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Biden’s $6 trillion budget proposal would rebuild America’s social safety net

President Joe Biden’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/budget_fy22.pdf">fiscal year 2022 budget</a>, released on Friday, lays out an ambitious plan for the country. It calls for just over $6 trillion in total spending in the coming fiscal year and reimagines how — and for whom — the American economy works.
As proposed, the budget would reinvest in infrastructure and education, raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations, and meet many — but not all — of Biden’s campaign promises. It also represents the most substantial expansion of the federal government’s spending powers since World War II and a direct rebuttal of the small-government principles of his Republican, and even many Democratic, predecessors.
The budget is also notable for what it does not include: a renewal of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/videos/21454689/obamacare-abortion-hyde-amendment">Hyde Amendment</a>, which bars federal funding for abortions. That rule, in place for more than four decades, has been criticized for contributing to economic and racial inequality — and its absence is one of several ways that this budget aims to affirmatively target root causes of inequality.
“It is a budget that reflects the fact that trickle-down economics has never worked, and that the best way to grow our economy is not from the top down, but from the bottom up and the middle out,” Biden wrote in his budget message to Congress. “If we make that understanding our foundation, everything we build upon it will be strong.”
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Today, I released my budget for the upcoming fiscal year. It builds on the progress we’ve made over the last few months and makes historic investments that will help our nation build back better for decades to come. Read more here: <a href="https://t.co/6dKv8wa4yI">https://t.co/6dKv8wa4yI</a>
— President Biden (@POTUS) <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1398335190229995521?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2021</a></blockquote>
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When the Biden administration unveiled a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/FY2022-Discretionary-Request.pdf">partial budget request</a> framing its discretionary spending proposals in early April, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22375777/biden-budget-discretionary-funding-request">Vox’s German Lopez wrote</a> that the plan was “grounded in a clear vision: The government can — and should — do much more to solve the many problems facing the country.”
Biden’s full budget continues to reflect that philosophy while fleshing out Biden’s broader presidential agenda, including legislative proposals like the American Jobs and American Families plans.
However, nothing in Biden’s budget is binding, nor is the ambitious plan likely to be enacted in full. The president’s budget is a regular feature of the broader budget process, but it’s by no means the final word. That’s up to <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/about/congress/federal_budgeting_accessible.jsp">Congress</a>, which will eventually pass its own budget resolution and a series of appropriations bills to actually fund the government into the next fiscal year.
As <a href="https://www.vox.com/2017/2/27/14751872/budget-process-explained">Vox’s Dylan Matthews explained</a> during the Trump years, the president’s budget is instead best viewed as a messaging document: a sketch of the administration’s spending priorities and a way to set the tone for Congress as lawmakers hash out the particulars of the budget. It’s also a statement about which of Biden’s campaign promises he wants to focus on — and which are no longer a priority of his White House.
Biden’s budget has been greeted gladly by Democrats in Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) heralded it as “an unequivocal declaration of the value that Democrats place on America’s workers and middle class families” in a <a href="https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/52821-0">statement</a> Friday, and the House Progressive Caucus <a href="https://progressives.house.gov/press-releases?ID=172A385B-A5EF-4E61-98F5-B0673B2EDA06">highlighted</a> Biden’s “strong commitment to making our tax system fair for working people.”
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
A federal budget should be a statement of our national values. <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> Biden’s budget is an unequivocal declaration of the value that Democrats place on America’s workers and middle class families, who are the foundation of our nation’s strength and the key to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BuildBackBetter?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BuildBackBetter</a>.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1398359532657643521?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2021</a></blockquote>
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The GOP, meanwhile, struck a more apocalyptic note in response to the Biden budget. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) described the plan as “the most reckless and irresponsible budget proposal in my lifetime” and warned of “dire fiscal and economic consequences” in a Friday <a href="https://www.republicanleader.gov/the-most-reckless-and-irresponsible-budget-in-my-lifetime/">statement</a>, while Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) dismissed it in a <a href="https://twitter.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/1398332736008491018?s=20">tweet</a> as “dead on arrival.”
And both parties pushed back on one aspect of the budget: military spending. Progressives argued in a <a href="https://progressives.house.gov/press-releases?ID=172A385B-A5EF-4E61-98F5-B0673B2EDA06">statement</a> that the budget spends too much on national defense, further expanding an “already-bloated $740 billion Pentagon budget.”
“At a time when America’s military budget is larger than those of the next ten countries combined,” the Congressional Progressive Caucus wrote, “we believe it is essential to identify and cut military waste, fraud, and abuse in the budgetary process.”
Republicans argued the opposite, saying the proposed budget underspends on military operations and defense. While the Pentagon’s budget would increase by 1.6 percent under Biden’s proposal — representing a record military expenditure — it’s still the smallest increase of any federal agency.
House and Senate Republicans released a statement arguing that the proposed military budget “is wholly inadequate” and represents a spending cut in the face of inflation.
“A budget like this sends China and our other potential adversaries a bad signal — that we’re not willing to do what it takes to defend ourselves and our allies and partners,” the statement reads.
As <a href="https://www.vox.com/22375777/biden-budget-discretionary-funding-request">Lopez</a> and many others have pointed out, the first months of Biden’s presidency can be seen as a repudiation of former President Bill Clinton’s <a href="https://clintonwhitehouse4.archives.gov/WH/New/other/sotu.html">famous line</a> that “the era of big government is over.”
Biden’s fiscal year 2022 budget fits squarely into that pattern. It includes two substantial, signature proposals: a $2 trillion <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/3/31/22357179/biden-two-trillion-infrastructure-jobs-plan-explained">American Jobs Plan</a> — which would embrace an expansive definition of infrastructure, not only to modernize America’s road and bridges, but to invest in broadband and elder care — and a $1.8 trillion <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/28/22404411/biden-american-families-plan-inequality">American Families Plan</a>, which would establish free higher education and expand child care, health care, and tax benefits for needy families.
As a whole, the budget calls for a sweeping rejuvenation of the social safety net and for expanded investment in programs like universal pre-K, affordable child care, and paid leave. It also puts the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/3/31/22360801/biden-infrastructure-plan-jobs-climate-change-transportation-electricity-justice-labor">climate crisis</a> front and center, with proposals dedicated to reducing US emissions, creating jobs in the clean energy sector, and funding climate research.
And it <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/arts/national-endowment-for-the-arts-funding.html">reinvests</a> in aspects of daily life, from public transit to the arts, that were slashed under the Trump administration. The idea, as Biden outlined it in his budget message Friday, is “not simply to emerge from the immediate crises we inherited, but to build back better.”
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<figcaption>President Joe Biden returns to the White House after visiting Michigan to deliver remarks on infrastructure, May 18.</figcaption>
<cite>Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images</cite></figure>
Among other details, the Biden budget specifically requests funding for two free years of community college; expanded Pell Grants and other programs to make college more affordable for low- and middle-income students; an extension to the expanded <a href="https://www.vox.com/22388062/child-tax-credit-expanded-biden-2021-stimulus">child tax credit</a> included in the already-passed American Rescue Plan, which experts have said could <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2021/03/11/new-child-tax-credit-could-slash-poverty-now-and-boost-social-mobility-later/">cut child poverty in half</a>; and universal paid family and medical leave programs “that would bring the American system in line with competitor nations that offer paid leave programs.”
And if enacted, Biden’s budget would invest tens of billions in advancing racial equity and addressing systemic racism in the US, according to a tally of equity-focused budget items “big and small” by the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/29/us/politics/efforts-to-advance-racial-equity-baked-in-throughout-bidens-budget.html">New York Times</a>.
Additionally, <a href="https://www.rollcall.com/2021/04/09/trumps-budget-didnt-mention-race-bidens-budget-aims-to-undo-systemic-racism/">according to Roll Call</a>, 17 out of 22 sections in the proposal “explicitly mention new or expanded programs focused on racial disparities, inequality or civil rights. By comparison, President Donald Trump’s 150-page fiscal year 2020 budget request did not once mention the words ‘race,’ ‘racial’ or ‘civil rights.’”
