Recognizing the 100th Anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. LANKFORD. Res. 234, submitted earlier today.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I know of no further debate on the resolution.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, Senator Inhofe and I and this body have just passed by voice vote a resolution recognizing the 100th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. It is a significant resolution not only to be able to recall what happened in that terrible time in 1921 but to also recognize the 13 Black towns that still remain in Oklahoma.

It is an interesting history that we have in Oklahoma, and I encourage folks to be able to find out more about us as a State. From the late 1800s to the early 1900s, Black individuals and families from all over the South were fleeing away from where they were being oppressed, and they were coming to Oklahoma, setting up vibrant communities. Over 50 all-Black towns rose up in Oklahoma.

In fact, there was some dialogue in the early 1900s about possibly having Oklahoma be an all-Black State even. These Black communities were rising up around our State looking for opportunities, freedom, and a chance for a better life. Thirteen of those fifty towns still remain today as communities. Many of the individuals in these towns are friends and people whom I know and Senator Inhofe and I have the honor of being able to represent in this great body.

I think about Dr. Donnie Nero, Sr. He is the President of the African American Educators Hall of Fame. He is the one who helped found and pull this all together. He has an attitude in wonderful Clearview, OK, and he says: ``One of the greatest motivational concepts accessible to mankind is `Recognition.''' He says recognition is about remembrance and acknowledgment.

We are taking a moment as a Senate today to be able to acknowledge these 13 Black towns that still remain in Oklahoma and to be able to look at some of the history of what happened during that time period. So let me walk through this somewhat.

Tullahassee was founded in 1883. It is regarded as one of the oldest surviving historically Black towns in Indian Territory.

Langston, founded in 1890, and was named after John Mercer Langston, an African-American educator and U.S. Representative from Virginia. Seven years later, the Oklahoma Territorial Legislature established the Colored Agricultural and Normal University, which would later be called Langston University. This historically Black college and university has grown from 41 students in 1897 to over 3,000 students today. Prominent Oklahomans such as Melvin Tolson, Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher, Clara Luper, E. Melvin Porter, Frederick Moon, Marques Haynes, Zelia Breaux, Isaac W. Young, Inman Page, and Zella Black Patterson all resided in the town of Langston or called Langston University home.

Tatums was founded in 1895. It was named after brothers Lee B. Tatum and Eldridge ``Doc'' Tatum. They found prosperity in 1929 when oil wells were drilled in Tatum. Norman Studios even filmed a silent movie called ``Black Gold,'' using the brothers in their film

Taft was founded in 1902 on land allotted to Creek Freedman. They changed their name from Twine, which they were originally, to Taft to honor the then Secretary of War and later President William Howard Taft.

Grayson was bustling with five general stores, two blacksmiths, two drug stores, a cotton gin and a physician shortly after it was founded in 1902. It was originally known as Wildcat. It was changed in 1909 to honor the Creek chief, George W. Grayson.

Boley was a town established in 1903 and named after J.B. Boley, a railroad official of the Fort Smith and Western Railway, and grew to be the largest African-American town in Oklahoma. Only 5 years after being founded, Booker T. Washington visited the town and wrote about the prosperity that he had witnessed. Boasting the first Black-owned bank, the First National Bank of Boley was owned by D.J. Turner. It received a national charter and rose to be one of the largest and wealthiest exclusively Black communities. Today, Boley still hosts the Nation's oldest annual Black rodeo.

Rentiesville, founded in 1903, was developed on 40 acres owned by William Rentie and Phoebe McIntosh. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway developed a flag stop, putting Rentiesville on the map. John Hope Franklin, a scholar of African-American history who promoted dialogue that reshaped American views on race relations, was born in Rentiesville in 1915. The Franklins later moved to Tulsa, where John Hope Franklin graduated from Booker T. Washington. He survived the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, and he went on to become one of the most decorated historians. He inspired the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation, Reconciliation Park in Tulsa, and an elementary school in North Tulsa. Rentiesville continues to host the Dusk Til' Dawn Blues Festival that attracts blues artists and all the folks who come in.

Clearview, a town I have already mentioned, was founded in 1903 along the tracks of the Fort Smith and Western Railroad, was widely known for its baseball team, but it is widely known now for the Hall of Fame for Black Educators. It is a place that I would encourage people to be able to stop in and to be able to see. And it is an annual tradition where individuals from around the State ride in to be able to recognize Black educators to be recognized that year in the Hall of Fame ceremony led by Dr. Nero, Sr.

Brooksville, founded in 1903, originally named Sewell, was renamed in 1912 in honor of the first African American in the area, A.R. Brooks.

Red Bird, founded in 1907 along the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, was built on the land allotted by the Creek Nation. E.L. Barber was one of the town's original developers and the first justice of the peace and an early mayor. Before Red Bird officially became a town, Barber organized the First Baptist Church in 1889, which grew to be the largest church in Red Bird.

