‘This is a call to action’: Tulsa race massacre survivors express frustration with DOJ report

"At 110 years old, we are weary, but we will not rest until justice for Greenwood is secured.”

Lessie Benningfield Randle and Viola Fletcher. Credit: KFOR.

The last remaining survivors of the Tulsa race massacre are speaking out following the release of the Justice Department’s report on the horrific event.

Lessie Benningfield Randle and Viola Fletcher, both children at the time of the massacre, expressed gratitude for the report, which marked the federal government’s first time providing the details of the 1921 attack. However, the two survivors said the report still “falls heartbreakingly short.”

“The DOJ confirms the government’s role in the slaughter of our Greenwood neighbors but refuses to hold the institutions accountable under federal law,” Benningfield Randle and Fletcher said in a joint statement.

Taking place over two days in Tulsa’s thriving Greenwood District, also called “Black Wall Street,” a vicious white mob killed hundreds of residents and destroyed homes and Black businesses in what the Justice Department called “a coordinated, military-style attack.” That attack not only destroyed lives but wiped out generational wealth for the children and grandchildren of Black entrepreneurs in Greenwood.

“The Tulsa Race Massacre stands out as a civil rights crime unique in its magnitude, barbarity, racist hostility and its utter annihilation of a thriving Black community,” Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said in a statement. “In 1921, white Tulsans murdered hundreds of residents of Greenwood, burned their homes and churches, looted their belongings and locked the survivors in internment camps.”

Still, the Justice Department stated in its report that everyone responsible for carrying out the massacre has died, and the statute of limitations has long expired.

“The DOJ’s report and response is no surprise. They are doing what they do. They weren’t willing to set precedents. The city and the state have already shown just by fighting it in court that they are not willing to address and satisfy the issue properly,” Joyce Smith-Williams, a community advocate and longtime Tulsa resident, told The Black Wall Street Times.

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The survivors believe that the remaining entities, like the city of Tulsa, should pay some restitution.

“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,” Benningfield Randle and Fletcher said.

Damario Solomon-Simmons, the lead attorney for the survivors’ legal team, said the report underscored the need for “reparative action.” His organization, Justice for Greenwood, is set to announce a new initiative next week that it hopes will further its fight.

“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,” he said. “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.”

In June, the Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit from the two survivors that sought to force the city of Tulsa and other entities to pay reparations.

Despite this, the two centenarians remain hopeful. “To know what scripture says about restitution and repentance is to know that the DOJ report is not the end of the journey,” they said. “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,” their statement continued.

“[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.”