OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma Supreme Court has rejected a request to reconsider its ruling to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the last two known living survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
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Without comment, seven members of the court on Tuesday turned away the request by 110-year-old Viola Fletcher and 109-year-old Lessie Benningfield Randle to rehear its June ruling that upheld a decision by a district court judge in Tulsa to dismiss the case.
Justice James Edmondson would have reheard the case and Justice Richard Darby did not vote.
Fletcher and Randle survived the massacre that is considered one of the worst single acts of violence against Black people in U.S. history.
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As many as 300 Black people were killed; more than 1,200 homes, businesses, schools and churches were destroyed; and thousands were forced into internment camps overseen by the National Guard when a white mob, including some deputized by authorities, looted and burned the Greenwood District, also known as Black Wall Street.
Damario Solomon-Simmons, attorney for Fletcher and Benningfield, was not immediately available for comment.
Solomon-Simmons, after filing the motion for rehearing in July, also asked the U.S. Department of Justice to open an investigation into the massacre under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act.
“President Biden sat down with my clients. He promised them that he would see that they get justice,” Solomon-Simmons said at the time.
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“Then he went to the next room and had a robust speech where he told the nation that he stood with the survivors and descendants of the Tulsa race massacre ... we are calling upon President Biden to fulfill his promise to these survivors, to this community and for Black people across the nation,” Solomon-Simmons said.
The Emmett Till Act allows for the reopening of cold cases of violent crimes against Black people committed before 1970.
The lawsuit was an attempt under Oklahoma’s public nuisance law to force the city of Tulsa and others to make restitution for the destruction.
Attorneys also argued that Tulsa appropriated the historic reputation of Black Wall Street “to their own financial and reputational benefit.” They argue that any money the city receives from promoting Greenwood or Black Wall Street, including revenue from the Greenwood Rising History Center, should be placed in a compensation fund for victims and their descendants.
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