[CrimsonTide4]

1921 riot survivors sue ex-newspaper family
2003-06-03 By The Associated Press



TULSA - Two Tulsa race riot survivors are suing a former newspaper family on allegations articles published in 1921 ignited the violence that destroyed the city's black neighborhoods. The federal lawsuit filed by Rosella Carter, 102, and her son, James Dale Carter, 84, also names the Tulsa World as a defendant because of the newspaper's publishing relationship with the now-defunct Tulsa Tribune. The Ku Klux Klan and its "Grand Wizard" also are named.

The lawsuit, filed in the Western District of Missouri where the Carters live, seeks damages of more than $75,000.

"This is not a white thing; it's not a black thing. It's about getting justice," said Tulsa attorney Jim Lloyd, who represents the two survivors.

They allege that late Tulsa Tribune Publisher Richard Lloyd Jones Sr. and the Tribune "published highly inflammatory articles designed to whip up the Ku Klux Klan and the general white population."

The lawsuit claims the newspaper suggested that a young black man be hanged on allegations he assaulted a white woman and that this suggestion prompted 16 hours of violence that left dozens dead and the black Greenwood District in ruins.

It also alleges that a bullet wound caused lifelong suffering for Leroy Carter - Rosella Carter's husband and James Carter's father - and contributed to his death in December 1936.

Jenkin Lloyd Jones Jr., grandson of Richard Lloyd Jones Sr., said last week that he had not seen the lawsuit but said his grandfather had an exemplary record on race.

"My grandparents hid blacks in their home during the riot," Jones said.

The riot began the evening of May 31, 1921, when blacks and whites clashed outside the Tulsa County Courthouse where Dick Rowland was being held. Rowland was never prosecuted.

No copy of the Tribune editorial rumored to contain an inflammatory headline has ever been found. The few known copies of the May 31,
1921, Tribune - all first editions - do not contain such a piece.

The front-page story of Rowland's arrest was torn from the Tribune file copy sometime before it was microfilmed for archives in 1947.

Lloyd, a member of the legal team that has filed a lawsuit against the city and state on behalf of nearly 400 riot survivors and descendants of victims, said the Carters didn't know about the newspaper stories until he told them.

Lloyd also served on the Tulsa Race Riot Commission, a state panel assigned to investigate the riot.

Schaad Titus, the Tulsa World's legal counsel, said he expects the World to be dropped from the lawsuit.

"This suit is absolutely without merit as it concerns the Tulsa World," he said.

The World and Tribune shared ownership of Newspaper Printing Corp., which handled production for the two papers from 1941 until the Tribune closed in 1992.