I in Delaware were a small state Where the 8th largest black population in America. And we have one of the most talented members of Congress. And so if I didn't walk around and pay my tribute to lisa blunt Rochester, my congressman. Immediately, how are you rev Good to see it. We've got a distinguished group of people here and and I want to thank Lauren for sharing the powerful story and for helping the country understand what's happening here and to all the descendants here today into the community and civil rights leaders and members of the congressional black caucus that are here. Thank you for making sure we all remember and we never forget. You know, there's a verse in first Corinthians that says for now we see in America dimly, but then face to face. Now, I know in part then I shall know fully. It is I just toward the Hall of Survivors here in Greenwood Cultural Center and I want to thank the incredible staff for hosting us here. And you're not prepared to thank you if I didn't say what my father insists on. Please excuse my back. Mhm. Yeah, but the tour and the tour I met mother Randall, Whose only 56 years old. Mhm. God love her And mother Fletcher, who's 67 years old and her brother, Her brother van Ellis was 100 years old. Yeah. And he looks like he's 60. Thank you for spending so much time with me. I really mean it it was a great honor of genuine honour. You are three known remaining survivors of a story seen in the mirror dimly, but no longer. Now, your story will be known in full view. The events we speak of the day took place 100 years ago. And yet I'm the first president in 100 years ever to come to Tulsa. And I say that not as a compliment about me but to think about 100 years and the first president to be here during that entire time. And in this place in this ground to acknowledge the truth. What took place here for much too long. The history of what took place here was told in silence, cloaked in darkness. But just because history is silent, it doesn't mean that it did not take place. And while darkness can hide much, it erases nothing. It erases nothing. Some injustices are so heinous, so horrific, so grievous. They can't be buried no matter how hard people try. And so it is here only only with truth can come healing injustice and repair only with truth facing it. But that isn't enough. First we have to see, hear and give respect the mother Randall, mother fletcher and mr Van Ellis and all those lost so many years ago. So all the descendants of those who suffered to this community, that's why we're here to shine a light to make sure America knows the story in full May 1921. Formerly enslaved black people and their descendants are here in Tulsa, a boom town of oil and opportunity in the new frontier on the north side, across the rail tracks that divided the city already segregated by law, they built something of their own worthy worthy of their talent and their ambition. Greenwood, a community, a way of life, black doctors and lawyers, pastors, teachers, running hospitals, law practices, libraries, churches, schools, black veterans like the man, I had the privilege to give me the command coin too. Who fought, volunteered and fought and came home and still face such prejudice restaurants. I've been back a few years helping after when the First World War building a new life back home with pride and confidence for mom and there were at the time, mom and plaque, mom and pop black diners, grocery stores, barbershops tailors, the things that make up a community at the Dreamland Theater, a young black couple holding hands falling in love, friends gathered at music clubs and pool halls at the Monroe family roller skating rink, visitors staying in hotels like the Stratford all around black pride shared by the professional class and the working class who lived together side by side for blocks on end. Mother Randall was just six years old, six years old. Live with her grandma. She said she was lucky to have a home and toys unfortunate to live without fear. Mother fletcher was seven years old. 2nd of seven Children, the youngest being mr Van Ellis was just a few months old, the Children, former sharecroppers when they went to bed at night in Greenwood, Mother fletcher says they fell asleep. Rich in terms of the wealth, not real wealth, but a different wealth, a wealth and culture, community and heritage one Night 1 Night changed everything, Everything changed while Green was a community to itself. It was not separated from the outside, it wasn't everyone, but there was enough hate resentment, resentment and vengeance in the community. Enough people who believe that America does not belong to everyone and not everyone is created equal native americans, asian americans, Hispanic americans, black americans, a belief enforced by law by badge, by hood and by noose that speaks so that lit the fuse. It lifted by the sparkly to provide refuse of fury was an innocent interaction that turned into and it's terrible, terrible headline allegations of a black male teenager attacking a white female teenager. White mob of 1000 gathered around the courthouse for the black teenagers being held ready to do. It still occurred lynch that young