<
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/01/tulsa-race-massacre-doj-investigation>
"Late Monday, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) announced it plans to launch
the first-ever federal investigation into the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, in
which hundreds of Black Tulsans were killed, thousands were displaced and
forced into internment camps overseen by the national guard, and Greenwood, the
thriving district once known as “Black Wall Street”, was decimated, looted and
burned by a racist mob.
The review, launched by the civil rights division’s Cold Case Unit, comes after
a major setback for survivors and descendants of the massacre. In June,
Oklahoma’s supreme court dismissed a lawsuit brought by two survivors, Lessie
Benningfield Randle, 109, and Viola Fletcher, 110. In July, the women once
again called for Joe Biden and the justice department to intervene.
Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general who announced the DoJ review,
called the Tulsa race massacre “one of the deadliest episodes of mass racial
violence in this nation’s history”.
“We honor the legacy of the Tulsa race massacre survivors, Emmett Till, the Act
that bears his name, this country and the truth by conducting our own review
and evaluation of the massacre,” Clarke said, announcing that the review should
be finalized by the end of the year. “We thus are examining available
documents, witness accounts, scholarly and historical research and other
information on the massacre. When we have finished our federal review, we will
issue a report analyzing the massacre in light of both modern and then-existing
civil rights law.”
In a statement back in June, Fletcher and Randle said: “We are deeply saddened
that we may not live long enough to see the state of Oklahoma or the United
States of America honestly confront and right the wrongs of one of the darkest
days in American history. At 109 and 110 years old, we are elderly and we know
that we are living on borrowed time … Oklahoma and the United States of America
have failed its Black citizens. This failure is profound, systemic and marred
by lip service and clever platitudes.”
Clarke said that there was “no expectation” there is anyone still living who
may be prosecuted as a result of the inquiry. Regardless, for descendants and
survivors who have not been compensated for the massacre and its ongoing
consequences, the inquiry’s announcement was still worth celebrating.
“It is about time,” Damario Solomon-Simmons, the lead attorney for the Tulsa
race massacre survivors, said during a press conference. “It only took 103
years, but this is a joyous occasion, a momentous day, an amazing opportunity
for us to make sure that what happened here in Tulsa is understood for what it
was – the largest crime scene in the history of this country.”"
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
