An update in a long fight for justice

(Children’s Defense Fund) – On April 2, 109-year-olds Viola Fletcher and Lessie Benningfield Randle appeared together at a Tulsa courthouse in a hearing before Oklahoma’s Supreme Court. Mother Fletcher and Mother Randle, as they are known in their communities, are the last two known survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. In 2020, they were part of a group of survivors and descendants who filed a lawsuit seeking reparations for the white supremacist mob violence that destroyed Tulsa’s Greenwood District from May 31 to June 1, 1921, devastating Tulsa’s Black community with effects that have rippled through generations.& Related Stories At the time of the massacre, Greenwood was one of the most prosperous Black communities in the country, nicknamed “Black Wall Street,” and home to Black businesses, theaters, churches, restaurants and thousands of Black citizens. By the end of the mob violence, historians estimate as many as 300 Black citizens were killed, 35 city blocks were burned down, and 10,000 people were left unhoused. Instead of stopping attackers, police deputized White civilians. They gave them more guns and ammunition, and the Oklahoma National Guard helped round up and detain 6,000 Black residents. No one was charged for any of the...