WASHINGTON –
The U.S. Senate has unanimously passed a bill that would designate a national monument in Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District, the site of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
The Historic Greenwood District—Black Wall Street National Monument Establishment Act now heads to the U.S. House of Representatives for consideration. If passed by the House and signed into law by President Donald Trump, the legislation would authorize the National Park Service to map the monument’s boundaries in the Greenwood area.
Previous Story: Bill To Establish Black Wall Street Monument Closer To Becoming Law
Bipartisan Support
Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker co-introduced the bill in 2023. It passed unanimously in the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources before winning full Senate approval Thursday by unanimous consent.
Lankford, who has worked for years to formally recognize the Tulsa Race Massacre, highlighted the importance of commemorating the tragedy while acknowledging the resilience of the Greenwood community.
“May 31 of 1921, the largest race massacre in American history occurred in my great state of Oklahoma,” Lankford said on the Senate floor. “That community was burned to the ground and destroyed in a race massacre. It’s a scar on our nation’s history, my state’s history, but it’s an area that we remember for a reason because we know how far we’ve come.”
John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park. | Photo: Alisha McDarris (Terradrift[dot]com.)
Remembering Black Wall Street
The bill seeks to honor the legacy of Black Wall Street, a once-thriving African American business district that was decimated during the massacre. Lankford emphasized that the national monument designation does not alter property rights or impose federal control.
“It just gave a designation, a monument designation to that area… so that we will always remember as a nation something significant happened here,” he said.
Lankford praised his colleagues for supporting the legislation, noting the significance of the vote for Oklahomans and Greenwood residents.
“It may not be significant to a lot of people in the country, but it is to us in Oklahoma. It is to the good folks in Greenwood,” he said. “It’s not a bad thing for us to remember during this time period how far we’ve come and the work that is still yet to go.”
If approved by the House, the bill would become law and initiate the process for officially establishing the monument in partnership with the Greenwood community.
See Also: Greenwood Cultural Center certifies 1st descendant of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre
