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1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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2 | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of | ||||||
3 | Representatives wish to acknowledge the Tulsa, Oklahoma race | ||||||
4 | riot of May 31 and June 1, 1921; and
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5 | WHEREAS, During the course of 18 hours on May 31 and June | ||||||
6 | 1, 1921, more than 1,000 homes and businesses in Tulsa, | ||||||
7 | Oklahoma were destroyed and estimates of 50 to 300 people were | ||||||
8 | killed during the riot; and
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9 | WHEREAS, By early 1921, Tulsa, Oklahoma was a modern city | ||||||
10 | with a population of more than 100,000; most of the city's | ||||||
11 | 10,000 African-American residents lived in the Greenwood | ||||||
12 | District, a vibrant neighborhood that was home to two | ||||||
13 | newspapers, several churches, a library branch, and scores of | ||||||
14 | black-owned businesses; and
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15 | WHEREAS, On May 30, 1921, an incident involving Dick | ||||||
16 | Rowland, an African-American shoe shiner, and Sarah Page, a | ||||||
17 | white elevator operator, in the Drexel Building in Tulsa would | ||||||
18 | rapidly escalate into one of the single worst incidents of | ||||||
19 | racial violence in American history; the most common | ||||||
20 | explanation is that Rowland stepped on Page's foot as he | ||||||
21 | entered the elevator, causing her to scream, and Rowland was | ||||||
22 | arrested by the police; and
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1 | WHEREAS, On May 30, 1921, the Tulsa Tribune, the city's | ||||||
2 | afternoon daily newspaper, reported that Rowland had attempted | ||||||
3 | to rape Page; by 7:30 P.M., hundreds of whites had gathered | ||||||
4 | outside the Tulsa County Courthouse, demanding that the | ||||||
5 | authorities hand over Rowland, but the sheriff refused; at | ||||||
6 | around 9 P.M., after reports of the dire conditions downtown | ||||||
7 | reached Greenwood, a group of approximately 25 armed | ||||||
8 | African-American men, many of them World War I veterans, went | ||||||
9 | down to the courthouse and offered their services to the | ||||||
10 | authorities to help protect Rowland, but were rebuffed by the | ||||||
11 | sheriff; at around 10 P.M., a false rumor hit Greenwood that | ||||||
12 | whites were storming the courthouse, prompting a second | ||||||
13 | contingent of African-American men to go back to the courthouse | ||||||
14 | and offer their services to the authorities, who were once | ||||||
15 | again turned away; as the group was leaving, a white man tried | ||||||
16 | to disarm a black veteran and a shot was fired, an incident | ||||||
17 | that became the start of the riot; and
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18 | WHEREAS, Over the next 6 hours, Tulsa was plunged into | ||||||
19 | chaos as angry whites, frustrated over the failed lynching, | ||||||
20 | began to vent their rage at African-Americans in general; | ||||||
21 | furious fighting erupted along the Frisco railroad tracks, | ||||||
22 | where black defenders were able to hold off members of the | ||||||
23 | white mob; an unarmed African-American man was murdered inside | ||||||
24 | a downtown movie theater, while carloads of armed whites began |
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1 | making "drive-by" shootings in black residential | ||||||
2 | neighborhoods; by midnight, fires had been set along the edge | ||||||
3 | of the African-American commercial district; in some of the | ||||||
4 | city's all-night cafes, whites began to organize for a dawn | ||||||
5 | invasion of Greenwood; and
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6 | WHEREAS, During the early hours of the riot, local | ||||||
7 | authorities did little to stem the growing crisis and Tulsa | ||||||
8 | police officers had deputized former members of the lynch mob; | ||||||
9 | local units of the National Guard were mobilized, but they | ||||||
10 | spent most of the night protecting a white neighborhood from a | ||||||
11 | nonexistent black counterattack; and | ||||||
12 | WHEREAS, Shortly before dawn on June 1, 1921, thousands of | ||||||
13 | armed whites had gathered along the fringes of Greenwood; after | ||||||
14 | daybreak, they poured into the African-American district, | ||||||
15 | looting homes and businesses and setting them on fire; numerous | ||||||
16 | atrocities occurred, including the murder of A. C. Jackson, a | ||||||
17 | renowned black surgeon, who was shot after he surrendered to a | ||||||
18 | group of whites; at least one machine gun was utilized by the | ||||||
19 | invading whites and some have claimed that airplanes were used | ||||||
20 | in the attack; black Tulsans fought hard to protect their homes | ||||||
21 | and businesses, with particularly sharp fighting occurring off | ||||||
22 | of Standpipe Hill, but were outgunned and outnumbered in the | ||||||
23 | end; and |
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1 | WHEREAS, Following the riot, a brief period of martial law | ||||||
2 | was followed by various legal maneuvers; even though Dick | ||||||
3 | Rowland was exonerated, an all-white grand jury blamed black | ||||||
4 | Tulsans for the riot; despite overwhelming evidence, no whites | ||||||
5 | were ever sent to prison for the murders and arson that | ||||||
6 | occurred during the riot; and | ||||||
7 | WHEREAS, The vast majority of Tulsa's African-American | ||||||
8 | population had been made homeless by the riot; despite efforts | ||||||
9 | by the white establishment to force the relocation of the black | ||||||
10 | community, black Tulsans had already begun the long and arduous | ||||||
11 | process of rebuilding Greenwood within days of the riot; | ||||||
12 | thousands were forced to spend the winter of 1921-1922 living | ||||||
13 | in tents; and | ||||||
14 | WHEREAS, The deep scars left by the riot remained visible | ||||||
15 | for years and the riot became a taboo subject, particularly in | ||||||
16 | Tulsa, for many years; in 1997, a state commission was formed | ||||||
17 | to investigate the riot; the commission recommended that | ||||||
18 | reparations be paid to the remaining riot survivors, while a | ||||||
19 | team of scientists and historians uncovered evidence | ||||||
20 | supporting long-held beliefs that unidentified riot victims | ||||||
21 | had been buried in unmarked grave sites; and | ||||||
22 | WHEREAS, It is important that the people of the State of | ||||||
23 | Illinois and the nation do not forget this terrible tragedy; |
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1 | therefore, be it
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2 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | ||||||
3 | NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | ||||||
4 | we acknowledge the Tulsa, Oklahoma race riot of May 31 and June | ||||||
5 | 1, 1921 and express our regret at this terrible event in | ||||||
6 | American history.
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