The Department of Justice recently announced that they will be conducting a historic federal review of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
Announced on Monday by Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, the review will analyze the historic tragic event, taking into account both current and former civil rights laws. The Justice Department will reportedly look at documents, witness statements as well as both scholarly and historical research regarding the Tulsa Race Massacre.
The review is expected to be finished by the end of the year. The look into the massacre will be covered under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. Introduced by Representative John Lewis and passed in 2008, the law gives the F.B.I. and the Department of Justice the right to open racially-motivated cases that happened on or before Dec. 13, 1979.
“While this race massacre happened 103 years ago, in 1921, we acknowledge that there are two survivors, Viola Fletcher (Mother Fletcher) and Lessie Benningfield Randle (Mother Randle), and one victim who passed away late last year, Hugh Van Ellis, known as Uncle Red,” said Clarke per her statement. “We acknowledge descendants of the survivors, and the victims continue to bear the trauma of this act of racial terrorism.”
“We honor the legacy of the Tulsa Race Massacre survivors, Emmett Till, the Act that bears his name, this country and the truth by conducting our own review and evaluation of the massacre,” she added.
Welcome DOJ @CivilRight's announcement of a truth-seeking process regarding the Tulsa Race Massacre, recognizing the ongoing need for justice for historic crimes. As civil rights leader Ida B. Wells said, "the way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them." https://t.co/fJSv3D7cFX
— Ambassador Beth Van Schaack, Global Crim Justice (@StateDept_GCJ) October 4, 2024
The announcement that an official review will be conducted comes months after the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the lasting survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre.
In June, the judges announced that they reached an 8-1 vote, choosing to uphold a decision previously made by a district court judge in Tulsa. Initially filed in 2020, the lawsuit fought for reparations for survivors and descendants, citing the lack of help from officials and the continued nuisance the event continues to have.
Both survivors – Viola Fletcher, 110, and Lessie Benningfield Randle, 109- were involved in the case. Both women were children when the massacre happened.
Earlier last month, the women attempted to have the ruling examined once again. The Oklahoma Supreme Court, however, ruled to reject a request to reconsider their decision.
In their fight to get the motion reheard, the attorney for Fletcher and Randle, Damario Solomon-Simmons, revealed that he called upon the Justice Department to open the newly announced review in July.
“President Biden sat down with my clients. He promised them that he would see that they get justice,” Solomon-Simmons said in July per AP News. “Then he went to the next room and had a robust speech where he told the nation that he stood with the survivors and descendants of the Tulsa race massacre … we are calling upon President Biden to fulfill his promise to these survivors, to this community and for Black people across the nation.”
