A Century Later, Survivors and Descendants Honored in Tulsa

Daniel Roumain bent low in a reverent gesture, dropping to a knee as he bowed his violin. In entrance of him sat a trio of people that have lived for a mixed 313 years. Scattered within the Oklahoma wind on the evening of Might 31, 1921 by a violent mob stuffed with vicious hate, all three returned to Tulsa on Saturday, practically 100 years later, to be showered with admiration for his or her longevity and resilience.

Roumain, a classically educated composer and violinist with Black and Haitian roots, returned to the stage and commenced strumming together with his fingers. He then spoke from the center.

“I don’t have all of the solutions. However I’m able to play my half. I’ll hold enjoying and doing and being and believing and listening, and perhaps we’ll all get there collectively.”

On the Honoring Survivors and Descendants Luncheon on Saturday, which was sponsored by the Equal Justice Initiative, the Terence Crutcher Basis and the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder, the 107-year-old Viola Ford Fletcher, 106-year-old Lessie Benningfield Randle and 100-year-old Hughes Van Ellis acquired a day of adulation, which featured musicians like Roumain and esteemed audio system from all throughout the nation.

“It’s unbelievable,” stated Van Ellis, who can be the youthful brother of Fletcher. “I didn’t assume I’d get the chance to do that in my life. It’s an honor to get consideration. It’s an honor for individuals to listen to your story. Anyone heard my story after 100 years.”

“They’re nonetheless right here to signify people who have gone earlier than them,” stated Jackie Emerson Weary, a descendant of a survivor, John R. Emerson Sr. “It’s heartbreaking, however they’ve persevered. They’ve the tenacity, and the braveness to stay on.”

Van Ellis was simply an toddler when every part his household owned was destroyed and so they needed to flee Tulsa in the midst of the evening. Fletcher remembers a satisfying and joyful childhood in Greenwood till it was all ripped away when she was seven years previous. Van Ellis by no means even acquired to expertise that, changing into a refugee in his personal nation when he was only a child. For practically a century, the reality of what occurred in Tulsa on that Memorial Day Weekend in 1921 and the enduring results have been obscured and hand waved.

“I’ve been making an attempt to inform this story, however no one would hear,” stated Van Ellis. “It’s a real story.”

This weekend, all eyes and ears are on the centennial of the bloodbath and the tales of the survivors. Although it has been an extended watch for recognition, Van Ellis lived a lifetime of dignity and resolve. Regardless of the grievous theft, damage and insult to the arc of his life at its very outset, Van Ellis didn’t turn out to be resentful. He as a substitute served his nation and his household. He fought within the Pacific theater of World Conflict II in an All-African American Military battalion. He labored onerous when he got here again stateside, together with a few many years working at Tinker Air Power Base, and raised seven youngsters.

These in attendance on Saturday paid respect to the three dwelling survivors, however lots of these giving standing ovations had their very own tales to share. Don Adams and his household traveled in from across the nation to honor Don’s nice uncle, Dr. Andrew Cheesten Jackson, who was a outstanding surgeon in Greenwood. Jackson, who was acknowledged by the Mayo Brothers (of Mayo Clinic fame) was murdered within the 1921 bloodbath.

“Highly effective, sorrowful, however hopeful,” Adams stated of Saturday’s luncheon. “The cash that was misplaced, the wealth that was misplaced, the generational wealth that was misplaced, it’s incalculable.”

Weary’s ancestors, the Emerson household, moved from Maryland to Tennessee to Arkansas after which to Tulsa in hopes for a greater life. They discovered it in Greenwood, however then it was brutally stolen in a span of 12 hours. John R. Emerson Sr. hid below the railroad tracks to outlive the race riot. Undeterred, Emerson Sr. later returned to Tulsa to start out the Blue Hen Cab Firm, a healthcare clinic and a development firm that constructed over 100 properties in north Tulsa.

“Immediately is an honor,” stated Weary. “It doesn’t erase the ache of yesterday, however it does result in some therapeutic at this time, figuring out that we’re being honored and acknowledged.”

“We’re going to make our ancestors, our forefathers and moms proud as a result of we’re going to proceed to try for justice and equality,” Weary added. “We’re going to proceed to be the docs and attorneys, the attorneys, surveyors, contractors and people issues in order that in the future, we pray that we’ll have neighborhoods filled with every part that we want, identical to they did.”

Earlier than Saturday’s occasion concluded, there was yet another main honor to be bestowed. Lawyer Damario Solomon-Simmons from Justice for Greenwood was the ultimate speaker and introduced a present of $100,000 every to Fletcher, Randle and Van Ellis. Because of some unimaginable fundraising and generosity from donors invested in seeing the three survivors be acknowledged, the checks have been delivered to the stage, smiles beamed throughout faces and everybody within the constructing stood to have a good time the unimaginable present.

“It took my breath,” Van Ellis stated. “Getting that verify, it simply bowed every part up.”