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Viola Ford Fletcher, Tulsa Race Massacre Survivor and Advocate, Dies at 111

Her life turned a childhood atrocity into a sustained push for public accountability.

Overview

  • Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols announced Fletcher’s death on Nov. 24, and her grandson Ike Howard said she died surrounded by family at a Tulsa hospital.
  • Fletcher became a leading voice for remembrance and repair, testifying before Congress in 2021 and publishing a 2023 memoir, “Don’t Let Them Bury My Story.”
  • She joined a 2020 reparations lawsuit against Tulsa that the Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed in June 2024, ruling the claims fell outside the state’s public nuisance statute.
  • A Justice Department review released in January 2024 concluded that, although prosecution might have been possible a century ago, no federal criminal avenue exists today.
  • With her passing, Lessie Benningfield Randle is now the last known living survivor, and Tulsa leaders this June announced a $105 million trust intended to address the massacre’s enduring harms.