Homeland Security says commemorations of Tulsa race massacre could be target for White supremacists
The Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin warning that events associated with the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre could be targets for racial violence, according to a source familiar with the warning.
These events “probably are attractive targets for some racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist-white supremacists to commit violence,” the bulletin issued Wednesday reads, according to the source. DHS did not respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this week, the White House announced that President Joe Biden will visit Tulsa, Oklahoma, next week in honor of the 100th anniversary of the massacre, in which hundreds of residents from the Greenwood District were killed and the neighborhood was left in ashes.
There are several other events next week to commemorate the lives lost during the massacre, according to local reports.
The DHS warning was first reported by ABC News.
Tulsa’s Greenwood District encompassed more than 35 city blocks of entirely Black-owned businesses. On May 31, 1921, racial tensions and violence with neighboring White residents boiled over, resulting in the massacre. The area known as Black Wall Street was burned to the ground.
During congressional testimony Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the most “urgent” terrorism threat in the homeland “is domestic violent extremism.”
Earlier in the day, Mayorkas had pointed to recent department threat bulletins when pressed by Democratic Rep. Lauren Underwood of Illinois on future plans to repair the department’s operations so that it can provide “essential intelligence on real threats,” such as the Capitol insurrection.
He told lawmakers that within the past two weeks, DHS had issued “information bulletins, adding, “We very well may issue an additional information bulletin based on the threat landscape today.”
It’s unclear if he was referring to the bulletin related to the Tulsa massacre anniversary.
Mayorkas has previously said that White supremacy extremists remain the most persistent lethal threat in America.