In particular, Biden’s budget calls for increased funding for historically Black, tribal, and minority-serving colleges and universities; investment in environmental justice initiatives; and programs designed to reduce racial disparities in health care.
On the campaign trail, Biden made his <a href="https://joebiden.com/racial-economic-equity/">racial equity plan</a> one of the pillars of what he called the “Build Back Better Agenda” — branding that he has carried through into the White House — and he pledged to boost minority-owned businesses, address racial disparities in home ownership, and end pay discrimination, among other issues.
Philosophically, Biden’s first budget as president is also a marked departure from the last time he was in the White House, then in the No. 2 job. As Lopez <a href="https://www.vox.com/22375777/biden-budget-discretionary-funding-request">wrote</a> in April, Biden avoids the occasional concessions to austerity politics that cropped up under former President Barack Obama and offers “a largely tacit and sometimes explicit criticism of the past few decades of public disinvestment in public services — arguing that failures to put more money toward pandemic preparedness, clean energy technologies, and programs to help the poor and disadvantaged have helped lead the US to its current crises.”
Some progressive economic experts, like Bob Greenstein, the founder of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and a current visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, have praised the document for its potential to redress causes of inequality and financial hardship.
“Having followed Presidents’ budgets for >40 years, I think it’s fair to say that while I might modify some things in the new Biden budget, it would, if enacted, do more to reduce poverty and inequality than any other budget in modern US history,” he said in a Friday <a href="https://twitter.com/BobGreensteinDC/status/1398348768823681024?s=20">tweet</a>.
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Having followed Presidents’ budgets for >40 years, I think it’s fair to say that while I might modify some things in the new Biden budget, it would, if enacted, do more to reduce poverty and inequality than any other budget in modern US history
— Bob Greenstein (@BobGreensteinDC) <a href="https://twitter.com/BobGreensteinDC/status/1398348768823681024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2021</a></blockquote>
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As sweeping as Biden’s budget is, however, there are also some conspicuous absences compared to his campaign platform. Specifically, proposals on <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/05/21/white-house-biden-health/">health care</a> don’t go as far as some advocates would like — and student debt forgiveness doesn’t make an appearance at all.
As a candidate, Biden distinguished himself from more progressive presidential hopefuls like Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), both of whom <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/policy-2020/medicare-for-all/">endorsed</a> Medicare for All, by promising to keep the existing American health care system mostly intact — but he also <a href="https://www.vox.com/21540041/election-2020-joe-biden-health-care">pledged</a> to build on the existing Affordable Care Act and expand health care access in the US.
The centerpiece of that plan was to be a public option: <a href="https://www.vox.com/21540041/election-2020-joe-biden-health-care">As Vox’s Dylan Scott has explained</a>, a “Medicare-like government insurance plan would be sold on Obamacare’s marketplaces, where roughly 12 million Americans buy their own insurance. It would add more competition to areas where only one or two other insurance plans are available. The public option would also cover low-income Americans who are currently denied insurance because of their state’s opposition to Obamacare.”
Biden’s fiscal year 2022 budget doesn’t abandon that plan. In fact, it emphasizes that health care “is a right, not a privilege” and says specifically that he “supports providing Americans with additional, lower-cost coverage choices by creating a public option that would be available through the ACA marketplaces.”
However, the budget also doesn’t do anything concrete to advance a public option, and funding for one isn’t included in the $6 trillion in overall spending requested in the budget.
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/05/21/white-house-biden-health/">According to the Washington Post’s Jeff Stein and Tyler Pager</a>, the public option was a casualty of last-minute caution by the administration. They reported last week that “the White House jettisoned months of planning from agency staff as their initial plan could fuel criticisms that the administration is pushing new spending programs too aggressively.”
The same appears to be true of student debt forgiveness, according to the Post. Just as he did with a public health insurance option, Biden <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/markkantrowitz/2020/11/17/joe-biden-reaffirms-student-loan-forgiveness-campaign-promise/?sh=73fb46e84a98">promised</a> on the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/student-debt-cancelation-biden-campaign-promise-public-college-hbcu-2021-4">campaign trail</a> and as <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/08/student-loan-forgiveness-could-be-more-likely-but-challenges-remain-.html">president-elect</a> to “immediately” forgive up to $10,000 in student debt for all borrowers. But that promise gets short shrift in the budget, with only one brief mention in regard to “changes ... that ease the burden of student debt,” and, again, no funding dedicated to that project.
<figure class="e-image"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1622417418_8817_952452" data-cdata='{"asset_id":22549382,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ycDbXGJ1R5hf2O_dWWrPIVYBAV8=/0x0:4000x2310/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2310):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549382/1231209070.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/m6Bk6ALsm-tdBvTC9xUNuWDi6GE=/0x0:4000x2310/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2310):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549382/1231209070.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/paGIOvhd_IkpbOgEsZ-SU8Tp4sw=/0x0:4000x2310/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2310):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549382/1231209070.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0RRJc7mapNcf3nIzAAlKAsGwpd0=/0x0:4000x2310/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2310):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549382/1231209070.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/r0zAzr9sUNaQbv7hDhDZlPNMr8Q=/0x0:4000x2310/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2310):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549382/1231209070.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/W4stysNxnLKtjjCo13MZk_7TZ1E=/0x0:4000x2310/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2310):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549382/1231209070.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xegnsfsxjKa1ZO2prc_REnvzb7w=/0x0:4000x2310/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2310):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549382/1231209070.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/fKR283So-oSUcVBuesxVCHhkYRk=/0x0:4000x2310/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2310):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549382/1231209070.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/A2KHtelDkKH5bM93Mrc6SUtlosM=/0x0:4000x2310/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2310):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549382/1231209070.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="President Joe Biden stands on a stage in Milwaukee, Wisconsin" data-upload-width="4000" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8biuk_nSzT_JLPy9yl4uT-2X3Jo=/0x0:4000x2310/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2310):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549382/1231209070.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/G8T1XGJY4Dc9jmwjYINo7JvopQQ=/0x0:4000x2310/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2310):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549382/1231209070.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/t2ZWvFwEQAgbTWnsbJlAkkkFhT8=/0x0:4000x2310/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2310):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549382/1231209070.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/i5NpsskkInKpAuzfZx23eLKxnRk=/0x0:4000x2310/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2310):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549382/1231209070.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/2ZbHhGXADo2ySyLJpHciLGUwK1s=/0x0:4000x2310/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2310):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549382/1231209070.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PdPjxKbr9fzfTHWfFyEiGqZP4JM=/0x0:4000x2310/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2310):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549382/1231209070.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XYwehufj9ge1z03aBgQQ7EvKhfk=/0x0:4000x2310/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2310):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549382/1231209070.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Q21cUYut8oXs7CJdbdXmgwaNxOs=/0x0:4000x2310/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2310):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549382/1231209070.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/mnevFt47RqtcRYpYoS-llWElAKI=/0x0:4000x2310/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2310):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549382/1231209070.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/RN-GJukMMxUFjUzhPPd3HwcttdM=/0x0:4000x2310/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2310):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549382/1231209070.jpg 1920w" /></picture>
<figcaption>President Biden participates in a CNN town hall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on February 16.</figcaption>
<cite>Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images</cite></figure>
