Tulsa Race Massacre Investigation Marks Long Overdue Step Toward Justice

Lessie Benningfield Randle is 109 years old. Viola Fletcher is 110. They’ve lived through a century that most of us can only learn about in history books—if we’re lucky enough to find the truth there. Yet, for these two survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, history is not some distant chapter to be neatly tucked away. It is the lived reality of unrelenting trauma, a century of unresolved grief, and a battle for justice that remains unmet. The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 wasn’t just an event. It was an atrocity. It was a deliberate and coordinated attack on Black excellence, aimed at the heart of what we now know as Greenwood, or Black Wall Street. White mobs descended on the prosperous, thriving Black community, murdering hundreds of Black men, women, and children. They leveled businesses and homes, leaving nothing but smoldering ashes in their wake. The lives destroyed and the generational wealth erased in that brutal moment are incalculable. And yet, here we are—103 years later—still waiting for America to reckon with this dark chapter. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice finally announced that it will review and evaluate the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. It’s the first...