Overview

Lessie Benningfield Randle (also known as "Mother Randle") was one of the last three known living survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre when legal proceedings were active. She was approximately 7 years old when white mobs destroyed the Greenwood District of Tulsa; Oklahoma; known as "Black Wall Street"; the wealthiest Black community in the United States. Over the course of approximately 16 hours from May 31 to June 1; 1921; white rioters; some deputized and armed by local authorities; killed an estimated 100-300 Black residents; wounded 800 more; burned over 1;256 homes; destroyed 191 businesses; and left 10;000 people homeless. Private planes were used to drop incendiary devices; marking one of the first aerial bombardments of a civilian population on American soil. The Oklahoma National Guard participated in rounding up and detaining Black residents. No white perpetrators were ever prosecuted. For decades; the massacre was systematically erased from official histories; school curricula; and even Tulsa's own records. In 2020; Randle joined fellow survivors Viola Fletcher and Hughes Van Ellis in filing a lawsuit seeking reparations under Oklahoma's public nuisance law; arguing that the effects of the massacre continued to deprive the Greenwood community and its descendants of economic opportunity. Despite testifying before Congress at age 106; sharing her firsthand memories of terror and displacement; the case was ultimately dismissed by the Oklahoma Supreme Court in June 2023; ruling that the survivors could not establish a public nuisance under the state's narrow legal framework. Randle died on October 2; 2023; at age 109; never having received any form of compensation or official reparation for the destruction of her community.

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Related Investigations (1)

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Sources & Documentation

2 documented sources from official records, investigations, and reports