Story at a glance:
- Viola Fletcher and her brother are two survivors that testified in person about the Tulsa massacre.
- The U.S. has not officially recognized the massacre.
- Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission raised $30 million, and, reportedly, survivors were not compensated.
A 107-year-old woman and her “baby brother,” who is 100 years old, testified to the U.S. House of Representatives on the behalf of other survivors of the Tulsa massacre — the day a racist mob destroyed the city’s Black Wall Street.
Viola Fletcher was 7 years old when the attack of a white mob occurred in Tulsa, Okla., between May 31 and June 1, 1921, The Guardian reported.
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On Wednesday, she finally got the chance to speak out against the injustice and demand reparations as she endured so much pain and sacrifice for something the U.S. government has not officially acknowledged.
More than 1,200 businesses, homes and churches were burned, and about 300 Black people were killed at Black Wall Street. The experience still haunts and affects Fletcher to this day.
She and her brother, Hughes Van Ellis, a WWII veteran, have accused their local government of profiting off the Tulsa massacre through theTulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission, a foundation that was supposed to bring awareness to the massacre. Its official website does not mention survivors like Fletcher or Ellis.
Fletcher said that she lives in poverty while white associates and organizers of the commission raised $30 million.
“Our country may forget this history but I cannot. I will not and other survivors do not and our descendants do not. When my family was forced to leave Tulsa, I lost my chance of an education. I never finished school past the fourth grade. I have never made much money,” Fletcher said.
So-called Black Wall Street, according to The Guardian, was supposed to be a flourishing Black community in the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa.
The attack, however, put an end to that, and Fletcher recalls how she and her five siblings had to flee in the middle of the night without much explanation.
“The night of the massacre, I was awakened by my family. My parents and five siblings were there. I was told we had to leave and that was it,” she added.
Lessie Evelyn Benningfield Randle is the second oldest survivor at age 106, and she testified virtually, saying, “It means a lot to me to finally be able to look at you all in the eye and ask you to do the right thing. I have waited so long for justice.”
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