TULSA REPARATIONS LAWSUIT PROCEEDS

An Oklahoma judge ruled Monday that a lawsuit can proceed that seeks reparations for survivors and descendants of victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

Tulsa County District Court Judge Caroline Wall’s ruling brought new hope for some measure of justice over the racist rampage in which an angry White mob killed hundreds of Black residents and destroyed what had been the nation’s most prosperous Black business district.

Civil rights attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons filed the lawsuit in 2020 under the state’s public nuisance law.

Solomon-Simmons said a quick decision is critical for living survivors Lessie Benningfield Randle, 107, Viola Fletcher, 107, and Hugh Van Ellis, 101.

“We believe this is the last opportunity for these survivors to have their day in court,” Solomon-Simmons said, citing their ages. “We want to ask (the judge) to move forward and move forward as soon as possible.”

Oklahoma sued consumer products giant Johnson & Johnson using the state public nuisance law for its role in the deadly opioid crisis. Initially a judge ordered the drugmaker to pay the state $465 million in damages. But the Oklahoma Supreme Court overturned the Johnson & Johnson verdict, ruling that the public nuisance law did not apply because the company had no control of the drug after it was sold to pharmacies, hospitals and physicians’ offices and then prescribed by doctors to patients.

Eric Miller, a Loyola Marymount University law professor working with the plaintiffs, said the state court’s ruling in the Johnson & Johnson has no effect on the lawsuit.