Narrated by Adotey Allotey
In a BBC Africa Daily Podcast, BBC reporter Akwasi Sarpong, in 2023, spoke about a couple of African American citizens on whom Ghanaian citizenship was conferred.
The individuals were Viola Ford Fletcher, (aka Mother Fletcher) 108 years old, and her younger brother, Hughes Van Ellis, (aka Uncle Red) 102 years. The granting of citizenship occurred in Washington DC, America instead of Accra, Ghana. As a result, the Ghana Ambassador to America stood in for the judge to swear them in.
Subsequently, the two siblings traveled to Ghana where Mother Fletcher was made a queenmother and given a royal name of Naa Lamiley, while Uncle Red, the younger sibling, took the name Nii Lantey. They said being in Ghana was the trip of a lifetime. Here, they met the Ghanaian President, Nana Akuffo Addo and three different kings. To them the experience gave them new life. They had “come full circle”. Their story was narrated by Ike Howard, Mother Fletcher’s grandson. He said, “It’s human nature to be in an environment where you’re welcome’.
They originally hailed from the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, called the Black Wallstreet. Greenwood District was the brainchild of Booker T. Washington after his 1905 tour of Arkansas, Indian Territory, and Oklahoma. From Wikipedia we learn that “Black Americans had created their own businesses and services in their enclave, including several grocers, two newspapers, two movie theaters, night clubs, and numerous churches. Black professionals, including doctors, dentists, lawyers, and clergymen served the community”.
“In May, 1921, there was the Tulsa race massacre in which about 300 people died, an incident that was wiped from American history for years…” “The massacre began during the Memorial Day weekend after 19- year old Dick Rowland, a black shoeshiner, was accused of assaulting Sarah Page, a white 17- year old elevator operator in nearby Drexel Building. He was arrested and rumors that he was to be lynched were spread throughout the city…” “To protect Rowland from being lynched, armed Black men, many who were World War 1 veterans, stood guard at the courthouse, where Rowland was being held. As tensions mounted, an angry crowd of white men arrived, and the outnumbered Black guards retreated to Greenwood. In the early hours of June 1, mobs of white men descended on Greenwood, looting homes, burning down businesses and gunning down African Americans.” “About 10,000 black people were left homeless, and the cost of property damage amounted to more than $1.5 million in real estate and $750,000 in personal property (equivalent to $34.18 million in 2021).”
Viola Ford Fletcher was seven years old in 1921 when the infamous Tulsa race massacre occurred – that same year, her brother, Hughes Van Ellis was born. During the said ordeal, “The attackers burned and destroyed more than 35 square blocks of the neighborhood – at the time one of the wealthiest black communities in the United States…” Upon experiencing such a depressing ordeal, young Viola became very traumatized. She had nightmares at night and couldn’t sleep. She slept sitting on her couch with the lights on.
“After a series of overlapping events in the 1990s – including the Oklahoma City Bombing that flooded the state with reporters, who learned about the Tulsa Race Massacre for the 75th anniversary; and Black city leaders who wanted to capture the oral histories of aging survivors and seek reparations for the victims – Oklahoma legislators created a commission to investigate the massacre, says Ellsworth, who served as the chief scholar for the commission”… “Viola Ford Fletcher, the oldest known survivor, one hundred years after the massacre (on May 19, 2021) testified before Congress about the need for reparations along with her 100-year brother Hughes and Lessie Benningfield Randle, who was 106… In 2022, Fletcher, her brother, and Randle received $1M from New York philanthropist Ed Mitzen.”
While in Ghana, Madam Regina Goodwin, a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, responding on behalf of the family, said: “We are honored to be receiving citizenship for our priceless Black icons. Mother Fletcher and Uncle Red wanted to visit the Motherland before they caught their winds, now they have more than that.
“We thank the President and and People of Ghana for this honour done to not just them, but the African American community in the United States.”
They have “come full circle” indeed.