I STILL SEE BLACK
MEN BEING SHOT
AND BLACK BODIES
LYING IN THE
STREET. I STILL
SMELL SMOKE
AND SEE FIRE.”
—Viola Fletcher, 107,
one of three known
living survivors of the
Tulsa Race MassacreA century after
the 1921 Tulsa Race
Massacre, a ceremony
was held to honor the
unknown dead. As
many as 300 Black
people were killed
when whites rampaged
through Greenwood,
a prosperous Black
neighborhood in Tulsa.
More than a thousand
homes and 141 busi-
nesses were destroyed.
Nearly 10,000 people—
almost all of Tulsa’s
Black population—were
left homeless. The
potential generational
wealth lost—and never
repaid—is estimated at
$611 million in today’s
dollars. Archae ologists
have unearthed
one mass grave, but
the burial places of
most victims remain
unknown.Tulsa, Oklahoma PHOTOGRAPH BY BETHANY MOLLENKOF
101