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       Last known survivors of Tulsa Race Massacre challenge Oklahoma high
       court decision
        
 (HTM) Source
        
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       OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Attorneys for the last two remaining survivors of
       the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court on
       Tuesday to reconsider the case they dismissed last month and called on
       the Biden administration to help the two women seek justice.
        
       Viola Fletcher, 110, and Lessie Benningfield Randle, 109, are the last
       known survivors of one of the single worst acts of violence against
       Black people in U.S. history. 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.
        
       In a petition for rehearing, the women asked the court to reconsider
       its 8-1 vote upholding the decision of a district court judge in Tulsa
       last year to dismiss the case.
        
       "Oklahoma, and the United States of America, have failed its Black
       citizens," the two women said in a statement read by McKenzie Haynes,
       a member of their legal team. "With our own eyes, and burned deeply
       into our memories, we watched white Americans destroy, kill, and
       loot."
        
       "And despite these obvious crimes against humanity, not one indictment
       was issued, most insurance claims remain unpaid or were paid for only
       pennies on the dollar, and Black Tulsans were forced to leave their
       homes and live in fear."
        
       Attorney Damario Solomon Simmons also called on the U.S. Department of
       Justice to open an investigation into the massacre under the Emmett
       Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of 2007, which allows for the
       reopening of cold cases of violent crimes against Black people
       committed before 1970. A spokesperson for the DOJ declined comment.
        
       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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