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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, May 31 through June 1, 2021 marks 100 years since
3one of the worst instances of racial violence in American
4history known as the Tulsa Race Massacre; and
 
5    WHEREAS, The massacre began during Memorial Day weekend
6after 19-year-old Dick Rowland, a Black shoeshiner, was
7accused of assaulting Sarah Page, a 17-year-old White elevator
8operator of the nearby Drexel Building; he was taken into
9custody, and a mob of hundreds of White men gathered around the
10jail where Rowland was being kept, determined to lynch him; in
11response, a group of 75 Black men arrived at the jail in order
12to protect Rowland, and violence broke out between the two
13groups; and
 
14    WHEREAS, As news of the confrontation spread across Tulsa,
15more violence erupted; on the evening of May 31 through the
16afternoon of June 1, 1921, a violent mob of hundreds of White
17people attacked Tulsa's Greenwood District; the district was,
18at that time, the wealthiest Black community in the United
19States and was referred to as "Black Wall Street"; and
 
20    WHEREAS, The mob destroyed 35 square blocks, burned
21businesses and an estimated 1,250 homes to the ground, and
22murdered as many as 300 Black Tulsans; the damage done is

 

 

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1estimated to equal $27 million in today's dollars; and
 
2    WHEREAS, Many of the dead were buried in mass graves that
3were only recently discovered; approximately 10,000 Black
4people were left homeless, and many Black survivors left the
5city and never returned; and
 
6    WHEREAS, A 2001 state commission report found that the
7City of Tulsa had conspired with the mob of White citizens,
8including deputizing them and giving them weapons; and
 
9    WHEREAS, The massacre has not been included in many local,
10state, and national histories and was widely forgotten until
11recent pushes to have the massacre recognized; and
 
12    WHEREAS, Oklahoma recently passed legislation in order to
13establish scholarships for the descendants of survivors,
14encourage the economic development of Greenwood, and develop a
15park in memory of the victims of the massacre in Tulsa; in
162020, the massacre became a part of the Oklahoma school
17curriculum; and
 
18    WHEREAS, Recently, 107-year-old massacre survivor Viola
19Fletcher testified before members of a U.S. House Judiciary
20subcommittee and called for justice and for the country to
21officially acknowledge the massacre ahead of the 100th

 

 

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1anniversary; therefore, be it
 
2    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
3HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
4we recognize May 31, 2021 through June 1, 2021 as the 100th
5anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre.