Mr. Ellis was one of three known remaining survivors of the massacre, in which a white mob burned down the Greenwood district of Tulsa, Okla., killing as many as 300 Black residents.
Deborah A. Gist hopes to stop a state takeover of the district, which is majority Black and Hispanic. Ryan Walters, the state superintendent, is a fiery conservative.
A lower court dismissed a lawsuit filed by the three living survivors of one of the worst acts of racial violence in American history. The Oklahoma Supreme Court has now agreed to hear an appeal.