Viola Ford Fletcher: Last Survivor of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Dies at 111 After Lifelong Pursuit of Justice

Viola Ford Fletcher, born in Oklahoma on May 10, 1914, has passed away at the remarkable age of 111. As one of the final survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, Fletcher devoted her later years to seeking justice for the devastating attack on Greenwood, a thriving Black community where she lived as a child.

Her grandson, Ike Howard, confirmed that she died peacefully surrounded by family in a Tulsa hospital. Throughout her extraordinary life, Fletcher was sustained by strong faith, raised three children, worked as a welder during World War II, and spent decades serving families as a housekeeper.

Tulsa's first Black mayor, Monroe Nichols, expressed the city's grief, stating, "Mother Fletcher endured more than anyone should, yet she spent her life lighting a path forward with purpose."

Fletcher was just 7 years old when the two-day assault on Tulsa's Greenwood district began on May 31, 1921. The violence erupted after a local newspaper published a sensationalized report about alleged assault involving a Black man and a white woman. As armed Black Tulsans gathered to prevent a lynching, white residents responded with overwhelming force, resulting in hundreds of deaths and the destruction of over 30 blocks of the prosperous community known as Black Wall Street.

"I could never forget the charred remains of our once-thriving community, the smoke billowing in the air, and the terror-stricken faces of my neighbors," Fletcher wrote in her 2023 memoir, "Don't Let Them Bury My Story."

She described her family's escape in a horse-drawn buggy, with her eyes burning from smoke and ash. She witnessed bodies in the streets and saw a white man shoot a Black man before firing toward her family.

In an interview with The Associated Press following her memoir's publication, Fletcher revealed that fear of reprisals had kept her silent about the massacre for years. Her grandson, who co-authored the memoir, had to persuade her to share her experiences.

"We don't want history to repeat itself so we do need to educate people about what happened and try to get people to understand why you need to be made whole, why you need to be repaired," Howard told the AP in 2024. "The generational wealth that was lost, the home, all the belongings, everything was lost in one night."

For decades, the massacre remained largely forgotten until Oklahoma formed an investigative commission in 1997.

In 2021, Fletcher testified before Congress about her experiences. She joined her younger brother, Hughes Van Ellis, and another massacre survivor, Lessie Benningfield Randle, in a lawsuit seeking reparations. However, the Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed their case in June 2024, ruling that their grievances didn't fall within the state's public nuisance statute.

"For as long as we remain in this lifetime, we will continue to shine a light on one of the darkest days in American history," Fletcher and Randle stated after the dismissal. Van Ellis had passed away a year earlier at age 102.

A Justice Department review released in January 2024 outlined the massacre's scope and impact, concluding that while federal prosecution might have been possible a century ago, no avenue for criminal cases remained.

Despite Tulsa's efforts to support descendants of victims, Fletcher and other survivors received donations from groups but no payments from the city or state.

"The fact that she died without any meaningful redress - not for herself, her family, or her community - isn't just a legal failure. It's a moral one," stated Damario Solomon-Simmons, attorney for the survivors and founder of the Justice for Greenwood Foundation.

"She would not want her passing to be the end of the fight," he added. "She would want it to light a fire under all of us."

Born in Oklahoma in 1914, Fletcher spent her early years in Greenwood, which she described in her memoir as "an oasis for Black people during segregation" with doctors, grocery stores, restaurants, and banks.

After fleeing during the massacre, her family became nomadic sharecroppers living in tents. Her education ended after fourth grade.

At 16, she returned to Tulsa, working in a department store before marrying Robert Fletcher and moving to California. During World War II, she worked as a welder in a Los Angeles shipyard.

After leaving her abusive husband and giving birth to their son, Robert Ford Fletcher, she returned to Oklahoma, settling near Tulsa in Bartlesville. She later had two more children from other relationships: James Edward Ford and Debra Stein Ford.

Fletcher worked as a housekeeper until age 85, handling cooking, cleaning, and childcare for families. Eventually, she returned to Tulsa to aid in her fight for justice.

Howard noted that the public's response to his grandmother when she began speaking out proved therapeutic for her. "This whole process has been helpful," he said.