An Oklahoma judge said six descendants of victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre cannot sue for reparations, while allowing three known survivors of the attack in which a white mob descended on a predominantly Black neighborhood to move forward with the lawsuit.
The order, signed Tuesday by Tulsa County District Judge Caroline Wall, allows Lessie Benningfield “Mother” Randle, 106, Viola “Mother” Fletcher, 107, and Hughes Van Ellis, Sr., 101, to continue seeking reparations under state nuisance laws.
Wall in May allowed the case to go forward while partially granting a motion to dismiss it without saying at the time what was being dismissed.
In addition to the six descendants, Wall dismissed as plaintiffs the Historic Vernon AME Church Inc., which did not exist in 1921, and The Tulsa African Ancestral Society, which represents other descendants. And she dismissed as defendants the Tulsa Development Authority and the Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission because they did not exist in 1921.
Wall also dismissed an “ongoing public nuisance” claim by the plaintiffs. Read more at www.thegrio.com
