Tulsa Race Massacre: Committee To Assess Reparations For Victims Of The 1921 Tragedy

Source: Oklahoma Historical Society / Getty

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ictims of the painful Tulsa Race Massacre may soon be able to receive reparations.

According to NBC News, officials in Tulsa, Oklahoma, have created a reparations commission that will seek how to repair harm to residents living in the city’s thriving black district, Greenwood, during the 1921 massacre. On the dreadful day of May 31, 1921, white assailants looted, torched and burned down hundreds of Black-owned homes and businesses in Greenwood. Sadly, around 300 people died during the egregious attack. 

The panel, which has been named the Beyond Apology Commission, coined by Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum, will review the Beyond Apology city report published in 2023 and a 2001 state commission report created by state Rep. Don Ross and the late Senator Maxine Horner. Both reports called for financial compensation for the victims of the attack. However, the 2023 report went further, advocating for not just financial restitution but also community and economic development, including housing, land grants, and healthcare programs for those affected by the tragedy.

“We acknowledge that no process, study, or report can fully collect, detail or assess the past events or present impacts of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and its over 100-year aftermath,” the Beyond Apology report stated on its website at the time. “Furthermore, we acknowledge that without direct action on ‘findings’ from any of the many processes, studies and reports around these events, there cannot be justice. Therefore, ‘Beyond Apology’ (the process) and report endeavors to serve another brick-layer in the foundation laid and re-laid by the many attorneys, historians, researchers, activists and legislators [past and present] who have and continue to work towards justice.”

The Beyond Apology Committee will assess these recommendations and will also focus on creating a housing equity program for massacre survivors, their descendants, and other north Tulsa residents. The huge development follows the recent dismissal by the Oklahoma Supreme Court of a lawsuit filed by Lessie Benningfield Randle and Viola Fletcher, the last surviving witnesses of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, who sought reparations for the tragedy. 

As reported by PBS, the court upheld a district judge’s decision from the previous year, ruling that while the plaintiffs’ claims were valid, they did not fit within the state’s public nuisance statute. 

“We further hold that the plaintiff’s allegations do not sufficiently support a claim for unjust enrichment,” judges wrote of their decision at the time.

Randle and Fletcher, both over 100 years old, initiated the lawsuit in 2020 in hopes of achieving “justice in their lifetime,” according to their attorney. A third plaintiff, Hughes Van Ellis, passed away in 2023 at the age of 102.

SEE ALSO:

California Budget Earmarks Millions Of Dollars For Reparations For Black Residents

‘Cotton Candy Rhetoric’: Reparations Advocates Call Out San Francisco’s Planned Apology To Black Residents

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