably there.
  After a scuffle at the downtown Tulsa courthouse, White rioters 
pursued the men back to the Greenwood District and the violence 
escalated dramatically. Literally, as the violence increased, the White 
rioters that really became a mob were deputized to be able to handle 
the issues in Greenwood. They gathered firearms as they ran the few 
blocks from central downtown Tulsa into Greenwood just north of Tulsa.
  Houses and businesses were burned and looted throughout the Greenwood 
District, and the attacks lasted well into the night and well into the 
next day before being quelled by the Oklahoma City National Guard. In 
less than 24 hours, 35 city blocks were destroyed by fires, 6,000 
African American individuals were detained, and up to 300 lives were 
lost.
  Out of the 23 churches that were located in the Greenwood area prior 
to the 1921 massacre, only 13 of the churches survived and only three 
churches were able to be rebuilt after being destroyed--Paradise 
Baptist Church, Mount Zion Baptist Church, and Vernon AME Church.
  It was a horrific day, and 100 years later, the residents and 
businesses in the Greenwood District still carry on the legacy of 
resilience and determination.
  For the past few years, I have been working to tell this story. For 
some--even some Oklahomans--it is a story that they had not heard 
before. Five years ago, I started telling the story in Washington, DC, 
and when I told it, hardly anyone knew about it. Now everyone I speak 
to is familiar with the story.
  We have pulled this story out of the dark ages of history and lifted 
it up for our Nation to be able to see and our Nation is looking at it. 
In Oklahoma, many people now know about that terrible 2-day period when 
rioters set a community on fire and set our Nation back. But I also 
tell people that you can't understand Tulsa and Oklahoma unless you 
understand May 31 and June 1 of 1921.
  So I worked to develop a curriculum to ensure future generations of 
Oklahomans learn the accurate historic events of 1921. Before we 
started working on the curriculum, our schools had a mandate to teach 
the 1921 massacre. But there were no materials to actually use to teach 
that accurate history. There were no visuals. There was no curriculum. 
Now there are. We pulled all those together and made that resource free 
to every educator in Oklahoma and every educator in America that wants 
to be able to teach that history accurately.
  During this same time period, 5 or 6 years ago, I started working on 
something I called Solution Sundays, because when I started speaking 
about 6 years ago now to individuals all around Tulsa and around the 
State about the Tulsa Race Massacre, I usually started the conversation 
the same way: May 31 and June 1 of 2021, I would say, about 6 years 
ago, the entire country is going to pause. I don't know how long. They 
may pause for a minute. They may pause for an hour. They may pause for 
a day or for a weekend.
  But the entire country will pause and will look at Tulsa and look at 
Oklahoma and will ask themselves one question: What has changed in 
America in race relations in the last 100 years? I said 6 years ago, 
that is a fair question for someone to ask; we had better be able to 
answer it when May 31 of 2021 comes.
  Little did I know 6 years ago, when I started asking that question 
and continued to ask that question when it was 5 years, 4 years, 3 
years, 2 years, and the next year--little did I know--about the events 
dealing with race that would happen in the last 12 months and the 
awakening that in the Nation really has happened to what is still left 
undone in the issue of race in America.
  I started something about 6 years ago. At this same time, I started 
asking about what would we say. I started challenging families with 
something I called Solution Sundays. It is a simple idea, quite 
frankly. I would just ask people that I would encounter, of all races, 
of all backgrounds, a simple question: Has your family ever invited a 
family of another race to your home for dinner?
  I thought it was simple until, when I would ask people, I would get 
the same answer back. I would ask people: Has your family ever invited 
a family of another race to your home for dinner?
  And the most common answer I got back was: I have friends of another 
race.
  To which I would always smile 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?
  And what I found in my State was that most individuals of every race 
all answered it the same way: That has never happened in my house.
  So I would ask them a simple question. A national conversation about 
race is not something that happens on TV. A national conversation on 
race happens at our dinner tables with our families.
  We should not expect that the Nation will speak on race when our 
families are not. And the best way for our families and to show our 
kids that this is normal conversation is to have a family over of 
another race to sit around the table.
  What I like to say to people is, we will never get all the issues of 
race on the table until we get our feet under the same table and just 
talk and just get to know each other as friends. The Nation will not 
shift on race relations until each of our families shifts on race 
relations.
  I continue to be able to challenge this simple concept of Solution 
Sundays. By the way, if you want to pick a different day, that is fine 
with me. But Sunday seems to be a pretty good day just to invite 
someone over for dinner or for lunch.
  In just a few days, people from all over the country will fly into 
Tulsa, some of them for the first time. They are going to participate 
in events to commemorate the hundredth anniversary. It is my hope that 
what they see will be a model of reconciliation for the rest of the 
country. But after the anniversary passes and the crowds leave and the 
national folks will go on to doing something else, we will still be 
around. Tulsa and all of Oklahoma will still need to finish the work 
that has begun on race.
  I will still be around North Tulsa. I have lots of friends there. And 
I know there will be an ongoing dialogue, still, about reconciliation 
because the big event that the whole world turns the television cameras 
on for doesn't solve the issues of race. We solve that as individuals 
and as a family.
  You see, I believe, like many do, that I have a calling toward 
reconciliation. As a follower of Jesus, as I read

