'Broke down in tears' -Tulsa Race Massacre victims 'very pleased' case moving forward

Record ID: 1671429

  • Title: 'Broke down in tears' -Tulsa Race Massacre victims 'very pleased' case moving forward
  • Date: 4th May 2022
  • Summary: TULSA, OKLAHOMA, UNITED STATES (FILE - MAY 26, 2021) (REUTERS) LETTERING ON AREA STREET THAT READS, "BLACK LIVES MATTER" STREET SIGN THAT READS, "GREENWOOD" MAN WALKING
  • Embargoed: 18th May 2022 01:21
  • Keywords: Hughes Van Ellis Lessie Benningfield Randle Tulsa race massacre Viola Fletcher reparations
  • Location: TULSA, OKLAHOMA + NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
  • City: TULSA, OKLAHOMA + NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Judicial Process/Court Cases/Court Decisions,United States
  • Reuters ID: LVA00H555203052022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Advocates of the three survivors of the 1921 Tulsa massacre said on Tuesday (May 3) they were pleased a lawsuit seeking reparations for the death and destruction was able to proceed after a ruling by a judge in Oklahoma on Monday (May 2)
    The massacre saw a white mob murder scores of Blacks and raze much of their north Tulsa neighborhood of Greenwood.
    Tulsa County District Judge Caroline Wall rejected motions by the defendants, which include the city of Tulsa, to dismiss the case. The next legal steps were unclear.
    But some satisfaction is already being felt.
    "We are very pleased that this case is going forward," one of the victim's advocates, Michael Swartz, a partner and co-chair of the litigation group of Schulte, Roth Sabel. "This will represent the first time that descendants of the [Tulsa race] massacre, victims of the massacre, anything having to do with the massacre will have an opportunity to prove their case in court."
    The victims' advocates recounted the reaction of one of their clients, 101-year-old Hughes Van Ellis, known as, "Uncle Red."
    "He broke down in tears immediately," said Sara Solfanelli, another advocate from the Schulte firm
    The lawsuit seeks financial and other reparations, including a 99-year tax holiday for Tulsa residents who are descendants of victims of the massacre in Greenwood. It is estimated that as many as 300 people, most of them Black, died.
    Greenwood "was a robust, vibrant community. It had a Black-owned hotel. It had a first-rate hospital. It had merchants all over the place," said Swartz of the area "known as Black Wall Street. And so the relief we're asking for is to have all that restored."
    Among the plaintiffs are Lessie Randle, who survived the massacre as a small child, and a descendant of the owner of the Stradford Hotel, at the time of the massacre the largest Black-owned hotel in the U.S.
    The violence erupted after a white woman told police that a Black man had grabbed her arm in an elevator in a downtown Tulsa commercial building on May 30, 1921, according to an account by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
    The following day, police arrested the man, whom the Tulsa Tribune reported had tried to assault the woman. Whites surrounded the courthouse, demanding the man be handed over. World War One veterans were among Black men who went to the courthouse to face the mob. A white man tried to disarm a Black veteran and a shot rang out, touching off further violence.
    Whites looted and burned buildings and dragged Blacks from their beds and beat them, according to historical accounts. Whites were deputized by authorities and instructed to shoot Blacks.
    No one was ever charged in the violence.
    Deep economic and health disparities remain between Blacks, who still live for the most part in north Tulsa, and whites.
    "There's still no hospital in north Tulsa. It was never rebuilt. The land that belonged to Black landowners was taken by the city, never given back," Solfanelli said. "It may have started with the massacre, but there has been ongoing harm to the community for over a hundred years, that has kept it from rebuilding, despite how hard it has tried. And despite the resilience that this community has shown. And that is why they are still fighting for justice."
    (Production by: Dan Fastenberg)
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