Day of Remembrance: 100 Years After the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre
| Published date | 04 June 2021 |
| Citation | 86 FR 29929 |
| Record Number | 2021-11874 |
| Section | Presidential Documents |
| Court | Executive Office Of The President |
Federal Register, Volume 86 Issue 106 (Friday, June 4, 2021)
[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 106 (Friday, June 4, 2021)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 29929-29930]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-11874] Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 106 / Friday, June 4, 2021 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 29929]]
Proclamation 10219 of May 31, 2021
Day of Remembrance: 100 Years After the 1921
Tulsa Race Massacre
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
One hundred years ago, a violent white supremacist mob
raided, firebombed, and destroyed approximately 35
square blocks of the thriving Black neighborhood of
Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Families and children
were murdered in cold blood. Homes, businesses, and
churches were burned. In all, as many as 300 Black
Americans were killed, and nearly 10,000 were left
destitute and homeless. Today, on this solemn
centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre, I call on the
American people to reflect on the deep roots of racial
terror in our Nation and recommit to the work of
rooting out systemic racism across our country.
Before the Tulsa Race Massacre, Greenwood was a
thriving Black community that had grown into a proud
economic and cultural hub. At its center was Greenwood
Avenue, commonly known as Black Wall Street. Many of
Greenwood's 10,000 residents were Black sharecroppers
who fled racial violence after the Civil War.
In the decades following the Civil War and
Reconstruction, Greenwood became a place where Black
Americans were able to make a new start and secure
economic progress despite the continued pain of
institutional and overt racism. The community was home
to a growing number of prominent Black entrepreneurs as
well as working-class Black families who shared a
commitment to social activism and economic opportunity.
As Greenwood grew, Greenwood Avenue teemed with
successful Black-owned businesses, including
restaurants, grocery stores, hotels, and offices for
doctors, lawyers, and dentists. The community also
maintained its own school system, post office, a
savings and loan institution, hospital, and bus and
taxi service.
Despite rising Jim Crow systems and the reemergence of
the Ku Klux Klan, Greenwood's economic prosperity grew,
as did its citizens' demands for equal rights. This
made the community a source of pride for many Black
Americans. It also made the neighborhood and its
families a target of white supremacists. In 2 days, a
violent mob tore down the hard-fought success of Black
Wall Street that had taken more than a decade to build.
In the years that followed, the destruction caused by
the mob was followed by laws and policies that made
recovery nearly impossible. In the aftermath of the
attack, local ordinances were passed requiring new
construction standards that were prohibitively
expensive, meaning many Black families could not
rebuild. Later, Greenwood was redlined by mortgage
companies and deemed ``hazardous'' by the Federal
Government so that Black homeowners could not access
home loans or credit on equal terms. And in later
decades, Federal investment, including Federal highway
construction, tore down and cut off parts of the
community. The attack on Black families and Black
wealth in Greenwood persisted across generations.
The Federal Government must reckon with and acknowledge
the role that it has played in stripping wealth and
opportunity from Black communities. The Biden-Harris
Administration is committed to acknowledging the role
[[Page 29930]]
Federal policy played in Greenwood and other Black
communities and addressing longstanding racial
inequities through historic investments in the economic
security of children and families, programs to provide
capital for small businesses in economically
disadvantaged areas, including minority-owned
businesses, and ensuring that infrastructure projects
increase opportunity, advance racial equity and
environmental justice, and promote affordable access.
A century later, the fear and pain from the devastation
of Greenwood is still felt. As Viola Fletcher, a 107-
year-old survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre
courageously testified before the Congress recently,
``I will never forget the violence of the white mob
when we left our home. I still see Black men being
shot, Black bodies lying in the street. I still smell
smoke and see fire. I still see Black businesses being
burned. I still hear airplanes flying overhead. I hear
the screams. I have lived through the massacre every
day. Our country may forget this history, but I
cannot.''
With this proclamation, I commit to the survivors of
the Tulsa Race Massacre, including Viola Fletcher,
Hughes Van Ellis, and Lessie Benningfield Randle, the
descendants of victims, and to this Nation that we will
never forget. We honor the legacy of the Greenwood
community, and of Black Wall Street, by reaffirming our
commitment to advance racial justice through the whole
of our government, and working to root out systemic
racism from our laws, our policies, and our hearts.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of
the United States of America, by virtue of the
authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws
of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 31, 2021,
a Day of Remembrance: 100 Years After The 1921 Tulsa
Race Massacre. I call upon the people of the United
States to commemorate the tremendous loss of life and
security that occurred over those 2 days in 1921, to
celebrate the bravery and resilience of those who
survived and sought to rebuild their lives again, and
commit together to eradicate systemic racism and help
to rebuild communities and lives that have been
destroyed by it.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
thirty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twenty-one, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
fifth.
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 2021-11874
Filed 6-3-21; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3295-F1-P
