Tulsa Race Massacre Survivors Respond To DOJ Report: “This Is a Call to Action”

By Justice For Greenwood

Photos: Justice For Greenwood\YouTube Screenshots\Wikimedia Commons

The last two living survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, Lessie Benningfield Randle and Viola Fletcher, both 110, have issued a powerful response to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) report released last week. The report is the federal government’s most comprehensive acknowledgment of the massacre to date, confirming that it was not mob violence but a coordinated, military-style attack orchestrated with the complicity of law enforcement and government officials. 

The report’s release has stoked a national conversation over one of the worst episodes of racial violence in US history – and reignited calls for reparations. 

But by failing to recommend charges against the remaining entities behind the massacre, the report left many in Greenwood dismayed. The two last living survivors, who fled the racist mob as young children, praised the DOJ’s efforts to expose the truth but expressed disappointment in the report’s failure to hold institutions accountable.

While it hasn’t been easy for us to relive the pain, we are relieved to see one of the biggest cover-ups in American history come crashing down,” Randle and Fletcher said in a joint statement. (See their full statement here).

Still, after meeting with us during the probe, DOJ investigators released a report that falls heartbreakingly short,” they continued. “The DOJ confirms the government’s role in the slaughter of our Greenwood neighbors but refuses to hold the institutions accountable under federal law. Justice is not saying to survivors that the entities that ran us out of town, hindered our rebuilding efforts, and erased us from history are absolved of their crimes. Justice is holding guilty parties to account so that the community can heal.

National civil rights attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons, the survivors’ lead counsel and founder and executive director of Justice for Greenwood, echoed their sentiments.

The release of the DOJ report on the Tulsa Race Massacre marks a watershed opportunity for our nation to reckon with its ongoing legacy of fanning white supremacist violence, concealing Black American history, and thwarting Black generational wealth,” said Solomon-Simmons.

To be clear, the DOJ had every opportunity to advance justice for the Greenwood community, but did not show a willingness to rise to the occasion. The DOJ failed to issue any subpoenas for the documents that complicit institutions have hidden from us, and refused to address the ongoing mass graves investigation including the recent discovery of previously unknown victims of the Massacre. Furthermore, their refusal to recommend charges – or at least elevate the review into an official investigation – sends the wrong message to extremists about the consequences of committing domestic terror on American soil.

Considered one of the worst episodes of racial violence in US history, the massacre left hundreds of Black people killed and thousands disappeared from history, over 36 square blocks of Black Wall Street burned, and hundreds of millions of dollars in Black wealth stolen. 

The DOJ report confirms that local law enforcement deputized white attackers, disarmed Black residents, and detained survivors in internment camps while actively participating in arson and murder. It also details how the City of Tulsa obstructed Greenwood’s recovery through restrictive fire codes, brazen land grabs, and the rejection of outside aid.

Momentum for Reparations Builds

The survivors and their legal team believe the DOJ report underscores the urgent case for reparations. Next week, Justice for Greenwood will announce a groundbreaking initiative to further these goals and build on the momentum generated by the DOJ’s findings.

Even with its shortcomings, the DOJ report makes clear that the destruction of Black Wall Street was an organized, state-sanctioned effort to wipe out an American community, compounded by a sweeping cover-up, which demands immediate reparative action,” said Solomon-Simmons. “With the conclusion of its probe, the federal government has not just made history – it has laid one of the most consequential bricks yet in Greenwood’s path to healing and reparations.

The massacre survivors feel similarly optimistic following the report’s release.

“…Our unwavering belief in God continues to give us hope,” said Randle and Fletcher. “To know what scripture says about restitution and repentance is to know that the DOJ report is not the end of the journey. It’s an unmistakable call to action, which is already reverberating throughout Tulsa and the nation.

The tremendous outpouring of support from the public – including growing calls for justice and reparations – tells us that more people than ever care about what happened to us in Greenwood,” they continued. “And more doors are opening for the harm to finally be repaired. At 110-years-old we are weary, but we will not rest until justice for Greenwood is secured.”

Justice for Greenwood