man that night, But 75 black men, including black veterans, arrived to stand guard. Words were exchanged, then a scuffle, then the shots fired. Hell was unleashed, literal hell was unleashed through the night. And in the morning the mob terrorized green with torches and guns shooting it will. A mob tied a black man by the waist to the back of their truck with his head banging along the pavement as they drove off, murdered black family draped over the fence of their home outside and only couple knelt by the bed praying to God with their heart and their soul when they were shot in the back of their heads, private planes, private planes dropping explosives. The first and only domestic aerial assault of its kind on an american city here in Tulsa Aid of Greenwood's nearly two dozen churches burned like Mount Zion. Across the street at vernon Amy, Mother Randall said it was like a war mother fletcher says all these years later, she still sees black bodies around the Greenwood newspaper. Publisher AJ smith, Burton sumi smith or man penned a poem of what he heard and felt that night. Here's the poem, he said, Kill them, Burn them, set the pace, teach them how to keep their place. Rain of murder, theft and plunder was the order of the night. That's what he remembers the poem that he wrote 100 years ago. At this hour on this first day of june smoke dark in the Tulsa sky, Rising from 35 blocks of Greenwood. They were left in ash and ember raised in rubble. Less than 24 hours, Less than 24 hours, 1100 black homes and businesses were lost. Insurance companies, that insurance, many of them rejected claims of damage. 10 people were left destitute and homeless placed in internment camps because I was told today they were told, don't you mention you were ever in a camp? Well, come and get you. That's the survivors to him yet. No one, no arrest. The mob were made none, no proper accounting of the dead. The death toll records, My local officials said there were 36 people. That's all 36 people based on studies records and accounts the likelihood likely numbers much more. In the multiple of hundreds untold bodies dumped into mass graves. Families who at the time waited for hours and days to know the fate of their loved ones are now descendants. We've gone 100 years without clutching. But you know, as we speak, the process, the process of egg zooming the unmarked graves has started. And at this moment I'd like to pause for a moment of silence for the fathers and mothers and sisters. Sons and daughters, Friends of God and greenwood. They deserve dignity and they deserve our respect. May their souls rest in peace. My fellow americans. This was not right. This was a massacre among right among the worst in our history, but not the only one and for too long forgotten by our history. As soon as it happened, there was a clear effort to erase it from our memory. Our collective man from the news and everyday conversations. For a long time, schools in Tulsa didn't even teach it, let alone schools elsewhere. And most people didn't realize that a century ago, the second clue cuts clan had been founded. The second glucose can be found it friend of mine Jon meacham I'd written when I said I was running to restore the soul of America. He wrote a book called the Soul America. Not because of what I said. There's a picture about page 160 in the book showing Over 30,000 Clue Klux Klan members in full regalia in river pointed hats, robes marching down pennsylvania avenue in Washington, D. C. Jesse. You know all about this Washington Washington, D. C. If my memory is correct, there were 37 members of the House of Representatives who were open members of the Klan. There were five, if I'm not mistaken, could have been 75 members of the United States Senate. Open members of the Klan, multiple governors. We're open members of the Klan. Most people didn't realize that a century glow. The Klan was founded just six years before the horrific destruction here in Tulsa. And one of the reasons why it was founded, it was because of guys like me or catholic. It wasn't about african americans, it was about making sure that all those polish an irish italian and eastern european Catholics who came to United States after World War. We're not pollute Christianity flames and those burning crosses torched every reason re region of the country, millions of white americans belong to the clan and they weren't even embarrassed by they were proud of it. And that hate became embedded systematically and systemically and our laws and our culture. We do ourselves no favours by pretending none of this ever happened or doesn't impact us today because it does still impact us today. We can't just choose to learn what we want to know and not what we should know should no good. The bad, everything, that's what great nations do. They come to terms with their dark sides and we're a great nation. The only way to build a common ground is to truly repair and to rebuild. I come here to help fill the silence because in silence wounds deepen and only as painful as it is. Only in remembrance do wounds heal. We just have to choose to remember. We moralize what happened here in Tulsa. So it can be so it can't be