Still, while student debt forgiveness didn’t make it into Biden’s budget, it isn’t off the table. Congressional Democrats could push to include it in a congressional budget resolution, if they choose, and Biden <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/01/biden-administration-explores-options-for-canceling-student-debt.html">directed</a> Education Secretary Miguel Cardona earlier this year to create a memo outlining Biden’s options for forgiving up to $50,000 in student debt. That’s the amount that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and others have <a href="https://twitter.com/SenSchumer/status/1369135284517019649?s=20">supported</a>.
<div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
More than 43 million Americans are crushed under more than $1.5 trillion in federal student loan debt.
A crisis of this magnitude requires bold action.
President Joe Biden can <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CancelStudentDebt?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CancelStudentDebt</a> through executive action <a href="https://t.co/WR2gNo37Cd">https://t.co/WR2gNo37Cd</a>
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenSchumer/status/1369135284517019649?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2021</a></blockquote>
</div>
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/05/21/white-house-biden-health/">As the Post reported</a>, one reason a public health care option and student debt forgiveness didn’t get more space in Biden’s fiscal year 2022 budget is that the administration already has an ambitious slate of legislative priorities before Congress. With negotiations still in flux, the dollar amounts laid out in the budget could change dramatically — and the final decisions over that spending will likely be subject to the same partisan back-and-forth as any other spending package that reaches Congress.
In short, if the White House wants to pass spending bills through regular order — without resorting to the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22242476/senate-filibuster-budget-reconciliation-process">budget reconciliation process</a> — Democrats will always need at least 10 Republican votes to clear the filibuster.
Biden has already fought for, and won, one costly package: the $1.9 trillion <a href="https://www.vox.com/22310269/third-stimulus-update-2021-package">American Rescue Plan</a>, known as his Covid-19 stimulus package. In his budget proposal, he is now also pushing for $1.8 trillion to expand on child care and health care benefits established in that plan, and $2 trillion for infrastructure, elder care, and broadband.
First up before Congress is the $2 trillion infrastructure and jobs plan, which has already been the subject of a series of <a href="https://www.npr.org/999259452">offers</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/05/27/1000717244/senate-republicans-release-928-billion-infrastructure-counteroffer">counteroffers</a> between the White House and Senate Republicans. So any bipartisan agreement would likely set the total price tag far lower than Biden’s budget currently requests.
<figure class="e-image"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1622417418_5525_952453" data-cdata='{"asset_id":22549378,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jrNVh6UkCGTot_bWmQ-6M0PcO_o=/0x0:3000x2002/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2002):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549378/1317839430.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/NOuUfco1jfdmHB3YOBTUU_s9Jcc=/0x0:3000x2002/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2002):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549378/1317839430.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/YRQ4GKQTYCW0mGBNVRF9ic25xDE=/0x0:3000x2002/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2002):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549378/1317839430.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/QL_5_UMF7jidtgsfq9TTUfOBdig=/0x0:3000x2002/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2002):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549378/1317839430.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/usjP_HmEI-WDnAhzcRazktcefuw=/0x0:3000x2002/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2002):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549378/1317839430.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/E-gm7P6gGwZmFMcWW-aCpF66Ggs=/0x0:3000x2002/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2002):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549378/1317839430.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/dSIJgS6X3UJ-0qaATIjr3R0I81M=/0x0:3000x2002/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2002):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549378/1317839430.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/drVzvMVsr1Zxcv2hcCGCTajZbCE=/0x0:3000x2002/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2002):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549378/1317839430.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/94I8ITXMM7-Yy2_lgktPdeAoY2o=/0x0:3000x2002/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2002):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549378/1317839430.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="President Biden And Cabinet Members Meet With Group Of Senators In The Oval Office" data-upload-width="3000" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PNehyA23toB6Uu0wS03tv3PjtSA=/0x0:3000x2002/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2002):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549378/1317839430.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xQ6kq4gopIwpSkCZoMhY0zBDkBQ=/0x0:3000x2002/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2002):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549378/1317839430.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ie44VhQ9d6iTcouHjOEYWVLLQVo=/0x0:3000x2002/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2002):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549378/1317839430.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/49DPas_ldMETk7dlaKnEYgiT6KQ=/0x0:3000x2002/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2002):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549378/1317839430.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/oLQ6_8Nfsft0gga25D-LffHPpeg=/0x0:3000x2002/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2002):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549378/1317839430.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Nz76bD2ZP_iioQcCxGEpEmOxU5g=/0x0:3000x2002/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2002):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549378/1317839430.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/gMq-FFMJqLbE0PuMHot6kmvNJvs=/0x0:3000x2002/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2002):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549378/1317839430.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ASI3aHr-GXRopJb5oqWNgIOqksI=/0x0:3000x2002/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2002):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549378/1317839430.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/MjQ9iJL7Jkxu5DOzDnEAzb3OaFM=/0x0:3000x2002/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2002):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549378/1317839430.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/NuwKVXUih7lCNav0bGAP5FDe0FI=/0x0:3000x2002/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2002):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549378/1317839430.jpg 1920w" /></picture>
<figcaption>Biden makes a statement to the press as Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) listens during a meeting with a group of Republican senators to discuss the administration’s infrastructure plan in the Oval Office on May 13.</figcaption>
<cite>T.J. Kirkpatrick/Getty Images</cite></figure>
Under reconciliation, though, Democrats could potentially get a much larger package — one that more closely resembles the one initially proposed by Biden and present in his budget — passed through Congress without any Republican support.
Previously, Democrats <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/3/6/22315536/stimulus-package-passes-checks-unemployment">passed</a> their coronavirus relief package via reconciliation, and they could do so again. However, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), <a href="https://www.vox.com/22339531/manchin-filibuster-bipartisanship-senate-west-virginia">defender of the filibuster</a> and the critical (and conservative) 50th vote in the Democrats’ slim Senate majority, has remained publicly <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/25/manchin-bipartisan-infrastructure-deal-490796">optimistic</a> that negotiators can reach a bipartisan deal, <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/infrastructure-joe-manchin-congress_n_60ad7925e4b0a24c4f82447a">telling reporters</a> that “I don’t know why you need reconciliation.”
“We have to find something reasonable and I’m always looking for that moderate, reasonable, middle if you can,” Manchin said Tuesday, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/25/manchin-bipartisan-infrastructure-deal-490796">according to Politico</a>. “It might not be as big as they want and then you have people on the right that don’t want to do that much or do nothing at all. I probably wouldn’t be there either.”
As Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/12/biden-is-reaching-out-republicans-his-real-target-is-joe-manchin/">wrote</a> in the Washington Post earlier this month, it’s possible the White House is aware that the current talks with GOP senators won’t yield much and are simply letting negotiations play out for Manchin’s sake before pivoting to reconciliation.
But whatever the case, progressives are growing impatient, and are wary of what concessions might be extracted by the Senate GOP on the path to a bipartisan deal.
“Just like we did with the American Rescue Plan, we believe we must go big, bold, and act with urgency,” the House Progressive Caucus said in a <a href="https://progressives.house.gov/press-releases?ID=172A385B-A5EF-4E61-98F5-B0673B2EDA06">statement</a> Friday following the release of Biden’s budget proposal. “We simply cannot afford to limit our ambitions for Republicans or continue to wait for an offer that will never materialize.”
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/5/30/22460691/biden-budget-6-trillion-hyde-defense-big-government">https://www.vox.com/2021/5/30/22460691/biden-budget-6-trillion-hyde-defense-big-government</a>

