The Sole Tulsa Race Massacre Survivor Is Still Seeking Reparations for the Fatal Attack

On May 31 and June 1, 1921, Tulsa, Okla. was forever changed when what has gone down in history as one of the most significant and violent crimes in U.S. history. The Tulsa Race Massacre was an 18-hour bloodbath orchestrated by a white mob that damaged more than one thousand homes and businesses were destroyed, while credible estimates of deaths range from 50 to 300 victims. The mob targeted Tulsa's Greenwood neighborhood, which had become a hub for Black businesses.

Though the Tulsa Race Massacre took hundreds of victims and robbed many Black families of their loved ones and community members, the decades that followed the attacks included multiple survivors who went on to tell what happened to them in their own words. However, as the decades and centuries have gone by, the amount of survivors has diminished.

Here's everything to know about the Tulsa Race Massacre survivors.

Since the 1921 violent attacks, the Tulsa Race Massacre lost nearly all of its surviving members. According to CNN, as of November 2025, the sole survivor from the massacre is Lessie Benningfield Randle, who turned 111 that year. Randle, who goes by "Mother Randle" in her community, has remained active in the fight for Greenwood to receive justice years later.

According to Justice for Greenwood, Mother Randle spoke to Congress during an October 14, 2020 deposition. In the deposition, she revealed that, 99 years after the massacre, she experiences flashbacks of Black bodies that were stacked up on the street as her neighborhood was burning. Mother Randle also shared the massacre left her struggling "financially, emotionally, and socially as a result of the Massacre and the continuing public nuisance and will continue to suffer until the nuisance is abated."

Until Nov. 24, 2025, Mother Randle continued seeking justice for her neighborhood with a fellow Tulsa Race Massacre survivor, Viola Ford Fletcher. Randle and Fletcher became incredibly close and, in 2024, worked together to condemn the Oklahoma Supreme Court's decision to dismiss their lawsuit seeking reparations. According to USA Today, the two also spoke to the U.S. Department of Justice to open an investigation into the massacre over 100 years later.

"With our own eyes, and burned deeply into our memories, we watched white Americans destroy, kill and loot," Fletcher and Randle shared in a joint statement. "And despite these obvious crimes against humanity, not one indictment was issued, most insurance claims remain unpaid or were paid for only pennies on the dollar, and Black Tulsans were forced to leave their homes and live in fear."

On Nov. 24, Fletcher passed away at 111 years old. In an interview with CNN, Mother Randle's granddaughter, LaDonna Penny, said her loss affected their entire family.

“Mother Fletcher called my grandmother her little sister,” Penny shared. "It’s like I lost my grandmother. My heart is broken, I keep trying to stop crying.”

Mother Randle's granddaughter also said her grandmother was "sorry it was happening and that she loved her." Fletcher’s brother Hughes Van Ellis or “Uncle Redd,” also a massacre survivor, died in October 2023 at 102 years old.