TULSA, OKLA (KTUL) — We have new information about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre survivors and descendants. The U.S. Department of Justice spent the past two days on Greenwood as part of the first-ever probe.
Investigators for DOJ left Greenwood with more evidence, and documents and first had stories from survivors and first-generation descendants about what happened in 1921. Lead attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons said he hopes the last two known survivors, Viola Ford Fletcher and Lessie Benningfield Randle, see reparations come out of this in their lifetime.
“Hope that once the DOJ publishes this report it will serve as a step toward real justice, real respect, real accountability, and real reparations,” Solomon Simmons said.
Standing alongside him was a family of survivors, descendants, and Congressman Al Green out of Texas during Thursday’s news conference. Green said the federal government has helped 911 survivors and Holocaust survivors so they can help people in Greenwood.
“When the city doesn’t live up to protecting its citizens, when the county does not meet its obligation, and when the state fails to do what it should to secure people then the federal government has to step up,” Green said.
Aside from the DOJ probe, Green is proposing three bills to Congress. Two of which specifically name the last two survivors by financially compensating them for all they went through over the past 103 years.
“I just think $10 million a piece is not too much. I really don’t think it’s too much,” Green said.
The other bill will help descendants, and it will be similar to the survivors’ bill, but he’s still working out the details.
Descendants tell News Channel 8 this is a long time coming. Michael Penny, a descendant, said he spoke with investigators and told them the stories about his grandfather who adopted him, what Tulsa looked like after the Massacre, and how he’s still being affected today. These next steps by the federal government, he said, mean a lot. Penny hopes to see the Massacre be taught in schools and hopefully see reparations.
” I didn’t think anything was ever going to come of it in my lifetime. I’m 71 years old. I didn’t think anything was going to come of it. It’d be nice if the world knew what happened. That’s why I told what I knew of my grandfather’s story,” Penny said.
The DOJ is expected to release its report by the end of the year.
If you have any information to help with DOJ’s review like pictures, stories, or artifacts, email doj@justiceforgreenwood.org.