Tulsa Race Massacre Survivors Testify

is a microphone on my name is that okay my name is viola ford fletcher i'm the daughter of lucinda ellis and john wesley ford of tulsa oklahoma i'm the sister of hughes van ellos who is also here today i'm a survivor of the tulsa race massacre two weeks ago i celebrated my 107th birthday today i'm visiting washington dc for the first time in my life i'm here seeking justice and i'm asking my country to acknowledge what happened in tulsa in 1921. on may 31st and 21 i went to bed in my family's home in greenwood neighbors of tulsa the neighborhood i felt the sleeping that night was rich not just in terms of wealth but in culture femininity heritage and my family had a beautiful home we had great neighbors and i had friends to play with i felt safe i had everything a child could need i had a bright future ahead of me greenwood could excuse me yeah still greenwich had given me the chance to make truly make it in this country when a few hours all of that was gone the night of the massacre i was awakened by my family my parents and five siblings were there i was told we had to leave and that was it i will never forget the violence of the white mob when we left our home i still see black men sin being shot black bodies lying in the street i still smell smoke and sea fire i still see black businesses being burned i still hear airplanes flying overhead i hear the screams i have lived through the massacre every day our country may forget this history but i cannot i will not and other survivors do not and our descendants do not when my family was forced to leave tulsa i lost my chance of an education i never finished school past the fourth grade i have never made much money in my country state and city took a lot from me despite this i spent time supporting the war effort in the shipyards of california but most of my life i was a domestic worker serving white families i never made much money but to this day i can barely afford my everyday needs all the while the city of this tulsa have unjustly used the names and stories of victims like me to enrich myself and his white allies through the 30s million met two through the 30 million raised by the tulsa centennial commissioner while i was continued to live in poverty i am 107 years old and have never been seen justice i pray that one day i will i have been blessed with a long life and have seen the best and the worst of this country i think about the terror horror inflicted upon black people in this country every day this con sub continuity has the power to lead us down a better path i'm asking that my country acknowledge what has been happened to me the tremors and the pain the loss and i asked the bibles and descendants to be given the chance to speak seek gestures open the door all of you know how easy it is to deny that that a violence mob third in your lives and took your property for 70 years the city of tulsa and his stream of chalmers told us that damascus didn't happen like we didn't see it with our own eyes you have have me here right now you see mother randall you see my brother hughes van ellis we live this history and we can't ignore it it it's our lives with us oh my goodness we lost everything that they our homes our churches our newspapers our theaters our lives greenwood represented all the best of what was possible for black people in america and for all all the people no one cared about us for almost 100 years we in our history have been forgotten washed away this congress must recognize us and our history for black america for the white americans and for all americans with that some justice yes thank you i thought it was another page do you want to say anything else is there anything else you want to say no no it's not thank you very much we appreciate very much your testimony mother fletcher if we don't learn from history we're doomed to repeat it so thank you for putting us on the right course to learn and to understand and to do better thank you are you the older of the two siblings the the older are you older than mr and your brother here yes you are yes so he's used to having a tough act to follow our next witness is mr hughes van ellis known as uncle red yeah he's a world war ii veteran having served the united states army in the china burma india theater of operations is a member of an all-black unit he's also a survivor of the tulsa race massacre uncle red you're on chairman gorman breaking my name is hughes van ellis and i am 100 years old and i am a survivor of the terrorist race masculine because of the mascot my family was driven out of our home we were left with nothing we were made reference in our own crunch county my childhood was hard and we didn't have much we were what little we we we were what little we had would be stolen from us just like it was stolen in tulsa you may have been thought that when something is stolen from you you can go to the courts to be made home you can you go to the courts to get guest guests this won the case for us the courts in oklahoma wouldn't hear us the federal courts said we were too late we were made to feel that our struggle were unworthy of justice that we were less valued than rights that we weren't fully americans we were shown that in the united states not all men were equal under law we were shown that when black's voice is called out but justice no one cared but we still had faith things would get better we still believe in the promise america and the cases of freedom i did my duty in world war ii i served in comeback in the fur east with the 200 threshold triple-a gun potential we were all black battalion i fought for freedom aboard even though it was ripped away from me at home even after my my home and my community were destroyed it becomes it was it's because i believe in it in the end america would get it's right when i returned home from the war i didn't find any of this freedom i was fighting for overseas unlike white servicemen i wasn't entitled to gi bill benefits because