‘I hear the screams’: Tulsa race massacre remembered

Survivors of 1921 white mob massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and their descendants demand reparations and recognition.

Viola Fletcher can still hear the screams. She was seven years old when white mobs stormed the streets of Greenwood, a thriving Black community in the US city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, on May 31, 1921, killing scores of people, burning homes and businesses, and forcing Black families to run for their lives. “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,” said Fletcher, one of the last three known survivors of what is known as the Tulsa race massacre.