‘Black Wall Street’ Survivors Granted Ghana Citizenship

Two survivors of the 1921 massacre of black people in the US city of Tulsa have been granted citizenship of Ghana, according to the Justice for Greenwood Foundation.

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

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

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.

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.

'Black Wall Street' survivors granted Ghana citizenship
Viola Ford Fletcher, 108 and her brother Hughes Van Ellis, 102. Source: Justice for Greenwood Foundation

 

 

 

 

Source: BBC