STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1277

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.C.R. No. 49

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2021

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 49 entitled:

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ACKNOWLEDGING THE FORTHCOMING CENTENNIAL OF THE 1921 TULSA RACE MASSACRE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to acknowledge the forthcoming centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Common Cause Hawaii and six individuals.

Your Committee finds that in the early twentieth century, African Americans in Tulsa, Oklahoma, district of Greenwood, built a thriving and nationally-renowned entrepreneurial center often referred to as the "Black Wall Street". Your Committee further finds that, from May 31 to June 1, 1921, this community was decimated by thousands of armed white Tulsa residents in a wave of racially-based violence following an unsubstantiated allegation made by a young white woman against a young African American man. Your Committee additionally finds that local officials not only failed to take actions to calm or contain the violence, but aggravated it by providing firearms and ammunition to and deputizing hundreds of white men from a crowd that had gathered as a potential lynch mob, who in that capacity engaged in overt and often illegal acts that destroyed the Greenwood community. Your Committee also finds that this event, known as the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, and its aftermath were largely omitted from local, state, and national histories for decades, and that none of the officials or residents who took part in the violence were ever held accountable for their actions.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting language describing resolutions introduced in both chambers of the United States Congress in March 2021, recognizing the one hundred year anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre;

(2) Requesting the members of the United States Congress to take action to advance the current recognitory resolutions;

(3) Providing that certified copies be sent to the Majority Leader of the United State Senate, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, members of Hawaii's congressional delegation, Governor of Oklahoma; Mayor and Councilors of the City Council of Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Chair of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission; and

(4) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 49, as amended herein, and recommends its adoption in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 49, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

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KARL RHOADS, Chair