Records from the time show that at least 300 people were killed and 700 injured in the Tulsa massacre.
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Viola Ford Fletcher, one of the few survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre in the US state of Oklahoma, has died at the age of 111.
She continued to speak out for justice for the victims of one of the most painful and racist incidents in American history.
‘Today our city lost Mother Viola Fletcher. She lived through the darkest periods of our city’s history,’ Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols wrote on Facebook. ‘Mother Fletcher carried truth, patience and compassion for 111 years. She reminded us that we all come and go.’
Fletcher was only 7 years old at the time of the Tulsa massacre. The state was then under the Jim Crow system. This system, which was in effect in the southern states from the late 1800s until the civil rights movement of the 1960s, segregated schools, public spaces and parks for whites and blacks.
On May 31, 1921, a riot broke out in Tulsa, Texas, after police arrested 19-year-old Dick Rowland, who was charged with assaulting a white woman. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, he was arrested on charges of assaulting a white woman.
While white men stood in front of the courthouse demanding that Rowland be hanged, black men nearby chanted for his release.
Within two days, a mob of security forces looted and burned 35 blocks of homes in Tulsa's Greenwood neighborhood, which was home to some of the wealthiest black communities in the United States at the time.
According to figures released by the Bureau of Labor in 2024, the damage was estimated at $32.2 million in today's dollars.
At least 300 people were killed and 700 injured, according to documents from the time. However, the true number is likely higher, as many were buried in secret.
Fletcher and his family, who survived the incident, moved elsewhere. They then settled on other people's land and farmed. Where, they had to pay off all the remaining landowners, leaving them with a trail of destruction.
Roland was never formally charged. Because Sarah Page, the woman he accused of abusing, said she had no desire to press charges.
The incident became a national concern again in 1997 when the state of Oklahoma formed a commission of inquiry. In 2001, There was also an attempt to compensate the victims of the incident, but this attempt was not possible due to legal complications.
In 2021, on the occasion of the centennial of the incident, Fletcher stood as a witness before the US Congress and recounted her experience. She wrote a memoir about the incident called 'Don't Let Them Bury My Story' with her grandson in 2023. Leaders including former US President Barack Obama have expressed their deep sorrow over Fletcher's death.
"As Tulsa massacre survivor Voila Fletcher bravely tells her story, we will never forget that painful chapter in history. Michelle and I are grateful for her lifelong work advancing civil rights," Obama wrote in the post.
