Justice Dept. corrects legal record on ‘systematic’ Tulsa Race Massacre. (David Nakamura, WaPo, January 10, 2025)

Here, we try to right a wrong.  Good report, good coverage by David Nakamura of The Washington Post: 

Justice Dept. corrects legal record on ‘systematic’ Tulsa Race Massacre

A new report formally concludes that the 1921 attack in the Greenwood District was the result of racially motivated violence targeting Black residents, refuting an initial federal account from the time.

January 10, 2025 at 5:28 p.m. ESTJanuary 10, 2025

3 min

Tru Walker stands with his father, Odell Walker Jr., during a commemoration of the Tulsa Race Massacre centennial on June 1, 2021. President Joe Biden visited Tulsa to pay respect to the victims. (Joshua Lott/The Washington Post)

By David Nakamura

A coordinated attack by thousands of White people in 1921 that led to the slaughter of hundreds of Black residents in the Greenwood District of Tulsa was the result of systematic, racially motivated violence, the Justice Department said Friday in a new report that sought to correct the federal government’s legal record after more than a century.

Authorities said a recent four-month reexamination of evidence in the case, known as the Tulsa Race Massacre, found that what an investigator described a month after the attack as spontaneous violence was, in fact, a coordinated effort by White perpetrators to decimate a thriving community known as “Black Wall Street.”

The attackers, organized and aided by law enforcement, shot, beat and arrested Black residents while burning and looting 35 city blocks over several hours on May 31, 1921, the Justice Department concluded in the 126-page report. White authorities promised to help rebuild the community but instead put up barriers to financial assistance and offered no avenues for legal redress, investigators said.

o financial assistance and offered no avenues for legal redress, investigators said.

The findings refute much of the initial report on the crime, in which a Justice Department investigator at the time wrote that the violence was a “small” and “half-hearted” lynching attempt after a White man falsely accused a 19-year-old Black man named Dick Rowland of assaulting a White woman in an elevator.

That investigator spent less than a week in June 1921 looking into the matter and writing his report. He concluded that “racial feeling” was not a motivating factor in the attack; asserted that Black men, who sought to protect their community, bore responsibility for the violence; and said the White perpetrators did not violate any federal laws.

Over the years, historians have established a narrative consistent with the Justice Department’s new publication, which is based on examining documents, witness accounts, and scholarly and historical research. Federal authorities said they conducted the reexamination of the case under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, which allows the Justice Department to examine fatalities caused by civil rights crimes that occurred on or before Dec. 31, 1979.

The massacre “stands out as a civil rights crime unique in its magnitude, barbarity, racist hostility and its utter annihilation of a thriving Black community,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement Friday. “Until this day, the Justice Department has not spoken publicly about this race massacre or officially accounted for the horrific events that transpired in Tulsa.”

In its report, the Justice Department acknowledged that there is little recourse for descendants of the victims; the youngest perpetrators would be at least 115 years old today, and the statute of limitations for federal civil rights charges expired long ago.

But, investigators said, the report itself stands as a measure of justice in documenting and recognizing the trauma and loss suffered by the Greenwood community. In November, the city of Tulsa held a memorial service for World War I veteran C.L. Daniel, who last summer became the first victim identified in an inquiry into possible mass graves from the massacre.

“The historical reckoning is far from over,” the federal report said. “Legal limits may have stymied the pursuit of justice, but the work to ensure that future generations understand the magnitude of the atrocity continues.”

DeNeen L. Brown contributed reporting.

By David Nakamura

David Nakamura covers the Justice Department with a focus on civil rights. He has previously covered the White House, sports, education, city government and foreign affairs. follow on X@davidnakamura