Insurance companies that denied Black families financial restitution after the Tulsa Race Massacre must pay up!

It’s been 100 years since the racist white mobs, empowered by police and local authorities, burned and looted Greenwood, Tulsa’s Black Wall Street, killing hundreds, displacing thousands, and destroying an estimated $2 million of property ($29 million in today’s dollars). In the aftermath of the tragedy, insurance companies like the Continental National American Group (CNA) dismissed claims for property destroyed during the massacre, at the plaintiff’s cost. They pointed to a faulty clause called “the riot exclusion” as a way to justify not paying these claims. But this was not a riot—this was a state-sanctioned massacre!

Court records show that insurance companies used the riot criteria to deny 80 percent of claims from the survivors. These grave injustices led to lifelong disparities in income, healthcare access, life expectancy, and property values. Over 35 percent of Black Tulsans live in poverty today. 

Tulsa’s government silenced the history of the massacre and the horrors of its aftermath so much that even native Tulsans did not know the full truth until it was exposed for the centennial commemorations this year. But since then, there still has been no accountability for the past and present harm to the people of Tulsa. The three known survivors of the massacre still live in precarity and economic uncertainty 100 years after their prosperous community was destroyed.

CNA and other insurance companies got away with theft for too long. Now that the history is no longer hidden, they must repair the damage.

Sign the petition: Demand that these insurance companies pay all the previously denied claims from the survivors and descendants of the Tulsa Race Massacre!

Here is the Petition:

Dear Insurance Company CEOs, 

Court records show that insurance companies used the riot criteria to deny 80 percent of claims from the survivors. There are several cases that your company dismissed at the plaintiff’s cost. If insurance claims would have been paid, their assets could have continued to grow into other businesses and generational wealth for their descendants. The lack of which led to lifelong disparities in income, healthcare access, life expectancy, and property values. Today, over 35 percent of Black Tulsans live in poverty. In 2001, Oklahoma established a commission that stated that there were over $1.5 million in losses, equivalent to $22 million today.

Today, the three known survivors still live in precarity and economic uncertainty 100 years after their prosperous community was destroyed. We ask that your insurance company pay all outstanding claims to the known survivors and descendants of the Tulsa Race Massacre.

Sincerely, 

[Your Name]