The Justice Department has announced plans to launch a review of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, one of the worst acts of violence against Black Americans in U.S. history. The massacre involved a white mob attacking a prosperous Black district in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The announcement, made Monday, is part of a federal cold-case initiative that has led to prosecutions in some Civil Rights era cases. However, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke stated that there is “no expectation” anyone still living could be prosecuted as a result of this inquiry.
Despite this, the first-ever federal probe into the massacre has been welcomed by descendants of survivors, who have long criticized city and state officials for failing to adequately compensate those affected. Clarke said the agency plans to issue a public report detailing its findings by the end of the year.
“We acknowledge that descendants of survivors and the victims continue to bear the trauma of this act of racial terrorism,” Clarke said in her remarks in Washington.
Damario Solomon-Simmons, an attorney for the last known survivors of the massacre — 110-year-old Viola Fletcher and 109-year-old Lessie Benningfield Randle — described the announcement as a “joyous occasion.”
“It’s about time,” said Solomon-Simmons, standing alongside descendants of survivors. “It only took 103 years, but this is a joyous occasion, a momentous day, and an amazing opportunity to ensure that what happened in Tulsa is understood for what it was — the largest crime scene in this country’s history.”
During the 1921 massacre, as many as 300 Black people were killed, more than 1,200 homes, businesses, schools, and churches were destroyed, and thousands were forced into internment camps overseen by the National Guard. The white mob, which included individuals deputized by local authorities, looted and burned the Greenwood District, also known as Black Wall Street.
In June, the Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit brought by survivors, a blow to advocates who had hoped the city would provide financial reparations. The court upheld a district judge’s ruling that, while the plaintiffs’ grievances were legitimate, they did not fall within the scope of the state’s public nuisance statute.
After the state Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit, Solomon-Simmons asked the U.S. Department of Justice to open an investigation under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act.
While the Act has led to prosecutions in some Civil Rights Era cases, the DOJ acknowledged in a report to Congress last year that cases predating 1968 face significant legal hurdles.
“Even with our best efforts, investigations into historic cases are exceptionally difficult, and justice is rarely achieved in the courtroom,” the DOJ noted in the report.
Since the Act was passed in 2008, the DOJ has opened 137 cases involving 160 known victims. Of these, 125 cases have been fully investigated and resolved through prosecution, referral, or closure.
The report also notes that the Act has resulted in two successful federal prosecutions and three state prosecutions. One of the most notable cases was the conviction of Klansmen responsible for the 1963 bombing of a Birmingham, Alabama church, which killed four young girls.
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