III 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. RES. 647 

Recognizing the forthcoming centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 2, 2020 

Ms. WARREN (for herself, Ms. BALDWIN, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. BOOKER, 

Mr. BROWN, Mr. CASEY, Mr. COONS, Ms. DUCKWORTH, Mr. DURBIN, 

Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mrs. GILLIBRAND, Ms. HARRIS, Mr. KAINE, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mrs. MURRAY, Mr. SANDERS, 

Ms. SMITH, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Mr. WARNER, and Mr. WHITEHOUSE) 

submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 

on the Judiciary 

RESOLUTION 

Recognizing the forthcoming centennial of the 1921 Tulsa 

Race Massacre. 

Whereas, in the early 20th century, de jure segregation confined Tulsa’s Black residents into the ‘‘Greenwood District’’, which they built into a thriving community with 

a nationally renowned entrepreneurial center known as 

the ‘‘Black Wall Street’’; 

Whereas, at the time, White supremacy and racist violence 

were common throughout the United States and went 

largely unchecked by the justice system; 

Whereas reports of an alleged and disputed incident on the 

morning of May 30, 1921, between two teenagers, a 


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•SRES 647 IS 

Black man and a White woman, caused the White community of Tulsa, including the Tulsa Tribune, to call for 

a lynching amidst a climate of White racial hostility and 

White resentment over Black economic success; 

Whereas, on May 31, 1921, a mob of armed White men descended upon Tulsa’s Greenwood District and launched 

what is now known as the ‘‘Tulsa Race Massacre’’; 

Whereas Tulsa municipal and county authorities failed to 

take actions to calm or contain the violence, and civil and 

law enforcement officials deputized many White men who 

were participants in the violence as their agents, directly 

contributing to the violence through overt and often illegal acts; 

Whereas, over a period of 24 hours, the White mob’s violence 

led to the death of an estimated 300 Black residents, as 

well as over 800 reports of injuries; 

Whereas the White mob looted, damaged, burned, or otherwise destroyed approximately 40 square blocks of the 

Greenwood district, including an estimated 1,256 homes 

of Black residents, as well as virtually every other structure, including churches, schools, businesses, a hospital, 

and a library, leaving nearly 9,000 Black Tulsans homeless and effectively wiping out tens of millions of dollars 

in Black prosperity and wealth in Tulsa; 

Whereas, in the wake of the Tulsa Race Massacre, the Governor of Oklahoma declared martial law, and units of the 

Oklahoma National Guard participated in the mass arrests of all or nearly all of Greenwood’s surviving residents, removing them from Greenwood to other parts of 

Tulsa and unlawfully detaining them in holding centers; 


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Whereas Oklahoma local and State governments dismissed 

claims arising from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre for 

decades, and the event was effectively erased from collective memory and history until, in 1997, the Oklahoma 

State Legislature finally created a commission to study 

the event; 

Whereas on February 28, 2001, the commission issued a report that detailed, for the first time, the extent of the 

Massacre and decades-long efforts to suppress its recollection; 

Whereas none of the law enforcement officials nor any of the 

hundreds of other White mob members who participated 

in the violence were ever prosecuted or held accountable 

for the hundreds of lives lost and tens of millions of dollars of Black wealth destroyed, despite the Tulsa Race 

Massacre Commission confirming their roles in the Massacre, nor was any compensation ever provided to the 

Massacre’s victims or their descendants; 

Whereas government and city officials not only abdicated 

their responsibility to rebuild and repair the Greenwood 

community in the wake of the violence, but actively 

blocked efforts to do so, contributing to continued racial 

disparities in Tulsa akin to those that Black people face 

across the United States; 

Whereas the pattern of violence against Black people in the 

United States, often at the hands of law enforcement, 

shows that the fight to end State-sanctioned violence 

against Black people continues; and 

Whereas the year 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the 

Tulsa Race Massacre: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 


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1 (1) recognizes the forthcoming centennial of the 

2 Tulsa Race Massacre; 

3 (2) acknowledges the historical significance of 

4 this event as one of the largest single instances of 

5 State-sanctioned violence against Black people in 

6 American history; 

7 (3) honors the lives and legacies of the esti8 mated 300 Black individuals who were killed during 

9 the Massacre and the nearly 9,000 Black individuals 

10 who were left homeless and penniless; 

11 (4) condemns the participants of the Tulsa 

12 Race Massacre, including White municipal officials 

13 and law enforcement who directly participated in or 

14 who aided and abetted the unlawful violence; 

15 (5) condemns past and present efforts to cover 

16 up the truth and shield the White community, and 

17 especially State and local officials, from account18 ability for the Tulsa Race Massacre and other in19 stances of violence at the hands of law enforcement; 

20 (6) condemns the continued legacy of racism, 

21 including systemic racism, and White supremacy 

22 against Black people in the United States, particu23 larly in the form of police brutality; 

24 (7) encourages education about the Tulsa Race 

25 Massacre, including the horrors of the massacre 


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1 itself, the history of White supremacy that fueled the 

2 massacre, and subsequent attempts to deny or cover 

3 up the Massacre, in all elementary and secondary 

4 education settings and in institutions of higher edu5 cation in the United States; and 

6 (8) recognizes the commitment of Congress to 

7 acknowledge and learn from the history of racism 

8 and racial violence in the United States, including 

9 the Tulsa Race Massacre, to reverse the legacy of 

10 White supremacy and fight for racial justice. 

Æ 


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