A Tulsa attorney filed a lawsuit against the city of Tulsa, The Metropolitan Area Planning Commission and the Tulsa Development Authority for allegedly violating the Oklahoma Open Records Act and denying access to public records related to the Tulsa Race Massacre.
The suit, filed by civil and human rights attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons of SolomonSimmonsLaw, Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP and a team of civil and human rights lawyers is the latest legal action to “help provide healing and justice to the only known survivors of the massacre, 106-year-old Lessie Benningfield “Mother” Randle, 106-year-old Viola “Mother” Fletcher, and 100-year-old Hughes Van Ellis.
They, Solomon-Simmons said in a press release, “are still awaiting justice for Greenwood nearly a century after the brutal attack.”
Solomon-Simmons filed 13 different open records requests in early January under the Open Records Act seeking records about the massacre’s ongoing impact on the Greenwood District, according to the press release.
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Solomon-Simmons claimed in the release his requests to receive the records within 15 business days were ignored, and “subsequent efforts over the last three months to reach out were either ignored or subject to stall tactics.”
“The City’s refusal to provide records related to the Massacre to which I, as a tax-paying citizen of Oklahoma and nationally-recognized Greenwood historian, educator and advocate, am lawfully entitled access further proves that despite their self-serving public statements, the City’s goal is to continue to cover up and whitewash its role in the destruction of Greenwood and 100 years of continued harm my community has suffered,” Solomon-Simmons said.
“These records are needed to help us uncover additional truths about the events of 1921 to promote healing and justice for the victims of the Massacre, something the City is clearly not interested in.”
The release indicated that the city of Tulsa’s legal department interfered with the City Clerk’s obligation to comply with the requests.
They reportedly wrote to Solomon-Simmons, “[G]iven the fact that your firm currently represents parties adverse to the City in on-going litigation you are respectfully advised to immediately discontinue contact with our clients [the City Clerk].” (sic)
Solomon-Simmons represents the survivors of the massacre, Randle, Fletcher and Ellis, who are still awaiting justice for Greenwood nearly a century after the brutal attack.
Solomon-Simmons Law, in conjunction with Schulte Roth & Zabel; J. Spencer Bryan and Steven Terrill of BryanTerrill, P.C.; Professor Eric Miller of Loyola Marymount College of Law; and Maynard M. Henry, Sr., Lashandra Peoples-Johnson and Cordal Cephas of Johnson Cephas Law PLLC, is working secure justice for the survivors and descendants of the massacre and raise attention to the “100 years of continued harm the Tulsa Race Massacre has caused Black Tulsans.”
A city of Tulsa spokeswoman declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying the city does not comment on current litigation.
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