vox Biden’s $6 trillion budget proposal would rebuild America’s social safety net

President Joe Biden’s fiscal year 2022 budget , released on Friday, lays out an ambitious plan for the country. It calls for just over $6 tr...

Why it took 100 years for America to learn about the Tulsa massacre

The sky above Tulsa, Oklahoma, swelled with a thick, dark smoke on the evening of May 31, 1921.
That night and over the next 14 hours, white Tulsans, aided by local law enforcement officials and National Guard troops, destroyed 35 square blocks of segregated Black Tulsa and its affluent Greenwood community, which stretched for more than a mile and was home to an estimated 10,000 Black residents. When groups of hostile white invaders entered the area — incensed by a rumored assault of a white girl by a young Black man, which was later proven false — they looted and set more than 1,250 homes ablaze, according to an <a href="https://www.okhistory.org/research/forms/freport.pdf">official government report</a> commissioned almost 80 years later.
They razed what had been considered a promised land for Black Americans who traveled from afar to reach it. The elite enclave included doctor’s offices, butcher shops, drugstores, tailor shops, shoeshine parlors, cafes, restaurants, beauty parlors, barbershops, newspaper headquarters, a confectionery, a theater, hotels, billiards halls, dry cleaners, and grocery stores that were all burned down. Essential community spaces — a library, Dunbar Grade School, Frissell Memorial Hospital, and churches — were charred to bits, and even the trees that lined the once-bustling streets became sooty figures drooping over a wasteland.
Many of the people who had toiled for years to build Greenwood Avenue into what Booker T. Washington <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fbookshop.org%2Fbooks%2Fblack-wall-street-from-riot-to-renaissance-in-tulsa-s-historic-greenwood-district%2F9781934645383&referrer=vox.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F22456481%2Ftulsa-race-massacre" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank" has-subtag="true" data-cdata='{"rewritten_url":"https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588\u0026xs=1\u0026url=https://bookshop.org/books/black-wall-street-from-riot-to-renaissance-in-tulsa-s-historic-greenwood-district/9781934645383\u0026referrer=vox.com\u0026sref=https://www.vox.com/22456481/tulsa-race-massacre\u0026xcust=___vx__p_22220522__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder","subtag_max_length":50,"subtag_delim_length":3,"subtag_key":"xcust","subtag_data":{"id":"66960X1516588","xs":"1","url":"https://bookshop.org/books/black-wall-street-from-riot-to-renaissance-in-tulsa-s-historic-greenwood-district/9781934645383","referrer":"vox.com","sref":"https://www.vox.com/22456481/tulsa-race-massacre","xcust":"___vx__p_22220522__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder"},"encode_subtag":false}'>reportedly called</a> the “Negro’s Wall Street” were shot and burned beyond recognition. Some reasonable estimates put the number of people killed between 70 and 300, historians told Vox. According to the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 report, bodies were dropped into unmarked graves in a city cemetery, while others, according to some oral histories, were thrown into the Arkansas River, and still others were hauled off to unknown locations. More than 800 people were treated for wounds and 8,000 were left homeless.
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1622415987_887_909929" data-cdata='{"asset_id":22546718,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9-dL-TYXozbwXC1eCvVbJBvF5wE=/0x0:3830x3000/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3830x3000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546718/GettyImages_1318521038_copy.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lsmHNXEnNFvITebWZhLc3POCDKU=/0x0:3830x3000/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3830x3000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546718/GettyImages_1318521038_copy.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/LGabKhXKA7kLcI3M12llqu9dxNM=/0x0:3830x3000/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3830x3000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546718/GettyImages_1318521038_copy.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ferQZ3sECsWdSoxAOIo39thIgpw=/0x0:3830x3000/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3830x3000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546718/GettyImages_1318521038_copy.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xE3zE8S878E6zIGwKa3pHxY2WqI=/0x0:3830x3000/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:3830x3000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546718/GettyImages_1318521038_copy.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/MvdkyCSRg-l89CiuWMIqQ6ucri8=/0x0:3830x3000/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3830x3000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546718/GettyImages_1318521038_copy.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/cIQyVxuQeeUCnxRm86z1EMDblKk=/0x0:3830x3000/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3830x3000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546718/GettyImages_1318521038_copy.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/er6Fzl0oeJrZcuQJKEgpDexJ-nE=/0x0:3830x3000/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3830x3000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546718/GettyImages_1318521038_copy.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Wpl4cxbnFcS9Ly3AFzNYkPi1gaM=/0x0:3830x3000/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3830x3000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546718/GettyImages_1318521038_copy.jpg 1920w" sizes="90vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="" data-upload-width="3830" sizes="90vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/cb3L_5Tbtd3doxmPnYcwPnLt6J8=/0x0:3830x3000/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3830x3000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546718/GettyImages_1318521038_copy.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/utXeDx32BUwA06pCT7SIWj731fE=/0x0:3830x3000/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3830x3000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546718/GettyImages_1318521038_copy.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/cJKwJ5MwFDnb8ZQO5HKm0nnzVKQ=/0x0:3830x3000/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3830x3000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546718/GettyImages_1318521038_copy.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vbbudrMkR397huP9J9LGeQFkajM=/0x0:3830x3000/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3830x3000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546718/GettyImages_1318521038_copy.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/pZ-VEnCOp1Hpdj8qRf3V8hgMI4o=/0x0:3830x3000/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3830x3000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546718/GettyImages_1318521038_copy.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/m-5Ubgb7_EESfD_nEyiWW1VM7SQ=/0x0:3830x3000/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:3830x3000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546718/GettyImages_1318521038_copy.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4fPKnnJO2aO_BAMK7x5BChhJM1I=/0x0:3830x3000/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3830x3000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546718/GettyImages_1318521038_copy.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_Nb2gPXwNUP79cmEhV5UioCRmD0=/0x0:3830x3000/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3830x3000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546718/GettyImages_1318521038_copy.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/fM-hdzDpTiCO9vn2L_oSi2Eo7Hg=/0x0:3830x3000/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3830x3000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546718/GettyImages_1318521038_copy.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/yztenXqkZfn6yT3fwIeDXqD72jk=/0x0:3830x3000/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3830x3000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546718/GettyImages_1318521038_copy.jpg 1920w" /></picture>
<figcaption>The front page of the Black Dispatch newspaper on June 11, 1921.</figcaption>
<cite>Greenwood Cultural Center/Getty Images</cite></figure>
</div>
Five years ago, the Tulsa massacre was virtually unknown to the broader public — and even to people living in Tulsa. That a Black metropolis was destroyed in a matter of hours, let alone that it existed at the top of the 20th century, could sound like fiction to the most imaginative listener.
The Tulsa massacre remained buried under fear — Black families too afraid of a repeat event — and a conspiracy of silence as white perpetrators covered up their deeds so quickly that, 100 years later, many officials and historians believe some of the bodies of buried victims still haven’t been found. For generations, the pogrom of Black people in the heart of the Sooner State was absent from Oklahoma school curricula.
For decades, the story of the massacre remained untold so as not to deviate from the narrative that America is exceptional and founded on democratic ideals. But the Tulsa massacre is no longer a secret. The story is being told locally and nationally, in the media, on television, and before Congress: Two award-winning HBO series — <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/10/17/20918439/watchmen-hbo-review-damon-lindelof-regina-king-comic">Watchmen</a>, which aired in 2019, and Lovecraft Country, which aired in 2020 — depicted the event for millions of viewers. Theater productions such as <a href="https://www.tulsapac.com/events/2021/tulsa21">Tulsa ’21: Black Wall Street</a> will soon open to Oklahoma audiences, following the earlier play <a href="https://www.hannibalbjohnson.com/big-mama-speaks/">Big Mama Speaks</a>. The Bitter Root comic book series <a href="https://tulsaworld.com/entertainment/books/bitter-root-comic-series-creators-appearing-virtually-in-tulsa-as-part-of-race-massacre-centennial/article_cc39fb7a-a9d8-11eb-8d5e-37d29302c276.html">recently illustrated the massacre</a> on its pages. Two upcoming <a href="https://www.pbs.org/show/tulsa-fire-and-forgotten/">documentaries</a>, <a href="https://www.history.com/specials/tulsa-burning-the-1921-race-massacre">one</a> executive-produced by NBA star Russell Westbrook and co-directed by Stanley Nelson and Marco Williams, will be released on the 100th anniversary of the massacre.
