Viola Ford Fletcher was one of many final survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Bloodbath in Oklahoma. She spent her later years searching for justice for the lethal assault by a white mob on the thriving Black neighborhood the place she lived as a toddler. Right this moment, her household confirmed her passing on the age of 111, per the Related Press.
RELATED: Tulsa Oklahoma Survivors Denied Lawsuit By The State Supreme Court docket
Neighborhood Mourns The Loss Of Viola Ford Fletcher
Viola’s grandson, Ike Howard, mentioned Monday (November 24) that she died surrounded by household at a Tulsa hospital. She was a girl of robust religion who raised three kids, labored as a welder in a shipyard throughout World Struggle II and spent a long time caring for households as a housekeeper. She didn’t retire till age 85. Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols mentioned the town was mourning her loss.
“Mom Fletcher endured greater than anybody ought to, but she spent her life lighting a path ahead with goal,” Nichols mentioned in an announcement.
Viola Survived The Tulsa Race Bloodbath As A Youngster
Viola Ford Fletcher was 7 years previous when the two-day assault started on Tulsa’s Greenwood district on Could 31, 1921. The assault got here after an area newspaper revealed a sensationalized report a few Black man accused of assaulting a white girl. As a white mob grew exterior the courthouse, Black Tulsans with weapons who hoped to stop the person’s lynching started exhibiting up. White residents responded with overwhelming pressure. White mobs killed a whole bunch of individuals and burned and looted properties. Over 30 metropolis blocks locally often called Black Wall Avenue ended up destroyed.
“I may always remember the charred stays of our once-thriving neighborhood, the smoke billowing within the air, and the terror-stricken faces of my neighbors,” Viola wrote in her 2023 memoir, ‘Don’t Let Them Bury My Story.’
As her household left in a horse-drawn buggy, her eyes burned from the smoke and ash, she wrote. She described seeing piles of our bodies within the streets and watching as a white man shot a Black man within the head, then fired towards her household.
Oklahoma Supreme Court docket Denies Reparations To Survivors
The 1921 Tulsa Race Bloodbath just about went unremembered for many years. In Oklahoma, larger discussions started when the state fashioned a fee in 1997 to analyze the violence. Quick-forward 20 years—the town has been searching for methods to assist descendants of the bloodbath’s victims with out giving direct money funds. A few of the final dwelling survivors, together with Viola, obtained donations from teams however haven’t obtained any funds from the town or state.
In 2021, Viola Ford Fletcher testified earlier than Congress about her expertise throughout the bloodbath and aftermath. Her youthful brother, Hughes Van Ellis, and one other bloodbath survivor, Lessie Benningfield Randle, joined her within the lawsuit searching for reparations. In January 2024, a Justice Division assessment highlighted the bloodbath’s scope and impression. It concluded that federal prosecution could have been doable a century in the past. Nonetheless, there was not an avenue to deliver a legal case.
That very same 12 months, in June 2024, the Oklahoma Supreme Court docket dismissed the survivors’ lawsuit. The justices mentioned their grievances didn’t fall inside the scope of the state’s public nuisance statute. Van Ellis had handed away in 2023 on the age of 102.
“For so long as we stay on this lifetime, we are going to proceed to shine a lightweight on one of many darkest days in American historical past,” Viola Ford Fletcher and Randle mentioned in an announcement on the time.
RELATED: The First Sufferer Of The 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma Race Bloodbath Has Been Recognized From Over 100 Graves Found
Related Press author Jamie Stengle contributed to this report by way of AP Newsroom.
What Do You Suppose Roomies?
