WASHINGTON – With just days left before the end of the Congressional session, U.S. Senators on Wednesday passed the bill to establish Black Wall Street as a national monument in Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District.
During a time of deep political and racial divides, the U.S. Senate passed the Black Wall Street National monument bill under unanimous consent. The bill now heads to the U.S. House for a final vote.
If approved before the end of session, outgoing President Biden will have the opportunity to sign it into law.
The bill, S.3543, would establish Oklahoma’s first national monument “to preserve, protect, and interpret for the benefit of present and future generations resources associated with the Historic Greenwood District, Black Wall Street, and the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 and the role of each in the history of the State of Oklahoma and the United States.”
Thursday’s passage of the bill out of the Senate follows years of advocacy from survivors and descendants of the 1921 massacre, when upwards of 300 Black men and women were murdered by a government-sanctioned white mob.
How did we get here?
Jealousy and hatred toward one of the most prosperous Black communities in U.S. history resulted in the destruction of over 35 square blocks, over 200 businesses, over 1,200 homes and the displacement of thousands, according to the Tulsa Historical Society.
The bill to memorialize the community for future generations was first introduced by Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford and New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker in May.
“While the community is committed to the future, we should as a nation also remember our past and learn from it,” Sen. Lankford previously told the subcommittee on National Parks.
Responding to pressure from the Greenwood community to take action before President Biden’s term in office ends, the bipartisan pair convinced colleagues to push the bill out of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in November.
Just two survivors of the massacre remain: 110-year-olds Mothers Viola Ford Fletcher and Lessie Benningfield Randle. Fletcher’s little brother, 102-year-old World War II veteran Hughes Van Ellis, passed away in October 2023.
“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 Greenwood community leader, told the Black Wall Street Times in November.
Black Wall Street National monument bill faces uncertain future in chaotic Congress
On Wednesday, Dec. 18 the full Senate voted to send the bill to the House, which received it at 6:01 p.m. Yet it’s unclear if the bill will make it through the full Congress at a time when lawmakers face pressure over a spending bill to keep the government running.
The stopgap funding measure to avoid a government shutdown faces a Friday deadline. Earlier in the week, Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate had reportedly come to a deal to fund the government through March 2025.
However, debates over spending for hurricane relief, farmers, pay raises for lawmakers and other items. On Wednesday, Republican President-elect Donald Trump weighed in, calling on Republicans to kill the deal and making a new demand to eliminate the nation’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling.
“Anybody that supports a bill that doesn’t take care of the Democrat quicksand known as the debt ceiling should be primaried and disposed of as quickly as possible,” Trump told Fox News Digital Thursday morning.
In what appeared to be a veiled threat to Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, Trump said he will “easily remain speaker” if he acts “decisively” on the spending bill.
As political agendas throw Congress into chaos, a community rebuilding from one of the worst acts of racial domestic terrorism continues to hold onto hope that their community will be memorialized and preserved as a national story for future generations.
Related Stories:
- Black Wall Street national monument bill reaches Senate floor
- Senators Lankford and Booker Introduce Black Wall Street National Monument Bill
- Bipartisan bill aims to make Black Wall Street a National Monument
We must never forget the past and the ultimate sacrifices our ancestors made for us. It is their shoulders through tears, pain and heartache that we stand on. May the Black Wall Street National Monument Bill pass through the House and be a reminder for generations to come of the struggle they endured. I pray the torch continues to be carried to a new generation who are just as strong as their predecessors.