of the color of my skin i came home to segregation a separate and america but still i believed in america this is why we are still speaking up today even at this age of 100 the tulsa race massacre is a footnote in the in the history books for us we live with it every day and the thought of what greenwood was was and what it could have been we aren't just black and like pictures on a screen we are flexi and blood i was there when it happened i'm still here that's right that's right but my sister was there with the stamps keep still here we are not asking for his hands out all your is for a chance to be treated like a first-class simpsons who truly in in the pictures of these your promises that this is a land where there is liberty and just as well we are asking for justice for a lifetime ongoing on time that was caused by the masculine we can give us the chance to be hard and give us a chance to be made home after all these years and after all our struggle i still believe in a miracle i still believe in the ideas that i fought overseas to defend and believe if given this chance i will do the right thing and justice will be served please do not let me leave this earth without guesses like all the others magical survivors thank you so much thank you sir [Applause] i want to say i appreciate being here and i hope we all will work together we are one we are one [Applause] thank you mr van ellis aka uncle redd the last witness on our panel is coming to us through zoom our reasonable facsimile of such miss leslie benningfield randall mother randall was six years old when she lived through the tulsa race massacre mother randall will be joining us virtually mother randle you are recognized now good morning chairman cohen good morning and members of the subcommittee i am blessed and honored to be to be here speaking with you today it means a lot to me to finally be able to look at you all and die and ask you to do the right thing i have waited so long for justice my name is leslie evelyn benningfield randall people call me mother randall today i am like i'm 106 years old a hundred years ago in 1921 i was a six-year-old child i was blessed to live with my grandmother and a beautiful black community in tulsa oklahoma called greenwood i was lucky i had a home and i had toys i didn't have any here i was a young child and i felt very safe oh thank you my uh my community was beautiful it was filled with happy and successful black people then everything changed uh it was like a war white men with guns came and destroyed my community we couldn't understand why what did we do to them we didn't understand we were just living but they came and they destroyed everything and since let's see they burned houses and businesses they just took what they wanted and out of the building then they burned the building learned them they murdered people we were told they just dumped the dead bodies into the river uh i understand i remember running outside of our house i just passed dead bodies it wasn't a pretty sight i still see it today in my mind a hundred years later i was so scared i didn't think we could we could make it out to i remember people were running everywhere we waited by the soldiers to come and when they came by the came they took us to the background where we would be saved it felt like so long before they came thank you let's see i survived a 1921 tulsa race master and i have survived 100 years of painful memories and losses by the grace of god i am still here i have survived i have survived to tell this story i believe that i am still here to share it with you hopefully now you you all will listen to us while we are still here some more the white people who did this to to us were filled with so much hate it is disgusting that that they hate us so so that they hate us for no reason except that we are black people we know most of the people who who committed these these acts and dad are dead now the the three other of us here today are the only ones left that we know of but just because these men are probably dead the city and town of tulsa the state of oklahoma and the tulsa chamber from chambers chamber are still responsible for making it right because it was it was they caused the mastery and its its continued arm the chamber helped ensure that we could not rebuild after the massacre including holding us in intimate stamps hmm they say oh they owe us something they oh they owe me something i have lived much of my life for by opportunities my opportunities were taken from me uh and my thinking for me and my community north tufts uh blacks that black toxic is still messed up today they didn't rebuild it they sure did it's empty it's a it's a it's a general they have raised more than 30 million dollars and the place refused to share any with me with me are the other two survivors they have used my name before whether their fundraising rules without my permission now this is for a crime and misrepresenting my support of the of their their upcoming continuum yes and then against focus on they can toss a little bird and not justice you can help us get some justice america is still full of examples where people in in positions of power and then they just like you have told us to wait others have told us it's too late it seems like justice in america is always so slow or not possible for black people and we are making and we are made to feel crazy just for asking for things to be made right there are always so many examples excuses but why just justice is so slow or never happens at all i am here today 106 years old looking at at you all in the eye we've waited 100 years up noah we have waited too long and i am tired we are tired and lastly i am asking you today to give us some peace for some peace please give me my family and my community some justice thank you [Applause] hmm

Channel: C-SPAN

Views: 46,226

Rating: 4.8632765 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: i3L1e90L9cE

Length: 25min 42sec (1542 seconds)

Published: Wed May 19 2021