Providing for Consideration of H.R. Fairness in Orphan Drug Exclusivity Act Drugs; Providing for Consideration of H. Res. Condemning the Horrific Shootings in Atlanta, Georgia, on March and for Other Purposes

Floor Speech

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Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I thank the manager for her leadership. I also thank all of those on the floor who understand the indignity of massacres, racism, and devastating histories that our country has faced.

We, too, are Americans, and I love this country.

Last night, on the floor of the House, I said that, as a young girl, I knew about the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria; I knew about Columbus and Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. And that was well, though, obviously, there are challenges to that history, even today. That is what we knew. But we did not know the history--the slave history or even the fact that there was something called Tulsa, Oklahoma, a bright and shining star of economic opportunity.

This picture shows young girls dancing in a parade, just like today, with cowboy hats on, the high school dance team, if you will. None of that was taught to any of us, this prosperous place.

And then a community known as Greenwood, in June of 1921, after a series of heinous events that nearly entirely destroyed Greenwood. We knew nothing about this. A hundred years; three living descendants. We will be on our way.

I thank the Congressional Black Caucus for championing this with me, and Chairwoman Beatty for understanding the validity of telling the truth.

In this story, they saw men, women, and children driven like cattle, huddled like horses, and treated like beasts. I saw hundreds--this is a testimony--of men march through the main business section with their hats off, their hands up, with dozens of guards marching them with guns and cursing them from everything mentionable. Three hundred of them died, and are buried in unmarked graves. They were murdered.

The attackers looted and intentionally burned an estimated 1,256 homes in Greenwood, America's Black Wall Street, along with nearly all of the district's churches, schools, and businesses.

When others began to say, ``Pull yourself up by your bootstraps,'' these freed slaves, for barely 100 years, developed Greenwood.

Yet this is what happened. This is the body of a charred Negro killed in the riot.

How many were like that?

As I said, the death toll came about because something happened in an elevator, a word, something like Emmett Till said to a White woman. In a firestorm of hatred and violence, that is perhaps unequal in peacetime in the history of the United States, the White mob destroyed almost 40 square blocks, left almost 9,000 Greenwood district residents homeless.

So this is a story from 100 years ago. Look at the smoke coming from the buildings that were industries. People had ice cream parlors, restaurants, and boarding houses burned to the ground.

We come today to say, the burned-out ruins of Greenwood--there is one door left in Tulsa, to be able to embrace those from Tulsa, Oklahoma. They will be here tomorrow for a hearing in the Judiciary Committee. I am honored this legislation will honor them.

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Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, we will know and history will tell us that embedded in the annals of the Congressional Record will be H. Res. 398 that talks about that story.

Yet we rise above that, not so much to ignore it, but we ask that we condemn the violence in this resolution. We ask for rejection and active opposition to the false ideology of white supremacy. We ask for tolerance and unity. We ask and are calling upon Americans to celebrate ethnic, racial, and religious diversity.

We, too, mourn those who were killed in Atlanta for Asian hate. It says, encouraging all persons in the United States to reflect upon all of our history. Yes, we can rise above it, but we must know that the stories that are told say that Tulsa must have some repair, some say reparations.

Finally, as I close, we hear a testimony from the great-granddaughter of Howard and Harriet Ector. They were builders and pillars of Black Wall Street. They were featured in the Smithsonian. As a little girl, their great-great-granddaughter was saved by hiding in a chicken coop at age 9 to dodge bullets. It was a race war. We should not ignore our differences, but we should be unified by who we are.

I am delighted to support this resolution, and I ask my colleagues to vote for it.

Madam Speaker, I include in the Record a report by the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Factsheet Source--Tulsa Race Riot: A Report by the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, Feb. 28, 2001

Following World War I, Tulsa, Oklahoma was recognized nationally for its affluent African American community known as the Greenwood District. This thriving business district and surrounding residential area was referred to as ``Black Wall Street.'' In June 1921, a series of heinous events nearly destroyed the entire Greenwood area.

