Greene County Democrat

Tag: GREENWOOD

  • Newswire: Oklahoma Supreme Court dismisses Tulsa Race Massacre Survivors’ lawsuit

    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

     

    The Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed a case filed by the last two remaining survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre on Wednesday, June 12, casting doubt on racial equality campaigners’ aspirations for justice and reparations for one of the most heinous acts of racial violence in American history.
    The nine-member court upheld a previous ruling by a district court judge in Tulsa, stating that the plaintiffs’ grievances, although legitimate, did not fall within the purview of the state’s public nuisance statute. “We further hold that the plaintiff’s allegations do not sufficiently support a claim for unjust enrichment,” the court declared in its decision.
    Attempts by the Black Press to contact both parties were unsuccessful.
    Lessie Benningfield Randle and Viola Fletcher, two survivors who are both over 100 years old, filed the lawsuit in 2020 to compel the City of Tulsa and other parties to make amends for the destruction a white mob caused to the thriving Black neighborhood known as Greenwood. On May 31 and June 1, 1921, the mob, which included individuals hastily deputized by local authorities, looted and set fire to the district, famously dubbed “Black Wall Street.”
    The massacre resulted in the deaths of up to 300 Black Tulsans and forced thousands of survivors into internment camps managed by the National Guard. Today, only remnants like burned bricks and part of a church basement remain of the once-thriving 30-block area.
    Benningfield Randle and Fletcher, along with the now-deceased Hughes Van Ellis, sued to secure what their attorney termed “justice in their lifetime.” Van Ellis, affectionately known as “Uncle Redd,” was a WWII veteran and a symbol of resilience who died last year at age 102. The lawsuit was grounded in Oklahoma’s public nuisance law, arguing that the massacre’s legacy of racial division and economic disparity persists in Tulsa to this day.
    The plaintiffs contended that the city’s history of racial tensions and the economic fallout from the massacre still reverberate, citing the lack of compensation for victims by the city and insurance companies. The lawsuit sought an exhaustive accounting of the property and wealth lost or stolen during the massacre, the construction of a hospital in north Tulsa, and the establishment of a victims’ compensation fund, among other reparations.
    In reflecting on Van Ellis’s legacy, advocates emphasized his lifelong commitment to seeking justice for massacre survivors. “He bravely served America, even as he spent a lifetime awaiting atonement related to the Tulsa Race Massacre,” Oklahoma Democratic Rep. Regina Goodwin stated after Van Ellis’s death. “Mr. Ellis urged us to keep fighting for justice. In the midst of his death, there remains an undying sense of right and wrong.”
    Rocky Dawuni, a three-time Grammy-nominated artist, also paid tribute to Van Ellis, remarking on his indomitable and uplifting spirit. “Uncle Redd had a larger-than-life presence. His life and story have become part of our collective struggle as a people,” Dawuni said. “His experiences give us a unique glimpse into what Black people had to endure and still have to endure to this day.”
    Despite the legal setback, advocates vow to continue their fight for justice, drawing inspiration from the survivors’ unwavering resolve.
    “If this truly is a nation of laws and a state based on the law, then my clients, the last-known survivors of the massacre, should get the opportunity that no one else who suffered the devastation had the privilege of,” Damario Solomon-Simmons, a National Civil Rights Attorney and founder of Justice for Greenwood, recently asserted.
     

  • Newswire: The 1955 lynching became a catalyst for the civil rights movement. Mississippi unveils Emmett Till statue near where white men kidnapped and killed Black teen decades earlier

