The Department of Justice was unable to pursue prosecution of persons involved in the decimation of the once-prosperous Greenwood community of Tulsa, Oklahoma, but now, an official review of the horrific crimes committed in 1921 has recognized the systemic racism at its foundation.
The 126-page look into the Tulsa Race Massacre was closed on Thursday (Jan. 9), one year after it was launched under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. In October 2024, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke told NBC News, "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.”
On Friday (Jan. 10) the findings were released to the public. The decades-old race riot has been well-documented throughout the years, its catalyst being the concerted effort of 10,000 white Tulsans to destroy the Black community, known as the Black Wall Street, and to kill mostly Black men. The assault on the thriving district unfolded following Dick Rowland, a 19-year-old Black man, being falsely accused of assaulting a white woman on an elevator he operated.
Newspapers publicized a call for the young man to be lynched on May 31, 1921. As a result, Black residents were terrorized by a white mob well into the hours of June 1. According to the Oklahoma Historical Society, more than 1,000 homes, businesses and community buildings were torched. The death toll of Black lives is estimated to be between 50 and 300. Thousands more were placed in internment camps overseen by the U.S. National Guard.
“What had initially been sporadic and opportunistic violence became systematic, yielding a much more devastating result, due to coordinated efforts among white residents and law enforcement entities,” states the review. It also highlights the “state-sanctioned brutality and the failure of government institutions to protect victims of color.”
The analysis consisted of interviews with survivors and descendants, probing Bureau of Investigation (now known as the FBI) reports from June 3 and June 6, 1921, legal pleadings and numerous other documents that archived the tragedy.
In the document, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division acknowledged that “despite the gravity of the department’s findings, it is clear that no avenue of prosecution now exists for crimes that occurred during the massacre … the relevant statutes of limitations expired decades ago.”
Moreover, “As the federal government’s first thorough reckoning with this devastating event, our review officially acknowledges, illuminates, and preserves for history the horrible ordeals of the massacre’s victims. ... As antilynching advocate Ida B. Wells said, ‘The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.’ This report aims to do just that.”
The oldest living survivor, Viola Ford Fletcher, celebrated her 110th birthday in May 2024. She cast her first presidential ballot in November during the consequential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Survivors Fletcher, Lessie Benningfield Randle and Hughes Van Ellis were children when the massacre took place.
A reparations lawsuit seeking the rebuilding of some Greenwood community elements and donations to the survivor fund was filed on their behalf. However, a judge dismissed it in 2023. The trio was dealt another legal loss in June 2024 when a judge again dismissed their fight for compensation.