H.R. 4228 — Original Justice for living survivors of the 1921 Tulsa/Greenwood Race Massacre Act

This section states congressional findings concerning the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in the Greenwood district of Tulsa, Oklahoma—including a White mob's destruction of approximately 35 square blocks, resulting in hundreds dead, over 1,500 homes and businesses destroyed, and 10,000 Black residents homeless; the lack of federal intervention or justice for over 100 years; a 2001 state commission's recommendation for survivor compensation that was ignored; the 2024 dismissal of a lawsuit by two surviving victims (111-year-old Viola Ford Fletcher and 110-year-old Lessie Benningfield Randle); a January 17, 2025, Department of Justice report under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act characterizing the event as racial terrorism; and federal precedents for victim compensation such as $20,000 per Japanese internment survivor (1988), $100,000 per eligible uranium miner (1990), approximately $19.649 billion via the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (2001), and a $17 million grant initiative for aging Holocaust victims (2015).

This section directs the Secretary of the Treasury to pay $10,398,368 in compensatory damages and $10,398,368 in punitive damages to each surviving victim of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre alive as of May 1, 2025 (or their estate if death occurs before payment), upon certification by the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights based solely on proof of identity via birth certificate, with payments due not later than 30 days after certification and made from the Judgment Fund. (As background, the Judgment Fund appropriates necessary amounts to pay final judgments, awards, compromise settlements, and related costs against the United States when payment is not otherwise provided.)

This section bars a living survivor from receiving any additional compensation or benefits from the federal government for harms described in section 3 upon payment of the sums specified in that section.