•HRES 398 IH 
Whereas, in the early 20th century, de jure segregation con-
fined Tulsa’s Black residents into the ‘‘Greenwood Dis-
trict’’, 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 
Black man and a White woman, caused the White com-
munity 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 de-
scended 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 ille-
gal 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 other-
wise destroyed approximately 40 square blocks of the 
Greenwood district, including an estimated 1,256 homes 
of Black residents, as well as virtually every other struc-
ture, including churches, schools, businesses, a hospital, 
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•HRES 398 IH 
and a library, leaving nearly 9,000 Black Tulsans home-
less 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 Gov-
ernor of Oklahoma declared martial law, and units of the 
Oklahoma National Guard participated in the mass ar-
rests of all or nearly all of Greenwood’s surviving resi-
dents, removing them from Greenwood to other parts of 
Tulsa and unlawfully detaining them in holding centers; 
Whereas Oklahoma local and State governments dismissed 
claims arising from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre for 
decades, and the event was effectively erased from collec-
tive 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 re-
port that detailed, for the first time, the extent of the 
Massacre and decades-long efforts to suppress its recol-
lection; 
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 dol-
lars of Black wealth destroyed, despite the Tulsa Race 
Massacre Commission confirming their roles in the Mas-
sacre, 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 
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•HRES 398 IH 
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 
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep-
resentatives that the United States can achieve a more 
perfect union— 
(1) by condemning the violence and destruction 
perpetrated against the African-American commu-
nity of Greenwood, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the scene of 
the then-largest single instance of domestic terror 
against American citizens; 
(2) through the rejection and active opposition 
to the false ideology of White supremacy and con-
demnation of all groups and organizations that as-
cribe to this false system of belief and seek to per-
petuate their views through violence and unlawful 
conduct; 
(3) by promoting tolerance and unity and tak-
ing actions to ensure that governmental policies and 
actions do not foster division, disharmony, or intoler-
ance; 
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(4) by calling upon all Americans to celebrate 
the ethnic, racial, and religious diversity that has 
made the United States the leader of the community 
of nations and the beacon of hope and inspiration to 
oppressed persons everywhere; 
(5) encouraging all persons in the United 
States to reflect upon the history of the United 
States as an imperfect but committed journey to es-
tablish a more perfect union and to cherish and ex-
ercise the rights, privileges, and responsibilities 
guaranteed by the Constitution; and 
(6) recognizes the commitment of Congress to 
acknowledge and learn from the history of racism 
and racial violence in the United States, including 
the Tulsa Race Massacre, to reverse the legacy of 
White supremacy and fight for racial justice. 
Æ 
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