美利坚合众国总统公告
1921年塔尔萨种族屠杀100周年纪念日
白宫
华盛顿特区
2021年5月31日
100年前，一群白人至上主义暴徒向俄克拉荷马州塔尔萨（Tulsa, Oklahoma）繁荣的黑人社区格林伍德（Greenwood）发起攻击，投掷燃烧弹，将那里大约35个街区化为废墟。众多家庭和儿童遭到冷血屠杀。住宅、商家和教堂被付之一炬。共有多达300名美国黑人被杀害，将近1万人沦为赤贫，无家可归。今天，在塔尔萨种族屠杀（Tulsa Race Massacre）100周年的这个肃穆日子里，我吁请美国人民对种族恐怖在我们国家中的深刻根源进行反思，并重新坚定决心，为在全国根除系统性种族主义而努力。
在塔尔萨种族屠杀发生前，格林伍德已经发展成一个骄傲的经济和文化重镇，是一个富裕繁荣的黑人社区。社区中心的格林伍德大道（Greenwood Avenue）被称为黑色华尔街（Black Wall Street）。格林伍德一万名居民中的许多人是在南北战争（Civil War）以后逃离种族暴力的黑人佃农。
在南北战争结束和重建之后的几十年中，虽然制度性和公开的种族主义的痛苦继续存在，但是，格林伍德成为一个美国黑人能够开始新生活和获得经济发展的地方。越来越多的著名黑人创业者以及劳动阶层的黑人家庭在这里安家，共同致力于社会进取和经济机会。随着格林伍德的发展，格林伍德大道上成功的黑人商家鳞次栉比，包括餐馆、超市、酒店以及医生诊所、律师事务所和牙医诊所。格林伍德社区还有着自己的教育系统、邮局、储贷机构、医院和公交车及出租汽车服务。
虽然吉姆·克劳（Jim Crow）制度日渐兴起，三K党（Ku Klux Klan）重新抬头，但是，格林伍德的经济在繁荣发展，当地公民对平等权利的要求也更加高涨。这使格林伍德成为许多美国黑人的骄傲。但它也使这个社区和这里的居民成为白人至上主义者的攻击目标。在两天内，暴徒把历经十多年艰苦奋斗而成功打造的黑色华尔街夷为平地。
在随后数年中，法律和政策使这里几乎完全不可能从暴徒的破坏中恢复过来。攻击事件过后实行的地方条规，给新建筑制定的标准使造价无比昂贵，让许多黑人家庭无法重建。后来，格林伍德被按揭公司划为拒保区，联邦政府将其定为“危险”区，从而使黑人房产人无法得到房屋贷款或平等条件的信贷。在更后来的几十年里，联邦投资，包括联邦高速公路建设，将格林伍德的部分社区拆除和孤立起来。对格林伍德黑人家庭和黑人财富的攻击一代又一代地持续。
联邦政府必须对它在剥夺黑人社区的财富和机会中所扮演的角色给予反省和承认。拜登–哈里斯政府（Biden-Harris Administration）决心承认联邦政策在格林伍德和其他黑人社区中所起的作用，并解决长期以来的种族不平等，做法是，对儿童和家庭的经济保障作出历史性投资，在缺少经济资源的地区实施为小商企提供资本的项目，其中包括少数族裔拥有的商企，并确保基础设施项目增加机会，促进种族平等和环境正义，以及有助于提供经济可行的服务。
在一个世纪过后，人们仍然感受到格林伍德被摧毁所带来的恐惧和痛苦。正像107岁的塔尔萨种族屠杀幸存者维奥拉·弗莱彻（Viola Fletcher）最近勇敢地在国会作证时所说，“我永远不会忘记我们离开家时白人暴徒的暴力。我仍然看见黑人男子被枪杀，黑人尸体横在街头。我仍然闻得见浓烟，看得见烈火。我仍然看见黑人商店被焚烧。我仍然听见飞机从头顶飞过。我听见惊叫。我每一天都在经历那场屠杀。我们国家也许遗忘了这个历史，但是我无法忘记。”
据此公告，我向塔尔萨种族屠杀的幸存者——包括维奥拉·弗莱彻、休斯·范·埃利斯（Hughes Van Ellis）、莱西·本宁菲尔德·兰德（Lessie Benningfield Randle）、受害者的后代——和向这个国家作出保证，我们永远不会忘记。我们通过整个政府并通过努力从法律、政策和我们的心中根除系统性种族主义，重申我们对促进种族公正的承诺，以此缅怀格林伍德社区和黑色华尔街的历史。
为此，我，美利坚合众国总统约瑟夫·拜登（JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.），谨以宪法和法律赋予我的权力，特此宣布2021年5月31日为1921年塔尔萨种族屠杀100周年纪念日。我吁请美国人民对1921年那两天中造成的巨大生命和安全损失予以纪念，对那些幸存并努力重建生活的人的勇敢与坚韧给予赞美，并共同致力于根除系统性种族主义，帮助重建被它破坏的社区和生活。
我谨于公元2021年，即美利坚合众国独立第245年之5月31日，亲笔在此签名为证。
约瑟夫·拜登

A Proclamation on Day Of Remembrance: 100 Years After The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre
MAY 31, 2021•PRESIDENTIAL ACTIONS
One hundred years ago, a violent white supremacist mob raided, firebombed, and destroyed approximately 35 square blocks of the thriving Black neighborhood of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Families and children were murdered in cold blood. Homes, businesses, and churches were burned. In all, as many as 300 Black Americans were killed, and nearly 10,000 were left destitute and homeless. Today, on this solemn centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre, I call on the American people to reflect on the deep roots of racial terror in our Nation and recommit to the work of rooting out systemic racism across our country.
