One of the last three Tulsa Race Massacre survivors celebrated her 107th birthday in Tulsa, Wednesday afternoon.
According to KTUL news, Leslie Benningfield Randall, known to the community as “Mother Randle,” celebrated her birthday with two other massacre survivors, Viola Fletcher and Hughes Van Ellis, who accompanied Randall in a drive-by birthday party hosted by the Justice for Greenwood Foundation.
Randall, Fletcher, and Van Ellis are the last three remaining survivors of the Tusla Race Massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921.
When Mother Randle was 7-years-old, white supremacists set her grandmother’s house on fire during the massacre that lasted for three days.
Randall, Fletcher, and Van Ellis testified on the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre on May 19 before a House Judiciary Subcommittee on Capitol Hill. According to a report from NPR, the survivors shared emotional testimonies while discussing reparations to the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Fletcher, the oldest living massacre survivor, said she would never forget what she endured that day the massacre occurred.
“I will never forget the violence of the white mob when we left our home. I still see Black men being shot, Black bodies lying in the street. I still smell smoke and see fire. I still see Black businesses being burned. I still hear airplanes flying overhead. I hear the screams,” Fletcher told lawmakers. “I have lived through the massacre every day. Our country may forget this history, but I cannot.”
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According to NPR, all three of the survivors were plaintiffs in a reparations lawsuit filed in 2020. The case stated that the state of Oklahoma and the city of Tulsa are solely responsible for what happened during the massacre.
Van Ellis said there were multiple attempts for survivors of the massacre and their descendants to receive reparations, but they were unsuccessful in the court system.
“You may have been taught that when something is stolen from you, you would go to the courts to be made whole,” he said. “That wasn’t the case for us.”
Randall, who shared her testimony via video conference, said the city of Tulsa remains affected by the massacre over 100 years later.
“My opportunities were taken from me and my community. Black Tulsa is still messed up today. They didn’t rebuild it. It’s empty. It’s a ghetto,” she said.
Randall said not only did she survive the massacre, but she has also now survived “100 years of painful memories.”
“By the grace of God, I am still here. I have survived to tell this story,” she said. “Hopefully, now you will all listen to us while we are still here.”
President Biden remembered those who lost their lives during the race riot and honored its survivors.
“Some injustices are so heinous, so horrific, so grievous, they cannot be buried, no matter how hard people try,” Biden said. “Only with truth can come healing.”
