The oldest known survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre, one of the deadliest episodes of racist violence in U.S. history, has died at age 111, a local official announced on Tuesday.
The story of Violet Fletcher
Viola Fletcher was just a child in 1921 when white mobs set fire to her Black community of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Historians estimate that up to 300 African American residents were killed during the two-day assault.
“Today, our city mourns the loss of Mother Viola Fletcher, a survivor of one of the darkest chapters in our city’s history,” Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols said. “Fletcher carried 111 years of truth, resilience, and grace, reminding us how far we’ve come and how far we still must go.”
The violence erupted on May 31, 1921, after a group of Black men went to the Tulsa courthouse to protect a young Black man accused of assaulting a white woman. A confrontation with an armed white mob quickly escalated, forcing the group to retreat to Greenwood. By dawn, white mobs had looted and burned what was then one of the most prosperous Black communities in America, known as “Black Wall Street.” Much of the district was reduced to ashes, thousands were left homeless, and many survivors lived with the trauma for the rest of their lives.
Memories that never died
Fletcher, who left school during childhood and spent decades in poverty working mainly as a housekeeper for white families, often spoke of the lasting impact of the massacre. She later said she had “lived through the massacre every day” for a century.
A century after the attack, Fletcher testified before Congress, describing in harrowing detail what she witnessed and calling for reparations.
“I still see Black men being shot, Black bodies lying in the street… I still see Black businesses being burned. I still hear the screams,” she told lawmakers in 2021. “Our country may forget this history, but I cannot. I will not — and other survivors and our descendants do not.”
A state commission later determined that some white rioters had been armed by Tulsa authorities. It recommended compensation for the survivors and their families, but no reparations have been granted.
In 2021, President Joe Biden became the first sitting U.S. president to commemorate the massacre, taking part in a ceremony honoring victims. That same year, Tulsa began excavating suspected mass graves to uncover more of the truth long buried with the dead.
The last known living witness to the massacre is Lessie Evelyn Benningfield, also 111, who was six months younger than Fletcher.
The massacre’s legacy continues to shape national conversations about racial justice, especially following the 2020 killing of George Floyd, which sparked a renewed reckoning with systemic racism in the United States.
