The U.S. Department of Justice has initiated a review of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke announced. This tragic event occurred on May 31, 1921, when white attackers killed up to 300 Black residents in Tulsa’s thriving Greenwood neighborhood, often referred to as “Black Wall Street.”
In her statement on Monday, Clarke said the Department’s goal is to complete the review by the end of the year. “When we have finished our federal review, we will issue a report analyzing the massacre in light of both modern and then-existing civil rights law,” said Clarke, who leads the Justice Department’s civil rights enforcement efforts.
This investigation is being carried out under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, which permits the Justice Department to investigate civil rights crimes resulting in death that occurred before December 31, 1979. The massacre was triggered after a Black man was accused of assaulting a white woman.
