The Viola Fletcher Legacy

 

“America will never reach racial equality because it relies on racial superiority when negatively affected.” Dr. BLR

 

The ongoing call for Black Americans to take responsibility and stop waiting for a savior to resolve their issues has been expressed by many Americans across different generations. I disagree because every group has a history that can influence its current circumstances. The history of slavery is well documented, so I won’t revisit it here. I have chosen a specific year to focus on in this essay. 

The year 1921 saw many significant events. Alex Haley, the author of the book “Roots,” which brought the history of slavery to print and television, was born. The notable Nobel Prize-winning physicist Albert Einstein was also born. The infamous Adolf Hitler rose to power, becoming the leader of the People’s Socialist Party, also known as the Nazi Party. Finally, and the reason for this essay, the Tulsa, Oklahoma, Race Massacre occurred, revealing that when Black people pull themselves up by their bootstraps and become self-sufficient, the downtrodden white underclass will destroy that progress with violence and murder. 

Oklahoma officially became a state in 1907, during a period when Jim Crow laws and racial policies marginalized Black people, making them second-class citizens. Many Black individuals faced heightened racial violence and lynchings carried out by racist white mobs. Despite this, a Black community established “Black Wall Street” and thrived. There were Black-owned businesses, banks, and modern homes, which irritated some white people who were struggling financially themselves. Attacks on Black people occurred, often tacitly supported by law enforcement. 

However, the attacks turned deadly on May 31, 1921, and continued into the next day. What happened and why? Like most racial conflicts of that time, a local newspaper reported that a Black man assaulted a white woman, which triggered white men and caused them to lose their sense of humanity. 

The massacre occurred in Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Greenwood District, and would later be recognized as one of the worst acts of racial violence in American history. By dusk, about 35 blocks of the affluent Black neighborhood had been destroyed, and according to the Oklahoma Bureau of Vital Statistics, 36 people were killed, with many more hospitalized.  

Growing up, I don’t remember being taught about this tragedy. Honestly, I never learned about the celebration of the last slaves being freed in June 1865 (also known as Juneteenth) until a few years ago, when a white colleague mentioned it in passing, and I was left clueless. Over time, discussions about Black American history related to racial violence are held. Still, most witnesses of this tragedy are deceased, except for two remaining survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre, one of whom has been very vocal about what happened. 

Mrs. Viola Fletcher was born on May 10, 1914, and recently passed away on November 24, 2025. She was 111 years old and the oldest living survivor. She was one of eight children born to Lucinda Ellis and John Ford. During the race massacre, Mrs. Fletcher was seven years old and later said that her family lost everything except the clothes on their backs, which forced them to move. Although she has clear memories of those terrible two days, it was the aftermath that stayed with her. She only completed fourth grade, and after many years living in another city, she returned and worked as a cleaner and window display creator at a department store.  

She later married Robert Fletcher at age 18 and had one child. They moved to California, where she and her husband worked in a shipyard. Unfortunately, her husband physically abused her, so she left him and moved to Bartlesville, Oklahoma. She later had two more children with different fathers. She worked until she was 85. 

In 2020, Mrs. Fletcher and two other survivors, Lessie Benningfield Randle and Hughes Van Ellis, filed a lawsuit against the city of Tulsa and other Oklahoma entities for reparations, claiming they used the names and images of victims for profit. In 2021, she and others testified before Congress, during which she stated, “I will never forget the violence of the white mob when we left our home. I still see Black men shot, Black bodies lying in the street. I still smell smoke and see fire. I still see Black businesses being burned. I still hear airplanes flying overhead. I hear screams.” From her testimony, there was no doubt she suffered from a classic case of post-traumatic stress disorder and carried it with her to her grave. She was robbed of a childhood, potential generational wealth, and made to endure the mental trauma of revisiting the sights and sounds of the massacre. Mrs. Fletcher wanted justice and an acknowledgment of how brutal the white mob had been. Her story is just another example of the lie at the heart of America’s fairy tale. Unfortunately, the Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit in June 2024, which in essence said that at no time in America’s history will Black Lives ever matter. 

Mrs. Fletcher became a voice for Black American oral history, which is often overlooked or ignored. An interview with Mrs. Fletcher is included in Oklahoma’s 100 Year Life, Oral History Project, and is available in the Oklahoma State University Digital Collection. She authored her memoir, “Don’t Let Them Bury My Story,” in 2023. I want to thank her and her co-survivors for their tenacity in keeping this story alive.