The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE TRAGEDY OF THE TULSA GREENWOOD MASSACRE
______
speech of
HON. BONNIE WATSON COLEMAN
of new jersey
in the house of representatives
Monday, May 17, 2021
Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 100th Commemoration of the Tulsa-Greenwood Race Massacre, where on May 31-June 1, 1921, a white mob of thousands of people shot and murdered Black residents of America's ``Black Wall Street'' in Tulsa, Oklahoma, looted their homes and businesses, and burned more than a thousand homes, churches, schools, and businesses. The horrific events of this deadly attack were the result of a series of failures of leadership that ultimately fostered race-based violence, discrimination, and oppression.
This was a failure of law enforcement to protect Tulsa's Black residents and maintain civil order. A failure of the judicial system, as many of the residents who fled the Massacre were detained in internment camps immediately following the Massacre and a grand jury placed the blame entirely on the Black community and indicted 85 people--mostly African Americans--with Massacre-related offenses. A failure of our American promises of the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Justice was not served. No White person was ever held individually accountable for crimes committed during the Massacre, and the vast majority of survivors and their descendants were never directly compensated for these harms.
The attack on the thriving Black community continued on throughout the years and is evident even in today's society; as the community sustained millions of dollars of property damage and many Black survivors of the Tulsa massacre and their descendants have not been able to recoup the wealth that had been stolen or destroyed during the Massacre. And still today, despite calls for justice and accountability, our government leaders continue to fail the victims of the Tulsa-Greenwood Massacre and their descendants by refusing action to right the wrongs that were perpetrated on innocent community members 100 years ago. Over the decades, local ordinances to prevent rebuilding, redlining, and so-called ``urban renewal'' policies have prevented Black Tulsans from rebuilding a thriving community. Expressways, funded by the federal government, literally cut through areas of Greenwood, displacing Black families and businesses.
Madam Speaker, though we are 100 years past the heinous Tulsa-
Greenwood Massacre, Black Americans are unfortunately not far removed from the continued injustice of systemic racism and oppressive tactics that block upward mobility out of poverty and suppress opportunities to create and maintain generational wealth. As we take time to recall the injustice of this Massacre and continue the call for justice for the descendants, let us also reflect on the continued efforts of injustice that plague minority communities today. We need accountability, we need economic justice, and we need criminal justice reform. We cannot continue to delay justice and equality. The time for change is now.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 87
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