1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

A motion to dismiss a case against Tulsa Regional Chamber and other entities brought by the three survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre was heard at Tulsa County Courthouse on Tuesday. 

There were so many people in attendance - many in purple Justice for Greenwood shirts - the hearing was delayed as a bigger courtroom was found. Once everyone was settled, Judge Caroline Wall said she knew the case was emotional and if spectators had to react they should step outside.

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Two siblings who survived the Tulsa Race Massacre are going to visit Africa for the first time, fulfilling a lifelong dream.

Viola Fletcher, 107, and her 100-year-old brother Hughes Van Ellis are scheduled to fly to Ghana on Friday and return Aug. 21. They will be accompanied by family members and others.

The all-expenses-paid trip to Accra is being co-sponsored by Our Black Truth, a Virginia-based social media platform, and the Diaspora Africa Forum in Ghana, the Tulsa World reports.

Members of an oversight committee in Tulsa’s search for mass graves holding victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre expressed to city councilors their displeasure over last week’s reinterment of remains.

The committee held a meeting July 27 after being invited to a reburial ceremony at Oaklawn Cemetery and voted to postpone it. The reinterment happened last Friday.

After some delays, Greenwood Rising, a history center dedicated to educating visitors on the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, had its grand opening for the public today. 

Phil Armstrong is the project director. 

“Today is really just allowing for the public to finally see what six years of planning looks like.”

An emotional scene unfolded at Oaklawn Cemetery today during the city's reinterment of remains excavated during the search for 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre victims. 

Kristi Williams is a member of the Graves Investigation Public Oversight Committee. She protested the reinterment, and said the remains shouldn’t be buried yet because they haven’t been identified.  

The legal team representing the three known living survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in a lawsuit for reparations for the attack and its ongoing harm said they may bring additional litigation regarding the city of Tulsa's oversight of the search for massacre victims' remains.

An online store that pays homage to Black Wall Street is open for a limited brick-and-mortar run, and it’s trying to raise the profile of other local, Black-owned brands, too.

Researchers said Tuesday that they have now uncovered 15 more burials in an Oaklawn Cemetery mass grave since an October test excavation revealed 12 in their search for 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre victims, bringing the total to 27 presumed sets of remains with still more "very likely" to be discovered.

"We were able to then come back today and actually initiate the process of excavation on some of the individual burials," Dr. Kary Stackelbeck, Oklahoma's state archaeologist, said during a press briefing at the Tulsa Fire Museum adjacent to the cemetery.

With the national spotlight off Tulsa following substantial media coverage of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre centennial anniversary and President Joe Biden's visit to Greenwood to commemorate it, advocates for reparations for survivors and descendants say they aren't going anywhere.

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Crews searching a Tulsa cemetery for victims of the 1921 Race Massacrefound five more coffins on Thursday, bringing to 20 the number of coffins found at a mass-grave feature there, city officials said Thursday.

The Cherokee Nation Tribal Councilor representing the district that includes much of the historic Greenwood neighborhood destroyed in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre says he believes reparations are due to the attack's survivors and descendants.

Councilor Joe Deere welcomed attendees of the Black Wall Street Legacy Festival's main event on Sunday at the Oklahoma State University - Tulsa campus to the Cherokee Nation reservation.

Updated June 3, 10:10 a.m. to reflect Councilor Kara Joy McKee's response to Greg Robinson during the meeting.

Tulsa City Councilors are set to consider a resolution Wednesday to apologize and commit to making tangible amends for the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and for discriminatory policies that followed and caused further harm to north Tulsa.

That work includes setting up a process for the community to develop recommendations to aid reconciliation. 

President Joe Biden on Tuesday became the first sitting president to visit Tulsa to commemorate the Tulsa Race Massacre, arguably the worst racist attack in American history.

White mobs, many deputized and armed by local officials, burned the Black community of Greenwood to the ground May 31 and June 1, 1921. They killed as many as 300 residents and took thousands more to internment camps.

On the 100th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, light rain didn’t stop hundreds from paying their respects at a candlelight vigil.  

State Sen. Kevin Matthews, chair of the commission that organized the vigil, explained the significance of the 10:30 p.m. start time.

"10:30 was when the violence started," Matthews said. "We're going to go from 10:30 to 10:40, that first ten minutes of that terrible violence right here in the Greenwood area 100 years ago."

The Oklahoma National Guard's first Black commander apologized Monday for their role in the Tulsa Race Massacre.

Speaking at a soil collection ceremony to memorialize unknown victims of the massacre, Adjutant Gen. Michael Thompson said he's proud of the uniform he's worn for 37 years, but 100 years ago wasn't the guard's proudest day.

Thompson took a moment to regain his composure before continuing.

President Joe Biden issued a proclamation Monday honoring the victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre 100 years later and vowing to work toward undoing systemic racism in the U.S.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Several documentary filmmakers — some backed by NBA superstars — are shedding light on the historically ignored Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, one of the most horrific tragedies in American history. 

At a luncheon today, Damario Solomon-Simmons, attorney for the three living survivors, said the nonprofit Justice for Greenwood will give each survivor payments as gifts.

"I'm excited to announce that a little bitty grassroot community north side organization will be granting a gift of $100,000 for each survivor," said Solomon-Simmons.

Solomon-Simmons is the founder of Justice for Greenwood. One of the organization's primary focuses is to gain reparations for massacre survivors and descendants. 

When the smoke cleared in June 1921, the toll from the massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was catastrophic — scores of lives lost, homes and businesses burned to the ground, a thriving Black community gutted by a white mob.

The nightmare cried out for attention, as something to be investigated and memorialized, with speeches and statues and anniversary commemorations.

The Tulsa City Council announced Friday it would consider a resolution at its upcoming Wednesday meeting that would formally apologize for the past and ongoing harms caused by the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and launch a process to evaluate recommendations included in a 2001 state report that included an endorsement of reparation payments. 

One of the preeminent scholars of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre said Thursday that reparations for survivors and descendants are undeniably necessary.

"The fact of the matter is, without a doubt, the three remaining survivors of the massacre and the descendants of any and all survivors of the massacre deserve some form of financial restitution for what happened to them and their family in 1921," historian Scott Ellsworth said near the end of an address given as part of the John Hope Franklin National Symposium.