III 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 234 

Recognizing the 100th Anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 25, 2021 

Mr. LANKFORD (for himself and Mr. INHOFE) submitted the following 

resolution; which was considered and agreed to 

RESOLUTION 

Recognizing the 100th Anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race 

Massacre. 

Whereas in the early 1900s many Black individuals and families settled throughout Oklahoma, setting up vibrant communities and dozens of all-Black towns. These individuals 

came looking for new opportunities, freedom, and a 

chance for a better life; 

Whereas the most famous and prosperous of these Black 

communities was in Tulsa’s Greenwood District; 

Whereas O.W. Gurley, a wealthy Black business owner, 

moved to Tulsa in 1906 and purchased tracts of land 

sold primarily to Black individuals and families. The land 

stretched from Pine Street to the north to Archer Street 

on the south and Detroit Avenue on the west and the 

Midland Valley rail line on the east; 


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Whereas segregation and the inaccessibility of resources led 

O.W. Gurley and others to open a variety of commercial 

establishments, including rooming houses, grocery stores, 

barber shops, beauty salons, restaurants, clothiers, pharmacies, movie theaters, dance halls, pool halls, confectioneries, jitney services, and professional offices (such as for 

doctors, lawyers, dentists, and accountants); 

Whereas the Greenwood District became a thriving community where Black business owners, schools, and churches 

flourished and, by the late 1910s, it was the wealthiest 

Black community in the United States; 

Whereas churches such as Vernon African Methodist Episcopal Church, Mt. Zion Baptist Church, First Baptist 

Church North Tulsa, Paradise Baptist Church, Metropolitan Baptist Church, and others became central to the 

family life and culture of the Greenwood District; 

Whereas the Greenwood District became home to prominent 

professionals such as Dr. A.C. Jackson, who was known 

as the most skilled Black surgeon in the United States, 

and prominent attorney B.C. Franklin; 

Whereas Ellis Walker Woods, who walked more than 500 

miles from Memphis to Oklahoma, answered the call for 

African-American teachers and became the first principal 

of Booker T. Washington High School; 

Whereas, by 1921, the community was home to thousands of 

Black residents who lived and worked in the most prosperous Black community in the United States; 

Whereas the community earned the name the ‘‘Negro Wall 

Street of America’’ (later, simply known as the ‘‘Black 

Wall Street’’) from the famed African-American author 

and educator, Booker T. Washington; 


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Whereas, as the opportunities for Black families grew, the 

community began to attract more Black families, business owners, well-educated professionals, and individuals 

fleeing racial oppression and discrimination in other 

States; 

Whereas the town of Tullahassee, Oklahoma, founded in 

1883, is regarded as one of the oldest surviving historically Black towns of Indian Territory; 

Whereas the area where Tullahassee was founded was originally part of the Creek Nation and the town had an established school by 1850; 

Whereas the town of Langston, Oklahoma, was founded in 

1890 and named after John Mercer Langston, an African-American educator and Member of the House of 

Representatives from Virginia; 

Whereas, 7 years later, the Oklahoma Territorial Legislature 

established the Colored Agricultural and Normal University (referred to in this preamble as ‘‘CANU’’), which 

would later be renamed Langston University. The university has grown from 41 students in 1897 to more than 

3,000 in 2021; 

Whereas 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 resided 

in Langston or called CANU home; 

Whereas the town of Tatums, Oklahoma, founded in 1895, 

was named after brothers Lee B. Tatum and Eldridge 

‘‘Doc’’ Tatum and found prosperity in 1929 when oil 

wells were drilled; 


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Whereas Norman Studios filmed Black Gold, a silent film, in 

Tatums and enlisted the citizens of the town and Marshal 

L. B. Tatums to be featured in the movie; 

Whereas the town of Taft, Oklahoma, founded in 1902 on 

land allotted to Creek Freedman, changed its name from 

Twine to Taft to honor the then Secretary of War, later 

President, William Howard Taft. The town had a thriving business sector with 3 general stores, a drugstore, a 

brickyard, a soda pop factory, 2 hotels, and a bank; 

