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U.S. President Joe Biden will call for a narrowing of the U.S. racial gap amid controversy over Republican efforts to curb nationwide voting rights on a visit to Tulsa, Oklahoma, site of a of the most brutal attacks on black community in U.S. history.
Biden’s trip Tuesday to Greenwood, the Tulsa neighborhood known as “Black Wall Street” before a white mob destroyed it during a two-day fury in 1921, highlights the White House’s attempt to cure the American racial wounds that were exposed by blacks. Lives Matter protests that escalated a year ago.
It also comes during an increasingly tense political struggle over Republican efforts to curb access to voting in many controlling states, including Georgia, Florida and Texas, in what critics see as a campaign to limit voter turnout among blacks. and Hispanics.
Texas Democratic lawmakers organized a night out on Sunday from the state House of Representatives to block the passage of a bill in restrict voting. Biden harshly criticized the legislation as “anti-American,” while Jaime Harrison, the party’s president, called it “Jim Crow 2.0,” a reference to the system of discriminatory laws and policies that once prevailed in southern states.
However, Texas Republicans are expected to renew their commitment to the election review bill at a special session of their state legislature, keeping the fight alive.
In one at the national level, Democrats in the House of Representatives passed a bill that would crack down on statewide voting restrictions. But he is stuck in the Senate, where Biden’s party does not have the super-majority needed to advance him according to the rules of the upper house.
As Republicans have been encouraged in their attempts to impose voting restrictions, Biden faces pressure from many members of his party to call for a change in Senate rules that would allow Democrats to pass the reform. vote without any support from Republicans.
Prior to his visit to Tulsa, Biden issued a proclamation calling on “the American people to reflect on the deep roots of racial terror in our nation and pledge to work to root systemic racism throughout our country.” .
The Greenwood attacks 100 years ago left 300 blacks dead and thousands homeless. Biden plans to meet with community leaders and survivors of the massacre during his visit.
The White House has pushed for new measures to curb the racial wealth gap in the United States, including cracking down on discrimination in house appraisals and a $ 100 billion push for federal contracts for small businesses in disadvantaged communities. As part of its $ 2.3 million infrastructure plan, the White House has also labeled $ 15 billion to renovate transportation networks that divided black and white communities, contributing to racial inequalities.
“The destruction in the Greenwood neighborhood and its families was followed by laws and policies that made recovery nearly impossible,” the White House said in a statement. “And the chronic divestment by the federal government into black entrepreneurs and small businesses denied Black Wall Street a good shot at rebuilding.”
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