Justice Department launches first federal review of 1921 Tulsa race massacre

WASHINGTON — 

The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a reappraisal and valuation of the 1921 contention massacre successful Tulsa, Oklahoma, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said.

The massacre started connected May 31, 1921, erstwhile achromatic attackers killed arsenic galore arsenic 300 people, astir of them Black, successful Tulsa's prosperous Greenwood neighborhood, which had gained the nickname "Black Wall Street."

In announcing the reappraisal connected Monday, Clarke said the section aims to person it finalized by the extremity of the year.

"When we person finished our national review, we volition contented a study analyzing the massacre successful airy of some modern and then-existing civilian rights law," said Clarke, who oversees the Justice Department's civilian rights enforcement efforts.

The reappraisal volition beryllium conducted nether the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, which allows the Department of Justice to analyse death-resulting civilian rights crimes that occurred connected oregon earlier Dec. 31, 1979.

The massacre started aft a Black antheral was accused of assaulting a achromatic woman.

"We person nary anticipation that determination are surviving perpetrators who could beryllium criminally prosecuted by america oregon by the state," Clarke said. "Although a commission, historians, lawyers and others person conducted anterior examinations of the Tulsa Massacre, we, the Justice Department, ne'er have."

Clarke said the section is examining disposable documents, witnesser accounts, scholarly and humanities probe and different accusation related to the massacre.