Hughes Van Ellis, a survivor of the horrific Tulsa Race Massacre, has passed away at the age of 102. According to NPR, Ellis, also known as “Uncle Redd,” died Oct. 9 in Denver, Colorado.
As one of the last three survivors of the 1921 massacre, Ellis dedicated his life to seeking justice for the catastrophic attack that decimated Tulsa’s thriving Greenwood District.
Before his death, relatives of Ellis vowed to continue his fight for reparations.
“Mr. Ellis was assured we would remain steadfast, and we repeated to him, his own words, ‘We Are One,’ and we lastly expressed our love,” his family said.
Known as the “Black Wall Street,” Greenwood was a bustling Black community that took up nearly 35 square blocks in downtown Tulsa. It was home to hundreds of flourishing Black businesses. According to History, the self-sustaining community was filled with Black-owned barber shops, restaurants, movie theaters, clothing stores, doctor offices and more.
Ellis was an infant on the dreadful day of May 31, 1921, when a white mob launched an all-out assault on the Greenwood District.
The assailants looted, torched and burned down hundreds of Black-owned homes and businesses in the area, leaving a trail of billowing smoke. Around 300 people died during the egregious attack.
“We lost so much. I believe if all this hadn’t happened when I was a child, they would’ve been better in life,” Ellis told 2 News Oklahoma in a 2021 interview.
“My sister Viola told me. She said it was thought guns were going off,” he continued. “Dad looked outside to see people getting gunshot, houses getting burned. So, there’s only six little kids. I was a baby. So, my father just managed to barely get out, just with the clothes on our backs. We didn’t have time to get nothing else together.”
Ellis, his sister, Viola Fletcher and Lessie Benningfield fought for reparations.
Ellis —a World War II veteran, and his sister, Viola Fletcher, 109—have fought to receive reparations for the Tulsa Race Massacre alongside Lessie Benningfield, 108— another survivor of the egregious assault.
In 2020, the trio filed a lawsuit against the city of Tulsa seeking restitution for the destruction caused in Greenwood. Judge Caroline Wall dismissed the suit in July of this year, but the survivors appealed. The Oklahoma Supreme Court said it would reconsider the reparations suit in August.
The Tulsa Race Riot Commission of Oklahoma’s 2021 report noted that Black Tulsa residents filed more than $4 million worth of claims to seek restitution for the damage caused by the unruly white mob. All were denied.
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