The three known remaining survivors of the disaster — Viola Ford Fletcher, Hughes Van Ellis, and Lessie Benningfield Randle — petitioned Congress for justice this month, justice that includes reparations and an acknowledgment of the harm done. And President Joe Biden will make his way to Tulsa on June 1 to commemorate the massacre’s centennial.
Even as the pogrom becomes common knowledge, there are many truths about it that likely won’t ever be known. Tulsa is forcing the nation to keep questioning all that it doesn’t know — and all that it has tried to hide.
“The irony of Oklahoma is that it’s one of the most — if not the most — conservative state in the country. Yet Tulsa, because it has such a big skeleton in its closet, has been wrestling with how to view its past. In some ways, it’s ahead of the country,” says Scott Ellsworth, historian and author of the recent book <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.penguinrandomhouse.com%2Fbooks%2F646469%2Fthe-ground-breaking-by-scott-ellsworth%2F&referrer=vox.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F22456481%2Ftulsa-race-massacre" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank" has-subtag="true" data-cdata='{"rewritten_url":"https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588\u0026xs=1\u0026url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/646469/the-ground-breaking-by-scott-ellsworth/\u0026referrer=vox.com\u0026sref=https://www.vox.com/22456481/tulsa-race-massacre\u0026xcust=___vx__p_22220522__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder","subtag_max_length":50,"subtag_delim_length":3,"subtag_key":"xcust","subtag_data":{"id":"66960X1516588","xs":"1","url":"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/646469/the-ground-breaking-by-scott-ellsworth/","referrer":"vox.com","sref":"https://www.vox.com/22456481/tulsa-race-massacre","xcust":"___vx__p_22220522__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder"},"encode_subtag":false}'>The Ground Breaking: An American City and Its Search for Justice</a>, the first comprehensive book about the massacre. “Tulsa has a new chance — the story is out. But there’s still a dark shadow of the massacre hanging over the city. So how will the city move forward for the next 100 years?”
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It was Mary E. Jones Parrish’s young daughter, Florence Mary Parrish Bruner, who peeled her away from the novel she was reading that night. Mary watched in fear for hours, crouched by the window as her daughter hid, before she decided it was best to flee. She was desperate to believe that a tragedy couldn’t happen in a haven like Greenwood: “One could hear firing in quick succession and it was hours before the horror of it all dawned upon me [...] I waited and watched. Waited and watched, for what — I do not know,” she wrote in the <a href="http://129.244.102.213/speccoll/collections/F704T92P37%201922_Events/Events1.pdf">1923 book</a> Events of the Tulsa Disaster, where she collected the stories of many survivors.
When she eventually fled with her daughter, she wrote, they dodged bullets that sprayed out of machine guns and turpentine bombs that rained down from aircraft. (The National Guard <a href="https://tulsaworld.com/tulsa-race-massacre-newspaper-reported-dozens-killed-by-machine-gun-fire-national-guard-denied-it/article_59a2aaac-2087-57b2-b5a7-aa5bd8a66847.html">denies</a> having machine guns at the time, but headlines from the time and the state commission report have acknowledged their use in the massacre.) They traveled more than a dozen miles outside the city before they could find safety.
Parrish was hired by the Inter-Racial Commission, as it was called at the time, after the massacre to “do some reporting,” she wrote in the book. As the commission pointed out, it was survivors and eyewitnesses like Parrish who laid the foundation for a record in the early days to ensure that the massacre wouldn’t be erased from history.
“The reason we understand how the massacre happened is because those people told us how it happened,” Ellsworth said. “It’s important to remember that for 50 years the story of the riot was actively suppressed in the white community. Documents disappeared all the time. People had their lives threatened. In the African American community, it also wasn’t really discussed publicly. Massacre survivors were like Holocaust survivors in that they didn’t want to burden their children with these horrible stories.”
Parrish’s great-granddaughter, writer Anneliese M. Bruner, didn’t learn about the massacre until she was in her 30s, when her father, William Bruner Jr., handed her an original copy of his grandmother’s book in 1994. Bruner’s father, typically a gregarious and boisterous man, quietly gave her a slim volume one night, a red cloth-bound book that was worn around the edges, and assumed a somber tone.
“He said he had something to give me,” Bruner told Vox, “and he told me he hoped I could ‘do something with it.’” Bruner recalls being confused and stunned: “Here I am, a descendant of two survivors, and this had never been mentioned to me. Why had no one ever said anything?”
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<figure class="e-image"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1622415987_953_909930" data-cdata='{"asset_id":22546752,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/FihTN3HiEKPJuxVObN5FxqUbBMA=/0x0:3000x1875/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x1875):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546752/GettyImages_956085192.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/tJ7qgoq_ERp_JptQ4otkQbxlI2w=/0x0:3000x1875/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x1875):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546752/GettyImages_956085192.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lu8m8sVZxxHCVYz8BAVDzVPMv9E=/0x0:3000x1875/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x1875):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546752/GettyImages_956085192.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_P1Q-rjTFipm0BLlULU8HZWEW64=/0x0:3000x1875/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x1875):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546752/GettyImages_956085192.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_SZAHt7hQdw_A7LbROb_mGbRiBM=/0x0:3000x1875/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x1875):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546752/GettyImages_956085192.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/IY4Jzqgfu3eoI3ELf5qC9FsCmW0=/0x0:3000x1875/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x1875):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546752/GettyImages_956085192.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/stc3fdVUt3BAVY70oiO-RBTbKrw=/0x0:3000x1875/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x1875):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546752/GettyImages_956085192.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/kZOv8f89f4QiYE7_XmlIsrv8YGE=/0x0:3000x1875/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x1875):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546752/GettyImages_956085192.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/EtiXWLy1h_wl7UJEacw_NtpY5g0=/0x0:3000x1875/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x1875):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546752/GettyImages_956085192.jpg 1920w" sizes="90vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="" data-upload-width="3000" sizes="90vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1iRMv9s2ZBkaMipfDjz_fDGnOmE=/0x0:3000x1875/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x1875):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546752/GettyImages_956085192.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9PpX89BVMdBIedv9PShbJFnfyb4=/0x0:3000x1875/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x1875):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546752/GettyImages_956085192.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/svfU8NtXZTDUQh1vsoE9ERUOgrE=/0x0:3000x1875/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x1875):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546752/GettyImages_956085192.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1Q4v0yfmeJxDRclI4-_dRAGHHew=/0x0:3000x1875/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x1875):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546752/GettyImages_956085192.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/qKdSyR9asNSMqJ8jHtT-oLT0trI=/0x0:3000x1875/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x1875):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546752/GettyImages_956085192.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Otx-En689ERMc0Usm3HDzW8_rqk=/0x0:3000x1875/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x1875):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546752/GettyImages_956085192.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/mUewCXxkKPnIuTailokfNHTDLZw=/0x0:3000x1875/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x1875):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546752/GettyImages_956085192.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/wrPWmryRfaUzHPLaA5NzwbjeGT4=/0x0:3000x1875/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x1875):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546752/GettyImages_956085192.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/I1F03rsw3yltLzT9LSHBU7yTLdY=/0x0:3000x1875/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x1875):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546752/GettyImages_956085192.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/WhZPoldYIJSK2HfqhPw4p-lYI8E=/0x0:3000x1875/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x1875):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22546752/GettyImages_956085192.jpg 1920w" /></picture>
<figcaption>More than 1,250 homes were set on fire, along with doctor’s offices, butcher shops, drug stores, tailor shops, shoeshine parlors, cafes, restaurants, beauty parlors, and hotels.</figcaption>
<cite>Oklahoma Historical Society/Getty Images</cite></figure>
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<figcaption>The Tulsa massacre remained buried under fear — Black families too afraid of a repeat event — and a conspiracy of silence as white perpetrators covered up their deeds.</figcaption>
<cite>Oklahoma Historical Society/Getty Images</cite></figure>
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<figcaption>Many of the people who had toiled for years to build Greenwood Avenue were murdered.</figcaption>
<cite>Oklahoma Historical Society/Getty Images</cite></figure>
