The Tulsa Race Massacre is one of the most forgotten instances of white supremacist violence in United States history. On May 31, 1921, a white mob attacked the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma known to many as Black Wall Street. The next 18 hours would be a living nightmare.
Viola Fletcher escaped with her family in a horse-drawn buggy, witnessing the chaos unfold in front of her. In her memoir aptly titled “Don’t Let Them Bury My Story,” she tells all about that day.
Fletcher details the gruesome images that have stuck with her to this day. She also wants to make it known that her people suffered from a lie. The massacre was the result of a 19-year-old Black shoeshine being accused of assaulting a white woman, a common lie that led to anti-Black violence in those times.
Fletcher realizes that now at 108-years-old, her voice is even more important as many historians and politicians fail to acknowledge this horrific event or try to discount it. Her story works to preserve the history of Tulsa so that it is never lost to memory.
The oppressor will do everything in their power to erase our history in this country, but it is up to us to keep our stories alive throughout generations, and Viola Fletcher, even at her age, is doing just that.