Bill Shifts Race Riot Artifacts To Tulsa Control

Legislation approved by the State House today would give Tulsa control of all historical artifacts relating to the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.

House Bill 1077, by state Rep. Lucky Lamons, shifts control of the artifacts to the City of Tulsa for use with the John Hope Franklin Greenwood Reconciliation Memorial and Museum.

The state of Oklahoma currently has control of those artifacts.

“It just makes sense to transfer ownership of the property to the City of Tulsa because it increases the city’s ability to determine how the memorial will be designed, operated and funded,” said Lamons, D-Tulsa. “The museum will be in the middle of Tulsa’s entertainment district so it doesn’t make much sense to have it run out of Oklahoma City.”

Officials are currently developing plans for a proposed John Hope Franklin Greenwood Reconciliation Memorial and Museum in Tulsa that would commemorate the riot, which destroyed much of the all-black Greenwood district (which lies in Lamons’s district). The riot reportedly killed dozens and left thousands homeless.

House Bill 1077 passed out of the Oklahoma House of Representatives on a 100-0 vote today. It now proceeds to the Senate.

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