Survivors Of 1921 Massacre Become Ghanaian Citizens

Two survivors of the 1921 massacre of black people in the US city of Tulsa have been granted citizenship of Ghana.

Viola Fletcher, 108 and her brother Hughes Ellis, 102, became the oldest African Americans to be granted Ghanaian citizenship.

They are two of three living survivors of the massacre that claimed up to 300 African-American lives.

Report says about 300 Black residents of the prosperous Greenwood town then known as “Black Wall Street” in Tulsa, Oklahoma, were murdered and their businesses and homes destroyed by a mob of white people.

The citizenship ceremony took place at Ghana’s embassy in Washington DC.

Meanwhile, Viola Fletcher, known as ‘Mother Fletcher’ and her brother Van Ellis, known as “Uncle Red” visited Ghana in August 2021 as part of a week-long tour of Africa to mark the centenary of the killings, known as the Tulsa Race Massacre.

According to comments made at the ceremony by Ghana’s US ambassador Hajia Mahama, the pair will become dual citizens, the Washington Post reports, citing

The Justice for Greenwood Foundation, which works with survivors of the massacre and their descendants, said the pair have become the oldest African-Americans to be granted citizenship of Ghana.

The foundation said it was “proud to stand in solidarity with the survivors, celebrating their resilience and their contribution to the history” of black Oklahoma.

BBC/Jide Johnson