Oklahoma Supreme Court will consider Tulsa Race Massacre reparations case

The Oklahoma Supreme Court will consider a case seeking reparations for survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, known as one of the worst acts of racial violence in U.S. history.

Tulsa County District Judge Caroline Wall dismissed the case last month, and the last three known survivors, Lessie Benningfield Randle, Viola Fletcher and Hughes Van Ellis Sr., filed an appeal with the state’s supreme court. Last week, the court agreed to consider whether the suit should have been dismissed and if it should be returned to the lower court.

The lawsuit, filed in 2020, said the massacre was an “ongoing public nuisance” to the survivors, and the decimation of what had been America's most prosperous Black business community continues to affect Tulsa.

"The survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre are heroes, and Oklahoma has had 102 years to do right by them," their attorney, Damario Solomon-Simmons, said in a statement to The Associated Press. "The state's efforts to gaslight the living survivors, whitewash history, and move the goal posts for everyone seeking justice in Oklahoma puts all of us in danger, and that is why we need the Oklahoma Supreme Court to apply the rule of law." 

The city and other defendants declined to consider a settlement with the survivors, court documents show.

Following the massacre, the city “exacerbated the damage and suffering” of the Greenwood community by unlawfully detaining thousands and using unconstitutional laws to deprive the community of “reasonable use of their property,” the lawsuit said.

Assistant Attorney General Kevin McClure filed a response to the appeal Monday, where he said the suit was based on “conflicting historical facts” from more than century ago and should be dismissed.

The city of Tulsa declined to comment on the case.

What happened in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre?

In the early 1900s, the 40 blocks to the north of downtown Tulsa boasted 10,000 residents, hundreds of businesses, medical facilities an airport and more. In the summer of 1921, a violent white mob descended on Greenwood District — an affluent Black community — burning, looting and destroying more than 1,000 homes, along with Black Wall Street, a thriving business district.

Historians estimate the death toll to be between 75 and 300 people.

The city and insurance companies never compensated victims for their losses, and the massacre ultimately resulted in racial and economic disparities that still exist today, the lawsuit claims. In the years following the massacre, according to the lawsuit, city and county officials actively thwarted the community's effort to rebuild and neglected the Greenwood and predominantly Black north Tulsa community in favor of overwhelmingly white parts of Tulsa.

The suit contended that the city's long history of racial division and tension are rooted in the massacre, which was perpetrated by members of the Tulsa Police Department, Tulsa County Sheriff's Department, the National Guard, and city and county leaders, among others.

It also alleged that the lack of investment in the Greenwood District and other historically and predominantly Black areas of Tulsa after the massacre had exacerbated the damage and suffering.

Problems were further compounded when "in 2016, the Defendants began enriching themselves by promoting the site of the Massacre as a tourist attraction," according to the suit.

A Chamber of Commerce attorney previously said that while the massacre was a horrible incident, there was no ongoing nuisance.

Contributing: The Associated Press