Lessie Benningfield Randle, Tulsa Race Massacre survivor, turns 110

Tulsa, Oklahoma - Lessie Benningfield Randle, one of the last two living survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, turned 110 on Sunday amid her ongoing fight for justice and reparations.

Tulsa Race Massacre survivor Lessie Benningfield Randle has turned 110 years old.
Tulsa Race Massacre survivor Lessie Benningfield Randle has turned 110 years old.  © IMAGO / Imagn Images

Randle's 110th birthday comes as she and fellow survivor Viola Ford Fletcher, also 110, continue their decades' long quest for acknowledgment and redress for the horrors they endured as children when they were forcibly displaced from Tulsa's Greenwood District, known as Black Wall Street.

"Mother Randle has done a tremendous job of opening the country's eyes to the horrors of the Tulsa Race Massacre, its enduring impact, and the need for accountability and restitution. And she's made it clear that she's not done yet," the survivors' lead attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons said in a press release in honor of the occasion.

"At 110 years old, Mother Randle is still challenging America to live up to its purported values, which is the true measure of a patriot. She is not only living history – she is a source of inspiration and one of the strongest people I know," he added.

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The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre is known as one of the worst acts of racial terror in US history. Over two days, white law enforcement officers and deputized civilians murdered hundreds of Black Tulsans and razed 40 square-blocks of the once-flourishing Greenwood District. Attackers even dropped firebombs on the neighborhood from decommissioned US military planes.

Authorities immediately sought to cover up the crimes by destroying police records and burying bodies in unmarked mass graves.

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Lessie Benningfield Randle (r.) listens as President Joe Biden speaks during a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre at the Greenwood Cultural Center on June 1, 2021.
Lessie Benningfield Randle (r.) listens as President Joe Biden speaks during a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre at the Greenwood Cultural Center on June 1, 2021.  © MANDEL NGAN / AFP

For more than 100 years, Tulsa Race Massacre survivors and their descendants' bids for accountability have been blocked and opposed by the very entities responsible for the crimes.

This pattern continued when the Oklahoma Supreme Court last June dismissed a historic lawsuit launched by Randle, Fletcher, and Fletcher's little brother Hughes Van Ellis, who passed away in October 2023.

Recently, the survivors and their legal representatives with Justice For Greenwood announced a major breakthrough as the US Department of Justice opened a civil rights probe into the massacre. Federal officials met with Randle and Fletcher last month as part of the investigation.

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Congressman Al Green of Houston, Texas, has also said he is proposing reparations legislation on behalf of the survivors. This will reportedly include three bills – two that would provide at least $10 million in compensation each to Randle and Fletcher, and another that would benefit Greenwood descendants.

Green earlier this month directed a flag to fly above the US Capitol in Randle's honor. The representative will present the flag to her during a Sunday birthday event in Tulsa.

Cover photo: IMAGO / Imagn Images

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