tulsa race massacre

Biden draws a line between the Tulsa race massacre and the Capitol riot

President Biden visited Tulsa, Oklahoma on Tuesday to mark the 100 year anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre, becoming the first president to visit the site of the destruction.

Biden "memorialized the hundreds of Black Americans who were killed by a white mob that had attacked their neighborhood and burned dozens of city blocks to the ground," writes CNN, and he also reflected on the legacy of the massacre today.

"For much too long, the history of what took place here was told in silence, cloaked in darkness," Biden said. "But just because history is silent, it doesn't mean that it did not take place. And while darkness can hide much, it erases nothing."

As Reuters' Jeff Mason wrote, Biden "drew a line between the hate that caused the Tulsa massacre to what propelled the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021," saying "we must not give hate a safe harbor." Biden said one survivor of the Tulsa massacre told him the Capitol riot "reminded her of what happened here in Greenwood 100 years ago." He also mentioned the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville in 2017. 

After mourning the attack in Tulsa, Biden outlined his administration's plans regarding racial inequality. He said he had assigned Vice President Kamala Harris to tackle efforts to pass HR1 and the stalled voting rights legislation — which former Pence spokesperson Alyssa Farah called "carrying on the long-standing American tradition of passing off the terrible/impossible tasks to your VP."

Watch Biden's remarks below, via The Washington Post.