The last three known survivors of the infamous 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre announced on Monday that they plan to appeal last week's ruling by an Oklahoma judge dismissing their lawsuit seeking reparations for the deadly event.
On the night of May 31 and June 1 of that year, a mob of white people attacked Tulsa's Greenwood district, an exceptionally affluent Black neighborhood sometimes known as "Black Wall Street," killing more than 300 people and burning down hundreds of Black-owned homes and businesses. No one was ever held criminally liable, and survivors were never compensated for their losses.
"But we will not go quietly. We will continue to fight until our last breaths," the three survivors — Viola Fletcher, 109, Lessie Benningfield Randle, 108, and Hughes Van Ellis, 102 — said in a statement. Their lawsuit hoped to seek reparations for the long-term effects of the event. But Judge Caroline Wall dismissed the 2020 lawsuit "with prejudice" on Friday, meaning that the ruling is a final and permanent dismissal, and the case cannot be refiled.
"We were forced to plead this case beyond what is required under Oklahoma standards, which is certainly a familiar circumstance when Black Americans ask the American legal system to work for them," the survivors said in their statement. "And now, Judge Wall has condemned us to languish on Oklahoma's appellate docket."
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