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Viola Fletcher | |
|---|---|
| Born | Viola Ford (1914-05-10)May 10, 1914 Comanche, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Died | November 24, 2025(2025-11-24) (aged 111) Comanche, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Known for | Oldest known living survivor of theTulsa race massacre |
| Spouse | [1] |
| Children | 3 |
Viola Fletcher (néeFord; 10 May 1914 – 24 November 2025), also known asMother Fletcher, was an American woman who, at the time of her death, was the oldest known living survivor of theTulsa race massacre and asupercentenarian. One hundred years after the massacre, she testified before theU.S. Congress about the need forreparations.
Fletcher was born May 10, 1914, inComanche, Oklahoma, to Lucinda Ellis and John Wesley Ford.[a][4] She was the second oldest of eight children.[2] One younger brother, Hughes Van Ellis, was a newborn at the time of the massacre;[2][4] Ellis died on October 9, 2023, at the age of 102.[5] The house had noelectricity.[2] Before moving to Tulsa the family had beensharecroppers.[2] In Tulsa, the family attended St. Andrew, aBlack Baptist church.[6]
Fletcher testified to Congress that due to family circumstances after the massacre, she left school after the 4th grade.[4]
Her family, including four of her siblings, were living inGreenwood, a wealthy Black neighborhood of Tulsa known as the "Black Wall Street", at the time of the massacre.[2][6][7]
Fletcher was seven years old at the time. She was in bed asleep on May 31, 1921, when the massacre began; her mother woke the family and they fled. The family lost everything but the clothes they were wearing.[6] The oldest known living survivor of the massacre (several months older than Lessie Benningfield Randle, who was born later the same year, 1914), Fletcher reportedly still slept sitting up on her couch with the lights on.[2][6]
In 2020, Fletcher and the other survivors filed suit against the city of Tulsa, the Tulsa Board of Commissioners and theOklahoma Military Department, seekingreparations. The suit was dismissed byTulsa County District Judge Caroline Wall in July 2023.[7] She testified about reparations before the U.S. Congress on May 19, 2021, along with her 100-year-old brother Hughes and Lessie Benningfield Randle, who was 106.[2] Fletcher told Congress:[8]
"I will never forget the violence of the white mob when we left our home,” she said, “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."
She testified that the city of Tulsa had used the names of victims and images of the massacre to generate money for the city.[4] In 2022, Fletcher, her brother, and Randle received $1 million from New York philanthropistEd Mitzen.[9]
In August 2021, Fletcher and her brother Hughes visitedGhana.[10] They met with Ghanaian presidentNana Akufo-Addo.[10] She was crowned aqueen mother and given several Ghanaian names, including Naa Lamiley, which means, "Somebody who is strong. Somebody who stands the test of time", Naa Yaoteley, which means "the first female child in a family or bloodline", and Ebube Ndi Igbo.[10]
Fletcher was interviewed in 2014 for anoral history project conducted by the Oklahoma Oral History Research program and theOklahoma State University College of Human Sciences.[2][11]
In 2021, on the occasion of the centennial of the massacre, anAI-powered conversational video project using StoryFile technology debuted at theGilcrease Museum and was made accessible to the public online, so people could ask her questions about her experiences.[7][12]
In 1932, at the age of 18, she married Robert Fletcher and moved with him toCalifornia, where they both worked inshipyards, Viola as an assistantwelder.[2] They returned to Oklahoma afterWorld War II and raised three children while she worked cleaning houses.[2] Fletcher worked until she was 85.[2][11]
Fletcher was also known as Mother Fletcher or Mother Viola Fletcher.[4] She wrote amemoir,Don't Let Them Bury My Story, with her grandson in 2023.[7][13]
Her brother Hughes Van Ellis, who was also a survivor of the Tulsa race massacre, died in 2023 at the age of 102.[14]
On May 10, 2024, Fletcher turned 110, and became asupercentenarian.[3] By this time, Fletcher, along with Lessie Benningfield Randle, was one of only two remaining Tulsa Massacre survivors with memories of the event.[14]
Fletcher died on November 24, 2025 at the age of 111 years.[15] She had outlived her husband Robert Fletcher, who died in 1941, by 84 years.