T R C   S T A T E M E N T  O F  E N D O R S E M E N T

GUIDED by our commitment to justice and the findings and recommendations of "The Tulsa Race Riot, A Report by the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921," submitted to Governor Frank Keating, the Oklahoma State Legislature, Tulsa Mayor Susan Savage and the Tulsa City Council on February 28, 2001 and

WHEREAS the Tulsa Race Riot is consistent with a pattern of White, riotous assaults upon African American communities throughout early 20th century America; and

WHEREAS according to the Commission's report, the following events occurred on May 31 - June 1, 1921:

• On May 31st, the Tulsa Tribune ran a story covering the arrest of a young Black man jailed for assaulting a White elevator operator based on accusations that were later recanted.
  
• The Tribune edition also contained an inflammatory editorial that not only suggested but incited that there would be a lynching. Following release of the paper, frenzy spread across the White Tulsa community in anticipation of a lynching and across the Black Tulsa community in defense of one.
  
• In the presence of approximately 2,000 White Tulsans, 75 African Americans, some of them World War I veterans, met the Sheriff at the Courthouse, offering to assist in protecting the prisoner.
  
• A struggle ensued between a White Tulsan seeking to disarm one of these veterans and rioting began as a result of the gun being fired.
  
• The City of Tulsa Police Department deputized 500 White Tulsans, many of which were largely responsible for the damage suffered by the African American Greenwood business and residential community;
  
• The State of Oklahoma mobilized a unit of the Oklahoma National Guard that subsequently received a machine gun from the City police that was mounted on a flatbed truck and used against the men, women and children of Greenwood.
  
• Through the night, fires were set and fighting continued as Greenwood's war veterans and citizens defended their community from the White attackers, inclusive of men dressed in State National Guard uniforms, City of Tulsa Police uniforms and under the specially deputized badged authority of the Tulsa Police Department.
  
• At daybreak, Greenwood faced an overwhelming assault and massacre by 5,000-10,000 White Tulsans covered by a second machine gun, airborne gunfire and/or the dropping of incendiary devices, whom prominent and youth members of the Ku Klux Klan probably helped to mobilize.
  
• The organized Whites emptied homes, detained residents, murdered those resisting or found to be armed, looted homes and businesses and set them ablaze; and
  

WHEREAS according to the Commission's report the 18-hour event resulted in:

• Around three hundred deaths, according to the Red Cross official report, accounts of credible witnesses, eyewitness accounts of "bodies of blacks stacked like cordwood on Tulsa streets, black bodies piled on trucks, and on trains" and with circumstantial evidence from renowned physical anthropologist, Dr. Clyde Snow, a member of the Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot that points to the existence of mass graves;
  
• 40 square blocks of 1,265 homes looted and then burned to the ground, including hospitals, schools, and churches owned primarily by African Americans;
  
• 150 businesses leveled also by fire and, in some instances, incendiary devices thrown from the air in the Greenwood district now popularly referred to as the "Black Wall Street" of America;
  
• 6,000 Black Tulsans involuntarily arrested, detained and released only upon being vouched for by a White employer and/or citizen;
  
• 9,000 homeless and living in tents well into the Winter of 1921 and;
  
• An entire generation's inheritance robbed of a people who dared to "lift themselves up by their bootstraps" and live the American dream, only to have it rendered an eternal nightmare; and
  

WHEREAS, the Oklahoma Legislature which created The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Commission directed the Commission to develop and authenticate a list of persons who were residents of the Greenwood community in Tulsa at the time of the events of May 31 and June 1, 1921; and

WHEREAS, The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Commission has identified, contacted, and registered 126 surviving Greenwood community residents from that time period; and

WHEREAS action regarding the Commission's report recommendations is a matter of utmost humanitarian and moral urgency because the 126 survivors of the 1921 Riot are elderly and dying; and

WHEREAS, the Medal of Distinction granted to survivors by the Oklahoma State Legislature was clearly outlined solely to be "a small step in recognition of the harm done to the residents of the Greenwood community on May 31 and June 1, 1921"; and

WHEREAS, the Greenwood community survivors of the events of May 31, 1921, experienced tremendous personal and property loss as the result of the events of those days and those losses have never been properly compensated or recognized; and

WHEREAS, the North Tulsa, Greenwood business and residential district never fully recovered from the riotous assault upon their persons and property on May 31 - June 1, 1921; and

WHEREAS reparations for violations of human rights is fully supported under the International Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations and

WHEREAS the Oklahoma State Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 made their beliefs clear: "There is no way but by government to represent the collective, and there is no way but by reparations to make real the responsibility . . . Reparations are the right thing to do" and

WHEREAS there is clear culpability for the environment and sustenance of the Tulsa race riot, war and massacre of 1921 from both the State of Oklahoma and, in particular, the City of Tulsa;

WHEREAS the African American citizens in the City of Tulsa and the State of Oklahoma were deprived of their right to due process under the law as well as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as outlined in the Constitution of the United States of America,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Tulsa Reparations Coalition endorses the recommendations of the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 as stated in its Feb. 28, 2001 final report:

1.   Direct payment of reparations to survivors of the Tulsa Race Riot.

2.   Direct payment of reparations to descendants of the survivors of the Tulsa Race Riot.

3.   A scholarship fund available to students affected by the Tulsa Race Riot.

4.   Establishment of an economic development enterprise zone in the historic area of the Greenwood District.

5.   A memorial inclusive of the reburial of any human remains found in the search for unmarked graves of riot victims.

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