Tulsa Race Massacre Survivor Turns 111--She's Still Waiting on Justice

This Saturday, May 10, Texas Democratic Congressman Al Green will come to Greenwood — not for a hearing, not for a photo-op, but to celebrate a woman who has lived through more history than most of us have read: Tulsa Race Massacre survivor “mother” Viola Ford Fletcher.

Mother Fletcher, the oldest known living survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, is turning 111 years old. More than just honoring her birthday, Congressman Al Green will unveil a bill for restitution. A century later, with time running thin for the survivors, this might be the last real shot at justice.

Viola Ford Fletcher, oldest living survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and author of a memoir, “Don’t Let Them Bury My Story” (AP Photo)

From survival to legislation.

For the last four years I’ve covered the stories of survivors “mother” Fletcher, “mother” Lessie Benningfield Randle (110), and the now-deceased “uncle” Hughes Van Ellis, who passed away at 102 in October of 2023.

I’ve watched the survivors roll into courtrooms in wheel chairs, facing rejection after rejection at the District, state and national levels. Still, they and the community that supports them refuses to give up.

At the celebration, Congressman Green will preview new federal legislation “aimed at providing meaningful restitution for the life-long inaction and enduring legacy of the Tulsa Race Massacre,” according to a press release from Justice for Greenwood.

It's a bill that comes 104 years after the attack, but also not a minute too soon.

"Every day we wait is another day stolen from justice," said civil rights attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons, founder of Justice for Greenwood. “This legislation is not just a birthday gift—it is a moral obligation and a chance for Congress to finally do what is right and moral.”

The question is: Will Congress finally act before it’s too late?

Tulsa Race Massacre survivors “mother” Viola Ford Fletcher (left) and “mother” Lessie Benningfield Randle (Photo by the Black Wall Street Times)

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