Denial of Justice: The Tulsa Race Massacre Survivors’ Fight
The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre decimated Greenwood, a prosperous Black community known as “Black Wall Street,” when white mobs, supported by local authorities, launched a devastating attack.
In just two days, hundreds of Black residents were killed, and more than 1,000 homes and businesses were destroyed. While many survivors tried to rebuild their lives, they were met with a series of systemic barriers, including the denial of insurance claims for the damages they suffered.
Insurance companies invoked “riot” exclusion clauses, claiming the destruction was part of a riot, not compensable damage, leaving survivors with no financial support despite the immense loss of property.
The media also played a role in the cover-up, with local newspapers either downplaying the event or labeling it as a race “riot,” which contributed to its erasure from public memory.
For decades, the massacre was virtually ignored in historical accounts and public discourse. Many survivors, left impoverished, received no government assistance, and no one was prosecuted for the massacre.
The Tulsa Race Massacre is now widely recognized as an act of racial terrorism, akin to pogroms seen in Eastern Europe. Like those violent, state-sanctioned attacks, the massacre targeted an entire racial group with the intent of destroying their community. The terror and destruction left long-lasting scars, not just on the physical landscape of Tulsa but on the lives of the survivors and their descendants, who were robbed of generational wealth and opportunity.
In recent years, survivors like Lessie Benningfield Randle and Viola Fletcher, who are both over 100 years old, sought justice through a 2020 lawsuit.
The suit argued that the massacre and its long-term effects amounted to a public nuisance that continues to harm the Black community in Tulsa. However, in 2024, the Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed the case, ruling that the claims didn’t meet the legal requirements under the state’s public nuisance law. This decision dealt yet another blow to the survivors’ long-standing efforts for justice and reparations.
Despite the dismissal, the fight for justice continues to spark conversations about reparations and the need to address the historical wrongs that still affect Tulsa’s Black community today.
The massacre remains a stark reminder of the racial violence and systemic injustice that have defined much of American history, leaving many to call for broader, more meaningful reparations beyond the courtroom.