Last survivors of Tulsa race massacre call for US investigation

[July 03, 2024]  By Liya Cui
 
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The last two living survivors of the 1921 Tulsa massacre called on Tuesday for a federal investigation into attacks by a white mob that killed hundreds of Black Americans in Oklahoma.   

People gather ahead of U.S. President Joe Biden's visit to mark the 100th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre, at Greenwood Ave in Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S., June 1, 2021. REUTERS/Lawrence Bryant/File Photo

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 press 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. 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," Randle and Fletcher said.

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

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.

(Reporting by Liya Cui; editing by Donna Bryson and Rod Nickel)

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