Viola Fletcher Lived 111 Years and Never Let the World Bury Her Story

At 111, a divine number often associated with alignment and blessings, Viola Ford Fletcher—known around the world as “Mother Fletcher”—took her final rest. She lived long enough to see the country finally confront the truths she carried for over a century. Last year, EBONY covered the Supreme Court case tied to the Tulsa survivors’ fight for recognition, a reminder of how fiercely “Mother Fletcher” pursued justice.

Born in 1914 in Comanche, Oklahoma, Viola Ford Fletcher was the second of eight children raised in a family of sharecroppers. Her world forever changed when white mobs looted and burned Greenwood block by block, destroying thousands of Black-owned homes and businesses, leaving one of the nation’s most prosperous Black communities in complete ruin. She was only seven when her fa