In Tulsa, race riot's legacy at center of lawsuit (reparations)

Baltimore Sun, MD ^ | February 16, 2004 | Staff Writer at LA Times

[schaketo]

TULSA, Okla. - A dwindling number of race-riot survivors - some more than 100 years old - will finally have a chance to make their case for reparations, eight decades after a white mob tore into a thriving black neighborhood, leaving as many as 300 people dead.

At a federal courthouse in Tulsa on Friday morning, attorneys representing more than 100 survivors and 300 descendants of riot victims had their first opportunity to argue that their lawsuit seeking damages from the city and state should proceed to trial. The city and state have asked U.S. Senior District Judge James Ellison to dismiss the lawsuit.

Advocates on both sides of the Tulsa case see it as a bellwether for the national campaign to secure reparations for descendants of slaves. Civil-rights leaders say the case could shape the reparation movement's legal strategy and could help convince a skeptical public that society bears some responsibility for centuries-old offenses.

[vetvetdoug]

When are whites and asians going to ask for reparations for the damage done during the LA riots? Gee, equality is for blacks only it seems.

[cardinal4]

Civil-rights leaders say the case could shape the reparation movement's legal strategy and could help convince a skeptical public that society bears some responsibility for centuries-old offenses.

What an absurd statement..

[TalBlack]

Reparations are not deserved. What those white people did was a crime but they were NOT actinc on behalf of the white race. It was just a crime. If any of the criminals are still alive why not get them to ante up for what THEY ALONE did? Why does the color of THEIR skin not only matter but damn all others with the same color skin? Isin't that racist?

[Mears]

Absurd is right.

How many of the people in "society" today were even here when this incident happened?

[cardinal4]

I wouldnt not have a problem with a national memorial, something along the lines of the Holocaust Museum in Israel maybe. But the statement claiming society can still be held responsible for something that long ago is just absurd. And giving people money because of it is a further indication of the entitlement society we have become..

[concerned about politics]

I suppose we tax payers could ask Democrats for reparations. We've been their tax slaves for decades. The sweat of our brows has been paying their bills since the great depression. Our own descendants have suffered under the same heavy hand of Democrat oppression.
We want back wages from the social program recipients! No man should be held as another mans slave! They owe us.
We want freedom, and our reparations for the tax slaves we have today! Their Democrat owners are still alive, and still demanding labor without mercy or reward.

[concerned about politics]

that society bears some responsibility for centuries-old offenses.

That's a fascist statement. Charge the innocent for crimes they never committed so they can get some free money. Sheesh.

[concerned about politics]

Fascism through "victimhood propaganda."
That's how the left keeps what little power they have.
That's how they got abortion. Mothers were victims of their fetus, rather than the other way around. Now millions of babies are dead.
That's how they got homosexual rights. They were victims of the sane, rather than the other way around. Now thousands are dead by disease.
That's how they got rock and dirt worshiping. They were victims of everyone else's desire for property, rather than the other way around. Now thousands of acres have been sieged from honest citizens to build the earth worshipers vacation resorts.
That's how the NEA scammed so much money out of the hard working citizens. The teachers were victims of the students, rather than the other way around. Now, we have students graduating who's only expertise is signing a welfare check.

[xm177e2]

When are whites and asians going to ask for reparations for the damage done during the LA riots?

I don't remember 300 murders happening in Los Angeles.

[TalBlack]

I don't remember 300 murders happening in Los Angeles.


But there was murder. Not to mention millions or billions in destruction INCLUDING the permanent loss of business by many hard working immigrants. And it was all done by rascist, screaming, hate motivated blacks. If there will be reparations why not reparations for one as well as the other?

[BIGZ]

Who is going to tell the Hispanics that their taxes are going to pay for Black reparations.

[SedVictaCatoni]

Note that this isn't reparations for slavery - it's reparations for specific crimes which took place in living memory, and for which survivors demand compensation. There's a big conceptual difference (although slavery-reparations advocates certainly have an interest in blurring the issue).

[Ole Okie]

don't remember 300 murders happening in Los Angeles.

IIRC, the best estimate in Tulsa was 34.

There was a lot of speculation that the number was higher. A Select Commission (not sure of the name) worked on this for a lengthy time a few years ago. As a direct result of the Commission's work, a fairly large (empty) area in one cemetery rumored to have been a mass grave was excavated with nothing found. The number killed may have been higher, but probably not much higher.

I'm not excusing 34 deaths, either. The Greenwood race riot has weighed heavily on Tulsans.

[JudyB1938]

My grandmother said that white men came to her house and got my grandfather. She said they then went to the northside and killed every black they could find. That's why the figure of 300 may even be too small. Since there were no records kept, there is no way of knowing.

In addition, there is not one documented name of any of the offenders, not even my grandfather, Ernest Scott. He was a French-Canadian who went back to his grandparents in France and died shortly thereafter from breathing mustard gas fighting for the United States in the First World War.