AMERICA’S SHAME: NO JUSTICE FOR TULSA

Viola Ford Fletcher, one of the last survivors of Oklahoma’s 1921 Tulsa Massacre, has died at age 111. She passed away on November 24th without ever seeing justice for what she and Tulsa’s Black community endured when a mob of white people, backed by state officials, murdered hundreds of Black residents 104 years ago in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In early January 2025, the US Department of Justice released a landmark report on what is often called the Tulsa Race Massacre, describing it as a coordinated military style attack that involved active support from law enforcement.

Kristen Clarke, who served as the US assistant attorney general for civil rights from 2021 to 2025, outlined the findings of an investigation into how a mob of 10,000 white people killed as many as 300 Black residents and destroyed 35 city blocks in the Greenwood district between 31 May and 1 June 1921. Although the violence was sparked by a false allegation against a Black teenager, many argue that the deeper cause was the resentment and envy directed at a prosperous Black community in a society built on racial capitalism.

The Justice Department confirmed that none of the perpetrators are still alive.

The consequences of this atrocity continue to reach across generations. In June 2024, the Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by the last two known survivors, Lessie Benningfield Randle, aged 110, and Viola Ford Fletcher, aged 111, who were seeking reparations for the destruction and terror they lived through.

According to research published in the American Journal of Economics and Sociology, the destruction of homes, businesses, churches, public buildings, personal belongings and cash resulted in an estimated $1.8 million in losses at the time, equivalent to more than $200 million in 2018.

It remains a disgraceful case that the US Department of Justice can outline these horrors in such detail, yet despite this, no compensation has ever been issued. Viola has now left us without ever seeing justice in her lifetime.

No one has ever been held accountable, and no Black survivors were compensated for the devastation inflicted on their lives and community.

Video credit: @TheJusticeDept (X)