Amended Petition Filed in Tulsa Race Massacre Lawsuit

In a significant step forward for the historic Tulsa Race Massacre lawsuit, an amended petition has been filed calling for abatement to the public nuisance that began with the Tulsa Race Massacre and continues to impact survivors and the Greenwood community to this day. The petition also seeks to recover the defendants' unjust exploitation of the Massacre for their own economic and political gain.

Amendments to this petition include measures to correct technical matters previously agreed upon by defendants and changes to align with Tulsa County Judge Caroline Wall's most recent order.

On August 3, 2022, Judge Wall denied the defendants' efforts to entirely dismiss plaintiffs' claim that the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre was a public nuisance under Oklahoma law, finding that plaintiffs 108-year-old Lessie Benningfield "Mother" Randle, 107-year-old Viola "Mother" Fletcher, and 101-year-old Hughes Van Ellis are entitled to proceed to discovery and prove that the Tulsa Race Massacre was a public nuisance that continues to impact Black Tulsans today.

"This is a critical step forward in the road to justice as the defendants are now required to answer this petition, allowing the plaintiffs to engage in discovery that will finally reveal the abject horrors of the Tulsa Race Massacre and the continued harm to survivors and members of the Greenwood community," said Ekenedilichukwu (Keni) Ukabiala, Associate for Schulte Roth & Zabel.

The lawsuit demands the City of Tulsa and other defendants fix the public nuisance that they caused by their destruction of the Black community of Greenwood in 1921, their continuing failure to rebuild the community and their audacity in seeking to reap benefits from their violent acts. Building on admissions from defendants and the City of Tulsa Mayor, as well as the testimony of living survivors of the Massacre, the complaint sets forth the reality that the racial and economic disparities that exist in Tulsa's Black community today can be traced to the 1921 race massacre.

"We have now reached an important milestone in bringing accountability to those responsible for one of the worst acts of domestic terrorism in this country's history," said Damario Solomon-Simmons, co-counsel and founder of Justice for Greenwood. "We look forward to the discovery process as the public deserves to know the complete truth of not just the Massacre, but the aftermath of more than 100 years that has brought continued harm to Black Tulsans."

About the Tulsa Race Massacre

From May 31 through June 1, 1921, a large white mob completely decimated Tulsa's thriving, all-Black community of Greenwood.  The mob, which included members of the Tulsa Police Department, the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce, the Tulsa County Sheriff's Department and the Oklahoma National Guard, as well as other city and county leaders, overwhelmed the approximately 40-square-block community, killing hundreds of Black residents, injuring thousands more, burning down over one thousand homes and businesses and stealing residents' personal property. The damage caused during the Massacre is estimated to be approximately $200 million in today's dollars. 

In addition to Solomon-Simmons and Ukabiala, the plaintiffs are represented by SRZ lawyers Michael Swartz, Sara Solfanelli, Randall T. Adams, McKenzie Haynes, Angela Garcia, Alex Wharton, Erika L. Simonson, Vincent W. Moccio, and  Melanie S. Collins, and attorneys J. Spencer Bryan and Steven Terrill of Bryan & Terrill Law, PLLC, Professor Eric Miller of Loyola Marymount College of Law, Maynard M. Henry, Sr., Lashandra Peoples-Johnson and Cordal Cephas of Johnson Cephas Law PLLC, and Kymberli J. M. Heckenkemper of SolomonSimmonsLaw.