Hughes Van Ellis, one of few remaining survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, dies

Hughes Van Ellis, the youngest of three last known living 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre survivors, died at 102.

Van Ellis died Monday night in Denver, Colorado, according to a family statement shared by Tulsa Democratic Rep. Regina Goodwin, whose family survived the massacre.

“A loving family man, he was known as ‘Uncle Redd’,” the statement said. “He was among the three last known survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, one of the most horrific acts of racist terrorism on American soil.”

Van Ellis was also a World War II veteran, the statement said. He fought in the 234th AAA Gun Battalion, an all-Black battalion, Van Ellis recounted in a May 2021 letter to Congress.

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

More:‘Dodging bullets’ and coming home to ‘nothing left’: An illustrated history of the Tulsa Race Massacre.

Van Ellis infant during Tulsa Race Massacre

Van Ellis was an infant when a white mob, deputized by police, rampaged through the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, killing hundreds of Black residents and burning thousands of businesses and homes to the ground, according to the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum.

It's estimated nearly 300 people were killed in the racist attack, Oklahoma's Tulsa Race Massacre Commission concluded in 2001, but more are feared dead as the city of Tulsa continues to search for unmarked graves.

In the letter Van Ellis submitted to the U.S. House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Van Ellis said he and his family were driven from their home and made refugees within the country.

"My childhood was hard and we didn’t have much," he wrote. "We worried what little we had would be stolen from us. Just like it was stolen in Tulsa."

The two last known living survivors of the race massacre are Van Ellis' sister Viola Fletcher, who is 109, and Lessie Benningfield Randle, who is 108.

The survivors have been locked in a yearslong legal battle with the city of Tulsa and other officials in an effort to secure reparations for the destruction committed more than a century ago.

“You may have been taught that when something is stolen from you, you can go to the courts to be made whole – you can go to the courts for justice,” Van Ellis wrote. “This wasn’t the case for us. The courts in Oklahoma wouldn’t hear us. The federal courts said we were too late. We were made to feel that our struggle was unworthy of justice.” 

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.