Tulsa Reparations: The Survivors' Story

Abstract

This Article explores the ability of reparations litigation to transform the American debate about race by promoting "interest convergence" between reparations advocates and the majority population. As Professor Derrick Bell has argued, only when the interests of the majority converge with those of the minority will the minority achieve its goals. Reparations lawsuits-especially those framed as traditional civil rights claims, as in the ongoing litigation seeking reparations for the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot-can begin to promote the convergence of interests between reparationists and the reluctant majority population by forcing the majority population to confront past and present injustices against African Americans. The Article concludes that litigative reparations are a promising first step toward insuring justice for those who were sacrificed during slavery and Jim Crow oppression.