House OKs riot panel
BY BRIAN FORD World Capitol Bureau
Mar 30, 2000
1/20/13 at 7:59 AM
The measure would re-create the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot
Commission.
OKLAHOMA CITY -- The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Commission wouldn't be able to renew its work
until late August and would have until Feb. 28, 2001, to complete its report under
action taken Wednesday by the House of Representatives.
The House passed a bill re-
creating the commission by a vote of 59-37 but failed to pass an emergency clause that
would enact the measure immediately if signed by the governor. Without the clause, the
commission would not be recreated until 90 days after the end of the Legislative
session in late May.
The commission's authorization ran out last month under the state's "sunset" law,
which allows many boards to expire unless their continued existence is justified to
lawmakers.
Rep. Don Ross, D-Tulsa, said he plans to ask the House to vote again on the
emergency clause as early as Thursday. The bill itself is headed to the governor's
desk, with or without the emergency clause.
The Senate amended the bill to give the commission until Feb. 28 to complete its
final report.
The bill also would allow Oklahoma State University to transfer a half-acre of
land in the Greenwood area of north Tulsa to the Oklahoma Historical Society for a
race riot memorial of reconciliation.
The bill had touched off a lengthy debate in the Senate last week Senators who opposed
it predicted that the bill will become a vehicle to require the state to pay
reparations to survivors or their descendants.
The riot commission has voted 9-2 that reparations should be paid but has not
recommended any specific amount.
The bill contains no money, but puts a cap of $5 million that could be spent on the
memorial. Ross said the $5 million is comparable to what the state put into the
memorial for the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma
City.
Brian Ford, World Capitol Bureau reporter, can be reached at (405)
528-2465 or via e-mail at brian.ford@tulsaworld.com .
