Did the Oklahoma Supreme Court just rule your school's athletic records over the last century are invalid? 

That money sitting in a bank vault before you were born cannot be given to you; inheritance is illegal? 

And that courts, themselves, have no governmental authority to decide disputes?

 

Listening to the logic of the Oklahoma Supreme Court's June 12, 2024 ruling for Defendants, including the City of Tulsa, against Survivors of the city's 1921 assault against its entire Black population you'd have to believe all of the above. 

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In short, the nine member court did not deny the City of Tulsa authorized mayhem and the mass murder of its citizens in 1921, instead the Court said the City of today and the City of 1921 are different entities because they were/are run by different people.

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The court's framing allowed them to overlook two 1921 Tulsans sitting right across from them in the courtroom.

Two people, Lessie Benningfield Randle and Viola Ford Fletcher are the same Tulsans who were there in 1921.

 

Is the dissolution of a city's earlier self always the judgment of US law?

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Is the Oklahoma Supreme Court telling us we have no obligations to obey a US Constitution created by people no longer alive?

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Or, because the teller you deposited your money with last week no longer works at your bank, your bank has no obligation to give you your funds?

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Cities, states, nations are not continuous entities?

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Yet, the same court that had the power to rule the City of Tulsa and the State of Oklahoma didn't exist in 1921 told Plaintiffs, the court also did not have the authority to make decisions related to the politics & social issues of the 2024 city or state...which, of course, 1921 or 2024, unlike the exact same people, are the same issues.

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Meanwhile, across the nation, cities are paying reparations for past actions far less heinous than the unsuccessful effort to kill all its Black citizens. Our courts will be horrified to find out, along political lines, their fellow Republicans in those cities will be using courts rather than their legislatures to overturn this social issue.  

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The Oklahoma Supreme Court made a ruling that they ask the public to believe avoided political or social biases.

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What the public heard, however, was Oklahoma and the City of Tulsa didn't care in 1921 and Oklahoma and the City of Tulsa don't care now.

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Perhaps proving what an elderly North Tulsan once said about the decades of silence following the massacre.

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Contrary to the Court's ruling, "The same people are still here." 

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Ironically, a judgment for the Plaintiffs was the most powerful way the Oklahoma Supreme Court could have proven the Tulsa and Oklahoma of 1921 and 2024 are the same. 

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2024 hearings, 1921 results. 

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It's possible, however, to repeat the resolve of the immediate Survivors, who in 1921 united and footed the bills for recovery, themselves.  Time is running out to do the same to show Lessie Randle and Viola Fletcher that, at least, responsive and determined, NORTH TULSA still exists.