When Viola Fletcher was just a young girl, she witnessed her Oklahoma neighborhood go up in flames as white citizens sparked what would become known as the Tulsa Race Massacre. It was one of the most destructive acts of racial violence in American history, but it largely went unnoticed until Fletcher and a few other survivors began telling their stories.
Fletcher became known for sharing countless stories about that day in June 1921, noting how quickly everything in her life was changed forever.
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“The neighborhood I fell asleep in that night was rich — not just in terms of wealth, but in culture, community, heritage — and my family had a beautiful home,” she once said. “Within a few hours, all that was gone.”
The outspoken woman became the driving force behind recognizing the massacre. She one even told her story to the president of the United States. Fletcher, the massacre’s oldest remaining survivor, has died at 111. Only one other survivor remains: Lessie Randle, who was just six months younger than Fletcher.
Viola Fletcher, center, the oldest living survivor of the Tulsa race massacre, holds a rose she received as she arrives for a luncheon honoring survivors Saturday, May 29, 2021, in Tulsa, Okla. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki) 
Tulsa Race Massacre survivor Viola Ford Fletcher speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, Friday, June 16, 2023, in New York. Fletcher said fear of reprisal for speaking out had influenced years of near-silence about the massacre. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) 
FILE – Tulsa Race Massacre survivor Viola Ford Fletcher listens during a rally marking centennial commemorations of a two-day assault by armed white men on Tulsa’s prosperous Black community of Greenwood, May 28, 2021, in Tulsa, Okla. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
Bearing witness
Forced to leave her home and shelter in a tent 30 miles away, Fletcher recalled seeing ash falling on the streets, airplanes dropping what looked like firebombs and piles of bodies on the streets. She even said she saw a white man shoot a Black man in the head with a shotgun.
But what she witnessed wasn’t the beginning. The chaos truly began when word spread in Fletcher’s neighborhood that a 19-year-old Black shoe shiner, Dick Rowland, had attempted to rape an 18-year-old white elevator operator named Sarah Page.
Page later denied that Rowland did anything wrong. But at that point, the rumors had already spread. It sparked hundreds of heavily armed white men to gather outside the courthouse where Rowland was being held.
Soon after, Black World War I veterans showed up in an effort to prevent a lynching. Their arrival led to a scuffle, and a shot was fired. The next morning, the massacre began.
Over a span of 16 hours, more than 1,000 homes were destroyed, including Fletcher’s. 16 blocks were looted and set ablaze across the Greenwood neighborhood, known as “Black Wall Street” because of its concentration of successful businesses.
The American Red Cross determined that nearly the entire neighborhood’s population became homeless.
But to this day, there’s no consensus about the death toll. The Red Cross said it could be between 55 and 300 people.
No one has ever been held legally responsible for the destruction and deaths.
Universal HIstory Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images 
Alvin C. Krupnick Co./Library of Congress via AP 
Oklahoma Historical Society/Getty Images 
Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images 
Oklahoma Historical Society/Getty Images 
Universal HIstory Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Recent recognition
In the 100 years after the massacre, it went mostly unrecognized. It wasn’t taught in schools and was rarely discussed.
In a profile written by Wesley Lowery, Fletcher said she spent most of her life wondering whether she and her family were among those responsible for the massacre, yet never held accountable.
But in 2020, when a local news station in Oklahoma covered Fletcher’s 106th birthday, the massacre began to draw attention. Damario Solomon-Simmons, a lawyer who had long been interested in finding legal redress for victims of the massacre, saw the story.
He became Fletcher’s lawyer and filed a lawsuit demanding reparations. As part of the legal proceedings, Fletcher testified in front of a House Judiciary subcommittee. She told the lawmakers stories of what she witnessed, but the lawsuit was eventually dismissed.
That didn’t stop officials from trying to find justice, however, for survivors and their descendants. In 2021, Fletcher met President Joe Biden to honor the massacre’s centennial.
She even wrote a book before her death, with help from her grandson. It was titled “Don’t Let Them Bury My Story: The Oldest Living Survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre in Her Own Words.”
Most recently, in June 2025, Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols announced that the city would fund reparations. He established a private trust aimed at raising $105 million by 2026, the 105th anniversary of the attack.
Fletcher’s death
Details on Fletcher’s death were not made available. But her impact is clear.
“As a survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre, Viola Ford Fletcher bravely shared her story so that we’d never forget this painful part of our history,” former President Barack Obama wrote in a social media post. “Michelle and I are grateful for her lifelong work to advance civil rights, and send our love to her family.”
