As reported by NBC News on Wednesday (Oct. 2), the U.S. Department of Justice is reviewing the Tulsa Race Massacre and expected to complete the evaluation by year-end. The tragic event occurred on May 31, 1921, when white attackers killed hundreds of people, mostly Black, in Tulsa's Greenwood neighborhood – an area then known by its Black Wall Street nickname. The review is being conducted under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act.
“When we have finished our federal review, we will issue a report analyzing the massacre in light of both modern and then-existing civil rights law,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who is overseeing the Justice Department’s civil rights enforcement efforts. "We have no expectation that there are living perpetrators who could be criminally prosecuted by us or by the state. Although a commission, historians, lawyers, and others have conducted prior examinations of the Tulsa massacre, we, the Justice Department, never have."
Back in June of this year, REVOLT reported that the Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by the last survivors of the senseless act. “We retained this matter on [the] plaintiffs' motion and hold that [their] grievances do not fall within the scope of our state's public nuisance statute, and [the] plaintiffs' allegations do not support a claim for the equitable doctrine of unjust enrichment,” read the justices’ official statement.
109-year-old Lessie Benningfield Randle and 110-year-old Viola Fletcher aimed to hold the city of Tulsa and other entities accountable for one of the most egregious acts of violence against Black Americans in United States history. Along with now-deceased plaintiff Hughes Van Ellis, the survivors' lawsuit was the last attempt for justice within their lifetimes. “It’s past time," Randle stated before the state’s decision. “I would like to see this all cleared up and we go down the right road. But I do not know if I will ever see that.”