IV 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 215 
Recognizing the forthcoming centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 10, 2021 
Ms. JACKSON LEE (for herself, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Mrs. BEATTY, Mr. 
ESPAILLAT, Ms. WILSON of Florida, Ms. BASS, Ms. LEE of California, 
Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia, Mr. BISHOP of 
Georgia, Ms. NORTON, Ms. PLASKETT, Ms. CASTOR of Florida, Ms. GAR-
CIA of Texas, Mr. CA´RDENAS, Mr. MORELLE, Ms. JOHNSON of Texas, 
Mr. EVANS, Mrs. LAWRENCE, Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. SEAN 
PATRICK MALONEY of New York, Ms. WILLIAMS of Georgia, Ms. CLARK 
of Massachusetts, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Ms. TLAIB, Mr. KHANNA, Mrs. 
BUSTOS, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. VARGAS, Ms. MENG, Ms. NEWMAN, Ms. 
DEGETTE, Mr. LAWSON of Florida, Mr. BROWN, Mrs. DEMINGS, Mr. 
GRIJALVA, Mr. CARSON, Mr. DEUTCH, Mr. PAYNE, Ms. PINGREE, Ms. 
MOORE of Wisconsin, Mr. SCHRADER, Ms. SEWELL, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, 
Mr. VELA, Mr. GALLEGO, Mr. HIGGINS of New York, Mr. HASTINGS, Ms. 
ROYBAL-ALLARD, Mr. RASKIN, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Mr. BOWMAN, Mr. 
MCGOVERN, Mr. JONES, Mr. STANTON, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Mrs. FLETCH-
ER, Mr. NEGUSE, Mrs. HAYES, Mr. AUCHINCLOSS, Ms. BLUNT ROCH-
ESTER, Ms. SPEIER, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mr. MEEKS, Mr. TORRES of New 
York, Ms. LOFGREN, Ms. BONAMICI, Mr. LYNCH, Ms. JACOBS of Cali-
fornia, Mr. KAHELE, Mr. MCNERNEY, Mr. CLEAVER, Mr. PALLONE, Mrs. 
TRAHAN, Mr. GREEN of Texas, Mr. CROW, Mr. SCHNEIDER, Ms. STE-
VENS, Ms. BOURDEAUX, Mr. THOMPSON of California, Ms. OMAR, Mr. 
PRICE of North Carolina, Ms. KELLY of Illinois, Ms. ESHOO, Ms. 
DELBENE, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. NADLER, Mr. MICHAEL F. 
DOYLE of Pennsylvania, Mr. CICILLINE, Mrs. LURIA, Mr. CRIST, Mr. 
COSTA, Mr. RUSH, and Mr. VEASEY) submitted the following resolution; 
which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition 
to the Committee on Education and Labor, for a period to be subse-
quently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
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•HRES 215 IH 
RESOLUTION 
Recognizing the forthcoming centennial of the 1921 Tulsa 
Race Massacre. 
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; 
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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, 
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; 
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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 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) recognizes the forthcoming centennial of the 
Tulsa Race Massacre; 
(2) acknowledges the historical significance of 
this event as one of the largest single instances of 
State-sanctioned violence against Black people in 
American history; 
(3) honors the lives and legacies of the esti-
mated 300 Black individuals who were killed during 
the Massacre and the nearly 9,000 Black individuals 
who were left homeless and penniless; 
(4) condemns the participants of the Tulsa 
Race Massacre, including White municipal officials 
and law enforcement who directly participated in or 
who aided and abetted the unlawful violence; 
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(5) condemns past and present efforts to cover 
up the truth and shield the White community, and 
especially State and local officials, from account-
ability for the Tulsa Race Massacre and other in-
stances of violence at the hands of law enforcement; 
(6) condemns the continued legacy of racism, 
including systemic racism, and White supremacy 
against Black people in the United States, particu-
larly in the form of police brutality; 
(7) encourages education about the Tulsa Race 
Massacre, including the horrors of the massacre 
itself, the history of White supremacy that fueled the 
massacre, and subsequent attempts to deny or cover 
up the Massacre, in all elementary and secondary 
education settings and in institutions of higher edu-
cation in the United States; and 
(8) 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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