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Johnny Cochran
Tulsa Reparations
Tulsa
case is key reparations test
From USA Today
Johnnie Cochran isn't easily
shaken. But the famed defense-lawyer- turned- civil-rights-litigator
says he's really worried that one of his latest legal ventures
might run aground.
Cochran is the best-known member
of a legal team that has filed a reparations lawsuit on behalf
of 126 living survivors of the 1921 Tulsa race riot. He is on
edge not because of the merits of the case, but because of the
ages of his clients. The oldest is 102. The youngest is 81.
"This is really a just
cause," Cochran says, "but time isn't on our side."
His point is well taken. Opponents
of reparations for slavery - the national campaign that some
people think might be aided by a victory in the Oklahoma case
- have long argued that no compensation should be paid for that
"peculiar institution" because there are no living
survivors of American slavery. The lawyers in the Oklahoma case
hope to turn that argument to their advantage because some survivors
of the Tulsa race riot still are alive and deserving of compensation.
Those who want compensation
for the descendants of slaves also are anxious to see how far
lawyers in the Oklahoma case get with another argument they believe
they can use: that city and state officials were complicit in
the actions of the rampaging white mob that burned and looted
much of Tulsa black community and killed as many as 300 people.
The 1921 race riot was sparked
by a confrontation between whites who had gone to Tulsa's courthouse
to lynch a black man accused of sexually assaulting a white woman
and black men who showed up to stop them. Many members of the
white mob were given weapons and deputized by local law enforcement
officials, according to the 2001 report of a state commission
that investigated the riot. This "state action" violated
the due-process clause of the 14th Amendment, argues Harvard
law professor Charles Ogletree Jr., another member of the survivors'
legal team.
Repaying the community
The Oklahoma riot was thrust
into the national spotlight two years ago when the state commission
recommended that reparations be paid to Tulsa's black community
"in real and tangible form." That, however, proved
to be a politically unpopular idea. So last month the lawyers
working for the survivors filed a lawsuit seeking an unspecified
amount of actual and punitive damages.
The survivors' legal team is
gambling that it can get the case to a jury before death and
the debilitating effects of old age deplete the ranks of its
clients.
"We have some victims
who can look you in the eyes and say we were there," Cochran
said. "I hope the other side doesn't try to keep this case
out of court until that's no longer true."
While there's no indication
of foot-dragging by attorneys for the state and city, Cochran's
concern that the case could outlive most of his clients is understandable,
given the survivors' ages and the case's complexity. The complaint
Cochran and his fellow lawyers filed runs 197 pages and includes
a long list of alleged bad acts by public officials in the spring
of 1921. That could cause the pre-trial phase of this case to
drag on for years.
A possible precedent
A victory for Tulsa's race-riot
victims, some believe, would chart a legal course for other reparations
advocates to follow - if the "state action" argument
works. Here's why: Before slavery was abolished in 1865, many
states enacted laws that legitimized the cradle-to-grave enslavement
of blacks. After slavery ended, many Southern states adopted
laws that for nearly a century held former slaves and their descendants
in a state of neo-slavery. The Tulsa case could test whether
any such actions by states violate the Constitution's equal-protection
clause.
First, however, the riot case
has to go before a jury - hopefully, while eyewitnesses still
remain.
DeWayne Wickham writes weekly
for USA TODAY.
OK: Lawsuit seeks reparations
for 1921 race riot
Associated Press, Feb. 25,
2003
TULSA, Okla. - Black survivors
and descendants of victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot sued the
state and the city Monday seeking reparations for lost loved
ones, destroyed businesses and burned homes.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District
Court in Tulsa alleges authorities did not stop and sometimes
participated in the riot that left dozens dead, many more missing
and hundreds of homes and businesses destroyed.
The Tulsa Reparations Council
has assembled a star-studded legal team, including Johnnie Cochran
and civil rights attorney Dennis Sweet, for the lawsuit seeking
unspecified damages. All are working pro bono.
"We have an obligation
to fight hard and leave no stone unturned to find justice,"
Cochran said. "It's been too long coming, so we must act
urgently."
The lawsuit names Gov. Brad
Henry and Tulsa police chief Dave Been, the city of Tulsa and
its police department as defendants. More than 200 survivors
and victim's descendants are plaintiffs.
City attorney Martha Rupp-Carter,
Phil Bacharach and Charlie Price, spokesmen for Henry and Attorney
General Drew Edmondson, respectively, all said they had not received
the lawsuit and could not comment.
Police spokesman Sgt. Wayne
Allen said only, "I doubt any of the current (police force)
members authorized" any of the atrocities allegedly committed
by authorities.
The Tulsa Race Riot Commission,
which found similar allegations as in the lawsuit, recommended
in February 2001 that survivors and victim's descendants be paid
restitution for the May 31, 1921 riot.
Neither the city nor the state
have provided any such money. Private organizations have given
the more than 100 survivors about $300 apiece, but the plaintiffs
said that was not enough.
"That won't pay for a
new house or the property the city took from us," said Otis
G. Clark, 100, who said white rioters killed his stepfather and
his bulldog "Bob" and burned his family's home.
The riot, one of the nation's
worst acts of racial violence, started after shots were exchanged
between a white lynch mob and blacks trying to protect the intended
target, a shoeshiner accused of assaulting a white woman. The
shoeshiner was never prosecuted.
Greenwood, a thriving black
community, was devastated and has never fully recovered, and
investigators estimate that as many as 300 people, mostly blacks,
died. About $2 million in property was damaged, the lawsuit says.
Few property owners were compensated
because most insurance plans did not cover riot damage, and a
host of lawsuits, filed by both blacks and whites after the riot,
appear to have been unsuccessful.
"Tulsa gave us a check
marked insufficient funds, but today we have some mighty debt
collectors," said Tulsa lawyer James Goodwin, one of 16
plaintiffs' attorneys.
The lawsuit alleges that Tulsa
police deputized a white mob, and National Guard troops used
violence to quell what they perceived to be a "negro uprising."
Also, after the riot, the city
of Tulsa enacted illegal zoning requirements preventing blacks
from rebuilding their homes, the lawsuit claims. Survivors, like
Clark, said the city took their property without due process.
Further, a state law limiting
municipalities' liabilities is unconstitutional, the lawsuit
claims.
"I would like to have
some reparations if they're going to be giving some," said
survivor Roanna McClure, 89, who waited out the riot in a neighbor's
basement. "They set my grandma's house on fire."
The Legislature passed laws
in 2001 aimed at revitalizing Greenwood, setting up a scholarship
fund for college-bound descendants of riot victims and appropriating
$1.5 million for a riot memorial.
The city is studying economic
development opportunities for Greenwood and is providing in-kind
services for the $20 million memorial, said Dwain Midget, assistant
to the mayor.
© 2003 SierraTimes.com
See also
Village Voice article |
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd.