Hank Johnson: “I thank Congressman Torres for anchoring this very important Special Order hour today. I also want to extend my deepest…”

“I thank Congressman Torres for anchoring this very important Special Order hour today. I also want to extend my deepest condolences to the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and my friend, the Honorable Joyce Beatty, who lost her dear husband a few days ago. He passed away. He was a fine public servant and a fine civil rights champion, and he will be missed. We are there in prayer and in spirit with our dear sister. It has been said that sunlight is the best disinfectant, yet the terrible atrocity that took place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 100 years ago, on May 31 and June 1 of 1921, has lived in the shadows for far too long. It is time that the truth be told. We must know our past or we are bound to repeat it. In 1921, the Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was prospering, despite a racist system designed to marginalize and exclude it and its residents from the fruits of those citizens' labor. It was a community known as Greenwood, and it was also known as the Black Wall Street. It was a thriving community. There were restaurants, grocery stores, hotels, theaters, banks, insurance companies, all owned by Black people. This community was self-sufficient. It was prospering, despite the fact that segregation was the norm and the lynching of Black men was as common as the white hoods of the KKK. The simple fact is this: The Black community was succeeding in Tulsa, so White people burned it down. White supremacy and Jim Crow were the sparks that lit the fire.…”