Jan 15, 2025 Story by: Editor
WASHINGTON, Jan 10 (Reuters) – A U.S. Department of Justice report, released Friday, revealed that some law enforcement officers were involved in the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, including participation in arson and murders. This report, issued in the closing days of President Joe Biden’s administration, follows decades of advocacy from massacre survivors, their descendants, and civil rights organizations.
Efforts to rebuild the Greenwood neighborhood, a prosperous Black community in Tulsa, have been ongoing for years, but advocates continue to demand justice, including reparations and an official federal review. In September, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division initiated an investigation into the massacre, where white assailants killed as many as 300 people, mostly Black residents.
Despite the severity of the findings, the DOJ stated that “no avenue of prosecution now exists for crimes that occurred,” citing the expiration of relevant statutes of limitations and the fact that the youngest potential suspects are over 115 years old.
The report indicates that law enforcement officers, including those from the Tulsa Police and the National Guard, played a role in the violence. They “disarmed Black residents, confiscated their weapons, and detained many in makeshift camps under armed guard.”
“In addition, there are credible reports that at least some law enforcement officers did more than arrest and detain Black men; some participated in murder, arson and looting,” the report noted. It also pointed to witness testimonies, including one alleging that a police officer “shoot[ed] down all Negro[e]s as they showed up.” This same officer reportedly “captured” six Black men from Greenwood, “roped them together in single file, and led them running behind his motorcycle to detention at Convention Hall.”
The report includes a white witness testimony describing how officers allegedly searched Black men for weapons, “only to steal money from them and shoot them if they protested.” Another witness recounted an officer boasting about personally killing four Black men.
The massacre started after a Black man was accused of grabbing a white woman in an elevator in a downtown Tulsa building, according to the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Justice Department report states that police arrested the man who was alleged to have assaulted the woman. However, the local press sensationalized the story, inciting a white mob outside the courthouse demanding a lynching.
A confrontation between Black men from Greenwood and a white mob erupted after the arrest, and violence ensued when someone fired a shot. “Local police deputized hundreds of white residents, many of whom had been advocating for a lynching and had been drinking,” the report revealed. These deputies and other white Tulsans, organized by law enforcement, played a key role in the destruction of the Greenwood district.
The DOJ’s report also stated that city officials failed to uphold their promises to help rebuild Greenwood, imposing “harsh new fire codes that priced residents out of the area” and redesignating the area for industrial use.
“The Tulsa Race Massacre stands out as a civil rights crime unique in its magnitude, barbarity, racist hostility and its utter annihilation of a thriving Black community,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
“We issue this report with recognition of the courageous survivors who continue to share their testimonies, acknowledgment of those who tragically lost their lives, and appreciation for other impacted individuals and advocates who collectively push for us to never forget this tragic chapter of America’s history.” Source: Reuters
