Viola Ford Fletcher was one of the last survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in Oklahoma. She spent her later years seeking justice for the deadly attack by a white mob on the thriving Black community where she lived as a child. Today, her family confirmed her passing at the age of 111, per the Associated Press.
RELATED: Tulsa Oklahoma Survivors Denied Lawsuit By The State Supreme Court
Community Mourns The Loss Of Viola Ford Fletcher
Viola’s grandson, Ike Howard, said Monday (November 24) that she died surrounded by family at a Tulsa hospital. She was a woman of strong faith who raised three children, worked as a welder in a shipyard during World War II and spent decades caring for families as a housekeeper. She didn’t retire until age 85. Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols said the city was mourning her loss.
“Mother Fletcher endured more than anyone should, yet she spent her life lighting a path forward with purpose,” Nichols said in a statement.
Viola Survived The Tulsa Race Massacre As A Child
Viola Ford Fletcher was 7 years old when the two-day attack began on Tulsa’s Greenwood district on May 31, 1921. The attack came after a local newspaper published a sensationalized report about a Black man accused of assaulting a white woman. As a white mob grew outside the courthouse, Black Tulsans with guns who hoped to prevent the man’s lynching began showing up. White residents responded with overwhelming force. White mobs killed hundreds of people and burned and looted homes. Over 30 city blocks in the community known as Black Wall Street ended up destroyed.
“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,” Viola wrote in her 2023 memoir, ‘Don’t Let Them Bury My Story.’
As her family left in a horse-drawn buggy, her