Proposal Calls for Restoring Tulsa Massacre Neighborhood
Years before the Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed a long-fought lawsuit seeking reparations to compensate the last two centenarian survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre, the lead lawyer and a team were already working on a larger plan to repair century-old harms.
On Tuesday, Damario Solomon-Simmons unveiled Project Greenwood, a sweeping plan to restore the city's Greenwood district — which was destroyed in 1921 by a mob of white Tulsans — and to compensate massacre survivors and descendants.
The project provides survivors and the descendants 'a tangible benefit to move forward — it's something we have needed for 104 years,' said Mr. Solomon-Simmons, who filed the dismissed case seeking reparations in 2020. 'But it's also great for the city of Tulsa, because this will promote true healing and conciliation. It will remove the dark cloud that sits on top of Tulsa now because of the massacre.'
The plan calls for several forms of financial redress, but the priority is reparations for Lessie Benningfield Randle and Viola Ford Fletcher, the 110-year-old survivors who were young children at the time.
'They both want to see justice before they die,' LaDonna Penny, a granddaughter of Ms. Randle, said through tears. She added, 'If this is the opportunity to give them their flowers while they're still here, then the city needs to do it.'
Mayor Monroe Nichols said the plan reflected the 'unshakable resolve' of survivors and descendants to address the effects of the neighborhood's destruction across generations.
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