Summit was founded in 1910 along the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway.

Vernon was founded in 1911 on Tankard Ranch in the Creek Nation and was home to many trailblazers such as Ella Woods, who was the first Postmaster, and Louise Wesley, who established the first school and church.

Lima, founded in 1913 along the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad. The Mount Zion Methodist Church was built in 1915 and still stands to this day.

And, of course, the most famous and prosperous of all of the Black communities was Greenwood. Greenwood District became a thriving community where Black business owners, schools, and churches flourished. By the late 1910s, it was the wealthiest Black community in all of the United States. The community earned the name ``Black Wall Street'' from the famed African-American author and educator I already spoke of, Booker T. Washington.

The history of these historically Black towns is interwoven into the history of Oklahoma and the history of the United States. The residents of these towns have achieved great success and faced tremendous challenges. The stories of these Black towns and communities in Oklahoma are also inextricably linked to the events of May 30 through June 1 of 1921, when the Greenwood District in North Tulsa burst into flames.

An important part of history is learning from the past. It is not looking at an incident in isolation. It is what came before and after. This weekend, the Nation will pause and reflect on the 100th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, the worst race massacre in the history of the United States.

But we can't look at Greenwood as if it was a single weekend. It was a prosperous, thriving Black community. And it still has a history to be able to share in our future.

Maybe you have heard me share the story on the floor of the Senate before. In the past several years, I talked about the race massacre, here in committee meetings and in conversations around this body. There is a significance of the 100th anniversary, not just for Tulsa and my State, but for the rest of the Nation as well. So let me recount this again

On May 30, 1921, a young Black man named Dick Rowland was in downtown Tulsa. He entered the Drexel Building to use the only bathroom in the area that was available for Black people to be able to use in downtown Tulsa.

An incident occurred in the elevator between Dick Rowland and Sarah Paige, and Sarah Paige screamed. We really don't know what happened there, but as the doors opened, she screamed. The police did an investigation and the next day they went to Dick Rowland and they detained him at the Tulsa Police Department for questioning before removing him to the Tulsa Courthouse to be able to be confined.

On May 31, 1921, the Tulsa Tribune released a sensationalist story claiming that a young Black man had attacked a White girl in an elevator in the Drexel Building. That story and long, simmering tensions in the city led to a large group of White individuals surrounding the courthouse to demand that Dick Rowland be released so he could be lynched.

A group of Black men traveled to the courthouse to help defend Dick Rowland from the angry mob, many of them veterans from World War I who had served honorably there.

After a scuffle at the downtown Tulsa courthouse, White rioters pursued the men back to the Greenwood District and the violence escalated dramatically. Literally, as the violence increased, the White rioters that really became a mob were deputized to be able to handle the issues in Greenwood. They gathered firearms as they ran the few blocks from central downtown Tulsa into Greenwood just north of Tulsa.

Houses and businesses were burned and looted throughout the Greenwood District, and the attacks lasted well into the night and well into the next day before being quelled by the Oklahoma City National Guard. In less than 24 hours, 35 city blocks were destroyed by fires, 6,000 African American individuals were detained, and up to 300 lives were lost.

Out of the 23 churches that were located in the Greenwood area prior to the 1921 massacre, only 13 of the churches survived and only three churches were able to be rebuilt after being destroyed--Paradise Baptist Church, Mount Zion Baptist Church, and Vernon AME Church.

It was a horrific day, and 100 years later, the residents and businesses in the Greenwood District still carry on the legacy of resilience and determination.

For the past few years, I have been working to tell this story. For some--even some Oklahomans--it is a story that they had not heard before. Five years ago, I started telling the story in Washington, DC, and when I told it, hardly anyone knew about it. Now everyone I speak to is familiar with the story.

We have pulled this story out of the dark ages of history and lifted it up for our Nation to be able to see and our Nation is looking at it. In Oklahoma, many people now know about that terrible 2-day period when rioters set a community on fire and set our Nation back. But I also tell people that you can't understand Tulsa and Oklahoma unless you understand May 31 and June 1 of 1921.

So I worked to develop a curriculum to ensure future generations of Oklahomans learn the accurate historic events of 1921. Before we started working on the curriculum, our schools had a mandate to teach the 1921 massacre. But there were no materials to actually use to teach that accurate history. There were no visuals. There was no curriculum. Now there are. We pulled all those together and made that resource free to every educator in Oklahoma and every educator in America that wants to be able to teach that history accurately.

During this same time period, 5 or 6 years ago, I started working on something I called Solution Sundays, because when I started speaking about 6 years ago now to individuals all around Tulsa and around the State about the Tulsa Race Massacre, I usually started the conversation the same way: May 31 and June 1 of 2021, I would say, about 6 years ago, the entire country is going to pause. I don't know how long. They may pause for a minute. They may pause for an hour. They may pause for a day or for a weekend.

