Hughes Van Ellis, one of the last surviving witnesses to the tragic events of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, passed away on October 9th at the age of 102, at a veterans’ facility in Denver due to cancer, Washington Post reported citing confirmation from his family.
Also known as “Uncle Red,” Ellis played a pivotal role as one of the three lead plaintiffs in a reparations lawsuit against the city of Tulsa, Tulsa County, the state of Oklahoma, and the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce, said the report.
This landmark legal action sought to hold the state and city accountable for the devastating aftermath of the Tulsa Race Massacre.
In 2021, at the age of 100, Hughes Van Ellis made an appearance before the House Judiciary subcommittee and demanded reparations for the survivors and descendants of the Tulsa Race Massacre.
The Tulsa Race Massacre unfolded on the evening of May 31, 1921, when a violent White mob descended upon Greenwood, indiscriminately shooting Black residents and setting ablaze homes, numerous Black-owned businesses, churches, schools, and even a Black-owned hospital.
As the massacre came to an end in June 1921, the commission’s report disclosed that many were subjected to forced labor without compensation.
According to the reparations lawsuit, the city police department and the county sheriff’s office deputized and armed white Tulsans to murder, loot, and burn the nearly 40 city blocks of the Greenwood District,.”
“The State National Guard participated with this angry white mob in killing and looting and destroying the property of Black residents of Greenwood. The city, sheriff, chamber, and county targeted Black community leaders and victims of the massacre for prosecution as instigators of the massacre — despite knowing who were truly responsible.”
Until the last moment, Ellis waited for justice, the report by Guardian said.