On Sunday, churches in the US city of Tulsa, Oklahoma held vigils to mark the massacre in the African-American neighbourhood of Greenwood 100 years ago.
People called for reparations for the few survivors, as well as for the largely black-populated north Tulsa area.
“The main problem is that our nation is always trying to have reconciliation without doing justice, until repentance and repair are seen as inseparable, any attempt to reconcile will fail miserably,” Rev. John Faison of Nashville said at the First Baptist Church of North Tulsa.
He said Greenwood was “holy ground;" incredibly the church survived the attack by the murderous white mob who believed the building was too sophisticated for black people.
The massacre took place over two days on 31 May and 1 June 1921 and saw an armed white mob destroy what was America's wealthiest black community at the time, often referred to as “Black Wall Street." Some estimates say as many as 300 black people were killed.
A reparations lawsuit was filed last year arguing that the state of Oklahoma and Tulsa are responsible for the killings, according to Tulsa County District Court records. Plaintiffs include the last survivors and the Tulsa African Ancestral Society.
