Tulsa Race Massacre survivors, Lessie Randle and Viola Fletcher, call for federal probe

NEW YORK — The last two living survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre called on Tuesday for a federal investigation into attacks by a white mob that killed hundreds of Black Americans in Oklahoma.

Lessie Benningfield Randle, 109, and Viola Fletcher, 110, condemned the Oklahoma Supreme Court's decision last month to dismiss their lawsuit seeking reparations.

"Our legal system continues to deny Black Americans an equal opportunity to seek justice under the law," Randle and Fletcher said in a joint statement read by their lawyers at a news conference in Tulsa. They asked the U.S. Department of Justice to open an investigation into the massacre.

"With our own eyes, and burned deeply into our memories, we watched white Americans destroy, kill and loot," Randle and Fletcher said. "And despite these obvious crimes against humanity, not one indictment was issued, most insurance claims remain unpaid or were paid for only pennies on the dollar, and Black Tulsans were forced to leave their homes and live in fear."

The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division did not respond to a request for comment.

'Mother Fletcher' and 'Mother Randle' are the last living survivors

At 110, "Mother Fletcher," a mother and grandmother, is notably the oldest survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre. She has launched the Viola Ford Fletcher Foundation, a non-profit that aims to help individuals' "self-sufficiency through health, educational knowledge-sharing and workforce opportunity," according to its website.

Last year, Fletcher and her grandson, Ike Howard, also released a memoir titled "Don't Let Them Bury My Story."

In May 2021, Fletcher, her brother Hughes Van Ellis nicknamed "Uncle Red" – a World War II veteran who recently passed away last year −and Randle appeared before Congress, pushing for their reparations and for the country to acknowledge the tragedy that impacted generations.

Dressed in a sage green blazer and sitting poised before lawmakers, Fletcher recounted the night of the massacre, describing herself as "rich."

"Not just in terms of wealth, but in culture, community, heritage, and my family had a beautiful home," she clarified. "We had great neighbors, and I had friends to play with. I felt safe. I had everything a child could need. I had a bright future ahead of me."

Fletcher went to sleep in her home but was awakened hours later as chaos ensued. She was only 7 years old at the time. The home she knew was gone, but the memories and violence she witnessed lived with her throughout her years.

"I still see Black men being shot, Black bodies lying in the street. I still smell smoke and see fire, I still see Black businesses being burned, I still hear airplanes flying overhead. I hear the screams," she explained. "I have lived through the massacre every day. "

In the meeting before Congress, Randle tells them how her grandmother's home was looted and destroyed before her eyes. As a result, she explained that what she saw still has an impact on her today causing emotional and physical distress. In her Oct. 14, 2020 deposition, Randle told Congress she experiences flashbacks from the Tulsa massacre and is taken back to the sight of Black bodies being stacked up on the street as her neighborhood was set on fire.

"Whenever we're talking about this story, I don't think people recognize that a lot of the survivors that have shared all their testimony were children at the time. This is a story about children," Odewale said.

Coming home to ‘nothing left':An illustrated history of the Tulsa Race Massacre.

Tulsa Massacre survivors lawsuit

On May 31, 1921, white attackers killed as many as 300 people, most of them Black, in Tulsa's prosperous Greenwood neighborhood, which had gained the nickname "Black Wall Street."

Damario Solomon-Simmons, lead attorney for Randle and Fletcher, said the two survivors had been "begging" the DOJ for years to investigate as their legal battle with Oklahoma dragged on.

"It is time for the administration to show not just Mother Randle, not just the Greenwood community, but Black America that they will stand with us in our time of need," Solomon-Simmons said.

Earlier this year, Solomon-Simmons told USA TODAY that he was a young law student turned lawyer when he got involved in the Tulsa Race Massacre lawsuit.

“In 2004, I was very fortunate as a law student and then a young lawyer to work as a clerk and a young lawyer with Professor Charles Ogletree, Johnny Cochran, Willie Gary, Michelle Roberts," Solomon-Simmons said. "Some of the greatest civil rights attorneys across the nation that bought a federal case and that case lasted a couple of years and that got dismissed in the federal reports."

Solomon-Simmons and his team started to do some research and stumbled upon the public nuisance theory.

“We worked on that for over a year, and we filed the case Sept. 1, 2020 as both a public nuisance case, which is saying that there is still remnants and problems that the massacre created back in 1921 is still ongoing. That's the key to a public nuisance case," Solomon-Simmons said. "It's ongoing and doesn't matter when it is like an oil spill, right? Oil spill comes in spilled out 1 million gallons of oil on June 1, 1921, and there's still some oil that are causing problems June 1, 2021."

The case isn’t just for his clients, it’s for the entire Greenwood community.

“It's not just for the individual clients, it is for the entire approximately 40 blocks of Greenwood that was devastated that is still suffering," Solomon-Simmons said. "Blight, that started because of the massacre, still suffering from other ongoing of what's called in the law, continuing harm."

Contributing: Taylor Ardrey and Ahjané Forbes, USA TODAY