By Megan Sayles
AFRO Business Writer
msayles@afro.com
It’s been more than a century since a White mob looted, bombed and burned down Greenwood’s thriving Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Okla., destroying one of the wealthiest African-American communities in the country. Still, no trial has been conducted, and no one has been held legally responsible for what experts consider one of the most severe instances of racial violence in U.S. history.
Tulsa race massacre survivors Viola Fletcher, left, and Lessie Benningfield Randle are asking the Oklahoma Supreme Court to reconsider its decision to uphold the dismissal of their reparations lawsuit against the city of Tulsa. The centenarians have also asked the federal government to launch an investigation into the 1921 race riot. (Photo courtesy of Justice for Greenwood)
In June, the Oklahoma Supreme Court upheld a 2023 decision made by a Tulsa district court judge, dismissing a case for reparations led by those who lived through the race riot. The two remaining survivors, 110-year-old Viola Fletcher and 109-year-old Lessie Benningfield Randle, denounced the decision and called for a federal investigation into the massacre on July 2.
“Although our quest for justice in Oklahoma may be over, for as long as we remain in this lifetime, we will continue to shine a light on one of the darkest days in American history. But, we know there is more that can be done,” said Randle and Fletcher, in a statement read by McKenzie Haynes, a member of the women’s legal team. “We ask the United States Department of Justice to intervene, open an investigation into the massacre and do what Oklahoma has never done. It’s not too late to do the right thing.”
Randle and Fletcher were young girls when they witnessed the destruction of their community. They have both described the long-lasting financial and emotional distress that the massacre caused them and their families. On that May day in 1921, more than 1,400 homes and businesses were burned, leaving almost 10,000 people homeless, according to Brittanica. As many as 300 people died, most of them African Americans.
The pair, along with Fletcher’s late brother Hughes Van Ellis, sued the city of Tulsa for reparations in 2020 under Oklahoma’s public nuisance law. But, Judge Caroline Wall dismissed the case last year, saying it failed to meet the legal parameters of the statute.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court voted 8-1 to uphold the decision on June 12. Aside from soliciting the help of the DOJ, Randle and Fletcher’s legal team have filed a petition for a rehearing in the court.
“We are profoundly disappointed by the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision ro reject our lawsuit, and we are deeply saddened that we may not live long enough to see the state of Oklahoma or the United State of America honestly confront and right the wrongs of one of the darkest days in American history,” said Randle and Fletcher in their statement. “At 109 and 110 years old, we are weary, and we know that we are living in borrowed time.”
In 2021, the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre, President Joe Biden met with Randle, Fletcher and Ellis. Lead attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons said the president promised the survivors that they would get justice.
He asked the president to honor the vow.
“Now that we have been failed by the courts and by Congress, we are calling upon President Biden to fulfill his promise to these survivors, to this community and for Black people throughout this nation,” said Solomon-Simmons. “We hurt for the survivors, we hurt for the descendants and we hurt as a national Black community for the destruction of Greenwood.”