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Bruner says she felt a weight of responsibility over the years, between deciding how to honor her great-grandmother’s groundbreaking journalism and feeling like her great-grandmother hasn’t gotten her due. For the centennial, Bruner is publishing an <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fbookshop.org%2Fbooks%2Fthe-nation-must-awake-my-witness-to-the-tulsa-race-massacre-of-1921%2F9781595349439&referrer=vox.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F22456481%2Ftulsa-race-massacre" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank" has-subtag="true" data-cdata='{"rewritten_url":"https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588\u0026xs=1\u0026url=https://bookshop.org/books/the-nation-must-awake-my-witness-to-the-tulsa-race-massacre-of-1921/9781595349439\u0026referrer=vox.com\u0026sref=https://www.vox.com/22456481/tulsa-race-massacre\u0026xcust=___vx__p_22220522__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder","subtag_max_length":50,"subtag_delim_length":3,"subtag_key":"xcust","subtag_data":{"id":"66960X1516588","xs":"1","url":"https://bookshop.org/books/the-nation-must-awake-my-witness-to-the-tulsa-race-massacre-of-1921/9781595349439","referrer":"vox.com","sref":"https://www.vox.com/22456481/tulsa-race-massacre","xcust":"___vx__p_22220522__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder"},"encode_subtag":false}'>updated edition</a> of Parrish’s book. She hopes the new edition can continue to keep the story, and her grandmother’s role in it, alive.
The stories Parrish collected provide details strong enough to haunt:
At about 5:30 am on June 1, 1921, high school teacher James T.A. West was in his home when white men with drawn guns entered and ordered all of the men out of the house. Outside, they were forced into a group of about 30 Black men, searched, and forced to walk down the streets to the Convention Hall with their hands in the air. The white men pursued them, shot at their heels as they ran forward, and drove a car into the group, before finally leaving the victims at the hall, wounded and unable to walk.
“This is the worst scene I have ever witnessed in my 92 years,” Jack Thomas told Parrish in her book. Thomas nearly died under the weight of smoke after fleeing his home, where a white man had killed a Black man with a shot to the back. Thomas was spared because of his age, he was certain.
One survivor in Parrish’s reporting who spoke on condition of anonymity recalled seeing white women with shopping bags enter homes and take everything from clothing to silverware to jewelry. “These d— Negroes have better things than lots of white people,” the survivor heard a white man say as he hauled furniture out of a home.
Though summoned, the fire department never arrived to help. Law enforcement officials deputized the white men, giving them weapons and ammunition, and contributed to the violence themselves, according to the commission’s report and firsthand accounts. Oklahoma National Guard members arrested Greenwood residents en masse and detained them, and many weren’t released until a white person had vouched for them.
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<aside><q>“We were made to feel that our struggles were unworthy of justice. That we were less valued than whites, that we weren’t fully American.”</q></aside>
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The survivors of the massacre were left to pick up the pieces and restore Greenwood over time — not a single person or entity has been held responsible for the systemic destruction that obliterated the heart of Black progress and sacrifice. A whole way of life was rendered unsalvageable, by design. As massacre survivor and World War II veteran Hughes Van Ellis <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/19/viola-fletcher-tulsa-race-massacre-congress-oldest-survivor">testified</a> before Congress in May, “You may have been taught that when something is stolen from you, you can go to the courts to be made whole. You can go to the courts to get justice. This wasn’t the case for us. The courts in Oklahoma wouldn’t hear us. The federal courts said we were too late.
“We were made to feel that our struggles were unworthy of justice. That we were less valued than whites, that we weren’t fully American. We were shown that in the United States, not all men were equal under law. We were shown that when Black voices called out for justice, no one cared.”
Though the 1921 ethnic cleansing in Tulsa is only now getting widespread attention, there were other major breakthrough periods, according to scholar and Tulsa native Hannibal Johnson, author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tulsas-Historic-Greenwood-District-America/dp/1467111287" has-subtag="true" data-cdata='{"rewritten_url":"https://www.amazon.com/Tulsas-Historic-Greenwood-District-America/dp/1467111287?ascsubtag=[]vx[p]22220522[m]m-placeholder[s]s-placeholder[t]w[c]c-placeholder[r]r-placeholder[d]d-placeholder","subtag_max_length":99,"subtag_delim_length":2,"subtag_key":"ascsubtag","subtag_data":{"ascsubtag":"[]vx[p]22220522[m]m-placeholder[s]s-placeholder[t]w[c]c-placeholder[r]r-placeholder[d]d-placeholder"},"encode_subtag":false}'>Images of America: Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District</a> and <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fbookshop.org%2Fbooks%2Fblack-wall-street-from-riot-to-renaissance-in-tulsa-s-historic-greenwood-district%2F9781934645383&referrer=vox.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F22456481%2Ftulsa-race-massacre" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank" has-subtag="true" data-cdata='{"rewritten_url":"https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588\u0026xs=1\u0026url=https://bookshop.org/books/black-wall-street-from-riot-to-renaissance-in-tulsa-s-historic-greenwood-district/9781934645383\u0026referrer=vox.com\u0026sref=https://www.vox.com/22456481/tulsa-race-massacre\u0026xcust=___vx__p_22220522__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder","subtag_max_length":50,"subtag_delim_length":3,"subtag_key":"xcust","subtag_data":{"id":"66960X1516588","xs":"1","url":"https://bookshop.org/books/black-wall-street-from-riot-to-renaissance-in-tulsa-s-historic-greenwood-district/9781934645383","referrer":"vox.com","sref":"https://www.vox.com/22456481/tulsa-race-massacre","xcust":"___vx__p_22220522__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder"},"encode_subtag":false}'>Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District</a>.
The first significant opening came in 1971 when a Tulsan named Ed Wheeler published an article titled “Profile of a Race Riot” on the 50th anniversary of the event. About 10 years later, in 1982, Ellsworth published his comprehensive book, Death in the Promised Land, further bringing the events of the massacre to light. Perhaps the biggest breakthrough came in 1997, when the state created the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. The commission’s <a href="https://www.okhistory.org/research/forms/freport.pdf">report</a>, issued in 2001, received international attention because it created an official historical record for the event and addressed mass graves and reparations.
Ellsworth would add a few other significant milestones to the list: A series of 1968 articles in the Black newspaper the Oklahoma Eagle by civil rights activist and former Oklahoma legislator Don Ross was an early effort to publicly contend with the massacre; the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 gave Ross another opening. When national news outlets traveled to Oklahoma to cover the domestic terrorist incident, he told them that there was another Oklahoma story that rivaled the bombing. As a result, the Today show aired a special on the 75th anniversary of the massacre, a report that subsequently prompted coverage from the New York Times, NPR, and other outlets. It was these national stories that led the governor and state legislature to create the commission in 1997.
When the state-sanctioned commission completed its work in 2001, however, talk of Greenwood died down. “Nobody was talking about it. It still wasn’t being taught in schools across the state,” says Oklahoma state Sen. Kevin Matthews.
The centennial of the massacre has given America another opportunity to assess what has changed and what is still left to be done.
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<figcaption>People watch Rebuilding Black Wall Street, a documentary about the massacre during centennial commemorations in Tulsa on May 26.</figcaption>
<cite>John Locher/AP</cite></figure>
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From 2015 to 2016, Matthews said, he started assembling a committee (which became the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission) to address how the story could be told and how they could bring resources — funding, community centers, research capacity — to Greenwood. It was a trip to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, in 2017 that helped Williams see how they could share the story of the massacre in Tulsa. “It was amazing how our story was being displayed there, and we weren’t doing it at that level in Oklahoma,” Williams told me.
After raising nearly $30 million, the centennial commission will soon unveil a flagship project, a $20 million Greenwood Rising History Center, at the gateway to Greenwood, celebrating the community that built Black Wall Street and memorializing the victims of the massacre. The project, which opens in June, will stand in stark contrast to the generational effort to keep the story of the massacre from the masses.
The pandemic, which itself <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2020/4/7/21211849/coronavirus-black-americans">disproportionately harmed Black communities</a> across America, helped bring renewed focus to the slaughter of Black Tulsans. The killing of Black people at the hands of the police in Oklahoma and elsewhere in the past few years has, too. The murder of George Floyd in May 2020 “was a game changer,” Matthews told me. “This has happened across our country so many times, and particularly in Tulsa.” The police officer who shot Terence Crutcher in Tulsa in 2016 while Crutcher’s hands were in the air <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/01/us/betty-shelby-terence-crutcher-tulsa.html">did not face charges</a>. Monroe Bird <a href="https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/tulsa-man-shot-and-paralyzed-by-security-guard-dies/article_dae4d7d7-6681-53de-a3f0-665998943de1.html">was killed in 2015</a> while driving away from police officers. Eric Harris was also <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ex-oklahoma-reserve-deputy-roberts-bates-released-prison-n812446">fatally shot</a> that year while he was on the ground and unarmed. In 2017, a white former Tulsa police officer was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/10/19/white-ex-tulsa-police-officer-convicted-of-fatally-shooting-daughters-black-boyfriend/">convicted of fatally shooting</a> Jeremy Lake, his daughter’s Black boyfriend.
