An Oklahoma judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by three survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre who sought reparations for the attack in the city’s Greenwood district, at the time one of the wealthiest Black neighborhoods in the U.S.

Tulsa County District Judge Caroline Wall dismissed the case—filed against defendants including the city of Tulsa and the Tulsa Regional Chamber—with prejudice Friday, according to a court docket entry. Dismissing with prejudice means the case can’t be refiled but it is possible for the decision to be appealed.

The ruling undercut an effort to seek justice for a rampage by white mobs that burned Tulsa’s Black neighborhood to the ground. As many as 300 people were killed. Some 35 blocks were leveled, and hundreds of homes and businesses destroyed.

The case originally was filed in September 2020 under the state’s public nuisance law. After many twists and turns, in August 2022, Wall allowed the lawsuit to continue. Three survivors of the massacre, each over 100 years old, were the most recent plaintiffs in the case.

In the filing, the plaintiffs said they were seeking to abate the public nuisance caused by the rampage in Greenwood, and to obtain benefits unjustly received by the defendants as a result of it. The lawsuit quoted Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum, who had said that the racial and economic disparities that still exist in the city can be traced to the massacre.

In the aftermath of the attack, the petition alleged, the defendants enacted unconstitutional laws that deprived Greenwood residents of the use of their property and thwarted the community’s efforts to rebuild by redirecting public resources to benefit predominantly white areas of Tulsa.

“The Defendants have imposed or supported unlawful policies and actions that stifled the ability of all Greenwood residents impacted by the Massacre to rebuild and thrive,” the petition said.

As remedies, the plaintiffs sought an accounting of the damages caused during the massacre and an order requiring the defendants to replace homes and businesses destroyed during the attack and to return misappropriated land to the Black community, among other requests.

Lawyers representing the survivors plan to appeal the decision, according to a statement from Justice for Greenwood Foundation, an organization founded by Damario Solomon-Simmons, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers.

“The dismissal of this case is just one more example of how America’s, including Tulsa’s, legacy is disproportionately and unjustly borne by the Black community,” the statement read. “We will continue to fight on behalf of and alongside our Survivors.”

Lawyers for the city of Tulsa and the Tulsa Regional Chamber argued the three survivors failed to demonstrate they were “specially injured” separate from all of those who suffered as a result of the attack. Without establishing this, the lawyers argued in motions filed in court last year, the plaintiffs couldn’t sustain their public nuisance claims.

The city’s lawyers also pushed back against the survivors’ unjust enrichment claims, in which they argued the city, county and regional chamber have economically benefited from the massacre, using it to draw tourists.

“Simply being connected to a historical event does not provide a person with unlimited rights to seek compensation from any project in any way related to that historical event,” lawyers for the city wrote in a motion last year. “If that were the case, every person connected to any historical event could make similar unjust enrichment claims against every museum or point of remembrance.”

Bynum said Sunday the city hasn’t received the judge’s full order and the city is still committed to investing in the Greenwood district, including finding the graves of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre victims.

Write to Arian Campo-Flores at arian.campo-flores@dowjones.com and Jennifer Calfas at jennifer.calfas@wsj.com

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