Nearly 100 years after the tragedy, survivors and descendants of victims have not received any compensation for their suffering.
Tulsa Historical Society & MuseumBlack man being butt at gunpoint through the streets of Greenwood during the Tulsa carnage .
In 1921 , one of the moneyed Black neighborhoods in the U.S. know as Black Wall Street go up in flames . Shops and houses were combust down by a white mob that assail the neighborhood and an estimated 300 innocent residents were killed in what is now make out as the Tulsa Race Massacre .
Contemporary expert posit the number of victims could be even higher , but there ’s no way to know for sure . Many of the dead were allegedly take off and buried in secret spots around the metropolis .
Tulsa Historical Society & MuseumBlack men being marched at gunpoint through the streets of Greenwood during the Tulsa massacre.
As America continues to reckon with racial shabbiness , advocates and occupant of Tulsa — many whom are descendants of those who suffered during the riots — have spurred government efforts to key out the missing dead body . Now , blackened occupier are fighting for reparations .
harmonize to theGuardian , a group of Oklahoma residents have filed a causa to involve reparations for dupe of the attack onBlack Wall Street . lead the fight is 105 - year - previous Lessie Benningfield Randle , one of the only two survivors of the Tulsa Massacre still alive today .
Randle ’s childhood house was badly damage during the tragical incident and has left the older woman with psychic trauma that still remain even 100 twelvemonth after . She still has flashbacks of bushed bodies heap up on the street in the midst of the burn neighborhood .
James Gibbard/Tulsa World105-year-old Lessie Randle (right) is one of two survivors of the massacre who are still alive today.
Randle , like many of the dupe of theTulsa massacre , has yet to receive compensation for their losses from the attack which the causa aver mired officials from the city of Tulsa , Tulsa county , and the Oklahoma National Guard and Tulsa Regional Chamber .
Randle herself was golden to have lived long enough to see her honest-to-goodness childhood household fixed up like new , but only through the grace of community pleader who raised pecuniary resource and support for the repairs . These improvements wereimplementedin 2019 — 99 age after the tragedy .
James Gibbard / Tulsa World105 - year - erstwhile Lessie Randle ( right ) is one of two survivors of the massacre who are still alive today .
Win McNamee/Getty ImagesA 2001 commission investigating the city’s involvement in the Tulsa massacre recommended reparations be paid to its victims.
“ The Greenwood massacre strip Black Tulsans of their sense of security , severely - won economical power and vibrant community , ” said Damario Solomon - Simmons , one of the lawyer who filed the cause on behalf of the plaintiffs .
Beyond the lineal injury the incident had on bleak residents , the lawyers contend that the financial fallout and racial deduction put up to on-going challenges face by the city ’s Black communities .
“ [ It ] created a pain that continues to this day , ” Solomon - Simmons said . “ The nuisance has lead to the devaluation of property in Greenwood and has leave in significant racial disparity in every quality of life metric — aliveness anticipation , health , unemployment , didactics level , and financial security . ”
Win McNamee / Getty ImagesA 2001 commission investigating the city ’s involvement in the Tulsa butchery recommended reparations be paid to its dupe .
A report byHuman Rights Watch , an outside non - profits focalise on investigating human rights ill-treatment , found that much of the poverty in Tulsa today is disproportionately concentrated to the dark neighborhoods around Greenwood . More than 35 percentage of north Tulsa ’s universe , which is predominantly Black , lives in impoverishment compare with 17 per centum in the rest of the metropolis .
The irreparable damage triggered by the Tulsa massacre is undeniable and there is evidence of city involvement . A 2001 mission formed by the state legislative body base that the city had cabal with its white residents against Black residents and urge verbatim payments to survivors and their descendent . But no requital were ever made .
The metropolis has made increase effort to place and excavate the unmarked burials ofmissing victimsand , in 2019 , awarded medals to survivors of the massacre . But that is not the same as the reparations advocate by the delegation .
It ’s unreadable how much reparations the lawsuit is asking for . But there may not be a right cost to compensate for the lives that were drop off , and those that are still bury in unnoted graves .
Next , take a look at25 striking images that show the crude racism that permeate the Reconstruction Eraand con aboutthe Great Depression ’s forgotten pitch-dark dupe .
