On Tuesday, February 28th, 2023, a citizenship ceremony will be held at the Embassy of The Republic of Ghana in Washington, DC, for two of the three Tulsa Massacre survivors.
The Diaspora African Forum (DAF) is organizing the event in collaboration with the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture, and the Ministry of Interior.
The two survivors, 108-year-old Voila Fletcher and her 102-year-old brother, Hughes Van Ellis, will receive Ghanaian citizenship.
Voila Ford Fletcher and Hughes Van Ellis, known as Mother Fletcher and Uncle Redd, are two of the three survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre, also called the Black Wall Street Massacre, which occurred from May 31 to June 1, 1921. During the event, mobs of white residents attacked Black residents and destroyed the homes and businesses in the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The attack destroyed more than 35 square blocks of one of the wealthiest Black communities in the United States.
Moved by Mother Fletcher’s testimony before the U.S. Congress in January 2021, the founders of DAF proposed a visit that would give her more positive memories.
In August 2021, the two survivors visited the Republic of Ghana as guests of DAF and the Government of Ghana. In just eight days, they attended 13 events, and Mother Fletcher said the visit was a “dream come true” visiting their African roots through the welcoming gateway of Ghana.
Ike Howard, Mother Fletcher’s grandson, expressed his gratitude to DAF for the upcoming citizenship ceremony for Mother Fletcher and Uncle Redd. He thanked Ambassador Erieka Bennett and Dr. Toni Luck for recruiting them to be ambassadors for travel to Ghana and expressed the family’s extreme gratitude and honor to receive citizenship from the Ghanaian government.
As February is designated Black History Month, the Republic of Ghana, the home of Pan-Africanism, is elated to grant citizenship to these heroic survivors of the Tulsa Massacre.
Ghana is reaching out its hand across the ocean to Africa’s children in the diaspora
