tulsa race massacre

Source: US Library of Congress

A prosperous black neighborhood burning to the ground in 1921.

State and local authorities in Tulsa, Oklahoma, should provide reparations for the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, when a white mob killed several hundred black people and destroyed a prosperous black neighborhood, says Human Rights Watch in a new report.

HRW urged that a comprehensive reparations plan should be developed and carried out promptly, in close consultation with the local community, to address the harm caused by the massacre and its lasting impact.

Many dozens of similar massacres have been carried out since the end of the Civil War in 1865.

HRW's report came even as violent protests were breaking out across the country, sparked by the release of a video showing yet another unarmed black man — George Floyd — being choked to death by a white Minneapolis Police officer. The footage shows Floyd lying on his stomach and pleading for his life while former officer Derek Chauvin presses his knee into Floyd’s neck.

The 66-page report, “The Case for Reparations in Tulsa, Oklahoma: A Human Rights Argument,” details the destruction that left hundreds of people, most of them black, dead and more than 1,200 black-owned houses burned in Tulsa’s Greenwood neighborhood, then known as “Black Wall Street.”

In the report, HRW described some of the subsequent policies and structural racism that prevented Greenwood and the broader North Tulsa community from thriving. In this context, the report said,—the US Congress should also pass H.R. 40, a bill that would begin to address the ongoing harm from slavery. 

“It was almost 100 years ago that the Greenwood neighborhood in Tulsa was destroyed, but survivors of the massacre and their descendants are still suffering the consequences,” said Dreisen Heath, US program advocacy officer at Human Rights Watch and author of the report. “Decades of black prosperity and millions of dollars in hard-earned wealth were wiped out in hours but nobody was ever held accountable and no compensation was ever paid.”  

The massacre occurred between May 31 and June 1, 1921, after a black man was accused of assaulting a white woman. A white mob, including people deputized and armed by city officials, descended on Greenwood, terrorized black families, and burned their community to the ground. About 35 square blocks — more than 1,200 black-owned houses, scores of businesses, a school, a hospital, a public library, and a dozen black churches — were destroyed and thousands were left homeless.

Report: The Case for Reparations in Tulsa, OklahomaReport: The Case for Reparations in Tulsa, Oklahoma 

The American Red Cross estimated the death toll at 300, but the exact number remains unknown. Only recently did officials begin limited excavations of unmarked mass graves.

HRW, the National African American Reparations Commission, and the American Civil Liberties Union planned to join leaders from Tulsa and across the US on May 31 to open a series of virtual forums to explore the enduring impact of the massacre and the path to reparations in Tulsa and for other African Americans.

In the immediate aftermath of the Tulsa Race Massacre, the state declared martial law and state and local authorities disarmed and arrested black people in Tulsa. The thousands who became homeless were forced into internment camps, where they lived in tents. Government officials rejected offers of medical and reconstruction assistance from within and outside Tulsa.

No one was held responsible for the violent crimes, and city and state officials attempted to cover up the massacre for decades. This fall, for the first time, the Oklahoma Education Department will include the race massacre in its curriculum.

In 2003, civil rights lawyers sued Tulsa, its police department, and the state of Oklahoma, seeking restitution for the more than 200 survivors and their descendants. A court dismissed the suit, citing the state’s statute of limitations.


Ongoing de facto segregation, discriminatory policies, and structural racism have left black Tulsans, particularly those in North Tulsa, with a lower standard of living and fewer opportunities than other Tulsans. There are significant racial disparities in the city across multiple indicators, from access to health and nutritious food to education. Greenwood community members have expressed concern that the current economic investment plans are not sufficiently focused on supporting the community or preserving its black heritage, but rather on gentrifying the area.

“Tulsa stands out for the malicious destruction during the massacre, but the racist systems, policies, and practices that have harmed black Tulsans over decades are not unique,” Heath said. “In many ways, Tulsa is a microcosm of the United States.”

The massacre occurred in a broader context of systemic racism rooted in the US history of slavery, white supremacy, racist violence, and oppression, which continues across the United States today, HRC says.

Under international human rights law, governments have an obligation to provide effective remedies for human rights violations like the Tulsa massacre through a range of reparations mechanisms.

HRW has long supported the development of broader reparations plans to account for the cruelty of slavery and subsequent harm. The group supports US House Resolution 40, which would establish a commission to examine the impact of the slave trade and to recommend ways to address the harm, including apology and compensation.

The bill has gained traction, with nearly 100 new co-sponsors, an indication of growing recognition of the importance of accounting for the impact of slavery and decades of racist, discriminatory laws and practices that followed and persist today.

The civil rights group says reparations in Tulsa should include direct payments to the few massacre victims still living and their descendants, and to recover and identify remains that may be in mass graves. Under their plan, state and local governments would promptly establish a comprehensive reparations plan that would strengthen existing scholarship programs, fund memorials, and provide targeted investments in health, education, and economic opportunities. Federal, state, and local authorities would pass legislation to clear legal barriers to civil legal claims related to the massacre.

“Tulsa officials failed to deliver on promises to provide full reparation, harming black life in Tulsa from the massacre to the present day,” Heath said. “Government authorities have an opportunity to fully reckon with these historical and contemporary wrongs by finally doing what they should have done a long time ago — providing reparations to massacre descendants and the black people in Tulsa today.”

For more on the Virtual Forums on the Tulsa Race Massacre and Reparations, please visit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgusoVPh5K0&feature=youtu.be

To support a petition calling on the Tulsa and Oklahoma governments to make full reparations to survivors and descendants of the Tulsa Race Massacre, please visit:  https://www.change.org/tulsareparationsnow 

Louis Weisberg edited and contributed to this article.

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