https://www.npr.org/2023/10/10/1204877931/hughes-van-ellis-tulsa-race-massacre-dies?ft=nprml&f=1062
Hughes Van Ellis, who asked for justice over Tulsa Race Massacre, dies at age 102
PHOTO: Hughes Van Ellis, one of the last known survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, has died at age 102. He's seen here smiling at a rally commemorating the 100th anniversary of the massacre in June 2021 in Tulsa, Okla. Brandon Bell/Getty Images
He was one of the last known living survivors of one of the worst events in U.S. history: the Tulsa Race Massacre, when mobs of white people waged an all-out assault on a thriving Black community.
Hughes Van Ellis died on Monday at age 102. He spent decades seeking compensation for the massacre — for himself, his family and his community.
"Please do not let me leave this earth without justice," Ellis said in 2021, testifying on Capitol Hill in a hearing to mark the centennial of the racist attack.
Ellis, who was known as "Uncle Redd," died on Monday in Denver, Colo., his family said in a statement shared with NPR by Oklahoma state Rep. Regina Goodwin.
Buildings were destroyed in a massive fire during the Tulsa Race Massacre when a white mob attacked the Greenwood neighborhood, a prosperous Black community in Tulsa, Okla., in 1921. Eyewitnesses recalled the specter of men carrying torches through the streets to set fire to homes and businesses.
He survived a brutal massacre
Ellis was just an infant in 1921 when Greenwood, a district that was once known as Black Wall Street north of downtown Tulsa, Okla., was destroyed.
His life and thousands of others were forever altered by the racist assault that left block after block of Black homes and businesses in cinders. Historians estimate approximately 300 people died in the violence, which lasted more than a day.
The Goodwin family, including Regina Goodwin, in a 1970s photo.
Broadside PRThe tragedy began with rumors of a purported attempted rape in an elevator, involving a 17-year-old white woman who worked as an elevator operator and a 19-year-old Black man who worked nearby. That set off talk of a lynching, and rumors and tensions quickly escalated into violence.
"I hear the screams. I have lived through the massacre every day," Ellis' older sister, Viola Fletcher, said in 2021. "Our country may forget this history, but I cannot."
Rather than intervene, the Tulsa police deputized nearly 500 white men and boys who had moments before been part of a lynch mob, instructing them to "Get a gun, and get a n*****," according to a history assembled by an Oklahoma state commission that quotes one of the recruits.
Some Black residents tried to defend themselves — but with bigger numbers and backed by airplanes and machine guns, white mobs systematically looted and burned Black-owned homes and businesses, one after another. Many Black people fled Tulsa into the countryside; more than 4,000 were forced into internment centers.
Ellis called for America to live up to its ideals
Ellis was the last of a handful of known survivors of the massacre, along with his sister Viola, who is 109, and Lessie Benningfield Randle, 108. The three have steadfastly called for reparations over the obliteration of Greenwood, an affluent area of Tulsa that had two newspapers, a YMCA and a public library, along with multiple Black doctors and dentists.
But those efforts have been almost entirely unsuccessful; the survivors' lawsuit was dismissed this summer and is currently under review by the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
"We were shown that in the United States, not all men were equal under the law," Ellis said of the legal setbacks. "We were shown that when Black voices called out for justice, no one cared."
PHOTO: Viola Fletcher, age 109, the oldest living survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre, tells a congressional hearing: "I have lived through the massacre every day. Our country may forget this history, but I cannot.” Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
"We are one," Ellis told lawmakers in 2021, urging them to work together. Shortly before he died, his loved ones say, they echoed those words as they continued to push for reparations.
"Mr. Ellis was assured we would remain steadfast and we repeated to him, his own words, 'We Are One' and we lastly expressed our love," his family said.
Twenty-two years after the Tulsa massacre, Ellis fought for the United States in World War II, serving in an anti-aircraft unit in a segregated U.S. Army.
"We were an all-Black battalion," Ellis said in 2021. "I fought for freedom abroad, even though it was ripped away from me at home, even after my home and my community were destroyed. I did it because I believed, in the end, America would get it right.”
Survivors Of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Share Eyewitness Accounts
The day that a white mob came to Greenwood Avenue in Tulsa, Okla., Viola Fletcher was just 7 years old.
During emotional testimony on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Fletcher, who is now 107, recalled her memories of the two-day massacre that left hundreds of Black people dead.
"I will never forget the violence of the white mob when we left our home. I still see Black men being 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 the screams," Fletcher told lawmakers. "I have lived through the massacre every day. Our country may forget this history, but I cannot."
Fletcher and two other survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, her younger brother Hughes Van Ellis and Lessie Benningfield Randle, testified before a House Judiciary Subcommittee on Wednesday nearly 100 years to the date of the massacre. Some historians say as many as 300 Black people were killed and another 10,000 were left homeless. Greenwood was destroyed by the attack that was launched on May 31, 1921.
The country is currently grappling with systemic racism laid bare by the coronavirus pandemic and the killings of George Floyd and other Black people in encounters with law enforcement. The same committee that heard from the survivors has also been studying reparations for the descendants of millions of enslaved Americans and recently advanced a bill that would create a commission to study the lingering effects of slavery.
Fletcher and other survivors are calling for justice.
"I am 107 years old and I have never ... seen justice. I pray that one day I will," she said. "I have been blessed with a long life and have seen the best and the worst of this country. I think about the terror inflicted upon black people in this country every day."
Survivors of the massacre are plaintiffs in a reparations lawsuit filed last year. The lawsuit argues that the state of Oklahoma and the city of Tulsa are responsible for what happened during the massacre.
Van Ellis described the multiple unsuccessful attempts by survivors and their descendants to seek justice through the courts.
"You may have been taught that when something is stolen from you, you would go to the courts to be made whole," he said. "That wasn't the case for us."
"We were made to feel that our struggle was unworthy of justice, that we were less than the whites, that we weren't fully Americans," testified Van Ellis, who is a World War II veteran and wore a U.S. Army hat at the hearing. "We were shown that in the United States, not all men were equal under the law. We were shown that when Black voices called out for justice, no one cared."
He called for the remaining survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre to be acknowledged while they are still living.
"Please, do not let me leave this Earth without justice, like all the other massacre survivors," he said, as he finished reading from prepared remarks.
Each of the survivors raised the question of what Greenwood could have been today.
"Even at the age of 100, the Tulsa Race Massacre is a footnote in the history books of us. We live it every day and the thought of what Greenwood was or what it could have been," Ellis said.
Lessie Benningfield Randall, who testified over video conference, said the effects of the massacre are still felt today in Tulsa.
"My opportunities were taken from me and my community. Black Tulsa is still messed up today. They didn't rebuild it. It's empty, it's a ghetto," Randall, who is now 106, said.
Randall said she not only survived the massacre, but she has also now survived "100 years of painful memories."
"By the grace of God, I am still here. I have survived to tell this story," she said. "Hopefully, now you will all listen to us while we are still here."
