‘TULSA RACE MASSACRE SURVIVORS DESERVE RESTITUTION’

Nehemiah Frank is a descendant of victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre, one of the worst racial crimes in the United States that destroyed 44 square blocks of Black institutions on 31 May 1921 in the Oklahoma city. Frank, the founder and editor-in-chief of Black Wall Street Times, said the last two survivors of the massacre—Viola Ford Fletcher, 110, and Lessie Benningfield Randle, 109 years old—deserve restitution.

However, on 12 June, the Oklahoma Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling that ‘simply being connected to a historical event does not provide a person with unlimited rights to seek compensation’ under the city’s public nuisance statute. However, the higher court acknowledged the ‘grievance with the social and economic inequities created by the Tulsa Race Massacre is legitimate and worthy of merit.’

The massacre k*lled about 300 Black people and assaulted, arrested and rendered homeless thousands after white supremacist mobs attacked Tulsa’s ‘Black Wall Street.’ CNN reported the event had destroyed tens of millions of dollars in property, including two Black hospitals and 1,256 residences. No one was ever charged for the Tulsa Race Massacre.

A third plaintiff in the lawsuit, Hughes Van Ellis, died in 2023 at 102 years old.

Do you think the elderly survivors and their descendants will get justice? Let us know.

Video credit: @nehemiahdfrank