Viola Fletcher and Lessie Benningfield Randle, the last two remaining survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, continue to face hurdles with the legal system after filing a lawsuit that aims to hold the city of Tulsa responsible for the devastation. Fletcher and Randle are now learning that the Oklahoma Supreme Court has refused to rehear a June ruling that upheld the district court’s decision to dismiss the case. Seven members of the court came together on Sept. 11 to strike down the lawsuit, the Associated Press reported.
Around 300 Black people were killed in the Tulsa Massacre as white mobs unleashed violence in the Greenwood District, a thriving Black community known as Black Wall Street. Over 1,000 homes, businesses, schools and churches were destroyed.
Damario Solomon-Simmons, the attorney representing Fletcher and Randle, filed the motion for the July rehearing. Solomon-Simmons hoped that the U.S. Department of Justice would open an investigation under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, which “allows for the reopening of cold cases of violent crimes against Black people committed before 1970,” according to the AP.
Shortly after filing the motion for rehearing, Solomon-Simmons said President Joe Biden promised justice to Fletcher and Randle.
“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,” Solomon-Simmons said at that time, per the AP.
Fletcher and Randle, who are 110 and 109 years old, respectively, have battled the case since 2021, arguing that the massacre’s devastation can still be felt today.
As the AP reported, “Attorneys also argued that Tulsa appropriated the historic reputation of Black Wall Street ‘to their own financial and reputational benefit.’ They argue that any money the city receives from promoting Greenwood or Black Wall Street, including revenue from the Greenwood Rising History Center, should be placed in a compensation fund for victims and their descendants.”
In an interview with CNN in April, Fletcher recalled “people getting killed, houses, property, schools, churches, and stores getting destroyed with fire” during the massacre.
“It just stays with me, you know, just the fear,” Fletcher told CNN. “I have lived in Tulsa since but I don’t sleep all night living there.”
