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Tulsa Race Massacre reparations is soul-redeeming work for the US, Oklahoma civil rights lawyer says
His book says 11 plaintiffs sought compensation for the destruction of Greenwood and the city’s first Black mayor later backed a reparations plan.
- On Tuesday, civil rights attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons released his book, "Redeem a Nation: The Century-Long Battle to Restore the Soul of America," as a blueprint for seeking reparations for historical atrocities endured by Black Americans.
- Centered on the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, the book documents how white mobs destroyed more than 35 city blocks of Greenwood, leveling an estimated 191 businesses and displacing roughly 11,000 Black residents.
- Representing 111-year-old survivor Lessie Benningfield Randle, Solomon-Simmons argues that securing justice for the massacre is essential to address enslavement, Jim Crow, and redlining. "If we cannot get her reparations while she's alive," he said, "it's gonna make it that much harder for us."
- While the Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed a 2020 lawsuit led by Solomon-Simmons, in 2025 Tulsa's first Black mayor Monroe Nichols endorsed Project Greenwood, calling for compensating Randle and designating June 1 as Tulsa Race Massacre Observance Day.
- Reparations for historical injustices have been debated since Reconstruction, through the Civil Rights Movement and into the 21st century. Solomon-Simmons' book arrives months before the United States marks 250 years since its founding, anchoring the massacre in broader national reckoning.
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Associated Press News+19 Reposted by 19 other sources
Tulsa Race Massacre reparations is soul-redeeming work for the US, Oklahoma civil rights lawyer says
Civil rights attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons learned about the Tulsa Race Massacre during college. This revelation inspired him to lead a reparations campaign for survivors and descendants.
·United States
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Total News Sources20
Leaning Left9Leaning Right3Center6Last UpdatedBias Distribution50% Left
Bias Distribution
- 50% of the sources lean Left
50% Left
L 50%
C 33%
R 17%
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