Viola Fletcher, Oldest Survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre, Dies at 111

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Source: New York Times

Viola Fletcher, Oldest Survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre, Dies at 111

At 7, she bore witness to one of American history's most violent spasms of racial violence. She was 106 when the nation reckoned with the crime.


Viola Fletcher in 2023. The Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Okla., that became known as "Black Wall Street" took years to build -- and one night of violence to destroy. Mary Altaffer/Associated Press

By Alex Traub
https://www.nytimes.com/by/alex-traub
Nov. 24, 2025
Updated 5:05 p.m. ET

Viola Fletcher, who as a child in 1921 saw her affluent Black neighborhood torched by white citizens in what became known as the Tulsa Race Massacre -- one of the most violent acts of racial violence in American history -- and who, a century later, testified in Congress to the terror she witnessed in the hope of winning reparations, has died. She was 111 and the oldest survivor of the attack. ... Her death was announced on Monday in a statement by Mayor Monroe Nichols of Tulsa. It did not say where or when she died. Her death leaves just one surviving witness to the massacre, Lessie Evelyn Benningfield, who is also 111, six months younger than Ms. Fletcher.

The Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Okla., home to about 10,000 people in the early 20th century, became known colloquially as "Black Wall Street" for the successful entrepreneurship of its residents and the prosperity of many families who lived there. The neighborhood was destroyed in the massacre, which led to as many as 300 deaths and mass homelessness.

Ms. Fletcher grew up as a working-class resident of Greenwood. Her stepfather, Henry Ellis, held several jobs at once, from breaking in horses to selling clothes. Viola went to school in Greenwood and attended Wednesday night and Sunday services at a Baptist church. She remembered watching Greenwood men gather to make homemade ice cream on special occasions while women prepared pies and layer cakes.

Early on the morning of June 1, 1921, Viola woke up to a banging sound. She thought it was someone beating a rug, she said, until her mother hollered for her to get out of bed, immediately. ... The day before, word had spread in Tulsa that a 19-year-old Black shoe shiner, Dick Rowland, had attempted to rape a 17-year-old white elevator operator, Sarah Page, in the building where she worked.

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The Tulsa neighborhood of Greenwood was burned to the ground during the Tulsa Race Massacre in June 1921. Around 10,000 people became homeless and as many as 300 died, according to the American Red Cross. Universal History Archive/Getty Images

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Alex Traub is a reporter for The Times who writes obituaries.
https://www.nytimes.com/by/alex-traub

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/us/viola-fletcher-dead.html

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