Oklahoma high court dismisses Tulsa Race Massacre reparations lawsuit

The Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit Wednesday from remaining survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre who sought reparations after one of the worst single acts of violence against Black people in U.S. history. Survivors Viola Fletcher, Lessie Benningfield Randle and Hughes Van Ellis initially filed the lawsuit in 2020 against the city of Tulsa, Tulsa Regional Chamber, the Tulsa County Commissioners, Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado and the Oklahoma Military Department. Van Ellis died last year at 102. The lawsuit said the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre represented an “ongoing public nuisance,” and that in 2016, “the Defendants began enriching themselves by promoting the site of the Massacre as a tourist attraction.” Plaintiffs also said the destruction of what had been America’s most prosperous Black business community continues to affect Tulsa. Tulsa County District Court Judge Caroline Wall dismissed the lawsuit last year, and survivors appealed to the state’s high court. The Oklahoma Supreme Court affirmed Wall’s decision in an 8-1 vote. “With respect to their public nuisance claim, though Plaintiffs’ grievances are legitimate, they do not fall within the scope of our State’s public nuisance statute,” Vice Chief Justice Dustin P. Rowe wrote. The high court also held...