US Senate passes bill to make Black Wall Street a national monument

TULSA, Okla.— Months after a bill to establish Black Wall Street Historic Greenwood District as a national monument stalled in the U.S. Senate, Oklahoma Republican Senator James Lankford announced Friday it had passed out of the chamber.

As we previously reported, S.3543 is a bipartisan bill drafted by U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and James Lankford (R-OK) that would honor the legacy of one of the wealthiest Black communities in the nation’s history and the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, the single worst instance of domestic terrorism.

“It’s a scar on our nation’s history and on my state’s history, but it’s an era that we remember for a reason. Because we know how far we’ve come,” Sen. Lankford told Congress.

For years, members of the Black Wall Street National Monument Coalition have lobbied Congress to honor their ancestors and the legacy carried by their descendants.

National monument bill passes Senate as Black Wall Street Legacy Fest approaches

Hundreds of businesses built by Freedmen from the South and Muscogee (Creek) Freedmen were destroyed and hundreds of men, women and children were massacred between May 31 and June 1, 1921, when the city of Tulsa deputized and emboldened a white mob to destroy Historic Greenwood District.

The bill’s passage out of the Senate comes just days before the 104th anniversary of the Massacre, when thousands will descend upon Historic Greenwood District for the annual Black Wall Street Legacy Fest.

“For the sake of these living witnesses to history and future generations, Congress and the President must act swiftly to ensure Greenwood’s story is enshrined and its lessons never forgotten,” Dr. Tiffany Crutcher, a descendant of other survivors and founder of Black Wall Street Legacy Fest, previously the Black Wall Street Times.

Bill awaits vote in House

Thursday’s vote in the Senate means a community riddled by white supremacist violence moves one step closer to having its resilient spirit memorialized for future generations of Americans. It must now face a vote in the sharply divided, Republican-controlled House.

During his speech, Lankford made it clear that the national monument bill “didn’t change the property rights of any person in Tulsa or Oklahoma” nor does it add eminent domain or give federal government control over the area.

“It’s just a designation so that we will always remember as a nation, something significant happened here. And it’s not just about what happened that day,” Lankford said.

“It’s what it was like before when it was Black Wall Street, a thriving community. It’s like what it was like afterwards, when people stayed and rebuilt a community. It’s like what it is now, when people with great pride continue to be able to thrive.”