Family members of the two known living survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre met for the first time on Thursday with detectives from the Department of Justice’s cold case unit amid a federal review of the 1921 deadly attack by a white mob on Tulsa’s Greenwood section, a thriving Black neighborhood known as “Black Wall Street.”
The survivors’ attorney, Damario Solomon-Simmons, and Democratic Texas Rep. Al Green spoke out during a press conference on Thursday afternoon after their meeting with detectives from the DOJ Civil Rights Division’s Cold Case Unit.
Viola Fletcher, known as “Mother Fletcher,” and Lessie Benningfield Randle, known as “Mother Randle,” are the last known living survivors, according to the DOJ, after Hugh Van Ellis, known as “Uncle Red,” died on Oct. 9, 2023 at 102.
“The first thing I want to say is we thank the Department of Justice and Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for launching this review and evaluation. But it was very clear from everyone they have met over the last 48 hours, including the survivors, everyone wants a full investigation, everyone,” said Solomon-Simmons.
“Everyone wants actual accountability of the massacre. They want those who perpetrated this harm that started in 1921 and continues to today, to be held accountable,” he said.
The meeting with DOJ cold case detectives comes weeks after the department announced the first-ever federal review of what Clarke, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, referred to as “one of the deadliest episodes of mass racial violence in this nation’s history.”