Tulsa Race Massacre Survivor Hughes Van Ellis Dies at 102: ‘He Died Waiting on Justice’

One of the last known survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre has died at the age of 102 after spending years fighting for reparations from the City of Tulsa for a slaughter that left hundreds of Black citizens dead and destroyed generations of wealth.

Hughes Van Ellis, known as "Uncle Redd," was only a few months old during the attack, when a white mob descended on a wealthy Black neighborhood, killing as many as 300 residents and and burning more than 1,200 homes and businesses to the ground.

"He died waiting on justice," Ellis' grandnephew, Ike Howard, told CNN.

On June 1, 1921, groups of white OKlahomans, who'd grown enraged after a disputed assault on a white woman, destroyed the neighborhood of Greenwood. The area was then the site of a vibrant and prosperous Black community, earning the name "Black Wall Street."

The mob massacred hundreds and left some 10,000 people homeless in what's thought to be among the deadliest racial violence incidents in American history, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society.

When the neighborhood was destroyed, it set some Black families back generations, with centuries of built-up wealth vanishing overnight.

“I lost 102 years," Ellis told CNN in June. I don’t want nobody else to lose that."

Ellis and his older sister, Viola Fletcher, 109, along with survivor Lessie Benningfield Randle, 108, had been battling the City of Tulsa for reparations. An Oklahoma judge initially dismissed the suit, but the state's Supreme Court vowed to take it up at some point, although the timeline isn't clear.

Fletcher, who was 7 during the massacre, previously recalled passing bodies and breathing black smoke as her family fled the city in a wagon on the night of the mass murder.

In 2021, Hughes was brought to tears while speaking before the House Judiciary subcommittee at the age of 100. He'd served his country in World War II but had yet to receive any justice for the massacre that destroyed his family's livelihood, he explained.

In a statement to CNN, Ellis' family said that just two days ago, he had called on his loved ones to continue "fighting for justice."

“In the midst of his death, there remains an undying sense of right and wrong," the statement read. "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."