One of the final survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre has died.
Viola Fletcher was 111 years old and still resided in Tulsa when she died Monday. She lived through the Tulsa Race Massacre as a child, which she said deeply scarred her and her family.
"I will never forget the violence of the white mob when we left our home," she told a Congressional panel in 2021. "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. I have lived through the massacre every day."
On May 31, 1921, a mob of white Tulsans destroyed the area around Greenwood Avenue, also known as Black Wall Street. The violence culminated on June 1, and ultimately, up to 300 residents died, most of them Black.
The ramifications are still being explored today, as the city leads efforts to better understand the massacre and uncover its victims.
Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols — the city's first Black mayor — offered his condolences.
"Mother Fletcher carried 111 years of truth, resilience, and grace and was a reminder of how far we've come and how far we must still go," he said in a written statement. "She never stopped advocating for justice for the survivors and descendants of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, and I hope we all can carry forward her legacy with the courage and conviction she modeled every day of her life."
Early in his term, Nichols pledged a $105 million reparations package to address the lasting impacts of the devastating attack.
Fletcher herself was part of a trio of survivors who had been fighting for restitution from the state in recent years. In 2024, the Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed their lawsuit.
Still, Fletcher's advocacy received major recognition from state and national leaders over the course of her life. In 2021, President Joe Biden met with Fletcher alongside her brother Hughes Van Ellis and their fellow survivor Lessie Benningfield Randle. Ellis died in 2023 at 102.
That same year, she traveled to Ghana, where she was named a "queen mother" at 107.
In a 2014 oral history with Oklahoma State University, she offered a simple explanation for her longevity.
"Just do the things that are good for you— sleeping and eating and exercising," she said.
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