Popular representations of the massacre, such as Watchmen and Lovecraft Country, have also brought the story to a wider audience.
Stanley Nelson, co-director of the forthcoming History Channel documentary Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre, however, says that the nation now needs art that centers the city and the community. “Both shows had segments on Greenwood and Tulsa and they really introduced the massacre to people for the first time,” he said. “They made people aware, but those shows weren’t about Tulsa. Tulsa was a background to them, and for us as African Americans, those stories are background to our lives. So we watch these shows and enjoy them, but you might not quite get the story.”
The newfound focus on the massacre is bringing up old questions — some that many have asked but can never be answered, historians said. For example, we will never know how many were killed, Black or white. Some estimates put the number of those killed at just a dozen. Others have recently come forward to say that as many as 450 people were slain, Ellsworth said. Tulsa’s white Republican mayor, G.T. Bynum, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/03/13/tulsa-mayor-bynum-mass-graves/">has even ordered a wide search</a> for mass graves.
“It’s a matter of perspective,” Matthews said. “There were many in the white community who were embarrassed and tried to sweep under the rug that so many Black people were killed. They wanted to minimize what happened, so they undercounted.”
Even the specifics of what led to the massacre are unclear, historians told Vox, though there are many theories. The most common story claims that on the morning of May 30, 1921, Dick Rowland, a 19-year-old Black shoeshiner, rode in the elevator in the Drexel Building at Third and Main with a 17-year-old white girl named Sarah Page, who was the elevator operator. Some accounts claim that Rowland stepped on Page’s foot by accident after he tripped, while others say he attempted to assault her, according to the commission’s report. The report also claims that some people believed they were lovers and having a lover’s quarrel in the elevator. Rumors of an attempted rape spread quickly among white people in the region, and Rowland was arrested the following morning.
A story ran in that afternoon’s Tulsa Tribune under the headline “Nab Negro for Attacking Girl in Elevator.” The story claimed Rowland scratched Page’s hands and face and tore off her clothes. Though exactly what happened in the elevator isn’t known, many claim it was this yellow journalism that caused tensions to boil over, tensions that were already high following the “<a href="https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_red.html">Red Summer</a>” of 1919, dozens of lynchings across the state in the two decades prior, and jealousy and land lust around the rise of Greenwood, which some white people called “<a href="https://daily.jstor.org/the-devastation-of-black-wall-street/">Little Africa</a>” and “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/19/opinion/tulsa-race-riot-massacre-graves.html">Niggertown</a>.”
Fearing that Rowland would be lynched, a group of Black World War I veterans from Greenwood went down to the courthouse on the evening of May 31 to protect Rowland. There they found hundreds of white men, and when a gunshot rang out, what some initially called a “race war” broke loose.
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<figcaption>A mural that depicts the Tulsa massacre is seen in the historic Greenwood neighborhood on May 27.</figcaption>
<cite>John Locher/AP</cite></figure>
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“There are going to be some historical loose ends. We have to be able to sit in a place of comfort with uncertainty. We won’t know certain things, and that’s fine,” Johnson said. “But we do know what happened, why it happened — and that’s what’s really critical. But the point is we don’t want to make the same mistake again.”
Tulsa is in the process of a mass graves investigation to try to resolve some of these unanswered questions. Archaeologists uncovered at least 12 sets of remains at Oaklawn Cemetery in October 2020, but it’s unclear whether the burials are connected with the massacre, <a href="https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/racemassacre/tulsa-race-massacre-graves-committee-to-review-reburial-options/article_9eacbb6c-60df-11eb-a0a1-4fdec1afcc0b.html">according to Tulsa World</a>. But it’s likely they are some of the bodies of 18 Black men killed in the massacre, according to researchers and records. Once a committee gets legal authorization to exhume the remains, they’ll be DNA-tested. A next phase of excavation is expected to start in June, with experts estimating that 30 sets of remains may be buried across other parts of the cemetery.
National recognition of the massacre doesn’t mean that justice has been delivered for survivors, for their descendants, for the community, or for Black Americans at large. That the massacre has become mainstream presents its own challenges.
For one, it has made people focus on the violence, without enough attention to the rebuilding that ensued in the years after the destruction. According to the commission’s report, $1.8 million (about $27 million in today’s dollars) in property damage claims were filed, though insurance companies refused to pay for the claims. Black Tulsans nevertheless rebuilt the city. The community rose from the ashes of the massacre, Johnson said, and was at its most economically successful in the early 1940s. “It’s not surprising that we’re attracted to the shiny object, the thing that is most dramatic, which is the massacre,” Johnson said.
Tulsa, and the rest of the country, has the opportunity to focus on the people who built Greenwood, not just on the violence committed against them. The story should be one about the community and its people and about how indomitable the human spirit is, Johnson said. “If we want to make progress, that requires the kind of persistence and tedium that is not glamorous. What’s the point of telling the story of the massacre if we’re not going to address the issues and challenges that it raises?” Johnson told me.
Among those issues are racial reconciliation and retribution. “My hope is that people will begin to understand the history and delve more deeply into it, and that they are encouraged and inspired to use their own agency to make even an incremental dent in the progress that we need to make to get to a place of racial reconciliation,” Johnson said.
That racial reconciliation will involve the acknowledgment of the wrong that’s been done, an apology, and atonement. Johnson notes that the conversation on reparations, which falls under atonement, needs to be expanded. There are different types of reparations — cash reparations for survivors and descendants, funds that boost the local economy and invest in education, public assets like history centers to help the community learn and move forward — that are complementary.
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<figcaption>Tulsa massacre survivors (from left) Hughes Van Ellis, Lessie Benningfield Randle, and Viola Fletcher ride in a carriage at a remembrance walk during centennial commemorations on May 28.</figcaption>
<cite>John Locher/AP</cite></figure>
</div>
There’s also an opportunity to give credit where credit is due. For Ellsworth, greater praise is due to the brave people who kept the story alive over generations, like Mary Jones Parrish, and the brave veterans who were willing to risk their lives to prevent Rowland’s lynching. “You have these 75 African American World War I vets who probably didn’t know Dick Rowland but they knew that a brother was in trouble. They risked their lives to go down and stop him from being lynched,” Ellsworth said. “If anyone is deserving of a memorial, it’s them.”
Education remains an issue. Oklahoma didn’t include the massacre in state academic standards until 2002, but the massacre was only a vague mention, with schools instructed to cover the “evolution of race relations” in the state and “rising racial tensions,” the Oklahoman <a href="https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/education/2021/05/26/oklahoma-history-black-wall-street-left-out-public-schools-tulsa-massacre-education/4875340001/">reported</a>. But there’s still no way to actually measure whether schools are actually teaching the massacre. In May, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed <a href="http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2021-22%20ENR/hB/HB1775%20ENR.PDF">HB 1775</a>, a new law prohibiting the instruction of any material that would make an individual feel “discomfort, guilt, anguish or any form of psychological distress” on account of their identity. Stitt’s action was <a href="https://twitter.com/GreenwoodRising/status/1392231660280860672">condemned</a> by the centennial commission, which <a href="https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/racemassacre/tulsa-race-massacre-centennial-commission-formally-severs-ties-with-gov-kevin-stitt/article_efc4d76c-b4f6-11eb-b405-bbf3f0572bc7.html#tracking-source=home-breaking">removed him from his role</a> on the committee.
“How can you teach anything as significant as women’s suffrage or the Trail of Tears? Those can be psychologically difficult,” Matthews said. “We’re passing bills based upon fear of what people may learn about the truth.”
The emergence of truth about the Tulsa pogrom helps us realize how history stays with us. One hundred years later, Tulsa is pushing America to see that the truth can’t just be swept away, that injustice must be addressed. Greater recognition of the massacre doesn’t mean there’s been a reckoning.
“This history isn’t history in the sense that it isn’t totally in the past,” Johnson said. “Why the massacre happened in Tulsa — white supremacy — is a great example of this. The whole philosophy that someone is better than or more deserving than someone else simply because of birth is absurd, irrational, and illogical. But that’s what racism is. And we’re still dealing with it.”
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/22456481/tulsa-race-massacre">https://www.vox.com/22456481/tulsa-race-massacre</a>