    By The Associated Press

    photo of Emmett Till

    GREENWOOD, Miss. (AP) — Hundreds of people applauded — and some wiped away tears — as a Mississippi community unveiled a larger-than-life statue of Emmett Till on Friday, not far from where white men kidnapped and killed the Black teenager over accusations he had flirted with a white woman in a country store.
    “Change has come, and it will continue to happen,” Madison Harper, a senior at Leflore County High School, told a racially diverse audience at the statue’s dedication. “Decades ago, our parents and grandparents could not envision that a moment like today would transpire.”
    The 1955 lynching became a catalyst for the civil rights movement. Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, insisted on an open-casket funeral in Chicago so the world could see the horrors inflicted on her 14-year-old son. Jet magazine published photos of his mutilated body, which was pulled from the Tallahatchie River in Mississippi.
    The 9-foot (2.7-meter) tall bronze statue in Greenwood’s Rail Spike Park is a jaunty depiction of the living Till in slacks, dress shirt and tie with one hand on the brim of a hat.
    The rhythm and blues song, “Wake Up, Everybody” played as workers pulled a tarp off the figure. Dozens of people surged forward, shooting photos and video on cellphones.
    Anna-Maria Webster of Rochester, New York, had tears running down her face. “It’s beautiful to be here,” said Webster, attending the ceremony on a sunny afternoon during a visit with Mississippi relatives. Speaking of Till’s mother she said: “Just to imagine the torment she went through — all over a lie.”
    Mississippi has the highest percentage of Black residents of any state, now about 38%. Democratic U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, whose district encompasses the Delta, noted that Mississippi had no Black elected officials when Till was killed. He said Till’s death helped spur change.
    “But you, know, change has a way of becoming slower and slower,” said Thompson, the only Black member of Mississippi’s current congressional delegation. “What we have to do in dedicating this monument to Emmett Till is recommit ourselves to the spirit of making a difference in our community.”
    The statue is a short drive from an elaborate Confederate monument outside the Leflore County Courthouse and about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the crumbling remains of the store, Bryant’s Grocery & Meat Market, in Money.
    The statue’s unveiling coincided with the release this month of “Till,” a movie exploring Till-Mobley’s private trauma over her son’s death and her transformation into a civil rights activist.
    The Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., the last living witness to his cousin’s kidnapping, wasn’t able to travel from Illinois for Friday’s dedication. But he told The Associated Press on Wednesday: “We just thank God someone is keeping his name out there.”
    He said some wrongly thought Till got what he deserved for breaking the taboo of flirting with a white woman, adding many people didn’t want to talk about the case for decades.
    “Now there’s interest in it, and that’s a godsend,” Parker said. “You know what his mother said: ‘I hope he didn’t die in vain.’”
    Greenwood and Leflore County are both more than 70% Black and officials have worked for years to bring the Till statue to reality. Democratic state Sen. David Jordan of Greenwood secured $150,000 in state funding and a Utah artist, Matt Glenn, was commissioned to create the statue.
    Jordan said he hopes it will draw tourists to learn more about the area’s history. “Hopefully, it will bring all of us together,” he said.

    Till and Parker had traveled from Chicago to spend the summer of 1955 with relatives in the deeply segregated Mississippi Delta. On Aug. 24, the two teens took a short trip with other young people to the store in Money. Parker said he heard Till whistle at shopkeeper Carolyn Bryant.
    Four days later, Till was abducted in the middle of the night from his uncle’s home. The kidnappers tortured and shot him, weighted his body down with a cotton gin fan and dumped him into the river.
    Jordan, who is Black, was a college student in 1955 when he drove to the Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner to watch the murder trial of two white men charged with killing Till — Carolyn’s husband Roy Bryant and his half brother, J.W. Milam.
    An all-white, all-male jury acquitted the two men, who later confessed to Look magazine that they killed Till.
    Nobody has ever been convicted in the lynching. The U.S. Justice Department has opened multiple investigations starting in 2004 after receiving inquiries about whether charges could be brought against anyone still living.
    This year, a group searching the Leflore County Courthouse basement found an unserved 1955 arrest warrant for “Mrs. Roy Bryant.” In August, another Mississippi grand jury found insufficient evidence to indict Donham, causing consternation for Till relatives and activists.
    Although Mississippi has dozens of Confederate monuments, some have been moved in recent years, including one relocated in 2020 from the University of Mississippi campus to a cemetery where Confederate soldiers are buried.
    The state has a few monuments to Black historical figures, including one honoring civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer in Ruleville.
    A historical marker outside Bryant’s Grocery has been knocked down and vandalized. Another marker near where Till’s body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River has been vandalized and shot. The Till statue in Greenwood will be watched by security cameras.
    Jordan won applause when he said Friday: “If some idiot tears it down, we’re going to put it right back up.”