Brad Brooks

(Reuters). – The Oklahoma judge ruled that the only three living survivors of 1921 Tulsa massacre, which saw a mob of whites murder many Blacks and raze large swathes of their community, can file a lawsuit for damages.

Caroline Wall, Tulsa County District Judge, rejected the motions of the defendants (which include Tulsa), to dismiss the case. It was not clear what the next steps would be.

This lawsuit seeks to recover financial and other damages, as well as a tax break for 99 years for Tulsa residents whose relatives were killed in the massacre at Greenwood neighborhood north Tulsa. There were 300 deaths, the majority of which were Black.

Lessie Randle is one of the plaintiffs. She was a child who survived the massacre and is a descendant from the Stradford Hotel owner, which at that time was the biggest Black-owned hotel in America.

The violence erupted after a white woman told police that a Black man had grabbed her arm in an elevator in a downtown Tulsa commercial building on May 30, 1921, according to an account by the National Endowment for the Humanities https://www.neh.gov/article/1921-tulsa-massacre.

On the following day, the police detained the man who, according to the Tulsa Tribune, had attempted to assault the woman. The courthouse was surrounded by whites demanding that the man is handed over. Black men went to courthouse seeking to meet the mob. Another white man attempted disarming a Black veteran. A shot was fired, igniting further violence.

Historical accounts say that Whites stole and set fire to buildings, and then dragged Blacks off their beds and beat the them. The authorities deputized Whites to kill Blacks.

They never charged anyone with the violence.

There are still deep economic and health inequalities between Blacks and whites.