erased. We know here this hallowed place, we simply can't bury pain and trauma forever. And at some point to be a reckoning an inflection point like we're facing right now as a nation, but many people hadn't seen before are simply refused to see, cannot be ignored any longer. You see it in so many places there is greater recognition, but for too long we've allowed a narrowed cramped view of the promise of this nation to fester. The view that America is a zero sum game where there's only one winner if you succeed, I failed. If you get ahead, I'm fall behind. If you get a job, I lose mine. And maybe worst of all, if I hold you down, I lift myself up instead of if you do well, we all do well. We see that in Greenwood this story is about the loss of life, but the loss of living, of wealth and prosperity and possibilities that's still revert race today. Mother Fletcher talks about how she was the only able to attend school in the 4th grade and eventually found work in the shipyards as a domestic worker. Mr Van Ellis has shared how even after enlisting and serving in World War Two, he still came home to struggle with a segregated America. Imagine all those hotels and dinners and mom and pop shops that could have been passed down this past 100 years. Imagine what could have been done for black families in Greenwood, Financial security and generational wealth. If you come from back lines like my my family, working class, middle class families, the only way we were able to generate any wealth as an equity in our homes. Imagine what they contributed then what they could have contributed all these years. Imagine a thriving greenwood in North Tulsa for the last 100 years. But that would have meant for all of Tulsa, including the white community. While the people of Greenwood rebuild again in the years after the massacre, it didn't last. Eventually neighborhoods were redlined on maps blocking black Tulsa out of home ownership. The highway was built right through the heart of the community At least. I was talking about our west side with 95 did though after we were occupied by the military after Dr. was murdered, the community cutting off black families and business from jobs and opportunity chronic under investment from state and federal governments denied green with even just a chance of rebuilding, must find the courage to change the things we know we can change. That's a vice president. Harris and I are focused on along with our entire administration, including our housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge, who is here today because today we're announcing to expanded efforts targeted toward black wealth creation that will also help the entire community. The first is my administration has launched an aggressive effort to combat racial discrimination in housing that includes everything from red lining to the cruel fact that a home owned by a black family is too often appraised at lower value than a similar home by the way, I might add, and I need help if you have to answer this, but I can't figure this one out, congressman horsemen. But if you live in the black community and there's another one on the other side of the highway is the white community, It's built by the same builder and you have a better driving record than the guy with the same car in the white community. Your can pay more for your auto insurance, shockingly. The percentage of black american homeownership is lower today in America. Then when the Fair Housing Act was passed, more than 50 years lower today, that's wrong. And we're committed to changing that. Just imagine In the 79 millions of Americans the building to own their own home and build generational wealth, we made it possible for them to buy a home and build equity into that into that home and provide for their families. Second, small businesses are the engines of our economy and the glue of our communities. As president, my administration oversees hundreds of billions of dollars in federal contracts for everything from refurbishing decks of aircraft carriers, are installing railings and federal buildings to professional services. The other thing called, I won't go into it all. There's not enough time now, but I'm determined to use every taxpayer's dollar that is assigned to me to spend going to american companies and american workers to build that, build american products. And as part of that, I'm going to increase the share of the dollars. The federal government spends Two small, disadvantaged businesses, including black and brown small businesses. Right now, it calls for 10% going to move that to 15% of every dollar spent. I thought it would do that. Just imagine him instead of denying millions of entrepreneurs the ability to access capital and contracting rated possible to take their dreams to the marketplace to create jobs and invest in our communities. That the data shows young black entrepreneurs are just as capable of succeeding given the chance as white entrepreneurs are, but they don't have lawyers, they don't have, they don't have accountants, but they have great ideas. Does anyone doubt this whole nation be better off from the investments those people making? I promise you, that's why I set