The Tulsa Riot of 1921

[Honeykiss1974]

BY SCOTT GOLD

Los Angeles Times


TULSA - A dwindling number of race-riot survivors -- some more than 100 years old -- will finally have a chance to make their case for reparations, eight decades after a white mob tore into a thriving black neighborhood, leaving as many as 300 people dead.

At a federal courthouse in Tulsa this morning, lawyers representing more than 100 survivors and 300 descendants of riot victims are scheduled to have their first opportunity to argue that their lawsuit seeking damages from the city and state should proceed to trial. The city and state have asked U.S. Senior District Judge James Ellison to dismiss the lawsuit.

Advocates on both sides of the Tulsa case see it as a bellwether for the national campaign to secure reparations for descendants of slaves. Civil-rights leaders say the case could shape the reparation movement's legal strategy and could help convince a skeptical public that society bears some responsibility for centuries-old offenses.

Thursday night, in anticipation of today's hearing, civil-rights advocates held a rally and candlelight vigil.

The vigil was at the Greenwood Cultural Center in north Tulsa, not far from where violence erupted May 31, 1921. That day, a local newspaper printed a young white woman's allegation that she had been assaulted by a black teenager. A white lynch mob marched to the jail where the teen was being held and was met by a group of blacks. A shot rang out, and the riot began.

By the next afternoon, as many as 300 people, mostly black, were dead. Thirty-five square blocks of Greenwood were reduced to ash and rubble. More than 1,000 buildings, including churches and schools, were destroyed.