vox Why it took 100 years for America to learn about the Tulsa massacre

The sky above Tulsa, Oklahoma, swelled with a thick, dark smoke on the evening of May 31, 1921. That night and over the next 14 hours, whit...

British Intelligence Believes Covid Lab Leak Theory "Feasible": Report

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="British Intelligence Believes Covid Lab Leak Theory 'Feasible': Report" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2020-04/fuje0e1c_coronavirus-generic-reuters-650_625x300_21_April_20.jpg" title="British Intelligence Believes Covid Lab Leak Theory 'Feasible': Report" /></div>
UK's Vaccines Minister insisted that WHO must be able to fully investigate origins of coronavirus. (File)
</div>
London:
British intelligence agencies now believe it is "feasible" that the COVID-19 pandemic began with a coronavirus leak from a Chinese laboratory, a media report said on Sunday, prompting UK's Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi to demand that the WHO must fully investigate the origins of the deadly virus.
The origins of the COVID-19 remain a widely debated topic, with some scientists and politicians maintaining that the possibility of a lab leak of the deadly virus exists.
Western intelligence, including in Britain, at first considered there was only a "remote" chance that it had leaked from the laboratory, where research is conducted into bat-derived coronaviruses, including one closely associated with COVID-19. But there has since been a reassessment, and a lab escape is thought "feasible", the Sunday Times reported, citing sources.
China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) is near the outbreak's known epicentre of Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, where the virus first emerged in late 2019 and became a pandemic. More than 168 million confirmed cases have since been confirmed worldwide and at least 3.5 million deaths reported.
"There might be pockets of evidence that take us one way, and evidence that takes us another way. The Chinese will lie either way. I don''t think we will ever know," said a western intelligence source familiar with UK involvement in the investigation.
Agencies are believed to have few human intelligence sources in China. Gathering data there has focused on trying to recruit on the dark web, where Chinese employees can share secrets anonymously without fear of being caught, the paper said.
Citing US diplomatic sources, the paper said there were concerns that if the origin could not be determined, "this could happen again and we are one wet market or bio lab away from the next spillover".
Speaking to Sky News on Sunday, Britain's Vaccines Minister Zahawi insisted that the WHO must be able to fully investigate the origins of the coronavirus.
Zahawi said it's vital that the WHO is "allowed to conduct its investigation unencumbered" as it seeks to better understand how the initial outbreak began. "We should leave no stone unturned," he added.
Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the foreign affairs select committee, said: "The silence coming from Wuhan is troubling. We need to open the crypt and see what happened to be able to protect ourselves in the future. That means starting an investigation, along with partners around the world and in the WHO."
Last week, US President Joe Biden ordered the US intelligence agencies to "redouble" their efforts in investigating the emergence of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic and report back to him in 90 days, amid growing controversy about the virus''s origins from the WIV in China.
His announcement came after a US intelligence report found several researchers at the WIV fell ill in November 2019 and had to be hospitalised -- a new detail that fuelled fresh public pressure on Biden to order a detailed investigation into the origin of the deadly virus.
Former US president Donald Trump was among those who supported the theory that the virus might have escaped from a bio lab in China.
Beijing has been vehemently denying that the coronavirus broke out in Wuhan and took exception to Trump''s reference to it as "China virus" or "Wuhan virus". China asserts that the COVID-19 broke out in different places in the world and China only reported the virus first.
In a detailed article titled "The origin of COVID: Did people or nature open Pandora's box at Wuhan" published in the prestigious Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists early this month, noted British science writer, editor and author Nicholas Wade raised several questions on the origin of the novel coronavirus.
The evidence adds up to a serious case that the SARS2 virus could have been created in a lab, from which it then escaped, wrote Wade, who refers to SARS-CoV-2 virus as SARS2 in short.
Earlier this month, a group of leading UK and US scientists called for more investigation to determine the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the theory of an accidental release from a lab in Wuhan.
In May 2020, the World Health Assembly requested that the WHO director-general work with partners to determine the origins of SARS-CoV-2.
The World Health Organisation conducted an investigation into the origins of the pandemic and concluded in a report that the risk of an accidental leak from the Wuhan Institute, where coronavirus research was being conducted on bats, was "extremely low."
But the WHO probe has been criticised by the US, United Kingdom and other governments over its limited access to "complete, original data and samples." The WHO study was co-authored by 17 Chinese scientists, several of them from state-run institutions.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/british-intelligence-believes-covid-19-lab-leak-theory-feasible-report-2452604">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/british-intelligence-believes-covid-19-lab-leak-theory-feasible-report-2452604</a>

news world British Intelligence Believes Covid Lab Leak Theory "Feasible": Report

UK's Vaccines Minister insisted that WHO must be able to fully investigate origins of coronavirus. (File) London: British intellige...

US Will Not Let Moscow "Abuse" Human Rights: Biden

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="US Will Not Let Moscow 'Abuse' Human Rights: Biden" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-04/c7suahe_joe-biden-afp_625x300_29_April_21.jpg" title="US Will Not Let Moscow 'Abuse' Human Rights: Biden" /></div>
Joe Biden pledged to tell Vladimir Putin that Washington will not let Moscow "abuse" human rights.
</div>
Wilmington:
President Joe Biden pledged Sunday to tell Russian leader Vladimir Putin at their June summit that Washington will not let Moscow "abuse" human rights.
The face-to-face meeting with the Kremlin leader comes amid levels of tension not seen for years, with Washington now dialing back its ambitions to little more than establishing a relationship in which both sides understand each other and can work together in specific areas.
"I'll be meeting with President Putin in a couple of weeks in Geneva, making it clear that we will not -- we will not stand by and let him abuse those rights," Biden said in a speech on the summit, which is set for June 16.
Since taking office, Biden has imposed new sanctions against Moscow over what US authorities say was the Russian role in the massive SolarWinds cyber attack and repeated meddling in the 2020 presidential election.
In addition, Washington has harshly criticized Moscow for the near-death poisoning and subsequent imprisonment of one of the last open opponents to Putin, Alexei Navalny. 
Tensions are also high over Ukraine, where Russia already controls swaths of territory and recently massed troops on the border in a new show of force.
Yet another focus is on Russian-dominated Belarus, which caused an uproar this week after authorities forced an airliner passing overhead to land, then arrested an opponent to President Alexander Lukashenko who had been aboard.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-will-not-let-moscow-abuse-human-rights-us-president-joe-biden-2452584">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-will-not-let-moscow-abuse-human-rights-us-president-joe-biden-2452584</a>

news world US Will Not Let Moscow "Abuse" Human Rights: Biden

Joe Biden pledged to tell Vladimir Putin that Washington will not let Moscow "abuse" human rights. Wilmington: President Joe ...

'Wuhan Lab's Work Linked To Chinese Military': Ex-US Secretary Of State

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="'Wuhan Lab's Work Linked To Chinese Military': Ex-US Secretary Of State" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-01/3sies6eo_mike-pompeo-650_625x300_08_January_21.jpg" title="'Wuhan Lab's Work Linked To Chinese Military': Ex-US Secretary Of State" /></div>
Wuhan lab was engaged in military activity alongside civilian research: Mike Pompeo (File)
</div>
Washington:
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday said that the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) was engaged in military activity alongside its civilian research -- amid renewed scrutiny of the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic emerged from the secretive lab.
"What I can say for sure is this: we know that they were engaged in efforts connected to the People's Liberation Army inside of that laboratory, so military activity being performed alongside what they claimed was just good old civilian research," Pompeo said, as per Fox News.
He further mentioned: "They refuse to tell us what it was, they refuse to describe the nature of either of those, they refused to allow access to the World Health Organization when it tried to get in there."
China is coming under increasing pressure over probe into the origins of the COVID-19, even as scientists are demanding more clarity to go into the roots of the global pandemic.
Sky News Australia host Andrew Bolt on May 26 spoke to Professor Nikolai Petrovsky, Director of Endocrinology at Flinders Medical Centre, who said that the world's scientific community had been "tricked by China", reported New York Times Post.
Andrew Bolt said on his show The Bolt Report: "Finally a lot of experts are now saying well actually it does now look like this virus maybe did escape from that Chinese lab and China is feeling the heat."
Professor Petrovsky told him that although some Chinese scientists have suggested that COVID-19 originated from pangolins, this is unlikely to be the case, reported New York Times Post.
WHO team investigating the origins of COVID-19 in China found no evidence that the virus leaked from the Wuhan lab.
However, the team was closely monitored by Chinese authorities during its investigation, and one of its members told UK news agency news that China refused to hand over key data from the initial outbreak, reported New York Times Post.
This week, the Biden administration pushed China for a further probe into a possible leak from the Wuhan lab. However, China state media rejected the idea that COVID-19 had originated there and said that it is "a conspiracy created by US intelligence agencies", reported New York Times Post.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/wuhan-labs-work-linked-to-chinese-military-ex-us-secretary-of-state-mike-pompeo-2452566">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/wuhan-labs-work-linked-to-chinese-military-ex-us-secretary-of-state-mike-pompeo-2452566</a>

news world 'Wuhan Lab's Work Linked To Chinese Military': Ex-US Secretary Of State

Wuhan lab was engaged in military activity alongside civilian research: Mike Pompeo (File) Washington: Former Secretary of State Mike P...