Oklahoma judge dismisses Tulsa Race Massacre survivors’ reparations lawsuit: report

09 July 2023

An Oklahoma judge this week threw out a lawsuit filed by survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre who were seeking reparations for the trauma that they experienced during that infamously violent twenty-four-hour period.

On Friday, CNN reported that Judicial District 14 Judge Caroline Wall "found that 'upon hearing the arguments of counsel and considering the briefs filed by counsel for plaintiffs and counsel for defendants' the plaintiffs' Second Amendment petition 'should and shall be' dismissed with prejudice."

The Tulsa Historical Society and Museum recalls:

On the morning of May 30, 1921, a young Black man named Dick Rowland was riding in the elevator in the Drexel Building at Third and Main with a white woman named Sarah Page. The details of what followed vary from person to person. Accounts of an incident circulated among the city’s white community during the day and became more exaggerated with each telling.

Tulsa police arrested Rowland the following day and began an investigation. An inflammatory report in the May 31 edition of the Tulsa Tribune spurred a confrontation between Black and white armed mobs around the courthouse where the sheriff and his men had barricaded the top floor to protect Rowland. Shots were fired and the outnumbered African Americans began retreating to the Greenwood District.

In the early morning hours of June 1, 1921, Greenwood was looted and burned by white rioters. Governor Robertson declared martial law, and National Guard troops arrived in Tulsa. Guardsmen assisted firemen in putting out fires, took African Americans out of the hands of vigilantes and imprisoned all Black Tulsans not already interned. Over 6,000 people were held at the Convention Hall and the Fairgrounds, some for as long as eight days.

Twenty-four hours after the violence erupted, it ceased. In the wake of the violence, 35 city blocks lay in charred ruins, more than 800 people were treated for injuries and contemporary reports of deaths began at 36. Historians now believe as many as 300 people may have died.

In order to understand the Tulsa Race Massacre it is important to understand the complexities of the times. Dick Rowland, Sarah Page and an unknown gunman were the sparks that ignited a long-smoldering fire. Jim Crow, jealousy, white supremacy, and land lust, all played roles in leading up to the destruction and loss of life on May 31 and June 1, 1921.

CNN noted that "Lessie Benningfield Randle, 108, Viola Fletcher, 109, and her brother, Hughes Van Ellis, 102... had been locked in a yearslong court battle against the City of Tulsa and other groups and officials over the opportunities taken from them when the city's Greenwood neighborhood was burned to the ground in 1921."

CNN explained that "the plaintiffs had argued that the damage inflicted during the massacre was a 'public nuisance' from the start and were seeking relief from that nuisance as well as to 'recover for unjust enrichment' others have gained from the 'exploitation of the massacre.'"

Family members were outraged, albeit somewhat unsurprised, at Wall's ruling, which was handed down less than a day after Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters insisted to the Cleveland County Republican Party that the Tulsa Race Massacre had nothing to do with skin color.

"They were blighted and once again not made whole," Ike Howard, Viola Fletcher's grandson, told CNN. "We still remain blighted. We wish the D.O.J would investigate. … How can we get justice in the same city that created the nuisance? Is justice only for the rich?"

CNN's article is available at this link.

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