Tulsa Race Massacre Survivors Move Forward With Lawsuit
May 31 marks the 101st anniversary of the beginning of the Tulsa Race Massacre that destroyed the prosperous Greenwood neighborhood, a community of Black wealth and achievement that had been nicknamed Black Wall Street. The horrific attack killed hundreds of people, destroyed thousands of homes and establishments and obliterated a 35-block neighborhood that had been thriving within the city of Tulsa. As knowledge of the massacre finally spread after decades of whitewashing, the few living survivors and the descendants of those who lived through the violence are finally moving a few steps closer to being compensated for the attack and its lingering impact on them and their community.
In 2020, lawyers filed a lawsuit against various Tulsa and Oklahoma public entities over the massacre, claiming that there had never been compensation for the attack and that its effects linger for survivors and their descendants. They cited higher unemployment rates, lower life expectancies and less access to education as among the continued impacts of the massacre within Tulsa. The suit was filed on behalf of the last three known survivors of the massacre, Lessie Benningfield Randle, Viola Fletcher, and Hughes Van Ellis.
These three survivors, each over 100 years old today, were small children during the time of the attack and managed to be evacuated from the massacre, which killed hundreds of their relatives and neighbors in Greenwood. The suit also represents descendants of other survivors who have since died.