Whereas the town of Grayson, Oklahoma, brimmed with 5 

general stores, 2 blacksmiths, 2 drug stores, a cotton gin, 

and a physician soon after it was founded in 1902. Originally known as Wildcat, the town changed its name in 

1909 to honor the Creek Chief George W. Grayson; 

Whereas the town of Boley, Oklahoma, established in 1903 

and named after J.B. Boley, a railroad official of the 

Fort Smith and Western Railway, grew to be one of the 

wealthiest and largest Black towns in Oklahoma; 

Whereas, only 5 years after being founded, Booker T. Washington visited Boley and wrote about the prosperity he 

had witnessed; 

Whereas, in 2021, Boley still carries on their standing tradition of a Black community-based rodeo, now the oldest 

of its kind in the Nation; 

Whereas the town of Rentiesville, Oklahoma, founded in 

1903, was developed on 40 acres owned by William 

Rentie and Phoebe McIntosh; 

Whereas John Hope Franklin, a prominent scholar of African-American history, was born in Rentiesville in 1915; 

Whereas Franklin and his family later moved to Tulsa where 

Franklin graduated from Booker T. Washington High 


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School, survived the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, and 

went on to become one of Oklahoma’s most decorated 

historians; 

Whereas the town of Clearview, Oklahoma, founded in 1903 

along the tracks of the Fort Smith and Western Railroad, was widely known for their baseball team; 

Whereas, in the summer, people from surrounding counties 

would come to watch the baseball team play, turning the 

railroad tracks into substitute bleachers; 

Whereas the town of Brooksville, Oklahoma, founded in 

1903, was originally named Sewell. The town was renamed in 1912 to honor the first Black man in the area, 

A. R. Brooks; 

Whereas, soon after the town of Brooksville was established, 

Rev. Jedson White founded the St. John’s Baptist 

Church; 

Whereas George W. McLaurin, who was the first Black graduate at the University of Oklahoma, taught at the local 

school in Brooksville; 

Whereas the town of Red Bird, Oklahoma, founded in 1907 

along the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railway, was built on 

land allotted to the Creek Nation; 

Whereas E. L. Barber was one of the original developers of 

the town of Red Bird, the first justice of peace of the 

town, and an early mayor; 

Whereas, before Red Bird officially became a town, Barber 

had organized the First Baptist Church in 1889, which 

grew to be the largest church in Red Bird; 


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Whereas the town of Summit, Oklahoma, founded in 1910 

along the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railway, grew because 

of the town’s railway depot; 

Whereas Rev. L. W. Thomas organized the St. Thomas Baptist Church in the town of Summit and the congregation 

met without a building for 6 years until the congregation 

came together to build the church, which still stands in 

2021; 

Whereas the town of Vernon, Oklahoma, founded in 1911 on 

Tankard Ranch in the Creek Nation, was home to many 

trailblazers such as Ella Woods, who was the first postmaster, and Louise Wesley, who established the first 

school and church in the town; 

Whereas, before the community of Vernon built the New 

Hope Baptist Church in 1917, the congregation conducted services underneath a tree. New Hope Baptist 

Church still stands in 2021 after more than 100 years; 

Whereas the town of Lima, Oklahoma, founded in 1913 along 

the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, came together as a community to improve their town. Together, 

they built the Mount Zion Methodist Church in 1915, 

which still stands in 2021; 

Whereas, the history of these historically Black towns is 

interwoven into the history of the State of Oklahoma and 

the residents of these towns have achieved great successes and faced tremendous challenges; 

Whereas the stories of the Black towns and communities in 

Oklahoma are inextricably linked to the events of May 30 

to June 1, 1921, in the Greenwood District of North 

Tulsa, Oklahoma; 


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Whereas, on May 30, 1921, a young Black man named Dick 

Rowland was in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma, and entered 

the Drexel Building to use the only bathroom in the area 

available to Black people; 

Whereas an incident occurred on the elevator between Dick 

Rowland and Sarah Paige, the elevator operator, and 

Sarah Paige screamed; 

Whereas, after a police investigation, the next day Dick Rowland was detained at the Tulsa Police Department for 

questioning before being moved to the Tulsa Courthouse 

for additional security; 