Before the Tulsa Race Massacre, Greenwood was a thriving Black community that had grown into a proud economic and cultural hub. At its center was Greenwood Avenue, commonly known as Black Wall Street. Many of Greenwood’s 10,000 residents were Black sharecroppers who fled racial violence after the Civil War.
In the decades following the Civil War and Reconstruction, Greenwood became a place where Black Americans were able to make a new start and secure economic progress despite the continued pain of institutional and overt racism. The community was home to a growing number of prominent Black entrepreneurs as well as working-class Black families who shared a commitment to social activism and economic opportunity. As Greenwood grew, Greenwood Avenue teemed with successful Black-owned businesses, including restaurants, grocery stores, hotels, and offices for doctors, lawyers, and dentists. The community also maintained its own school system, post office, a savings and loan institution, hospital, and bus and taxi service.
Despite rising Jim Crow systems and the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan, Greenwood’s economic prosperity grew, as did its citizens’ demands for equal rights. This made the community a source of pride for many Black Americans. It also made the neighborhood and its families a target of white supremacists. In 2 days, a violent mob tore down the hard-fought success of Black Wall Street that had taken more than a decade to build.
In the years that followed, the destruction caused by the mob was followed by laws and policies that made recovery nearly impossible. In the aftermath of the attack, local ordinances were passed requiring new construction standards that were prohibitively expensive, meaning many Black families could not rebuild. Later, Greenwood was redlined by mortgage companies and deemed “hazardous” by the Federal Government so that Black homeowners could not access home loans or credit on equal terms. And in later decades, Federal investment, including Federal highway construction, tore down and cut off parts of the community. The attack on Black families and Black wealth in Greenwood persisted across generations.
The Federal Government must reckon with and acknowledge the role that it has played in stripping wealth and opportunity from Black communities. The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to acknowledging the role Federal policy played in Greenwood and other Black communities and addressing longstanding racial inequities through historic investments in the economic security of children and families, programs to provide capital for small businesses in economically disadvantaged areas, including minority-owned businesses, and ensuring that infrastructure projects increase opportunity, advance racial equity and environmental justice, and promote affordable access.
A century later, the fear and pain from the devastation of Greenwood is still felt. As Viola Fletcher, a 107-year-old survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre courageously testified before the Congress recently, “I will never forget the violence of the white mob when we left our home. I still see Black men being shot, Black bodies lying in the street. I still smell smoke and see fire. I still see Black businesses being burned. I still hear airplanes flying overhead. I hear the screams. I have lived through the massacre every day. Our country may forget this history, but I cannot.”
With this proclamation, I commit to the survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre, including Viola Fletcher, Hughes Van Ellis, and Lessie Benningfield Randle, the descendants of victims, and to this Nation that we will never forget.  We honor the legacy of the Greenwood community, and of Black Wall Street, by reaffirming our commitment to advance racial justice through the whole of our government, and working to root out systemic racism from our laws, our policies, and our hearts.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 31, 2021, a Day of Remembrance: 100 Years After The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. I call upon the people of the United States to commemorate the tremendous loss of life and security that occurred over those 2 days in 1921, to celebrate the bravery and resilience of those who survived and sought to rebuild their lives again, and commit together to eradicate systemic racism and help to rebuild communities and lives that have been destroyed by it.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-fifth.
JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.