'Please do not let me leave this earth without justice,' Hughes Van Ellis said in 2021, the centennial of the racist violence that destroyed a thriving community once known as Black Wall Street.
"Please do not let me leave this earth without justice," Hughes Van Ellis said in 2021, the centennial of the racist violence that destroyed a thriving community once known as Black Wall Street.Hughes Van Ellis, one of the last known survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, has died at age 102. He's seen here smiling at a rally commemorating the 100th anniversary of the massacre in June 2021 in Tulsa, Okla.
"We were shown that in the United States, not all men were equal under the law," Ellis said of the legal setbacks."We were shown that when Black voices called out for justice, no one cared.""We are one," Ellis told lawmakers in 2021, urging them to work together. Shortly before he died, his loved ones say, they echoed those words as they continued to push for reparations.
"Mr. Ellis was assured we would remain steadfast and we repeated to him, his own words, 'We Are One' and we lastly expressed our love," his family said. Twenty-two years after the Tulsa massacre, Ellis fought for the United States in World War II, serving in an anti-aircraft unit in a segregated U.S. Army.
"We were an all-Black battalion," Ellis said in 2021."I fought for freedom abroad, even though it was ripped away from me at home, even after my home and my community were destroyed. I did it because I believed, in the end, America would get it right."
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