But the entire country will pause and will look at Tulsa and look at Oklahoma and will ask themselves one question: What has changed in America in race relations in the last 100 years? I said 6 years ago, that is a fair question for someone to ask; we had better be able to answer it when May 31 of 2021 comes.

Little did I know 6 years ago, when I started asking that question and continued to ask that question when it was 5 years, 4 years, 3 years, 2 years, and the next year--little did I know--about the events dealing with race that would happen in the last 12 months and the awakening that in the Nation really has happened to what is still left undone in the issue of race in America.

I started something about 6 years ago. At this same time, I started asking about what would we say. I started challenging families with something I called Solution Sundays. It is a simple idea, quite frankly. I would just ask people that I would encounter, of all races, of all backgrounds, a simple question: Has your family ever invited a family of another race to your home for dinner?

I thought it was simple until, when I would ask people, I would get the same answer back. I would ask people: Has your family ever invited a family of another race to your home for dinner?

And the most common answer I got back was: I have friends of another race.

To which I would always smile and say: That is not what I asked. I asked: Has your family ever invited a family of another race to your home for dinner?

And what I found in my State was that most individuals of every race all answered it the same way: That has never happened in my house.

So I would ask them a simple question. A national conversation about race is not something that happens on TV. A national conversation on race happens at our dinner tables with our families.

We should not expect that the Nation will speak on race when our families are not. And the best way for our families and to show our kids that this is normal conversation is to have a family over of another race to sit around the table.

What I like to say to people is, we will never get all the issues of race on the table until we get our feet under the same table and just talk and just get to know each other as friends. The Nation will not shift on race relations until each of our families shifts on race relations.

I continue to be able to challenge this simple concept of Solution Sundays. By the way, if you want to pick a different day, that is fine with me. But Sunday seems to be a pretty good day just to invite someone over for dinner or for lunch.

In just a few days, people from all over the country will fly into Tulsa, some of them for the first time. They are going to participate in events to commemorate the hundredth anniversary. It is my hope that what they see will be a model of reconciliation for the rest of the country. But after the anniversary passes and the crowds leave and the national folks will go on to doing something else, we will still be around. Tulsa and all of Oklahoma will still need to finish the work that has begun on race.

I will still be around North Tulsa. I have lots of friends there. And I know there will be an ongoing dialogue, still, about reconciliation because the big event that the whole world turns the television cameras on for doesn't solve the issues of race. We solve that as individuals and as a family.

You see, I believe, like many do, that I have a calling toward reconciliation. As a follower of Jesus, as I read through the New Testament, I bump into passages like Second Corinthians, chapter 5, where Paul wrote to us and said we have the ministry and the message of reconciliation.

Now, I understand that Paul first meant that was an ability to be able to come to God and be reconciled to God. And I do believe firmly that every individual can be reconciled with God, and I am glad to share that message of ministry. But I also believe it is a challenge to each of us to work toward reconciliation. Where relationships are broken, we are the reconcilers, and we have a ministry and a message of reconciliation.

My friend Robert Turner is the pastor of Vernon A.M.E. Church, in the heart of Greenwood. He and I were visiting last week on the phone, talking through the things coming up in the days ahead. As I was chitchatting with my friend, he said: I have to tell you about my sermon that I preached a couple of weeks ago.

So I said: Tell me all about it.

Pastor Turner said: I preached on Matthew, the tax collector, also called Levi.

And we spent some time talking about that.

And he said: What I told my congregation was that Jesus called Matthew, the tax collector, to be one of his disciples, but he also called Simon the Zealot to be one of his disciples.

Now, you may not know, but the tax collectors were loyal to the Romans. They were Jews who were loyal to the Roman authority, and the zealots were Jews who were adamantly opposed to the Roman authority. So, literally, Jesus grabbed two people from opposite political perspectives--opposite, if I can say it, political parties--and he grabbed both of them and said: I want you to be my disciple.

And Pastor Turner said: There is a lot that we can learn from Jesus, beginning with what Jesus said: Everyone is welcome, from every political perspective, to come and follow Him.

Pastor Turner, you are spot on. My friend, keep preaching it. But excuse me for noticing, Jesus is the one who set the example, and he called all of us to be able to follow it.

Now, I have to tell you, Pastor Turner and I don't agree on everything. We may not even vote alike, though, honestly, I have never asked him how he votes. But he is my friend, and he is my partner of reconciliation.

For 6 years, I have asked people across Oklahoma, when May the 31st comes and the Nation stops and asks, ``What has changed in the last 100 years?'' We should be prepared to answer. That weekend is here, and each of us should be able to answer that for our lives and for our families.

Let's finish the work. We are not done on racial reconciliation. Let's finish the work, starting with our own families, our own communities, and our own lives.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source