One of the last known survivors of the Tulsa race massacre of 1921 has died, his family has confirmed in a statement.
Hughes Van Ellis died from cancer Monday night at the age of 102, his family said.
He was one of the most outspoken activists for reparations over the massacre and fought for them on behalf of Tulsa’s Black community for decades. But, his grandnephew Ike Howard told CNN: “He died waiting on justice.”
The family’s statement added: “Two days ago, Mr Ellis urged us to keep fighting for justice. In the midst of his death, there remains an undying sense of right and wrong. Mr Ellis was assured we would remain steadfast and we repeated to him, his own words, ‘We are one,’ and we lastly expressed our love.”
The Tulsa race massacre was one of the deadliest cases of racist violence in US history. It began when a white mob stormed an area of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, referred to as “Black Wall Street” because it was one of the wealthiest Black communities in the US at the time.
Where’s my Land Before Time-esque 1980s children’s movie about the happy black neighbors who get fucking massacred by the end of the movie? I’m not saying we need to emotionally scar future generations, I’m just saying that you’d think there’d be some actually valuable lessons in all the childhood trauma movies my generation consumed. Somehow my generation instead ended up with far more Nazis and white nationalists than I expected.