Décès à 111 ans d'une des dernières survivantes du massacre raciste de Tulsa
She survived one of the worst outbreaks of racist violence in the early 20th century in the United States and carried its memory to the very end. Viola Fletcher, one of the last survivors of the Tulsa massacre, has died at the age of 111.
"Today, our city mourns the passing of 'Mama' Viola Fletcher, a survivor of one of the darkest chapters in our city's history," wrote the Democratic mayor of Tulsa (Oklahoma) on X, referring to a tragedy that may have claimed up to 300 lives.
"Fletcher has endured more than anyone should have to, and yet she has dedicated her life to charting a course into the future with determination," added Monroe Nichols.
"Mama Fletcher embodied 111 years of truth, resilience, and grace, reminding us of how far we have come and how far we still have to go. She never stopped advocating for justice for the survivors and descendants of the Tulsa racial massacre."
On May 31, 1921, a mob of white men attacked the prosperous African-American neighborhood of Greenwood, then nicknamed the "Black Wall Street," in the city of Tulsa.
The violence began with the arrest of a Black shoeshine boy accused of assaulting a young white woman. Historians have since shown that the young man did nothing more than step on the woman's foot.
But racial hatred takes over. Hundreds of white men gather outside the courthouse where the young man is to be tried. Tensions rise, gunshots ring out, and violence erupts.
Historians estimate that between 75 and 300 African Americans died in the violence.
More than 1,200 buildings were destroyed, and the businesses of Black residents were looted, burned, and razed. Witnesses even reported planes dropping incendiary bombs.
"I relive the massacre every day," Viola Fletcher confided in May 2021, during her first trip to Washington to share her memories before a House of Representatives committee.
With a powerful gaze behind small oval glasses, and white hair on her round face, she had demanded official recognition of the event by the United States.
"I hear the screams"
"A country can forget its history, but I cannot," pleaded the old woman, who was 7 years old at the time of the massacre.
"I will never forget the violence of the angry mob of white people when we left the house," she insisted.
"I can still see black men being shot and black bodies lying on the ground in the street. I can still smell the smoke and see the fire. I can still see black businesses being burned down. I can still hear the planes flying overhead. I can still hear the screams."
The chaos lasted 24 hours, until the arrival in Tulsa of the National Guard, one of whose first measures was to intern the approximately 6,000 black survivors in three camps.
According to the official report of a commission of inquiry established in Oklahoma in 2001, local authorities had themselves armed some of the white rioters, appointing them for the occasion as "deputies" of the police.
No white person was ever convicted. Insurance companies, claiming it was a case of riots, refused to compensate the victims. And until the early 2000s, the massacre remained absent from American school curricula.
In June 2021, President Joe Biden visited Tulsa to, as he said, "break the silence".
With the death of Viola Fletcher, only one survivor remains, Lessie Randle, aged 111, according to US media, which however mention the possibility that others may have survived without coming forward.
"We lost everything that day, our homes, our churches, our newspapers, our theaters, our lives. No one cared about us for almost a hundred years. Our history was plunged into oblivion," Viola Fletcher had denounced before Congress.
The tribute paid by the mayor of Tulsa on Tuesday confirms that the old lady succeeded in imposing a duty to remember.
Commentaires (7)
Un peuple qui a trop souffert de la haine gratuite.
Oú se trouve le connard de karim usa qui aime comparé la France et les usa, à ce jour la France n’a pas connu un massacre de ce types sur son territoire
Pour le post 2 la France a commis beaucoup de massacres pendant la colonisation: Madagascar, Cameroun, Setif en Algérie etc sans oublier la grotte d’Ouvea en Nouvelle Caledonie.
Et Aujourd'hui 20% de leurs descendants votent pour un parti qui nie cette histoire, la minimise, ou carrément rêve d'un retour a cette époque.
ces pays qui prétendent nous donner des leçons de droits de l'homme et de justice jusqu'à ce jour ont perpétré un nombre incalculable de massacres : France (Faidherbe, et puis en Algérie, etc), USA partout sur leur sol, Belgique (des millions de morts au Congo), Angleterre partout dans le monde, etc
c'est par des massacres qu'ils ont construit leur "puissance"
bientôt la commémoration de thiaroye 44, eh bien faudra continuer à leur rappeler cela, encore et encore et encore
la culture du massacre se poursuit avec Gaza avec Israel et la complicité de ces pays qui fournissent des armes et tiennent un double discours
pas surprenant alors qu'ils continuent à receler les avoirs frauduleusement sortis de nos pays et à abriter des hors la loi ...
Il faut savoir lire avant de répondre , cite moi un cas similaire en France métropolitaine, des civils qui s’en prennent à d’autres civiles pck qu’ils sont black
"france métroplitaine" ou sur une terre étrangère comme en Algérie, à Thiaroye, au Cameroun, à Madagascar, en Indochine, etc une vie est une vie et tout cela s'est déroulé sous l'empire colonial français !
faut respecter les descendants des personnes massacrées qui depuis lors attendent la vérité
en plus le fait que l'état français ne veut toujours pas dire la vérité sur ce qui s'est passé montre que les choses étaient plus graves que ce que l'on croit. A propos de thiaroye vous avez entendu les blocages que l'état français a posés aux chercheurs En plus armelle mabon qui a écrit un livre sur thiaroye ("le massacre de thiaroye: histoire d'un mensonge d'état") a dit tout ce qu'elle a enduré pour écrire le livre: haine, menaces, etc
tant qu'à parler de lire, allez lire armelle mabon et en plus faut respecter les descendants des braves gens et des innocents massacrés
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