Brooklyn, NY – Today, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries released the following statement upon the Biden-Harris administration’s creation of the 1908 Springfield Race Riot National Monument.

With President Biden’s signature, a national monument has been designated at the site where a mob of white residents burned down homes and businesses across Springfield’s Black community. Two Black men were lynched and thousands of Black residents were forced to flee. Only one perpetrator was ever convicted for their participation in this atrocity.

Seeking to prevent similar tragedies from occurring again, a multiracial coalition of national advocates like Ida B. Wells and W.E.B. DuBois came together to create the NAACP, just six months after the riot.

America will finally have its first national monument commemorating the horrors of race riots, the indiscriminate violence visited upon Black Americans during the Jim Crow era and the bravery of those who fought back against racial terror.

I am thankful to President Biden and Vice President Harris for their commitment to telling the complete American story and for building on last year’s establishment of the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument. 

House Democrats, in partnership with the Biden-Harris administration, will always fight to protect our complete history from being erased by extreme MAGA Republicans. Together, we will build a brighter future for America.

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