The recent passing of Queen Mother Viola Ford Fletcher, at age 111, marked a profound loss in the ongoing fight for justice for survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, the racist attack that left hundreds of Black people dead and more than 1,200 Black-owned houses burned to the ground. As the oldest known living survivor, she embodied the resilience of the Greenwood district, once known as “Black Wall Street.”
Queen Mother Fletcher’s tireless advocacy, which included testifying before the US Congress on the massacre’s centennial, underscores the profound importance of reparations. For survivors and their descendants, reparations are not merely about compensation. They are a necessary step toward accountability and the repair of systemic failures.
International human rights law mandates full and effective reparations for the victims of gross violations of human rights. Just as important, the United States’ human rights obligations require it to repair the ongoing, intergenerational harm caused by the massacre. The survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre and their descendants’ pursuit of reparations is a fight to compel the US to uphold its moral and legal obligation to repair that lasting damage, including the lost generational wealth, ongoing psychological trauma, and continuing socioeconomic disparities for Black people in the US.
The legal fight for massacre reparations faced a major setback when the Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed the survivors’ lawsuit in June 2024, ruling that the century-old harm did not constitute a current public nuisance. Following this, the Department of Justice released a review under the Emmett Till Act that officially acknowledged the massacre as a coordinated, military-style attack, though it found no avenue for criminal prosecution over a century later.
The call for justice was echoed by leaders like Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, who, upon Queen Mother Fletcher’s passing, honored her on the House floor, stating that “her legacy is a call to continue the fight for full reparations.” The congresswoman, who reintroduced H.R. 40 earlier this year to begin the path toward reparations, demanded that the United States “honor her transition to Ancestor by moving in her spirit with unyielding hope, moral clarity, and faith that justice, though delayed, is not denied.” Queen Mother Fletcher’s legacy is a call to action and a demand for the US to fulfill its obligation to remedy injustice and provide tangible redress for the foundational violence against Black people.