``I saw men, women and children driven like cattle, huddled like horses and treated like beasts. Thus, I fully realized the attitude of the Southern white man when he has you bested. I saw hundreds of men marched through the main business section of ``White Town'' with their hats off and their hands up, with dozens of guards marching them with guns, cursing them for everything mentionable. I saw large trucks following up the invaders, as they ran the colored people from their homes and places of business. Everything of value was loaded on these trucks and everything left was burned to ashes. I saw machine guns turned on the colored men to oust them from their stronghold.'' --Anonymous primary source

Starting late on the evening on May 31 and continuing into the day of June 1, 1921, a White mob attacked the Greenwood district of Tulsa, Oklahoma, razing it to the ground. The attackers looted and intentionally burned an estimated 1,256 homes in Greenwood--America's ``Black Wall Street''--along with nearly all the district's churches, schools, and businesses.

The number of persons killed in the riot may never be known, but a 2001 report by a commission created by the Oklahoma legislature estimated, based on available evidence at that time, that at least 75 to 100 people died in the Massacre, and found that one credible contemporary source estimated the death toll at 300 people. All told, in what the late historian and Tulsa survivor John Hope Franklin described as a ``firestorm of hatred and violence that is perhaps unequaled in the peace time history of the United States,'' the White mob destroyed almost forty-square-blocks and left almost 9,000 Greenwood district residents homeless.

As the White invaders moved through the district, a violent pattern of murder, looting, and arson emerged. Armed Whites would force Black residents from their homes or businesses where they were held at ``a growing number of internment centers,'' loot what valuables or furnishings they could carry, and then torch the structure. They summarily shot any Black men found in a home with a firearm as well as anyone else who resisted. This pattern was repeated, ``[h]ouse by house, block after block'' until all of the city's Black neighborhoods were engulfed in flames.

Whites engaged in the attack also committed numerous other atrocities. According to one Black eyewitness, White looters murdered a Black elderly disabled man who, despite having expressed a willingness to do so, could not comply with their order to leave his home. According to one White eyewitness, prominent Black surgeon Dr. A.C. Jackson was gunned down on his front lawn with his hands up after attempting to comply with the White rioters. Another Black eyewitness recounted how he and 30 or 40 other men who had surrendered to the rioters were lined up and forced to run with hands over their heads to an interment center located at Convention Hall, all while some of their White captors shot at their heels with guns. A group of White men even ran a car into the group, knocking over two or three of their number. In another horrifying display of brutality, a Black disabled homeless man was tied by his leg to a car and dragged by ``white thugs'' through the streets of the downtown business district where he panhandled.

While some might attribute these atrocities to the actions of a few ``rogue'' officers, the ``official'' police response to the violence also appears to have been, at best, mired in confusion and, at worst, to have reflected unfounded racial fears of a so-called ``Negro uprising.'' Responding to the baseless rumors that Blacks were coming from outside of town, the police chief ordered roughly one-fifth of the officers on duty to setup checkpoints on various roads leading into the city, and at the railroad station, wasting precious manpower that could have been used elsewhere to prevent the violence and destruction.

Following the Massacre, local authorities did less than nothing to provide justice for the many Black victims. Thousands of Black residents remained in internment camps in the days immediately following the Massacre.

Local officials actively sought to hinder the Black community's rebuilding efforts. Within a week of the Massacre, the Tulsa City Commission passed a fire ordinance aimed at preventing Black Tulsans from rebuilding the Greenwood commercial district where it originally stood, and the so-called Reconstruction Commission established by White business and political leaders batted away offers of outside aid. Black Tulsans successfully challenged the ordinance, which was later struck down as unconstitutional by the Oklahoma Supreme Court, and managed to rebuild at least parts of the community where it once stood. Many other Black residents left homeless or rightfully feeling fearful and unwelcome left Tulsa. Thousands of survivors were likely traumatized by the violence they witnessed or experienced in the Massacre.

The Massacre also destroyed millions of dollars in Black- owned property. The 2001 commission also estimated the property damage at 17 million in 1999 dollars, which would be more than 25 million today. Another source estimates the total value of the property destroyed at between 50 and 100 million in today's dollars.

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