[[Page S3413]]

through the New Testament, I bump into passages like Second 
Corinthians, chapter 5, where Paul wrote to us and said we have the 
ministry and the message of reconciliation.
  Now, I understand that Paul first meant that was an ability to be 
able to come to God and be reconciled to God. And I do believe firmly 
that every individual can be reconciled with God, and I am glad to 
share that message of ministry. But I also believe it is a challenge to 
each of us to work toward reconciliation. Where relationships are 
broken, we are the reconcilers, and we have a ministry and a message of 
reconciliation.
  My friend Robert Turner is the pastor of Vernon A.M.E. Church, in the 
heart of Greenwood. He and I were visiting last week on the phone, 
talking through the things coming up in the days ahead. As I was 
chitchatting with my friend, he said: I have to tell you about my 
sermon that I preached a couple of weeks ago.
  So I said: Tell me all about it.
  Pastor Turner said: I preached on Matthew, the tax collector, also 
called Levi.
  And we spent some time talking about that.
  And he said: What I told my congregation was that Jesus called 
Matthew, the tax collector, to be one of his disciples, but he also 
called Simon the Zealot to be one of his disciples.
  Now, you may not know, but the tax collectors were loyal to the 
Romans. They were Jews who were loyal to the Roman authority, and the 
zealots were Jews who were adamantly opposed to the Roman authority. 
So, literally, Jesus grabbed two people from opposite political 
perspectives--opposite, if I can say it, political parties--and he 
grabbed both of them and said: I want you to be my disciple.
  And Pastor Turner said: There is a lot that we can learn from Jesus, 
beginning with what Jesus said: Everyone is welcome, from every 
political perspective, to come and follow Him.
  Pastor Turner, you are spot on. My friend, keep preaching it. But 
excuse me for noticing, Jesus is the one who set the example, and he 
called all of us to be able to follow it.
  Now, I have to tell you, Pastor Turner and I don't agree on 
everything. We may not even vote alike, though, honestly, I have never 
asked him how he votes. But he is my friend, and he is my partner of 
reconciliation.
  For 6 years, I have asked people across Oklahoma, when May the 31st 
comes and the Nation stops and asks, ``What has changed in the last 100 
years?'' We should be prepared to answer. That weekend is here, and 
each of us should be able to answer that for our lives and for our 
families.
  Let's finish the work. We are not done on racial reconciliation. 
Let's finish the work, starting with our own families, our own 
communities, and our own lives.
  God help us to carry on the ministry and the message of 
reconciliation
  With that, I yield the floor.

                          ____________________