Today In Black History: Viola Ford Fletcher, the last survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre
She led a life of resilience and the pursuit of justice.
Issue #968 Today In Black History, Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Viola Ford Fletcher, affectionately known as “Mother Fletcher,” passed away on November 24, 2025, at the age of 111. She was the oldest known living survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, one of the worst episodes of racial violence in American history. She spent her final decades fighting for recognition and justice for the victims and survivors.
Viola Ford was born on May 10, 1914, in Comanche, Oklahoma. She was only seven years old on May 31, 1921, when a white mob attacked Greenwood, the thriving Black neighborhood in Tulsa known as “Black Wall Street.” The two-day assault that followed was catastrophic. An estimated 300 residents were killed, thousands were injured, and the prosperous community was reduced to ashes. Entire blocks of Black-owned businesses, homes, schools, and churches were destroyed in what remains one of the most horrific incidents of racial violence in United States history.
Young Viola witnessed the destruction of her community firsthand. She lived through the terror, the violence, and the aftermath of a massacre that was deliberately erased from official history for decades. The trauma of those two days in May 1921 would shape the rest of her life.
Viola Ford Fletcher married Robert Fletcher in 1932, though he died in 1941, leaving her a widow for the remaining 84 years of her life. She raised three children and worked as a welder in a shipyard during World War II, contributing to the war effort while supporting her family.
For much of her adult life, Fletcher worked as a housekeeper, caring for families in her community. For decades, she lived with the memories of the massacre, but the broader American public remained largely unaware of what had happened in Tulsa in 1921.
For nearly a century, the Tulsa Race Massacre was largely forgotten or deliberately suppressed. It was not taught in schools, discussed in mainstream media, or acknowledged by official institutions.
Beginning in the 1990s, historians and activists began to recover and publicize the true history of the Tulsa Race Massacre.
Viola Fletcher became one of the most visible and vocal survivors, lending her voice and her presence to efforts to secure justice and reparations. She testified before Congress, gave interviews to major media outlets, and participated in commemorative events.
In her later years, Viola Fletcher joined other survivors in pursuing legal action against the city of Tulsa and related entities, alleging that they were complicit in the 1921 massacre and that its devastating effects continued to be felt by survivors and their descendants. The lawsuit sought reparations for the victims and their families—a form of justice that had been denied for over a century.
Unfortunately, in 2024, Oklahoma’s Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit, denying the survivors the legal remedy they sought. However, Fletcher and other survivors continued their advocacy work, speaking publicly about their experiences and calling for official recognition and accountability.
Viola Ford Fletcher’s longevity made her a direct link to a historical tragedy many wanted to forget, and her very existence was a testament to the resilience of the Black community in Tulsa. As she aged, she became increasingly recognized as a national treasure—a keeper of history and a voice for justice.
Following her death, the Tulsa community gathered to celebrate her life and legacy. More than two dozen speakers rose to bear witness to her remarkable journey at memorial services in Bartlesville and Greenwood. State Senator Regina Goodwin praised Fletcher for the calm manner in which she helped lead the battle for justice and reparations. Mayor Monroe Nichols described her life as “lighting a path forward with purpose.”
Today In Black History
In 1846, Black inventor Norbert Rillieux invented the evaporating pan that revolutionized the sugar industry.
In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.
In 1950, Dr. Ralph Bunche became the first African American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his “mediation in the Arab-Israeli conflict” in the late 1940s.
In 1963, the African nation of Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania) gained its independence from Britain.
In 1964, thirty-five-year-old Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. became the second African American and the youngest American (at the time) to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for “his non-violent struggle for civil rights for the Afro-American population.”
In 1982, Pamela McAllister Johnson became the first Black woman publisher of a mainstream paper, the Ithaca Journal.
In 2009, President Barack H. Obama II became the third African American and fourth president to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”