up the National Small Business Administration that's much broader because they're going to get those loans instead of consigning millions of american Children to under resourced schools. Let's keep each and every child three and 4 years old, access to school, not a daycare school. The last 10 years. Studies have been done by all the great universities. It shows that are increased by 56%. The possibility of a child no matter what background they come from, no matter what. If they start school at three years old, They have a 56% chance of going all through all 12 years without any trouble and being able to do well and a chance to learn and grow and thrive in a school and throughout their lives. And let's unlock more than an incredible creativity and innovation that will come from the nation's historically back colleges universities. No, I have a $5 billion dollar a year program giving them the resources to invest in research centers and laboratories and high demand fields to compete for good paying jobs and industries like the future like cybersecurity. The reason why they don't, their students are equally able to learn as well and get the good paying job that started 90,100,000 bucks. but they don't have they don't have the back, they don't have the money to provide and build those laboratories. So guess what? They're going to get the money to build those, Right? So instead of just talking about infrastructure, let's get about the about the business actually rebuilding roads and highways, filling the sidewalks and cracks, installing street lights and high speed internet, creating space space to live and work and play safely. Let's ensure access to healthcare, clean water, clean air, nearby grocery stores stocked with fresh vegetables and food. That in fact, do it. I mean, these are all things we can do. Does anyone doubt this whole nation would be better off with these investments? The rich will be just as well off. The middle class will do better and everybody will do better. It's about good paying jobs, financial stability. Being able to build some generational wealth, it's about economic growth for our country and out competing the rest of the world, which is now out competing us. But just as fundamental as any of these investments I've discussed is maybe the most fundamental right to vote right to vote. A lot of the members of the black caucus knew john Lewis better night, but I knew him on his deathbed, like many, I called john to speak rev, all john wanted to do is talk about how I was doing. He died I think about 25 hours later. But you know what John said, he called the right to vote precious, almost sacred. He said the most powerful, nonviolent tool we have in a democratic society. This sacred right is under assault with incredible intensity. Like I've never seen, even though I got started as a public defender in the civil rights with an intensity and aggressiveness we have not seen in a long, long time. It's simply un american. It's not however sadly unprecedented the creed we shall overcome. There's a long time mainstay of the civil rights movement, jesse Jackson can tell you better than anybody. The obstacle process to progress have to be overcome are a constant challenge We saw in the 60's over the current assault is not just an echo of a distant history. In 2020, we faced a tireless assault on the right to vote restrictive laws, lawsuits, threats of intimidation, voter purges and more we resolved overcome at all. And we did more americans voted in the last election than any in the midst of the pandemic than any election in american history. You got voters registered, you got voters to the polls the rule of law. Hell democracy prevailed. We overcame. But today let me be unequivocal. I've been engaged in this work my whole career and we're going to be ramping up efforts to overcome again. I will have more to say about this at a later date, truly unprecedented assault on our democracy, an effort to replace nonpartisan election administrators and to intimidate those charged with talent and reporting the election results. But today, as for the act of voting itself, I urge voting rights groups in this country to begin to redouble their efforts now to register and educate voters and in june june should be a month of action on capitol hill. I hear all the folks on tv saying why doesn't bite and get this done well because biden only has a majority of effectively four votes in the house and a tie in the Senate With two members of the Senate who vote more with my Republican. But if we're not giving up earlier this year, the House Representative past for the People Act to protect our democracy, the Senate, we'll take it up later this month and I'm going to fight like heck with every tool in my disposable for his passage. The House is also working in the john LewiS voting Rights Act, which is which is critical, providing new legal tools to come back to new, is solving the right to vote to signify the importance of our efforts. Today, I'm asking Vice President Harris to help these efforts and lead them among her many other responsibilities. With our leadership and your support. We're gonna overcome again, I promise you, but it's