Department of Justice announces first-ever federal review of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

More than 100 years after a white mob attacked the then-thriving Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Department of Justice announced the opening of the first-ever federal investigation into the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

The attack on the Greenwood neighborhood, often called “Black Wall Street,” killed up to 300 people and left homes and businesses in ruins.

Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general for civil rights who announced the review in a statement Monday, called the massacre “one of the deadliest episodes of mass racial violence in this nation’s history.”

The Justice Department’s announcement comes after the Oklahoma Supreme Court in June dismissed without a hearing a compensation case brought by survivors of the massacre.

The federal review is being conducted by the Civil Rights Division’s Emergency Case Unit, which investigates crimes under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act.

In July, survivors Lessie Benningfield Randle, 109, and Viola Ford Fletcher, 110, asked the Biden administration to invoke a 2007 law that allows for the reopening and investigation of unresolved cases involving violent crimes against black people committed before 1970

Damario Solomon-Simmons, lead attorney for the Tulsa Race Massacre Survivors, praised the decision at a press conference on Monday.

“I am very excited to announce that this morning, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke announced that the United States Department of Justice of the Federal Government will begin a review and evaluation of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.” Solomon-Simmons said.

“High time! It only took 103 years,” he added.

Solomon-Simmons said he attributes the decision to multiple meetings with the Justice Department, both in Washington and via Zoom, and the community’s ongoing fight.

“This community will never stop fighting for reparations. This community will never forget what happened to our people just because they were black, just because they were successful,” Solomon-Simmons said.

“So we are excited today. It was a difficult journey, many obstacles, many adversities, many adversities, but today we achieved victory,” he added.

Tiffany Crutcher, a descendant of a survivor of the massacre and founder and executive director of the Terence Crutcher Foundation, stated that the massacre had been “ignored for too long.”

“Today, my family and community are deeply grateful that the U.S. Department of Justice is finally preparing to review the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. This tragedy has been ignored for too long,” Crutcher said during a news conference.

“I leave you with a quote from my mentor, our mentor, Bryan Stevenson: This community will continue to be built on hope, and it is hope that will make you stand up when people tell you to sit down, and today we will continue to do so.”

ABC News’ Steve Osunsami contributed to this report.