Full Text of HR0449 101st General Assembly
HR0449 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, "Black Wall Street" was a prospering | 3 | | African-American neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that went up | 4 | | in flames 98 years ago; incredibly, most Americans have never | 5 | | heard of the shameful events of June 1, 1921, when whites | 6 | | firebombed the neighborhood and an estimated 300 | 7 | | African-Americans were murdered; and
| 8 | | WHEREAS, During the course of 18 hours on May 31 and June | 9 | | 1, 1921, more than 1,000 homes and businesses in Tulsa, | 10 | | Oklahoma were destroyed and estimates of 50 to 300 people were | 11 | | killed during the race bombing; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, By early 1921, Tulsa, Oklahoma was a modern city | 13 | | with a population of more than 100,000; most of the city's | 14 | | 10,000 African-American residents lived in the Greenwood | 15 | | District, a vibrant neighborhood that was home to two | 16 | | newspapers, several churches, a library branch, and scores of | 17 | | black-owned businesses; and
| 18 | | WHEREAS, On May 30, 1921, an incident involving Dick | 19 | | Rowland, an African-American shoe shiner, and Sarah Page, a | 20 | | white elevator operator, in the Drexel Building in Tulsa would | 21 | | rapidly escalate into one of the single worst incidents of | 22 | | racial violence in American history; the most common |
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| 1 | | explanation is that Rowland stepped on Page's foot as he | 2 | | entered the elevator, causing her to scream, and Rowland was | 3 | | arrested by the police; and
| 4 | | WHEREAS, On May 30, 1921, the Tulsa Tribune, the city's | 5 | | afternoon daily newspaper, reported that Rowland had attempted | 6 | | to rape Page; by 7:30 P.M., hundreds of whites had gathered | 7 | | outside the Tulsa County Courthouse demanding that the | 8 | | authorities hand over Rowland, but the sheriff refused; at | 9 | | around 9 P.M., after reports of the dire conditions downtown | 10 | | reached Greenwood, a group of approximately 25 armed | 11 | | African-American men, many of them World War I veterans, went | 12 | | down to the courthouse and offered their services to the | 13 | | authorities to help protect Rowland but were rebuffed by the | 14 | | sheriff; at around 10 P.M., a false rumor hit Greenwood that | 15 | | whites were storming the courthouse, prompting a second | 16 | | contingent of African-American men to go back to the courthouse | 17 | | and offer their services to the authorities, who were once | 18 | | again turned away; as the group was leaving, a white man tried | 19 | | to disarm a black veteran and a shot was fired, an incident | 20 | | that became the start of the race bombing; and
| 21 | | WHEREAS, Over the next 6 hours, Tulsa was plunged into | 22 | | chaos as angry whites, frustrated over the failed lynching, | 23 | | began to vent their rage at African-Americans in general; | 24 | | furious fighting erupted along the Frisco railroad tracks, |
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| 1 | | where black defenders were able to hold off members of the | 2 | | white mob; an unarmed African-American man was murdered inside | 3 | | a downtown movie theater, while carloads of armed whites began | 4 | | making "drive-by" shootings in black residential | 5 | | neighborhoods; by midnight, fires had been set along the edge | 6 | | of the African-American commercial district; in some of the | 7 | | city's all-night cafes, whites began to organize for a dawn | 8 | | invasion of Greenwood; and
| 9 | | WHEREAS, During the early hours of the race bombing, local | 10 | | authorities did little to stem the growing crisis, and Tulsa | 11 | | police officers had deputized former members of the lynch mob; | 12 | | local units of the National Guard were mobilized, but they | 13 | | spent most of the night protecting a white neighborhood from a | 14 | | nonexistent black counterattack; and | 15 | | WHEREAS, Shortly before dawn on June 1, 1921, thousands of | 16 | | armed whites had gathered along the fringes of Greenwood; after | 17 | | daybreak, they poured into the African-American district, | 18 | | looting homes and businesses and setting them on fire; numerous | 19 | | atrocities occurred, including the murder of A. C. Jackson, a | 20 | | renowned black surgeon, who was shot after he surrendered to a | 21 | | group of whites; at least one machine gun was utilized by the | 22 | | invading whites, and some have claimed that airplanes were used | 23 | | in the attack; black Tulsans fought hard to protect their homes | 24 | | and businesses, with particularly sharp fighting occurring off |
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| 1 | | of Standpipe Hill, but were outgunned and outnumbered in the | 2 | | end; and | 3 | | WHEREAS, Following the race bombing, a brief period of | 4 | | martial law was followed by various legal maneuvers; even | 5 | | though Dick Rowland was exonerated, an all-white grand jury | 6 | | blamed black Tulsans for the events that transpired; despite | 7 | | overwhelming evidence, no whites were ever sent to prison for | 8 | | the murders and arson that had occurred; and | 9 | | WHEREAS, The vast majority of Tulsa's African-American | 10 | | population had been made homeless by the race bombing; despite | 11 | | efforts by the white establishment to force the relocation of | 12 | | the black community, black Tulsans had already begun the long | 13 | | and arduous process of rebuilding Greenwood within days; | 14 | | thousands were forced to spend the winter of 1921-1922 living | 15 | | in tents; and | 16 | | WHEREAS, The deep scars left by the race bombing remained | 17 | | visible for years, and it became a taboo subject, particularly | 18 | | in Tulsa, for many years; in 1997, a state commission was | 19 | | formed to investigate the race bombing; the commission | 20 | | recommended that reparations be paid to the remaining | 21 | | survivors, while a team of scientists and historians uncovered | 22 | | evidence supporting long-held beliefs that unidentified | 23 | | victims had been buried in unmarked grave sites; and |
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, It is important that the people of the State of | 2 | | Illinois and the nation do not forget this terrible tragedy; | 3 | | therefore, be it
| 4 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 5 | | HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 6 | | we mourn the loss of life and the loss of the black economy of | 7 | | Tulsa, Oklahoma that took place on May 31 and June 1, 1921.
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