TULSA, Okla. — Viola Ford Fletcher, oldest survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, died at 111 years old on Monday.
Fletcher was just seven years old when she was awakened by her mother as the family fled their home in the Greenwood district of Tulsa – also known as Black Wall Street – with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
That night, a mob of white Tulsans burned Greenwood to the ground in what is believed to be the largest incident of racial violence in U.S. history. As many as 300 Black Tulsans lost their lives, and more than a thousand homes and businesses were destroyed.
Fletcher would spend the rest of her life demanding justice. With her death, and the death of her younger brother Hughes Van Ellis in 2023 at the age of 102, only remaining survivor of the massacre left alive is Lessie Benningfield Randle, who at 111 is just a few months young than Fletcher.
“She was 111 years old. And she left this world without a single act of real redress from the City of Tulsa for what was taken from her as a little girl in Greenwood,” said attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons, who represented the three survivors in lawsuits filed against the City of Tulsa and other entities that history shows bear responsibility for the devastation of what was once one of the most prosperous Black communities in the nation.
No person or entity has ever been held liable for what happened to Greenwood. The Oklahoma Supreme Court in June 2024 dismissed the survivors’ lawsuit filed against the City of Tulsa, ruling that the case did not fall under the state’s public nuisance and unjust enrichment statutes. A recent federal inquiry into the matter found that the case was too old to prosecute, exceeding the statute of limitations. A state commission in 2001 had recommended reparations, but the legislature has taken no action to compensate the survivors or the descendants of those who lost everything in the massacre.
“Spending this past Friday night by her hospital bed, I saw that Mother Fletcher didn’t talk like someone who was ready to go.
She wasn’t done,” Solomon-Simmons wrote in a statement. “She was tired — because this fight is exhausting — but her spirit was still in it.She wanted to keep going, to keep showing up, to keep pushing this movement forward. She still believed that in her lifetime, she might see the City of Tulsa do the right thing.
“She deserved that. She earned it a thousand times over,” Solomon-Simmons continued. “And the fact that she died without receiving any meaningful redress — not for herself, her family, or her community — isn’t just a legal failure. It’s a moral one. It should trouble anyone who heard her story, watched her testify, or saw her sit upright in a courtroom and tell the truth about what was done to her as a seven-year-old child in Greenwood.”
Fletcher, Van Ellis and Randle testified before Congress in 2021 regarding the massacre.
“I will never forget the violence of the white mob when we left our home. I still see Black men being shot, Black bodies lying in the street. I still smell smoke and see fire. I still see Black businesses being burned. I still hear airplanes flying overhead. I hear the screams,” Fletcher told lawmakers. “I have lived through the massacre every day. Our country may forget this history, but I cannot…
“I am 107 years old and I have never … seen justice,” Fletcher said during the 2021 hearings. “I pray that one day I will… I have been blessed with a long life and have seen the best and the worst of this country. I think about the terror inflicted upon Black people in this country every day.”
Fletcher’s death was mourned nationwide. Former President Barack Obama posted a tribute to her on X.
“As a survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre, Viola Ford Fletcher bravely shared her story so that we’d never forget this painful part of our history. Michelle and I are grateful for her lifelong work to advance civil rights, and send our love to her family,” Obama wrote.
Activist Bernice King, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, wrote, “I will miss you, Mother Viola Fletcher. So triumphant. So gracious. So courageous. So present. Thank you.”
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump wrote that Fletcher “carried the trauma of 1921 for over a century and still had the courage to demand truth and reparations. We must honor her by continuing the fight for justice that was denied.”
Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols – the city’s first Black mayor – also offered his condolences.
“Today, our city mourns the loss of Mother Viola Fletcher – a survivor of one of the darkest chapters in our city’s history. Mother Fletcher endured more than anyone should, yet she spent her life lighting a path forward with purpose,” wrote Nichols. “I hope we all can carry forward her legacy with the courage and conviction she modeled every day of her life. On behalf of the city of Tulsa, I offer my heartfelt condolences to her family, loved ones, the Greenwood descendant community. Rest in power, Mother Fletcher.”
The Oklahoma Legislative Black Caucus issued a joint statement.
“Mother Fletcher was more than a witness to history; she was a guardian of it,” the statement reads in part. “For more than a century, her life stood as a testament to the strength of the human spirit in the face of unspeakable tragedy. She carried the memories of Greenwood’s darkest moments with grace, courage, and purpose, demanding that Oklahoma and America confront the reality of what was lost, and the responsibility of what must be restored.
“Her passing leaves an irreplaceable void. Yet the legacy she leaves behind is one that will continue to guide us for generations. Mother Fletcher’s story is a reminder that truth-telling is an act of justice, that perseverance is a form of resistance, and that healing begins when we dare to fully acknowledge our past.”
In 1932, at the age of 18, she married Robert Fletcher and moved with him to California, where they both worked in shipyards, Viola as an assistant welder. Her husband died in 1941, and after World War II Fletcher returned to Oklahoma where she raised three children while working as a house cleaner. She continued to work until she was 85.
After testifying in Congress in 2021, Fletcher and her brother visited Ghana, where they met with the president, Nana Akufo-Addo. Fletcher was there crowned as a queen mother and given the Ghanian name Naa Lamiley, which means “somebody who is strong, who stands the test of time.”
Fletcher wrote a memoir, “Don’t Let Them Bury My Story: The Oldest Living Survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre in Her Own Words,” with her grandson Ike Howard in 2023.
