Reparations finally for Tulsa massacre

Officials of a New York-based philanthropic organization were inspired to donate $1 million to the last known survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre after reading news accounts of the three octogenarians and their decades-long struggle to get some measure of justice. “I remember thinking it should not be this hard … to get some sense of relief for what they went through,” said the founder of the nonprofit. Indeed it should not have been so hard — and that message should shame the Tulsa and Oklahoma officials who have fought efforts to provide recompense to survivors of one of the worst U.S. episodes of racial violence.

Viola Fletcher, 108, Lessie Benningfield Randle, 107, and Hughes “Uncle Red” Van Ellis, 102, were young children when a White mob went on a murderous rampage May 31 and June 1, 1921, that obliterated the thriving Black business district of Greenwood. Testifying before Congress last year, Fletcher gave searing testimony of the horror of those hours: “I will never forget the violence of the white mob when we left our home. I still see Black men being shot, Black bodies lying in the street. I still smell smoke and see fire. I still see Black businesses being burned. I still hear airplanes flying overhead. I hear the screams.” Last week in Tulsa, Fletcher and the two other survivors accepted the $1 million donation from Business for Good, an organization founded by health care entrepreneur Ed Mitzen and his wife, Lisa. Ed Mitzen explained how they read The Post’s articles about the unsuccessful efforts of the three survivors to get some kind of just compensation and how “it felt like certain people were trying to run the clock out.”

Survivors of the massacre and their descendants were never compensated by the city or state for all that they lost — homes, businesses, livelihoods, loved ones and futures. Never mind that a commission established by the state recommended in 2001 that Oklahoma make “direct payments to riot survivors and descendants.” A lawsuit seeking compensation filed in 2003 was blocked due to expiration of the statute of limitations. A new lawsuit was filed in 2020, and an Oklahoma District Court judge recently ruled it could proceed to trial, denying the city’s and state’s bid to dismiss the case.

If state and city officials had half the decency demonstrated by the Mitzens, they would have long ago done the right thing and followed the recommendations of the state commission in providing reparations. Instead they have, as Ed Mitzen said, tried to run the clock out, waiting as survivors died one by one.

“We are just trying to help some people. We are not trying to be white saviors or political grandstanders. We just want to help,” said Ed Mitzen. Their good act, as Oklahoma state Rep. Regina Goodwin, a Democrat, said, is “humanity at its best.” It stands in stark contrast to the callous indifference of officials who refuse to own up to an obligation to people who suffered irreparable harm.