‘Why Am I Not Surprised?’: Oklahoma Judge Dismisses Tulsa Massacre Lawsuit Seeking Reparations for Descendants and Survivors of Black Wall Street Racial Attack

The road to justice for the victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre has taken a significant step backward, as an Oklahoma county judge has dismissed their lawsuit seeking compensation.

The lawsuit, filed in February 2021, targeted the Board of County Commissioners, Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission, and Tulsa County Sheriff, along with the Oklahoma Military Department, Tulsa Chamber, and the Tulsa Development Authority.

The Tulsa Massacre is considered the deadliest racial attack in American history. Viola Fletcher was a small child when the 1921 Tulsa Massacre happened. She is one of the three surviving victims. (Photos: YouTube screenshots/ NBC News/The History Channel)

Tulsa County District Court Judge Caroline Wall agreed with defendants in the case who argued on various grounds that the lawsuit should dismissed, writing in her July 7 ruling that their motions “should and shall be granted upon the grounds set forth in the defendants’ briefs.”

Viola Fletcher, Lessie Bennifield Randle and Hughes Van Ellis are the last living survivors. They were children when the massacre occurred and are all over 100 years old.

“We just heard people running and screaming and could smell smoke, seeing houses burning and people getting shot, falling dead,” Fletcher, now 109, told CNN. “In every direction you look, really, there was something going on and we always wondered why, but nobody had time to tell.”

The legal action sought the establishment of a dedicated fund for the victims and their descendants, seeking redress for the racial riots that ravaged the Greenwood District in 1921, resulting in the reported death of 300 people and the destruction of a thriving Black community.

The aftermath of this tragedy left damages amounting to tens of millions in today’s currency, eradicating generational wealth within the once affluent neighborhood, according to reports.

The victims also demanded an official acknowledgment from the defendants that the massacre constituted a “public nuisance” under Oklahoma law, affecting the former Black residents of the Greenwood District and their offspring. They claim the city and insurance companies failed to compensate them for their losses, and city officials actively hindered efforts to rebuild the community, and as a result, the riot destroyed their economic standing.

Source: ‘Why Am I Not Surprised?’: Oklahoma Judge Dismisses Tulsa Massacre Lawsuit Seeking Reparations for Descendants and Survivors of Black Wall Street Racial Attack