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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, "Black Wall Street" was a prospering
3African-American neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that went up
4in flames 98 years ago; incredibly, most Americans have never
5heard of the shameful events of June 1, 1921, when whites
6firebombed the neighborhood and an estimated 300
7African-Americans were murdered; and
 
8    WHEREAS, During the course of 18 hours on May 31 and June
91, 1921, more than 1,000 homes and businesses in Tulsa,
10Oklahoma were destroyed and estimates of 50 to 300 people were
11killed during the race bombing; and
 
12    WHEREAS, By early 1921, Tulsa, Oklahoma was a modern city
13with a population of more than 100,000; most of the city's
1410,000 African-American residents lived in the Greenwood
15District, a vibrant neighborhood that was home to two
16newspapers, several churches, a library branch, and scores of
17black-owned businesses; and
 
18    WHEREAS, On May 30, 1921, an incident involving Dick
19Rowland, an African-American shoe shiner, and Sarah Page, a
20white elevator operator, in the Drexel Building in Tulsa would
21rapidly escalate into one of the single worst incidents of
22racial violence in American history; the most common

 

 

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1explanation is that Rowland stepped on Page's foot as he
2entered the elevator, causing her to scream, and Rowland was
3arrested by the police; and
 
4    WHEREAS, On May 30, 1921, the Tulsa Tribune, the city's
5afternoon daily newspaper, reported that Rowland had attempted
6to rape Page; by 7:30 P.M., hundreds of whites had gathered
7outside the Tulsa County Courthouse demanding that the
8authorities hand over Rowland, but the sheriff refused; at
9around 9 P.M., after reports of the dire conditions downtown
10reached Greenwood, a group of approximately 25 armed
11African-American men, many of them World War I veterans, went
12down to the courthouse and offered their services to the
13authorities to help protect Rowland but were rebuffed by the
14sheriff; at around 10 P.M., a false rumor hit Greenwood that
15whites were storming the courthouse, prompting a second
16contingent of African-American men to go back to the courthouse
17and offer their services to the authorities, who were once
18again turned away; as the group was leaving, a white man tried
19to disarm a black veteran and a shot was fired, an incident
20that became the start of the race bombing; and
 
21    WHEREAS, Over the next 6 hours, Tulsa was plunged into
22chaos as angry whites, frustrated over the failed lynching,
23began to vent their rage at African-Americans in general;
24furious fighting erupted along the Frisco railroad tracks,

 

 

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1where black defenders were able to hold off members of the
2white mob; an unarmed African-American man was murdered inside
3a downtown movie theater, while carloads of armed whites began
4making "drive-by" shootings in black residential
5neighborhoods; by midnight, fires had been set along the edge
6of the African-American commercial district; in some of the
7city's all-night cafes, whites began to organize for a dawn
8invasion of Greenwood; and
 
9    WHEREAS, During the early hours of the race bombing, local
10authorities did little to stem the growing crisis, and Tulsa
11police officers had deputized former members of the lynch mob;
12local units of the National Guard were mobilized, but they
13spent most of the night protecting a white neighborhood from a
14nonexistent black counterattack; and
 
15    WHEREAS, Shortly before dawn on June 1, 1921, thousands of
16armed whites had gathered along the fringes of Greenwood; after
17daybreak, they poured into the African-American district,
18looting homes and businesses and setting them on fire; numerous
19atrocities occurred, including the murder of A. C. Jackson, a
20renowned black surgeon, who was shot after he surrendered to a
21group of whites; at least one machine gun was utilized by the
22invading whites, and some have claimed that airplanes were used
23in the attack; black Tulsans fought hard to protect their homes
24and businesses, with particularly sharp fighting occurring off

 

 

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1of Standpipe Hill, but were outgunned and outnumbered in the
2end; and
 
3    WHEREAS, Following the race bombing, a brief period of
4martial law was followed by various legal maneuvers; even
5though Dick Rowland was exonerated, an all-white grand jury
6blamed black Tulsans for the events that transpired; despite
7overwhelming evidence, no whites were ever sent to prison for
8the murders and arson that had occurred; and
 
9    WHEREAS, The vast majority of Tulsa's African-American
10population had been made homeless by the race bombing; despite
11efforts by the white establishment to force the relocation of
12the black community, black Tulsans had already begun the long
13and arduous process of rebuilding Greenwood within days;
14thousands were forced to spend the winter of 1921-1922 living
15in tents; and
 
16    WHEREAS, The deep scars left by the race bombing remained
17visible for years, and it became a taboo subject, particularly
18in Tulsa, for many years; in 1997, a state commission was
19formed to investigate the race bombing; the commission
20recommended that reparations be paid to the remaining
21survivors, while a team of scientists and historians uncovered
22evidence supporting long-held beliefs that unidentified
23victims had been buried in unmarked grave sites; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, It is important that the people of the State of
2Illinois and the nation do not forget this terrible tragedy;
3therefore, be it
 
4    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
5HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
6we mourn the loss of life and the loss of the black economy of
7Tulsa, Oklahoma that took place on May 31 and June 1, 1921.