Hearing Underway To Determine If Tulsa Race Massacre Survivors Can Sue City

A judge is deciding whether survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre can sue for damages, more than 100 years after Greenwood burned.

They want the city, the state, and the Tulsa Chamber to pay, but the judge could dismiss the case.

There are three survivors with 11 attorneys and six attorneys defending the chamber, city and state.

The claim is that those groups set the massacre into motion and ever since, have continued to discriminate and segregate Tulsa through policies to push Blacks north with urban renewal and redlining, and favoring white developers.

The defense is more general, claiming the statute of limitations has run out, the state has immunity and the issues raised of systemic racism can't be resolved by the courts.

They have argued the survivors weren't directly injured, while their parents and the community were - an argument that generated some groans from the audience in the courtroom Tuesday.

The judge has had many questions about the claim that the harm from the massacre is ongoing, but has not indicated how or when she will decide if the reparations lawsuit can move forward.

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