Headline Roundup • June 13th, 2024
OK Supreme Court Rejects Lawsuit Filed by Survivors of Tulsa Race Massacre
Summary from the AllSides News Team
The Oklahoma Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit filed by survivors of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre.
For Context: It is estimated that over 300 people were killed and thousands were left homeless in 1921 when a white mob attacked and burned Tulsa’s Greenwood neighborhood, an affluent black community known as “Black Wall Street.” Lessie Benningfield Randle, 108, Viola Fletcher, 109, and Hughes Van Ellis, 102, are living survivors of the massacre and were among the plaintiffs in the case. The plaintiffs argued that the massacre amounted to a “public nuisance.”
Details: Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Dustin Rowe deemed the plaintiffs’ grievances “legitimate,” but concluded “they do not fall within the scope of our state's public nuisance statute.” Rowe, added, “The continuing blight alleged within the Greenwood community born out of the massacre implicates generational-societal inequities that can only be resolved by policymakers--not the courts.”
Key Quotes: Following the ruling, Ike Howard, grandson of Viola Fletcher, stated, “They were blighted and once again not made whole. We still remain blighted. We wish the D.O.J would investigate. … How can we get justice in the same city that created the nuisance? Is justice only for the rich?” The City of Tulsa released a statement reading, “The City of Tulsa respects the court’s decision and affirms the significance of the work the City continues to do in the North Tulsa and Greenwood communities.”
How the Media Covered It: Left- and center-rated outlets covered the ruling more frequently and prominently.
Featured Coverage of this Story
An Oklahoma judge dismissed the reparations lawsuit filed by the last three known survivors of the Tulsa race massacre on Friday, court records show.
The three had been locked in a yearslong court battle against the City of Tulsa and other groups and officials over the opportunities taken from them when the city’s Greenwood neighborhood was burned to the ground in 1921.
Contemporary reports of deaths began at 36, but historians now believe as many as 300 people may have died, according to the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum. Thousands...
REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
Oklahoma's highest court on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit by the last two known living survivors of the Tulsa race massacre in 1921 seeking reparations for the violence and destruction that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Black people.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court upheld a judge's decision last year to dismiss the case, saying the state's public nuisance law could not be relied upon to address the lingering consequences of "unjust, violent, and tragic moments of our history."
It is estimated that as many as 300 people, most of them...
Alvin C. Krupnick Co./Library of Congress via AP
Oklahoma's highest court tossed a lawsuit seeking reparations for two survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, one of the worst incidents of violence involving race that saw more than 300 Black people killed by a White mob and the destruction of Black Wall Street, a thriving Black district.
The nine-member Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit of the last two survivors of the riot, ruling that the plaintiff’s grievances, although legitimate, did not fall within the scope of the state’s public nuisance statute.
"We further hold that the plaintiff’s...
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