Viola Ford Fletcher was one of the last survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, Oklahoma. She spent her final years seeking justice for the deadly attack by a white mob on the thriving black community where she lived as a child. Today, his family confirmed his death at the age of 111, according to the Associated Press.
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Community mourns loss of Viola Ford Fletcher
Viola’s grandson, Ike Howardsaid Monday, Nov. 24, that she died surrounded by family at a Tulsa hospital. She was a woman of unwavering faith who raised three children, worked as a welder in a shipyard during World War II, and spent decades caring for families as a housekeeper. She didn’t retire until she was 85. Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols said the city was mourning his loss.
“Mother Fletcher endured more than anyone should, but she spent her life blazing a path forward with determination,” Nichols said in a statement.
Viola survived the Tulsa race massacre as a child
Viola Ford Fletcher was 7 years old when the two-day attack began in Tulsa’s Greenwood district on May 31, 1921. The attack occurred after a local newspaper published a sensationalist article about a black man accused of assaulting a white woman. As a white mob grew outside the courthouse, armed black Tulsans who hoped to prevent the man’s lynching began to appear. White residents responded with overwhelming force. White mobs killed hundreds of people and burned and looted homes. More than 30 blocks of the community known as Black Wall Street ended up destroyed.
“I could never forget the charred remains of our once-thriving community, the smoke billowing into the air, and the terrorized faces of my neighbors,” Viola wrote in her 2023 memoir, “Don’t Let Them Bury My Story.”
As her family left in a horse-drawn buggy, her eyes burned from the smoke and ash, she wrote. She described seeing piles of bodies in the streets and seeing a white man shoot a black man in the head and then shoot his family.
Oklahoma Supreme Court Denies Survivors Reparations
The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 was remembered for decades. In Oklahoma, deeper discussions began when the state formed a commission in 1997 to investigate the violence. Twenty years later, the city is looking for ways to help the descendants of the massacre victims without making direct cash payments. Some of the last living survivors, including Viola, received donations from groups but received no payment from the city or state.
In 2021, Viola Ford Fletcher testified before Congress about her experience during the massacre and its aftermath. His younger brother, Hughes Van Ellisand another survivor of the massacre, Leslie Benningfield Randlejoined him in the lawsuit seeking compensation. In January 2024, a study by the Ministry of Justice highlighted the scale and impact of the massacre. He concluded that federal prosecutions might have been possible a century ago. However, there was no longer any possibility of initiating criminal proceedings.
That same year, in June 2024, the Oklahoma Supreme Court threw out the survivors’ lawsuit. The justices said their grievances did not fall within the scope of the state’s public nuisance law. Van Ellis died in 2023 at the age of 102.
“As long as we remain in this life, we will continue to shine a light on one of the darkest days in American history,” Viola Ford Fletcher and Randle said in a statement at the time.
RELATED: First victim of 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma race massacre identified from more than 100 discovered graves
Associated Press writer Jamie Stengle contributed to this report via AP Newsroom.
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