The Department of Justice announced on Monday a federal review into the two-day racist massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, more than 100 years ago, when white supremacists killed Black civilians while destroying homes and thriving businesses in the predominantly Black community.
The 1921 massacre led to the deaths of at least 300 people after a 19-year-old Black teenager, Dick Rowland, was accused of raping a white woman, Sarah Page. The 35-square-block area where the massacre occurred was known as Black Wall Street, one of the most affluent neighborhoods for Black residents in America.
In making the announcement, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke noted the enhancement of the Justice Department’s civil rights cold case unit following enactment of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act.
The Justice Department will not pursue criminal charges, since everyone involved has since died, but it will conduct an evaluation of the massacre to keep on record.
“We hope that official reports, which reflect the Justice Department’s exhaustive efforts to seek justice, at bare minimum, prevent these victims and the tragic ordeals they endured from being lost to history,” Clarke said in a statement.
“We have no expectation that there are living perpetrators who could be criminally prosecuted by us or by the state. Although a commission, historians, lawyers and others have conducted prior examinations of the Tulsa Massacre, we, the Justice Department, never have.”
Descendants of the Black Tulsans who lived through the riot welcomed the announcement, but many told HuffPost they will reserve some skepticism until they see true accountability and amends.
“It can create a path for reparations,” said Egunwale Amusan, whose grandfather Raymond Beard Sr. survived the massacre. “[But it] is unlikely there will be any accountability due to the absence of perpetrators and the absence of federal hate crimes at the time. We know there will be some legal barriers…
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