Source: Anadolu Agency / Getty
In June of 1921 a white mob destroyed ‘Black Wall Street’ burning Tulsa’s Greenwood district to the ground destroying 1,000 homes and killing 300 people.
In 2023 the descendants of the Tulsa Race Massacre are still waiting on justice in the form of reparations and one of the last three survivors of that horrific say Hughes Van Ellis has passed away at the age of 102 without seeing that justice that is well over due. According to the grandnephew of Hughes Van Ellis he died waiting on justice to come.
Hughes Van Ellis was just a few months old when he and his sister, Viola Fletcher, fled the racial violence more than a century ago with their family, leaving behind not only their home but a lifetime of opportunities.
Hughes Van Ellis 22 years after the Tulsa Race Massacre fought for this country in World War II in an all black platoon.
The 2021 massacre start after rumors swirled that a black man had raped a white elevator operator. Rather than intervene, the Tulsa police deputized nearly 500 white men and boys who had moments before been part of a lynch mob, instructing them to “Get a gun, and get a n*****,”
Hughes Van Ellis may not have lived to see justice served, but the community will still fight in honor.
We will be keeping the family, friends and the community of Hughes Van Ellis uplifted in our prayers.
see video below.
Source: Radio One Digital
