I learned about Tulsa in high school. There’s more to it than its roads and the people who live there. It has a history. About 100 years ago, a mob razed Black Wall Street, killing and arresting as they went. And it seemed like nothing would happen afterward to vindicate the survivors and their children. It just took some time.
A packed courtroom in Tulsa erupted in cheers and applause at the judge’s ruling, including the three remaining survivors who are all over 100 years old and were in the courtroom for the hours-long hearing.
A judge just gave the plaintiffs the greenlight to continue a reparations suit. My hope is that the three survivors of the riot can feel that justice in their time. And the outcome of this case will undeniably color how litigation aiming to fix past wrongs will look.
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“It’s special because of the size and scope of the destruction. It’s special because we have so much documentation, we have actual video, we have hundreds of pictures, we have hundreds of insurance claims that were not paid, and we have three living survivors,” he said. “If Black people can’t win this, how can we win?”
While Tulsa’s race riot wasn’t the only one (there is a long string of race riots in American history, actually), it is a textbook example of one of those things we should have learned about growing up. If you want to learn more about Black Wall Street as you follow the case, I’d recommend you start here for a primer. Be speedy about it and give it a watch before some school gets the video taken down for being CRT.
Tulsa Race Massacre Reparations Lawsuit Survives Motion To Deny And Will Move Forward, Judge Rules [CNN]
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Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.