Alvin C. Krupnick Co./Library of Congress via AP
According to theTulsa Historical Society and Museum, 24 hours of violence resulted in 35 city blocks in Greenwood being burned and about 300 deaths.
In a brief order, Wall wrote that she isdismissingthe lawsuit based on arguments from the city and other state and local agencies, per the AP. Wall had previously ruled against the defendants’ motions to have the suit thrown out and allowed it to proceed last year.
The three survivors, Lessie Benningfield Randle, Viola Fletcher and Hughes Van Ellis, all of whom are over 100 years old, filed the lawsuit in 2020, alleging that the city of Tulsa broke Oklahoma’spublic nuisance lawwhen it didn’t act against the white mob that caused the violence, whose effects continue to reverberate today.
According to the lawsuit, the city and insurance companies didn’t compensate the victims of the massacre for their losses. The suit sought a number of redresses, including an accounting of the amount of losses as a result of the violence, the construction of a hospital in north Tulsa, and a victims’ compensation fund, per the AP.
People raise up their arms during the dedication of a prayer wall outside of the historic Vernon African Methodist Episcopal Church in the Greenwood neighborhood during the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre in 2021.AP Photo/John Locher
AP Photo/John Locher
In a statement shared to PEOPLE Monday, Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum said: “The City of Tulsa has yet to receive the opinion and full order, but can confirm we did receive the minute order in this case. The City remains committed to finding the graves of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre victims, fostering economic investment in the Greenwood District, educating future generations about the worst event in our community’s history, and building a city where every person has an equal opportunity for a great life.”
Damario Solomon-Simmons, an attorney for the plaintiffs and a founder of the groupJustice for Greenwood, provided a statement to PEOPLE Monday about the lawsuit dismissal: “There is no semblance of justice or access to justice here Judge Wall joined a long line of judges who for over a century have quietly thrown can after can of gasoline on the fire that is still burning in Greenwood. And now, Judge Wall has condemned our clients – who are 109, 108 and 102 years old – to effectively languish to death on Oklahoma’s appellate docket. We will continue to fight on behalf of and alongside our Survivors and we will not rest until there is justice for Greenwood. This is not over."
In May 2021, PresidentJoe Bidenissued an official proclamation declaring a “Day of Remembrance” to mark the 100th anniversary of the massacre and calling on Americans to “reflect on the deep roots of racial terror in our Nation and recommit to the work of rooting out systemic racism across our country.”
According to the White House, many of Greenwood’s then 10,000 residents were “Black sharecroppers who fled racial violence after the Civil War.” In the years following the Civil War, the district became known as a place where Black Americans “were able to make a new start and secure economic progress despite the continued pain of institutional and overt racism.”
As the White House noted in its official proclamation, in addition to the 300 deaths from the violence, “nearly 10,000 were left destitute and homeless.”
“Despite rising Jim Crow systems and the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan, Greenwood’s economic prosperity grew, as did its citizens' demands for equal rights. This made the community a source of pride for many Black Americans,” the White House proclamation explained. “It also made the neighborhood and its families a target of white supremacists. In two days, a violent mob tore down the hard-fought success of Black Wall Street that had taken more than a decade to build.”
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Speaking to lawmakers from a House Judiciary Subcommittee in 2021, Fletchersaid, “I will never forget the violence of the white mob when we left our home.”
She also said at the time: “We lost everything that day. Our homes. Our churches. Our newspapers. Our theaters. Our lives. Greenwood represented the best of what was possible for Black people in America – and for all people. No one cared about us for almost 100 years. We, and our history, have been forgotten, washed away. This Congress must recognize us, and our history. For Black Americans. For white Americans. For all Americans. That’s some justice.”
source: people.com
