Submitted by Donney Rose
(Source Observations In Blackness)
“To be clear, the fight facing Mother Fletcher and Mother Randle is about more than just Black Wall Street. It is about the right of every person in Oklahoma to be rest assured that if they are ever abused, swindled, or exploited, they will have a reasonable chance to prove their case in court,” Damario Solomon-Simmons, lead attorney for the survivors, said in a statement. “This is what every American deserves, and it’s what the City of Tulsa, one of the main culprits behind the Tulsa Race Massacre, is trying to take away.” – ABC News
The data says only 1 out of 5,000 humans living in the land of the free will do so for more than a century. A hundred-plus years of awakenings and slumber is beyond rare. It is an anomaly that combines a super clean bill of health, the ability to avoid freak accidents and dodge violent interactions, and general luck. To stretch past 100 years of living while Black in the United States is damn near improbable.
Lessie Benningfield Randle and Viola Ford Fletcher were six years old in 1921 when their Greenwood community, otherwise known as Black Wall Street, was decimated in Tulsa, Oklahoma by a racist mob. Ms. Randle and Ms. Fletcher are still alive, at 109 years old, and as of last week were at the Oklahoma Supreme Court appealing the court’s decision to dismiss the lawsuit they filed seeking reparations for damages incurred during the slaughter of their people and destruction of their neighborhood.
103 years ago, two little Black girls witnessed their environment become fogged with smoke from bombs dropping and the blood of their elders river the streets of their neighborhood. They have done the impossible act of surviving, and no one has done anything to right the wrong that has been seared into their memories for over ten decades…
