# What This Bill Does

This bill proposes to pay direct compensation to the last surviving victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, one of the worst incidents of racial violence in American history. On May 31 and June 1, 1921, a white mob attacked the thriving Black neighborhood of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, killing hundreds of people, destroying over 1,500 homes and businesses, and leaving approximately 10,000 Black residents homeless. The federal government did nothing to stop the violence or help the victims at the time. Over a century later, this bill aims to provide financial justice to the survivors who are still alive.

The bill would pay each surviving victim approximately $20.8 million—split equally between compensatory damages (to cover their suffering and losses) and punitive damages (to punish the federal government's failure to act). According to the bill, as of May 2025, only two survivors remain: 111-year-old Viola Ford Fletcher and 110-year-old Lessie Benningfield Randle. To receive payment, survivors would only need to provide a birth certificate to the Department of Justice's Civil Rights division, which would then certify the payment. The Treasury Department would have 30 days to send the money, which would come from the federal "Judgment Fund"—a special account used to pay court judgments and settlements against the government.

The bill emphasizes that the federal government has a precedent for providing compensation in extreme historical injustices. Congress previously paid Japanese Americans interned during World War II, uranium miners harmed by their work, and victims of 9/11. The bill argues that the Tulsa Race Massacre, which the Department of Justice recently called "a civil rights crime unique in its scale and devastation," deserves similar recognition. Once survivors receive this payment, they would give up any right to sue the federal government for additional compensation related to the massacre.