Whereas, on May 31, 1921, the Tulsa Tribune released a 

sensationalist story claiming that a young Black male 

had attacked a White girl; 

Whereas 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 

that he could be lynched; 

Whereas a group of Black men traveled to the courthouse to 

help defend Dick Rowland from the angry mob; 

Whereas, after a scuffle at the downtown Tulsa courthouse, 

White rioters pursued Black men to the Greenwood District and the violence escalated; 

Whereas houses and businesses were looted and burned 

throughout the Greenwood District and attacks lasted 

well into the next day before being quelled by the Oklahoma City National Guard; 

Whereas, in less than 24 hours, 35 city blocks were destroyed 

by fires and 6,000 African-American individuals were detained; 


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Whereas, out of the 23 churches that were located in the 

Greenwood area prior to the 1921 Massacre, only 13 

churches survived and only 3 churches were able to be rebuilt after being destroyed: Paradise Baptist Church, 

Mount Zion Baptist Church, and Vernon AME Church; 

Whereas, outside of the massacre area, 5 churches were able 

to rebuild after being destroyed; 

Whereas, the Black citizens in Tulsa began rebuilding the 

Greenwood District immediately, with Church services resuming the following Sunday; 

Whereas this new Black Wall Street reached an economic 

peak in the mid-1940s but subsequently declined for 

many reasons that undermined the economic foundation 

of the community; 

Whereas, almost 100 years later, the residents and businesses 

in the Greenwood District carry on the legacy of resilience and determination; 

Whereas Greenwood is home to thousands of individuals and 

families who make important contributions to their city 

and the United States and there are countless minorityowned businesses in Greenwood that drive the local economy; 

Whereas there is still much work to do to heal the community 

and ensure all people in Greenwood have the promise of 

a brighter tomorrow; and 

Whereas Greenwood is a community still scarred by the 1921 

Tulsa Race Massacre, but not defined by it: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 


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1 (1) acknowledges that the 1921 Tulsa Race 

2 Massacre was the worst race massacre in the history 

3 of the United States; 

4 (2) recognizes that because of the worst race 

5 massacre in the history of the United States, several 

6 hundred Black residents of the Greenwood District 

7 were killed and thousands were made homeless over8 night, and the most prosperous Black community in 

9 the United States was decimated; 

10 (3) urges that the history of what happened in 

11 Tulsa during the course of those 2 days in 1921 be 

12 taught in the schools of the United States in a fac13 tual and accurate manner; 

14 (4) recognizes the important work of groups 

15 such as the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial 

16 Commission, the John Hope Franklin Center for 

17 Reconciliation, and others who work tirelessly to en18 sure the story of the Greenwood District is accu19 rately told and remembered; 

20 (5) believes that while significant progress has 

21 been made in the 100 years since the 1921 Tulsa 

22 Race Massacre, there is still work to be done to23 wards racial reconciliation, which can only be accom24 plished through open, respectful, and frank dialogue; 


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1 (6) encourages families of all races to invite 

2 families of different races to their homes to have dis3 cussions on race, with parents setting examples for 

4 their children on how to engage in a conversation 

5 that will build better understanding of, and respect 

6 for, people of different races; 

7 (7) believes that the significance of the 1921 

8 Tulsa Race Massacre and the complete history of 

9 the Greenwood District warrant the placement of the 

10 area on the National Registry of Historical Places 

11 and urges the Department of Interior to work with 

12 the community to accomplish this as soon as pos13 sible; 

14 (8) hopes that the 100th anniversary weekend 

15 is a moment for the country to look to Tulsa to see 

16 how racial relations have changed during the last 

17 100 years, to celebrate improvements, and to reflect 

18 upon the areas where more work is needed; 

19 (9) urges all people of the United States to con20 tinue seeking greater understanding, dialogue, and 

21 closer connections to people of different races; and 

22 (10) recognizes the need to help the remaining 

23 13 Black towns in Oklahoma to preserve their his24 toric legacy of political freedom and ensure their stoVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:57 May 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR234.ATS SR234

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1 ries are known to future generations of Oklahomans 

2 and people of the United States. 

Æ 


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