gonna take a hell of a lot of work. And finally, we have to and finally, we must address what remains the stain on the soul of America. What happened in Greenwood was an act of hate and domestic terrorism with a through line that exists today. Still just close your eyes. Remember what you saw in Charlottesville four years ago on television. Neo nazis, White supremacists, the KKK coming out of those fields at night, Virginia with lighted torches, the vein bulging on as they were screaming. Remember just close your eyes and picture what it was. Well, mother fletcher said when she saw the insurrection at the capitol On January nine, it broke her heart. A mob of violent white extremists thugs, he said, reminded her of what happened here in Greenland 100 years ago. Look around the various hate crimes against asian americans and jewish America hate that never goes away. Hey, it only hides jesse. I think I mentioned this to you. I thought after you guys push through with DR king, the voting rights Act, The Civil rights Act. I thought we removed. Well, I didn't realize I thought we had made enormous progress. That was so proud to be a little part of it. But you know what RAM? I didn't realize hates never defeated. It only hides it higher and given a little bit of oxygen. It's a little bit of oxygen wise leaders. It comes out of their from under the rock like it was happening again as if it never went away. So folks, we can, we must not give hate a safe harbor. As I said in my address to the joint session of Congress, according the intelligence community, terrorism from white supremacy is the most lethal threat to the homeland today. Not ISIS, not Al Qaeda White Supremacists, that's not me. That's the intelligence community under both trump and under my administration. Two weeks ago I signed into law, the Covid 19 hate crimes act. Was the house has passed in the Senate. My administration will soon lay out our broader strategy to counter domestic terrorism and the violence driven by the most heinous hate crimes and other forms of vigorous of bigotry. But I'm going to close where I started to mother Randall, mother fletcher mr Van Ellis, to the descendants and all survivors. Thank you. Thank you for giving me the honor of being able to spend some time with you earlier today. Thank you for your courage. Thank you for your commitment. Thank you Children, your grandchildren and your uncle and your nieces and your nephews to see and learn from you is a gift. A genuine gift dr john hope franklin on America's greatest historians, Tulsa's proud son whose father was a Greenwood survivor said. And I quote, whatever you do, it must be done in the spirit of goodwill and mutual respect and even love. How else can we overcome the past and be worthy of our forebears and face the future? Come with confidence and with hope on this sacred and solemn day, may we find that distinctly green wood spirit that defines the american spirit, A spirit that gives me so much confidence and hope for the future. That helps us see face to face. A spirit. It helps us know fully who we are and who we can be as a people and as a nation, I've never been more optimistic about the future than I am today. I mean the reason is because of this new generation of young people, they're the best educated, the least prejudiced, the most open generation in american history. And although I had no scientific basis for about to say, But those of you who are over 50, how often did you ever see, how often do you ever see advertisements on television with black and white couples? Not a joke. I challenge you. Fine. Today. When you turn on the station's sit on one station for two hours and I don't know how many commercials will see Play 8: five. 2-3 out of five have mixed race couples in it. That's not by accident. They're selling soap man, not a joke. Remember old Pat caddell used to say, you want to know what's happened in american culture? Watch advertisers because they want to sell what they have. We have hope and folks like you, honey, I really mean we have hope, but we've got to give them support. We have got to give them the backbone to do what we know has to be done. Because I doubt whether any of you would be here if you didn't care deeply about this, ensuring the devil didn't come to hear me speak. Mhm. But I really mean it I really mean it. Let's not give up man. Let's not give up. As the old saying goes, Hope springs eternal. I know we've talked a lot about famous people, but I'm, my colleagues in the Senate used to always kid me because I was always quoting irish poets. I think I did it because I'm irish. They think I did it because the irish, we have a little chip on our shoulder little bit sometimes. That's how I did it. I did it because they're the best poets in the world. You can smile. It's okay. It's too there was a famous poet who wrote a poem called The Cure at Troy Shame is Heat and there's a stands in it, I think, is the definition of what I think should be our call today for young people. He said, history teaches us not to hope on this side of the grave. But then once in a lifetime that longed for tidal wave of justice rises up and hope history rhyme. Let's make it right.