Justice Department Announces Probe of 1921 Race Massacre

For the first time, the federal government will investigate the 1921 massacre of nearly 300 people, most of them Black, in Tulsa. The Department of Justice announced the decision Monday, the Guardian reports. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said that when the review is complete, "we will issue a report analyzing the massacre in light of both modern and then-existing civil rights law." The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act enables the department to investigate civil rights crimes that resulted in deaths and occurred no later than 1979, per NBC News.

Descendants of victims and survivors have long pressed the government to look into the attack, which destroyed houses and businesses in a 35-square-block area of the Greenwood neighborhood, which was known as Black Wall Street. Generational wealth springing from the thriving district was wiped out by the assault known as the Tulsa Race Massacre. An attorney for the last known survivors, 110-year-old Viola Fletcher and 109-year-old Lessie Benningfield Randle, described Monday's announcement as a "joyous occasion," per the AP. Their lawsuit was dismissed in June by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Clarke said the department will examine "available documents, witness accounts, scholarly and historical research and other information on the massacre." (More Tulsa Race Massacre stories.)