Reparations Sought Decades After Race Riot

At a federal courthouse here this morning, lawyers representing more than 100 survivors and 300 descendants of victims are scheduled to have their first opportunity to argue that their lawsuit seeking damages from the city and state should proceed to trial. The city and state have asked Senior U.S. District Judge James Ellison to dismiss the suit.

Advocates on both sides see the case as a bellwether in the national campaign to secure reparations for descendants of slaves. Civil rights leaders believe it could shape the reparation movement's legal strategy and help persuade the public that society bears some responsibility for centuries-old offenses.

Thursday night, in anticipation of today's hearing, more than 250 people of various races held a vigil. One woman held a hand-painted sign that read, "Tulsa: Two Cities."

The Rev. Milford Carter, one of the city's religious leaders, told the crowd that Tulsa had been "stunted" by a legacy of racism.

"God loves justice and he loves justice now," he said. "From this day forward, an action begins that will not stop until it finds ultimate commitment."

The vigil was held at Greenwood Cultural Center in north Tulsa, not far from where the violence erupted May 31, 1921. That day, a local newspaper carried a young white woman's allegation that she had been assaulted by a black teenager. A white lynch mob walked to the jail where the teen was being held and was met by a group of blacks. A shot rang out, and the riot began.

Thousands of whites descended on the nearby community of Greenwood, a bustling black neighborhood that included a business district known across the South as "Black Wall Street" because of its enterprise and success.

By the next afternoon, as many as 300 people, mostly blacks, were dead. Thirty-five square blocks of Greenwood were reduced to ash and rubble. More than 1,000 buildings, including churches and schools, were destroyed.

A city investigation concluded that the riot was a "Negro uprising." No one was ever prosecuted, nor were blacks compensated for the loss of property. Authorities also never prosecuted the teenager on the assault claims.