One of the last three Black residents of Tulsa, Oklahoma who survived a racial slaughter in 1921 has passed away at the age of 102, according to his relatives.
Hughes Van Ellis, who filed a lawsuit against the city of Tulsa demanding compensation for one of the bloodiest instances of racial violence in American history, passed away on Monday evening in Denver, Colorado, according to a statement from his family.
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Up to 300 persons, mostly Black, were killed when Greenwood, an African American neighborhood in Tulsa, was set on fire by white inhabitants.
Historical records claim that during the incident, during which carloads of white citizens conducted drive-by shootings, burnt homes and shops, and battered Black neighbors, Ellis, a baby at the time, and his elder sister left with their family.
At a time when racial segregation was enforced and the Ku Klux Klan had a sizable presence in Oklahoma, the Greenwood neighborhood, often known as Black Wall Street because of the affluence of its residents, had a population of over 10,000 Black people.
Ellis, his sister Viola Fletcher, who is 109 years old, and another survivor, Leslie Benningfield Randle, who is 108 years old, sued Tulsa for restitution and a 99-year tax break for locals who are descended from the massacre victims.
The claim was dismissed by an Oklahoma judge in July, and their attorneys have appealed to the state’s highest court.
According to a report by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the massacre started when a white lady reported to police that a Black man had grabbed her arm in an elevator in a downtown business building.
According to the Tulsa Tribune, the man who attempted to attack the woman was detained by police.
White people gathered outside the courthouse and demanded the man’s surrender. When a white man attempted to disarm a Black World War One veteran, a shot was fired, setting off a riot that left 35 blocks of Greenwood in ruins. White people gathered outside the courthouse and demanded the man’s surrender. When a white man attempted to disarm a Black World War One veteran, a shot was fired, setting off a riot that left 35 blocks of Greenwood in ruins. White people gathered outside the courthouse and demanded the man’s surrender. When a white man attempted to disarm a Black World War One veteran, a shot was fired, setting off a riot that left 35 blocks of Greenwood in ruins.
