108-year-old Viola Ford Fletcher, 107-year-old Lessie Benningfield Randle, and 101-year-old Hughes Van Ellis are the three known living survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
Their presence has forced America to deal with its racist past regarding how it decimated a Black town and the lives of thousands of its citizens.
Now, Business for Good, a New York philanthropic organization, is donating $1 million dollars to the survivors, made after reading news reports about the massacre. Ed and Lis Mitzen say that while the survivors will share the donation, they refused to make any comment about the donation to the press as of Tuesday, May 17.
Fletcher, Randle and Ellis also previously received $100,000 each from the Tulsa-based non-profit The Justice for Greenwood Foundation.
The three, as well as descendants of victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre, are currently suing the City of Tulsa and other entities for reparations for the destruction and lost wealth as a result of the massacre in which a white mob attacked and killed hundreds of Black residents.
The mob destroyed what had been the nation’s most prosperous Black business district in the northeastern Oklahoma city.
Earlier this month in May, a Tulsa judge rejected a request to dismiss the lawsuit.
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