Hughes Van Ellis, one of the last known survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre, dies at 102

By Omar Jimenez and Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN

(CNN) — Hughes “Uncle Redd” Van Ellis, one of the last three known survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, has died, according a family statement. He was 102.

Ellis died Monday night in Denver, Colorado, according to a family statement shared by Oklahoma Rep. Regina Goodwin.

“He died waiting on justice,” his grandnephew, Ike Howard, told CNN.

Ellis was just a few months old when he and his older sister, Viola Fletcher, fled Tulsa’s Greenwood District with their family as a violent White mob tore through the thriving Black community, ultimately killing hundreds of residents and reducing rows of homes and businesses to ash.

Like a myriad of other Black families, Ellis and his loved ones were forced to leave behind not only their home but a lifetime of opportunities, he told CNN earlier this year.

“I lost 102 years. I don’t want nobody else to lose that,” he said.

One of the country’s deadliest acts of racial violence, the massacre was inflicted by a White mob that descended on the area known as “Black Wall Street” and committed arson, shootings and aerial bombings from private planes. As many as 300 people were killed and more than 1,000 homes are estimated to have been destroyed, according to the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum.

Ellis, his 109-year old sister, and Lessie Benningfield Randle, 108, were the last three known survivors of the massacre. The trio have been locked in a yearslong legal battle with the City of Tulsa and other city officials in an effort to secure reparations for the destruction committed more than a century ago.

In July, an Oklahoma judge dismissed the survivors’ lawsuit against the city and their attorneys have since appealed the decision. The state Supreme Court has said it would consider the appeal, but it is unclear when the Court will hear the case.

Though the city has argued it should not be liable for historical damages, the siblings told CNN in June that the event has haunted them since childhood.

“It’s been a long time ago, but it is something you can’t forget,” Fletcher said. “You think about it every day and every night.”

On the night of the massacre, the siblings’ family frantically rushed to escape as the smoke of burning buildings choked the night air and airplanes flew overhead, Fletcher has recalled. As they sped through the city in a horse-drawn wagon, they passed others who were running or lay dead or injured on the ground, she told CNN in 2021.

“Two days ago, Mr. Ellis, urged us to keep fighting for justice,” the family said in its statement.

“In the midst of his death, there remains an undying sense of right and wrong. 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,” the family added.

Ellis was a “loving family man” and a World War II veteran, the statement said.

“We celebrate the rare life of Mr. Hughes Van Ellis who inspires us still!” the family said.

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CNN’s Jennifer Henderson contributed to this report.