In Randle v. City of Tulsa, three remaining survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre filed suit against the City of Tulsa seeking an abatement of public nuisance caused by the City’s unreasonable, unwarranted, and unlawful acts and omissions stemming from events that transpired in 1921. In 1997, the Oklahoma Legislature passed the House Joint Resolution 1035, which created the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Commission. The Commission was tasked with establishing a historical account of the racial violence that occurred in Tulsa’s Greenwood community from May 31 to June 1, 1921—events now known as the Tulsa Race Massacre. During this period, a white mob caused devastating destruction, killing an estimated 100 to 300 people, most of whom were African American, and destroying over 1,200 homes, schools, churches, and businesses. This violence continued and state and local authorities worsened the situation by arresting and detaining Black residents. Efforts by Greenwood residents to rebuild were actively obstructed by local officials who sought to prevent the reconstruction by amending the Tulsa building code to require costly fireproof materials. Thus, rebuilding became financially impossible for many.

Taken in 1801 by Lord Elgin, then British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, the Parthenon Marbles remain encased in the British Museum, nearly 2,000 miles away from their original home in Athens, Greece. In a lost firman (permit), Elgin allegedly obtained permission from the imperial Ottoman Authorities to cast, draw, and erect scaffoldings of the Parthenon’s statues. However, debate surrounds whether he was actually authorized to remove the Marbles, including almost half of the famed frieze. After falling into severe debt, Elgin sold the sculptures to the British government in 1816.

In 1899, Isabella Stewart Gardner purchased a strip of marshland to house the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Ninety-one years later, the Gardner hosted the most infamously expensive museum heist ever—$500 million worth of art including a Rembrandt seascape, Degas sketches, a Vermeer, and ancient Chinese pottery was stolen over St. Patrick’s Day weekend in 1990. Despite a Netflix documentary and substantial increases of reward money, the trail remains frigid. To this day, the museum has empty spaces where the art once was, “placeholders” representing the hope that the paintings will return.

Pierson v. Post is perhaps the most celebrated case in American property law, and scholars have delighted in debating its history and theory. Among other things, research has shown that the case’s presentation of the facts is incomplete and likely misleading. This post collects some of the academic literature to reconstruct a brief history of events, challenging the presentation of the facts as recited by the court.